MEDIA ROOTS — A pair of Internet archivists have uploaded Part Four of US corporate media print publications from the immediate days and weeks following 9/11.  The duo plans to post more multiple full issues of Time and Newsweek as well as other timely magazines that are filled with propaganda.  This issue of US News is from just three days after the attacks—September 14th, 2001. 

Following 9/11, news media accelerated at an amazing rate, and most companies soon adopted Internet versions of their paper or magazines.  Before this was commonplace, many interesting pieces of information printed about that day most likely were never reprinted again–due to either misinformation or abandonment by the propagandists.  As we know, many government narratives and unfounded claims about 9/11 were re-printed without any journalistic investigation.  Also worth noting is how candid some of the reporting is, where journalists admit to things like ‘patriotic bias’ clouding their ability to do actual journalism. 

Part Four, War and We Must Win, gives us a look at a US News magazine published just days after the attacks.  The issue includes an in depth explanation of how each tower collapsed.  Since no steel framed building in has ever collapsed from fire or falling debris in history before, it’s peculiar that there was already such an astonishingly quick narrative set in stone.  The final and most ominous page of the magazine has an article with the headline War, and We Must Win, by Michael Barone.  It encourages the taking out of dictators in the Arab world including the likes of Iran, Iraq and Libya.  It even features a picture of Saddam Hussein.  We hope that these archivists continue this fascinating project, it could uncover aspects of the ‘War on Terror’ that most journalists and researchers have completely forgotten about.  Above all, it reveals the extent of the conditioning the American people were subjected to immediately after the traumatization of this nation. 

They have put the issue up in PDF Format, which can be downloaded here with an update to this article as well as a slideshow (see below). 

Check out previous installments, Part One: The Terrorism Survival Guide, Part Two: How Scared Should You Be?, or Part Three: Afghanistan War Run Up.

Robbie Martin for Media Roots

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Note:  The slideshow of the full US News issue looks best at full screen by clicking the box in the right corner.  Click play to start.  Click the pause button to stop the slideshow from progressing automatically on the right corner.

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MEDIA ROOTS — Seeds are at the very core of the public commons as the first link in an essential food chain.  Throughout the 20th century, the agricultural biotech giant Monsanto perverted intellectual property laws to corner the world’s seed supply.

By allowing the food supply to be attached to the bottom line of a corporation, the world places its future in the hands of a corrupt few.  Abby Martin of Media Roots and RT explores the multinational corporation’s sordid past of corruption and toxicity and their current scandalous dealings.

 Abby Martin reports on Monsanto’s corruption and current dealings for RT TV

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Abby Martin explores Monsanto’s scandalous legacy in depth for RT TV

The Monsanto Corporation has a nefarious public record that extends beyond the genetically modified seed industry.  It is responsible for the controversial artificial sweeteners saccharin and aspartame that are used in more than 6,000 consumer foods and beverages; dioxin based herbicides like 245-T/24-D (Agent Orange) that directly killed and maimed millions of Vietnamese; banned pesticides such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) responsible for the death of millions of marine animals, birds of prey and amphibians; deadly polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) discharged into rivers and landfills at the expense of human health; and Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) to unnaturally increase the milk yield in lactating cows.

In particular, the American legacy of PCBs is horrifying as witnessed by Pittsfield, Massachusetts when locals were given PCB-contaminated material to use as fill.  General Electric released millions of pounds of PCB-contaminated waste from capacitor manufacturing plants in the Hudson River.  In North Carolina, 240 miles of road was sprayed with more than 30,000 pounds of PCB-contaminated oil, during the infamous “midnight dumping.”  Finally, in Anniston, Alabama, the site of a Monsanto chemical factory for 50 years was exposed as the most toxic city in America after it was discovered Monsanto had been dumping high concentrations of PCBs into local tributaries.

This blatant poisoning of the public commons as massive and wicked as it seems pales in comparison to allowing a company with this sort of record to control and modify the food supply.  Monsanto expanded its share of the worlds seed supply with its $1.4 billion acquisition of Seminis Incorporated, the world’s largest developer, grower and marketer of fruit and vegetable seeds in 2005.  Two years later, Monsanto purchased the Delta and Pine Land Company for $1.5 billion, staking its position as a major player in the cotton seed business and the demonic terminator gene designed to increase farmer dependency on seed suppliers.  Additionally, the corporation also purchased the Dutch De Ruiter Seed company to establish itself alongside DuPont as the world’s largest supplier of seeds. 

In addition to the sick and dying humans, animals and plants in the wake of Monsanto’s bottom line, the company has a legacy of legal troubles across the globe.  Suing and being sued is merely a business expense to be countered by penetrating political and regulatory systems.  Former Monsanto employees are firmly entrenched in the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and even the Supreme Court.  Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, a former Monsanto attorney, ruled in favor of genetically modified crops in the J. E. M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. case.  Linda Fisher rotated from EPA bureaucrat, to Vice President of Monsanto, to Vice President of DuPont.  Michael Taylor was an FDA commissioner, Monsanto attorney and recently passed backed through the revolving door as President Barack Obama’s Food Safety Czar in the FDA.

Monsanto maintains a stranglehold on the American government by deploying lobbyists to coerce legislators into doing what regulators cannot. This includes an emphasis on resisting the overwhelming public cry to label genetically modified foods, avoid responsibility for colony collapse disorder wreaking havoc on global bee populations and deterrence of any effort to institute independent government led testing of genetically modified seeds and food. While Monsanto maintains a motto of “Improving Agriculture, Improving Lives,” its true intentions were summed up by Monsanto’s director of corporate communication Phil Angell in 1998 when he explained, “Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is FDA’s job.”

Chris Martin for Media Roots

Photo by Flickr user foto 3116

MEDIA ROOTS –  Many supporters of President Obama claim that he has had several accomplishments with US environmental policy. However, in stark contrast to these claims, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a video earlier this month highlighting the Obama’s administration current interpretations of “green jobs.” The video shows committee chairman Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and acting commissioner of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, John Galvin, discussing the loose interpretations of what can be considered a “green job.”

At the hearing, Commissioner Galvin confirmed the following forms of employment as green jobs:

*A gasoline attendant pumping gas for school buses

*Used record sales clerk

*Trash collectors

*Oil lobbyists when engaged in advocacy related to environmental issues

President Obama’s $800 billion stimulus program – indeed the largest wealth transfer in human history – was purported to have created 2.7 million green jobs, despite the fact that during his election campaign he promised to create 5 million new green jobs that would “pay well and can’t be outsourced.” In actuality, 79% of renewable energy grants went overseas with domestic renewable jobs now numbering a paltry 140,000.

Oskar Mosco

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Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) discussing “green jobs” with Commissioner John Galvin, US Bureau of Labor Statistics

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Photo provided by Flickr user MCS@flickr