MEDIA ROOTS — A pair of internet archivists who call themselves ‘Neuro Linguistic Programming’ have uploaded Part Three 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 blatant fearmongering and propaganda about terrorism.  They have been releasing most of the archives starting from October, 2001, but they say the next two pieces will be from the week right after 9/11. 

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 false information or just 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 admitted things like ‘patriotic bias’ clouding their ability to do actual journalism. 

Part Three, ‘Closing In: Afghanistan War Propaganda’ featured below, gives us a look at a TIME magazine issue (all pages about non ‘War on Terror’ subjects have been omitted) about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.  The issue also includes a transcript of the Bin Laden ‘confession tape’, explaining to the reader why this is irrefutable ‘proof’ of his involvement in 9/11.  Considering that the faultily translated tape was admitted to be a sting operation orchestrated by the CIA, we encourage readers to focus on this particular section, since it aims to halt lingering doubts about the official 9/11 narrative.  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 subject to immediately after our nation’s traumatization.  They have put the issue up in PDF format which can be downloaded here as well as a slideshow (see below).

Check out previous installments, Part One, ‘The Terrorism Survival Guide’ here and Part Two, ‘How Scared Should You Be?’ here

Robbie Martin for Media Roots

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Note:  The slideshow of the full Time issue ‘Closing In’ 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 – Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange confronts twelve mainstream media pundits and elite politicians about the secretive and elusive Bilderberg Group, a group of the top 130 elite in the world that meet annually behind closed doors.  The media members that are confronted are willfully ignorant about the mere existence of the Bilderberg Group, and the politicians that have attended the meetings skirt the issue: they either run away or evading Luke’s questions.

Here are the twelve confrontations below:

Tony Blair Lies to Parliament about Bilderberg

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell “Too Lazy” to Research the Bilderberg Group

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan Confronted about the Bohemian Grove and Bilderberg Group

Former NY Governor George Pataki Lies about Attending Bilderbeg with Kissinger

PBS’s Charlie Rose Runs away from Bilderberg Questions

Ted Turner Supports Population Reduction to Two Billion

War Criminal Henry Kissinger Confronted about Mass Murder, Bilderberg

NY Times Editor-in-chief Jill Abrasom Runs from Bilderberg Questions

Clinton Adviser on Bilderberg: “We Don’t Want Any Press.”

Former World Bank President James Wolfensohn: “I don’t want to talk about Bilderberg.”

FOX’s Lou Dobbs on Bilderberg, New World Order

CNN’s Paula Zahn Completely Ignorant Of Bilderberg Group

Lord Jacob Rothschild Confronted

http://www.WeAreChange.org

twitter.com/LukeWeAreChange

MEDIA ROOTS – Kathyrn Bigelow made a huge splash at the 2010 Academy Awards by usurping predicted winner Avatar with her depiction of soldiers fighting in Iraq in her movie The Hurt Locker.  The Oscar winning film was revered by conservatives and anti-war liberals alike for its ‘balanced’ and ‘realistic’ tone, but in reality the movie is a clever form of pro-military American propaganda.  It depicts an imaginary super hero-like character wearing a bomb protection suit, whose sole job is to diffuse IEDs from military zones.

Bigelow’s follow up film to The Hurt Locker is called Zero Dark Thirty, which will portray a real time account of the unfounded Seal Team 6 raid that supposedly killed Osama Bin Laden.  Considering how the film is scheduled to be released immediately following the Presidential election, the Obama campaign will likely be ecstatic with the additional marketing boost they will receive from the Hollywood hype.  While a movie about this event was probably inevitable, regardless of government involvement or sanction, one can’t help but wonder how close the relationship between the White House and Hollywood was in this particular case.

It’s been long known that movies glorifying our military receive free props and sets from said military as long as the movie’s message is pro-military.  This type of quid pro quo has been commonplace in Hollywood for years, a perfect example being Top Gun, the popular eighties movie about U.S. Navy pilots.  However, syncing up political propaganda movie releases with major political events is something relatively new.  In 2006, the respected, gritty filmmaker Paul Greengrass released United 93, which illustrated via shaky cam the events that supposedly took place on the doomed Flight 93 before its inevitable demise on 9/11.  The coincidental timing of United 93’s release coinciding with the trial of supposed twentieth hijacker Moussai cannot be denied.  During his trial, they focused heavily on the events of Flight 93, even playing unreleased audio recordings from the plane.  United 93’s marketing campaign happened simultaneously with the media hype surrounding the trial.

Even though Democrats will argue that Obama isn’t running his re-election primarily on the supposed targeted killing of Bin Laden, it has been one of the main pillars of the Obama administration.  On top of the billion dollars that Obama already has at his disposal, he will now have the full force of a Hollywood movie marketing campaign behind his election which can be argued as the most expensive campaign advertisement ever made.  The trailers for Zero Dark Thirty will most likely be running constantly on television leading up to election day.

It was previously unclear if the White House had any direct involvement in the movie, but now there is ample proof that Bigelow and crew were given exclusive access to classified details in order to make the film that no one has ever seen.  Despite Obama’s claims that little facts about the raid could be made public because of “national security” purposes, apparently it was fine to share this information with a multi million dollar Hollywood production.

Not only is it highly disturbing that the corporate controlled media regurgitated this manufactured narrative of an event no one actually witnessed, but now it’s combined with an expensive major Hollywood dramatization that will make millions of dollars.  This collaboration will cement the government narrative forever in the American psyche, causing historical revisionism to prevail over truth.

Glenn Greenwald and Abby Martin of Media Roots and RT TV explore the significance of the link between the White House and the upcoming Bin Laden movie.  Abby discusses the subject with a White House reporter and writer from Politico on RT TV; notice as the guest shuts down Abby’s rational questioning about the raid while providing no proof to the contrary, instead he repeats official government propaganda as if it were religious dogma.

Written by Robbie Martin of Media Roots

Edited by Abby Martin

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SALON – As part of a court order in the Judicial Watch lawsuit, the Obama administration yesterday disclosed dozens of emails from the DoD and the CIA documenting that, as NBC News put it, “the Obama administration leaked classified information to filmmakers on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.” Politico‘s Josh Gerstein added: “Just weeks after Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency officials warned publicly of the dangers posed by leaks about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, top officials at both agencies and at the White House granted Hollywood filmmakers unusual access to those involved in planning the raid and some of the methods they used to do it.”

The internal administration documents — which pointedly note that the film has a “release date set for 4th Qtr 2012 (Sep-Dec)” — reveal enthusiastic cooperation with the filmmakers by top-level DoD officials, including Undersecretary of Defense Michael Vickers, all done at the direction of the White House. The very first DoD email indicates the request to work with the filmmakers came from the White House. Then-CIA Director Leon Panetta is deemed “very interested in supporting” the film. The documents also reveal a meeting between the filmmakers and Obama’s chief counter-Terrorism adviser John Brennan and National Security Council Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, at which the two White House officials shared information about “command and control.” The DoD officials meeting with the filmmakers were given the White House talking points from the night of the raid, which including hailing the President’s actions as “gutsy” and stressing the heavy involvement of the White House in the raid.

Continue Reading Whitehouse Leaks for Propaganda Film.

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Abby Martin discusses the Bin Laden leak on RT with a writer from Politico.

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Article Photo by Flickr user Ssoosay

Front Page Photo Public Domain (by US law any photo taken by a solider while on active duty automatically becomes public domain) 

MEDIA ROOTS — A pair of internet archivists who call themselves ‘Neuro Linguistic Programming’ have uploaded Part Two of US corporate media print publications from the immediate days and weeks following 9/11.  The duo plans to post multiple full issues of Time and Newsweek as well as other timely magazines that are filled with blatant fearmongering and propaganda about terrorism. 

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 false information or just abandonment by the propagandists.  As we know, many government narratives and unfounded claims about 9/11 were re-printed without any journalistic investigation. 

Check out Part One, ‘The Terrorism Survival Guide’ here.  Part Two, featured below, gives us a look at a Newsweek titled ‘Biological & Chemical Terror: How Scared Should You Be?’  The featured photo is a man wearing a gasmask, and the entire issue focuses on bio terrorism.  Throughout the magazine, that question is addressed repeatedly, and all answered the same way: be absolutely terrified.  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 subject to immediately after the traumatization of our nation. They have put the issue up in PDF format which can be downloaded here as well as a slideshow (see below).

Robbie Martin for Media Roots

***

Note:  The slideshow of the full Newsweek issue ‘How Scared Should You Be?’ 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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RT TV – The looming threat of cyberterrorism is being ramped up by the day–from government officials to mainstream media pundits–who say that cyberterror will soon outweigh terrorism as the number one security threat facing the United States.

It’s a threat that’s all too certain, as the federal government continues to make the claim stressing how it’s not a matter of if, but when a cyber attack will occur in this the US.  At a recent congressional hearing entitled “America is Under Cyber Attack: Why Urgent Action is Needed,” Subcommittee Chairman Michael McCaul exclaimed how “It’s not a matter of if, but when a cyber Pearl Harbor will occur.”

The rhetoric is so pervasive, that there is even an entire cyberterror exhibit called “Weapons of Mass Disruption” at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC, a museum whose executive director spent 36 years at the CIA.  The room displays multiple disaster scenarios it claims are likely to happen when a cyber attack destroys the power grid and infrastructure of this country.

Mark Stout, historian at the International Spy Museum, explains that the room is not there to cause panic–it simply exists as a beacon of awareness about the issue.  He says that as technology advances along with our reliance on and integration with computer systems, it’s becoming more important to focus on cyberterrorism.  However, Stout does express the similar talking point of the likely possibility of this happening in the near future, warning that “there will come a time and it will be within our lifetime, probably relatively soon, that there will be a major cyber terrorist attack.” 

Also on display at the “Weapons of Mass Disruption” exhibit is a well produced graphic film reel of government officials and top military brass urging warnings about the threat.  “We know that there are half a dozen countries in the world that have developed cyber weapons,” states James A. Lewis, Director of Center for Strategic International Studies, in the film. 

However, the threat surpasses nation states.  The government is also pointing fingers at ubiquitous web entities such as Anonymous, the leaderless hacktivist group who has been shutting down highly secure government websites in addition to their repeated calls for mass civil unrest in the US.

Overall, the cyberterror hype seems to be working–a recent poll reveals that Americans are now more scared of cyberterrorism than actual terrorism. 

In response to the climate of fear, the federal government has already started to draft legislation to deal with the threat. The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, is a bill that would permit massive collusion between corporations and the government to gain access to private user data.  It has already passed the House, and is now awaiting a Senate vote.

Critics of the legislation warn that the bills proposed are too broad, and could pave the way for government abuse.  “When it comes to protecting our civil rights and civil liberties, we don’t usually give the government a blank check, and that’s what these bills have done in a lot of ways,” explains Matt Wood, Policy Director for Free Press.  He continues to describe how the government’s excessive response doesn’t match the threat, and that these laws could be used simply for corporations to capitalize off the elimination of privacy at the risk of impeding Net Neutrality.  “It could be a competitive threat, it doesn’t have to be something you and I define as a cyber security threat, just a threat to their current bottom line or business,” Wood states.

Whether or not CISPA passes the Senate, one thing remains clear.  The government will continue its constant attempts to control the Internet, and the blanket threat of cyberterrorism may be the perfect avenue to convince the people of this country into giving up their rights to privacy on the Internet once and for all.

Written by Abby Martin for RT TV

Photo by flickr user AdamSelwood