MEDIA ROOTS – Reporting From Outside Party Lines » resources

Nestlé Responds to Abby | Corporate Troll Spotting

abby — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 00:51:20 +0000

A couple months ago, Breaking the Set called out Nestlé corporation for its business practice of bloating the price of water while pursuing the privatization of this common resource against the public good.

Surprisingly, the corporation responded with a bizarre, sci-fi video message in which a woman named ‘Stephanie’ responds to the original report.

Breaking the Set reply to Nestlé:

Here is the original report:

LIKE Breaking the Set @ http://fb.me/BreakingTheSet
FOLLOW Abby Martin @ http://twitter.com/AbbyMartin

Fear Campaign Over Syria Weapon Stockpile

abby — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 03:19:45 +0000

MEDIA ROOTS- One domino falls while another globalist target awaits toppling. Before the fog of war in Libya begins to sift, the political and media establishment have already latched their tentacles onto another chess piece in the Middle East: Syria. Last week, the US slapped economic sanctions on Syria for President Bashar al-Assad’s human rights abuses, freezing assets and blocking US business in the region.

Besides the saber rattling coming from the US government and the EU, the corporate media has launched a fear mongering campaign about Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons that is all too reminiscent of the WMD propaganda preceding the Iraqi invasion. The Washington Post released an article that is riddled with exaggerations and hyperbolic scenarios about Syria’s chemical arsenal, calling it the “largest in the world, consisting of tens of tons of highly lethal chemical agents.”

Even if the reports of Syria’s stockpile of weapons are true, it’s still completely illogical to engage militarily with a country simply for harboring chemical or nuclear weapons– especially since the US has the second largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the entire world.

Abby

***

WASHINGTON POST– In 2008, a secret State Department cable warned of a growing chemical weapons threat from a Middle Eastern country whose autocratic leader had a long history of stirring up trouble in the region. The leader, noted for his “support for terrorist organizations,” was attempting to buy technology from other countries to upgrade an already fearsome stockpile of deadly poisons, the department warned.

The Middle Eastern state with the dangerous chemicals was not Libya, whose modest stockpile was thrust into the spotlight last week because of fighting there. It was Syria, another violence-torn Arab state whose advanced weapons are drawing new concern as the country drifts toward an uncertain future.

A sudden collapse of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could mean a breakdown in controls over the country’s weapons, U.S. officials and weapons experts said in interviews. But while Libya’s chemical arsenal consists of unwieldy canisters filled mostly with mustard gas, the World War I-era blistering agent, Syria possesses some of the deadliest chemicals ever to be weaponized, dispersed in thousands of artillery shells and warheads that are easy to transport.

Syria’s preferred poison is not mustard gas but sarin, the nerve agent that killed 13 people and sickened about 1,000 during a terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995. Sarin, which is lethal if inhaled even in minute quantities, can also be used to contaminate water and food supplies.

Photo by Flickr user Dapper snapper

Iraq Daily Oil Production Exceeds 2.6M Barrels

abby — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 22:19:55 +0000

RAW STORY– Iraq’s newly appointed oil minister on Monday said the country’s daily oil production has increased by about 100,000 barrels a day, exceeding 2.6 million barrels per day for the first time in 20 years.

Abdul-Karim Elaibi said Iraq’s production of crude will continue to rise and will reach its planned, higher targets “sooner than expected.”

“Today, our production exceeded 2.6 million barrels a day,” Elaibi told reporters during a ceremony to formally put him in charge of Iraq’s oil ministry after the country’s new government was sworn in last week.

“We haven’t reached this figure since 20 years ago,” Elaibi said.

Last week, Elaibi also reported an increase by 100,000 barrels a day to 2.5 million barrels a day, saying it was a significant jump in a long while.

Iraq has awarded 15 oil and gas deals since 2008 to international companies in the first major investment drive in more than three decades aimed at strengthening the country’s battered energy industry.

The crude-rich nation plans to raise its daily output to about 12 million barrels by 2017.

Read full article about the increase in Iraq’s oil production here.

Photo by flickr user indigo prime