wikileaks:-Cover-up of murder of civilians and journalists

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

It's remarkable that exactly when this long-suppressed video is finally revealed:

> Iraq is saturated with SEVEN (rhymes with heaven) bombings, just like in June 2009 when the US was about to 'pull out' from major cities-
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world ... 6iraq.html

> Instead of a focus on US gunning down Iraqi minors, we are being steered towards sympathizing with American miners.

The timing and keywords are way beyond coincidental.
"News cycle management." s.o.p.

[Uncle $cam]

I'm listening Hugh... I hear ya. It is interesting, thanks for pointing it out.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

It's remarkable that exactly when this long-suppressed video is finally revealed:

> Iraq is saturated with SEVEN (rhymes with heaven) bombings, just like in June 2009 when the US was about to 'pull out' from major cities-
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world ... 6iraq.html

> Instead of a focus on US gunning down Iraqi minors, we are being steered towards sympathizing with American miners.

The timing and keywords are way beyond coincidental.
"News cycle management." s.o.p.

I don't know specifically how a miner disaster could be created intentionally.
But we were already in the middle of a Chinese mine disaster when the American one took over the front pages of CIA newspapers. This would tend to make the American one seem even more like a 'typical random disaster.'

CIA specializes in economic warfare and plausibly deniable 'accidents.'
I think it is reasonable to assume that they have come up with ways to create a mining disaster using gasses and explosives that could be portrayed as authentic in the media that they control.
(Know about the gold mining company headed by someone named Monk that GHWBush and Blair are tied to which buried miners alive? It's the reason for the tv show, 'Monk.')

After all, they (or their peers) pulled off 9/11 and the controlled demolition of three World Trade Center buildings plus the demolition of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

[Nordic]

I don't know specifically how a miner disaster could be created intentionally.
But we were already in the middle of a Chinese mine disaster when the American one took over the front pages of CIA newspapers. This would tend to make the American one seem even more like a 'typical random disaster.'

CIA specializes in economic warfare and plausibly deniable 'accidents.'
I think it is reasonable to assume that they have come up with ways to create a mining disaster using gasses and explosives that could be portrayed as authentic in the media that they control.

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Oh, c'mon, Nordic .

Of course the mining disaster may be a lucky coincidence.

But remember that US spooks have been focused on economic warfare for decades using everything from
crop diseases to cloud seeding to deprive Cuban crops of rainfall and wash out the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam.

Ya think that mining ops would be included in economic warfare tech?
Hell, yes.

That's my point about that front-page grabbing story.

[Laodicean]

I don't know specifically how a miner disaster could be created intentionally.
But we were already in the middle of a Chinese mine disaster when the American one took over the front pages of CIA newspapers. This would tend to make the American one seem even more like a 'typical random disaster.'

CIA specializes in economic warfare and plausibly deniable 'accidents.'
I think it is reasonable to assume that they have come up with ways to create a mining disaster using gasses and explosives that could be portrayed as authentic in the media that they control.

Well, since you brought it up:

In January 2007, John Young, who runs cryptome.org, a site that publishes a wealth of sensitive and classified information, left Wikileaks, claiming the operation was a CIA front. Young also published some 150 email messages sent by Wikileaks activists on cryptome. They include a disparaging comment about this editor by Wikileaks co-founder Dr. Julian Assange of Australia. Assange lists as one of his professions "hacker." His German co-founder of Wikileaks uses a pseudonym, "Daniel Schmitt."

^linked

[82_28]

Shall we get down to brass tacks? Does this story have anything to do with the wikileaks disclosure?

No fries with that: fast food axed at Afghan bases

Mon Apr 5, 10:58 AM

By Deepa Babington
ADVERTISEMENT

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Fast food joints where soldiers wolf down burgers and pizza will soon be a thing of the past at bases in Afghanistan, as the U.S. military reminds soldiers they are at war and not in "an amusement park."

In the sprawling military base at Kandahar, the fast food outlets facing the axe include Burger King, Pizza Hut, and the U.S. chain restaurant T.G.I. Friday's that features a bar with alcohol-free margaritas and other drinks -- all set along the bustling "Boardwalk" area of the base.

On any given day, the giant square-shaped walkway features the surreal sight of soldiers sipping gourmet coffee and eating chocolate pastries with guns slung across their shoulders, while Canadians play ice hockey at a nearby rink and fighter jets thunder overhead.

The U.S. military says its beef with the burger joints is that they take up valuable resources like water, power, flight and convoy space and that cutting back on non-essentials is key to running an efficient military operation.

"This is a war zone -- not an amusement park," Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Hall wrote in a blog earlier this year.

"Supplying nonessential luxuries to big bases like Bagram and Kandahar makes it harder to get essential items to combat outposts and forward operating bases, where troops who are in the fight each day need resupply with ammunition, food and water."

Warning that concessions like Orange Julius, Dairy Queen and Military Car Sales were also on the exit list, Hall said less-obvious changes were coming too -- including fewer canned and bottled goods coming into the country as well as fewer first-run movie showings and some entertainment programs.

For now, fast food joints like Burger King which operate out of little shacks along the Kandahar boardwalk are still doing brisk business, with lines snaking outside their counters, but their contracts are not expected to be renewed when they expire.

A motley crew of other stores selling Afghan books, jewelry and phone cards and the busy Canadian Tim Horton's outlet that sells coffee and doughnuts will stay on.

Some U.S. soldiers privately grumble about the cutbacks, but others said they were not bothered by the new edict.

Those desperate for comfort food always have the option of the "Chef's short order" section at the dining halls, where fried calamari rings, fish fingers and burgers are free for soldiers and available in abundance.

(Editing by Peter Graff and Jerry Norton)

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/1004 ... n_fastfood

[crikkett]

I sympathize with Delta's desire to protect fellow soldiers. They're in a horrible place, having been turned into ugly murderous monsters. I can't imagine how they'll ever be happy again.

I didn't watch the video because I'm not ready to suffer through it. If I were at the Pentagon I wouldn't be able to:

http://www.salon.com/news/us_military/i ... iraq_video
Military can't find its copy of Iraq killing video

After being pressed to release its version of the WikiLeaks clip, U.S. CENTCOM says it can't locate the footage

By PAULINE JELINEK and ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press

The U.S. military said Tuesday it can't find its copy of a video that shows two employees of the Reuters news agency being killed by Army helicopters in 2007, after a leaked version circulated the Internet and renewed questions about the attack.

Capt. Jack Henzlik, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said that forces in Iraq have not been able to locate the video within its files.

"We're attempting to retrieve the video at this time," Henzlik said.

It's the latest twist in a three-year saga that raises questions about the rules of engagement in battle and the safety of journalists sent to cover wars.

Advocates for increased government transparency also have questioned why the military withheld the video from the public, even though Reuters requested a copy through the Freedom of Information Act after watching it in an off-the-record meeting with the military in 2007.

The video includes audio of troops calling to "light 'em up!" and referring to the men as "dead bastards." An internal investigation concluded that the troops had acted appropriately, despite having mistaken the camera equipment for weapons.

"Clearly, it is unflattering to the military, but that is not justification for withholding it," said Steven Aftergood, an expert on government secrecy with the Federation of American Scientists.

The July 12, 2007, attack has been reported before. But Web site Wikileaks.org on Monday posted the video shot from one of the Apache helicopters, putting it on "collateralmurder.com" site.

Military officials said they believed the video was authentic, but that they had to compare the images and audio with their own video before confirming it publicly.

When pressed Tuesday on why the military had not released the video when other documents related to the investigation were made public, officials said they were still looking for it and weren't entirely sure where it was.

The video was taken by the tactical unit that operated the helicopters. The unit has only been identified as a "1st Air Cavalry Brigade," which reported to the Multinational Division in Baghdad.

[Nordic]

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/White_Hous ... 62010.html

White House: Graphic Iraq shooting video 'tragic'

"I do not know whether the president has seen the video that was released on the Internet. Obviously, it is very graphic in nature and it's extremely tragic," Gibbs told reporters.

"Our military will take every precaution necessary to ensure the safety and security of civilians, and particularly those that report in those dangerous places on behalf of news organizations."

Gibbs referred all questions about investigations into the July 2007 incident to the Pentagon.

Bullshit, Gibbs. Bullshit.



This photo is from a very similar incident in the streets of Baghdad in 2006.

And Gibbs, how many journalists have been killed again? Do you even know, Gibbs?

[82_28]

[Uncle $cam]

Fmr. Military Intelligence Officer Reveals US Listed Palestine Hotel in Baghdad as Target Prior to Killing of Two Journalists in 2003


Killing the Independent Media
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO304B.html

The Pentagon Threatens to Kill Indepedent Reporters in Iraq.
http://baltimore.indymedia.org/mod/othe ... isplay/319

U.S. military warns foreign journalists in Iraq:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/iraq_warns.htm

They shoot journalists, don't they?
By Pepe Escobar
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GD28Ak01.html

Independent journalist Naomi Klein had a long conversation with Sgrena - hit by a four-inch (10-centimeter) bullet that injured her shoulder and punctured her lung - when she was still convalescing at a Rome military hospital after returning to Italy on March 5. Klein then gave an extensive interview to Democracy Now! about the meeting. To start with, Sgrena affirms she was not traveling on the road the Pentagon says she was. And there was no US checkpoint ordering them to slow down.

Sgrena says she was on a secure road - used by diplomats and US officials - that comes straight from the Green Zone in central Baghdad. Saddam Hussein used this road to go from his top presidential palace straight to the then-named Saddam International Airport. This is a secured road connecting the Green Zone with the huge Camp Victory military base attached to Baghdad's airport. Sgrena told Klein, "I was only able to be on that road because I was with people from the Italian Embassy." This explains why Sgrena "thought we were finally safe, because the area where we were was under the control of the United States".

Anybody who has covered the Iraq war has known - or has seen - checkpoint hell, where nervous American soldiers fire on anything that moves. The Toyota Corolla with Calipari and Sgrena was hit by only between eight and 10 rounds. Both Calipari and Sgrena were sitting in the back seat. Calipari was hit by a direct shot in the temple.

There was no checkpoint, Sgrena told Klein. "It was simply a tank parked on the side of the road that opened fire on us. It was not a checkpoint. They didn't try to stop us, they just shot us.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article10901.htm

I gathered accounts of the use of phosphorus and napalm from a few Fallujah refugees whom I met before being kidnapped, says Manifesto reporter Giuliana Sgrena, who was kidnapped in Fallujah last February, in a recorded interview. I wanted to get the story out, but my kidnappers would not permit it.

Is the Sgrena shooting and killing of her body guard finally beginnning to make sense?


Killing Journalists
http://www.moonofalabama.org/.m/2005/05 ... l.html?p=1

Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders), the media freedom watchdog group is noting that it is already 20 years old and today, on the occasion of the 15th "International Press Freedom Day", is publishing a couple of reports on freedom in media around the world.



One is its Annual Report on 2004 (see the press release and the full report (pdf, 370 kb)

The other is a report on the gruesome toll for journalists of the war in Irak. see the press release and the full report (pdf, 12 pages)
Iraq is the world's most dangerous country for journalists and the place where the most are kidnapped. 56 journalists and media assistants have been killed there since the fighting began on 22 March 2003 and 29 kidnapped.


The Iraq conflict is the deadliest inter-state war for journalists since the one in Vietnam, when 63 were killed, but over a period of 20 years (1955-75). During the fighting in the former Yugoslavia (1991-95), 49 journalists were killed doing their job.


The media was targeted from the first day of the fighting in Iraq, when cameraman Paul Moran, of the Australian TV network ABC, was killed by a car bomb on 22 March 2003.

Here's a graph from the Iraq report:



One third of journalists whose cause of death is known were killed by US forces

their 2004 report:
At least 53 journalists were killed in 2004 while doing their job or for expressing their opinions, the highest annual toll since 1995. Fifteen medias assistants (fixers, drivers, translators, technicians, security staff and others) were also killed.

In 2004 :
53 journalists and 15 media assistants were killed
at least 907 journalists were arrested
1,146 were attacked or threatened
and at least 622 media censored

In 2003 :
40 journalists and 2 media assistants were killed
at least 766 journalists were arrested
1,460 were attacked or threatened
and at least 501 media censored

On 1 January 2005 107 journalists and 70 cyber-dissidents were in prison around the world

And here's what they had to say about the US (and France, for balance!):
Several journalists in the United States were being prosecuted for refusing to reveal their sources to courts. Some even risk going to prison or being held under house arrest, all new in a country where the national constitution says people do not have to testify against themselves.

The confidentially of sources was also attacked by the judiciary in France through formal questioning of journalists, legal summonses and raids on journalists' homes and offices. Parliament also approved a law creating new press offences punishable with imprisonment.

As we spend a lot of time on blogs criticising bad journalists and hacks, let us also remember those that take greats risks, including to themselves, to bring us the information without which we would be nothing.

[StarmanSkye]

"Our military will take every precaution necessary to ensure the safety and security of civilians, and particularly those that report in those dangerous places on behalf of news organizations."

GoD do I LOATHE this kind of flipant rejoinder as if it realy, reaLLY means anything anymore. Along with corporations, Public Relations, mainstream newsmedia, advertisers and politicians, the Pentagon/Military Combine lacks regard for being genuine, straight-up honest with the public. Together with corruption with which its related, endemic fakery/fraud defines much of the modern character of America's civil society. That's not just incidentally because lies, trickery and deception are at the heart of America's sense of self. Insincerity and a common, institutionalized disregard for truth are among the two or three things that I find most repellant about the US, they lie at the center of just about every state crime, abuse, atrocity, brutality, injustice, misrule and betrayal that is increasingly the basis AND result of what America really is. The disconnect between ideals and reality is trying to be fixed, bridged, minimized or at least 'managed' by the very institutions that helped create it. That must be one of the most unacknowledged paradoxes of our 'interesting times'.

[MacCruiskeen]

A spokesman for President Obama described the incident as "extremely tragic".

It wasn't "tragic", you mercenary slimeball. Speak English. It was a shabby, premeditated double mass-murder committed in the course of a brutal occupation after an illegal war of aggression. The gloating killers were deliberately trained to do what they did (and intentionally warped into enjoying it) by the army of the imperialist nation-state you represent. And then the fucking President you so willingly speak for showers incessant sanctimonious praise on the repulsive perverted cowardly little bastards at their Playstation buttons, and sets them up -- those smug fascistoid murderers-from-a-safe-distance! -- as noble warriors and role-models for the nation's youth.

Fuck you, Obama, and all who sail in your wake.

[nathan28]

It's remarkable that exactly when this long-suppressed video is finally revealed:

> Iraq is saturated with SEVEN (rhymes with heaven) bombings, just like in June 2009 when the US was about to 'pull out' from major cities-
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/world ... 6iraq.html

> Instead of a focus on US gunning down Iraqi minors, we are being steered towards sympathizing with American miners.

The timing and keywords are way beyond coincidental.
"News cycle management." s.o.p.

If you value electricity, you might want to consider extending your sympathy to working-class miners. Three miners die every day from black lung alone. When you add deaths and injuries from mine collapses and other causes of premature death, you might want to reconsider you snobbish KWH latte-sipping dismissal.

[Uncle $cam]