An alleged “nuclear weapons” site in Syria has been revealed to be a textile factory – and another of the War Party’s tall tales is debunked. To those of a skeptical mindset – i.e., nearly anyone outside of Washington – this throws fresh doubt on the claim that the Israeli raid on a supposed Syrian …
Continue reading “War and the Word Cloud”
Post-9/11, doesn’t it seem as though all American experience is blending into a single experience whose label is "your safety"? Which means, in practical terms, you get poked, prodded, searched, and surveilled wherever you go. The other day, I went to the ballpark to see my team, the Mets, play the Florida Marlins. It’s always …
Continue reading “Ballpark Liturgy: America’s New Civic Religion”
Vlahos interviews embattled author of Operation Dark Heart
In an effort to introduce a story of “progress” into media coverage, Gen. David Petraeus’s command claimed last week that the Taliban is suffering from reduced morale in Marjah and elsewhere, despite evidence that the population of Marjah still believes the Taliban controls that district. But the news media ignored the command’s handout on the …
Continue reading “Media Didn’t Buy Story of Low Taliban Morale”
Gareth Porter on America’s serial war denial
Not many atrocities can be less controversial than Israel’s attack on the Turkish-based flotilla heading to Gaza yesterday. Like Somali pirates, Israel attacked the boats in international waters. Like the darkest regimes, Israeli forces opened fire on unarmed civilians who had not posed a threat to anybody, except to the siege that Israel (with Egyptian …
Continue reading “The Flotilla in the Israeli Press”
Sunday’s New York Times, gearing up for Memorial Day, carries a leading front-page story direct from the Afghan front, complete with photos. Does it tell of the 1,000 Americans who have perished there in America’s longest war, or the unknown number of innocent Afghans to fall, or the many more on both sides gruesomely injured, …
Continue reading “Servile Journalism for Memorial Day”
Kelley Vlahos on a liberal outfit deploying neocon tactics
Propaganda networks that conduct "psychological warfare" for the Pentagon have been in vogue for a long time. Mike Furlong, a senior Pentagon official who is now being investigated for running a covert network of contractors to supply information for drone strikes and assassinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, had a long history of working in this …
Continue reading “The Pentagon’s Propaganda Networks”
Jeff Huber on the Pentagon’s public affairs zombies
