Posted on 13-2-2003
US
Media Puts Truth Second To War
By William Rivers Pitt
Osama bin Laden rose from the dead yet again on Tuesday to prophesy
doom
and death for America. This is nothing new; he has been clawing
his way out
of various burial holes for seventeen months now, and always
manages to
strike fear into the American heart by way of the American media
and the
Bush administration at exactly the moment when incredibly important
shifts
in history are in the offing.
At this moment, George W. Bush stands almost completely alone
in his
desire to make pre-emptive war on the nation of Iraq. Several
key NATO
allies - France, Germany and Belgium among them - have thrown
sand into the
gears of battle by refusing to prepare Turkey for an immediate
war they do
not support nor deem necessary. As this incredible state of
affairs
unfolded, Americans found their ears ringing with orange-hued
warnings of
imminent death. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge went so
far as to tell
people to load up on plastic sheeting and duct tape so as to
bar their
windows from chemical attack, but the administration he calls
home made
sure to tell people to live their lives normally and continue
shopping.
And so it goes. This is fairly standard stuff within the American
echo
chamber. Let there be one important piece of legislation, or
one highly
embarrassing turn of events for the administration, and the
word goes forth
that the sky is falling. We have been dealing with this politically
manufactured low-grade hysteria for many months now. Most Americans
have
reached a suspended state of disbelief about it all, and won't
be taking
these warnings seriously unless they see Osama bin Laden on
their doorstep
in a black cassock with scythe in hand. Bush and Ashcroft will
soon run out
of colors on the warning chart if this keeps up; the shade after
red likely
exists somewhere in the fourth dimension, visible only to ultraconservative
war-hawks and media talking heads.
When the voice of Osama comes out of the television, however,
things
suddenly become much more serious. The Bush administration may
have
forgotten him entirely, but every single American still sleeps
with visions
of burning towers and plummeting bodies projected on the backs
of their
eyelids. Peter Bergen, noted terrorism expert, stated on CNN
that such
messages from bin Laden usually herald new attacks. If the Orange
Alert was
dubious on Monday, it was given new importance on Tuesday.
Secretary of State Colin Powell set the stage for this new bin
Laden
statement early on Tuesday, much to the surprise of CIA Director
George
Tenet. Powell, during testimony at a Senate Budget Committee
meeting, let
it drop that the Middle East news network Al Jazeera had in
hand a tape of
Osama bin Laden. Tenet, seated with the Intelligence Committee,
had not
heard of this tape. One is left wondering at Powell's sources,
especially
after the story unfolded.
Powell used the existence of this tape, and the words he claimed
bin Laden
had said on it, to further tie Saddam Hussein to international
terrorism.
He claimed bin Laden was clearly establishing a connection between
himself
and Hussein on the tape, beyond all question. "This nexus between
terrorists and states that are developing weapons of mass destruction,"
said Powell, "can no longer be looked away from and ignored."
The actual tape, played and translated live on every major cable
news
channel, told a very different story. Osama bin Laden swore
vengeance
against America if Iraq was attacked, and demanded that the
Muslim world
stand in solidarity with the Muslim people of Iraq. In very
clear words,
Osama bin Laden told the people of Iraq to rise up against both
American
aggression and against "socialist" Saddam Hussein. If the translations
that
were provided were reliable, there is no ambiguity in bin Laden's
words on
the matter. So much, it seems, for Powell's case that Hussein
and bin Laden
are working together.
And this is where it gets interesting.
An MSNBC.com report on the bin Laden tape carried the following
sentence:
"At the same time, the message also called on Iraqis to rise
up and oust
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who is a secular leader." This
clearly
confirms the clarity of mind Osama bin Laden displayed in regard
to Saddam
Hussein, and conforms to the recorded message heard by millions
and
millions of people around the world.
Less than twenty minutes after this report appeared on MSNBC,
that
sentence was deleted from the report. A few intrepid Internet
news junkies,
including myself, preserved what is called a 'screen-grab' of
the original
article before it was scrubbed. The version of the article currently
in
existence has replaced the text above with this far more benign
text: "The
taped statement reflected Saddam, a secular leader, but made
it clear that
Saddam was not the immediate target." A similar story line,
bereft of the
portions describing bin Laden's wish that Hussein be killed,
has appeared
in virtually every mainstream news media report on the matter.
The manner in which this story unfolded brings forth a number
of serious
questions.
First of all, questions must be asked regarding Colin Powell's
motives in
this. The recording heard by the world diverged significantly
from the spin
Powell put on it before the Budget Committee. Osama bin Laden
did not state
an alliance with Saddam Hussein, but with the Muslim civilians
in Iraq who
will bear the bloody brunt of any American attack. In fact,
bin Laden told
the Iraqi people to rise up against Hussein. This is not the
way allies
deal with each other.
Why would Powell go to such lengths to stretch the glaringly
obvious truth
in this matter? He is already suffering from a deficit of credibility
in
the aftermath of the plagiarism scandal that is currently rocking
Tony
Blair's administration. Powell stood before the UN last week
and praised a
British intelligence dossier that contained cut-and-pasted pages
and pages
of an essay, with all spelling and grammatical errors intact,
written by a
postgraduate student from California. The data was years out
of date,
flat-out contradictory in several key areas, used without the
student's
awareness, and yet was offered as an up-to-the-minute assessment
of Iraqi
weapons capabilities.
This, in combination with Powell's obviously skewed interpretation
of
Tuesday's bin Laden recording, forces us to call into question
every single
word he and the Bush administration have said on the matter.
The question
of whether Saddam Hussein has ties to al Qaeda terrorism and
Osama bin
Laden can be put to bed now, it seems, alongside the tatters
and shreds of
honor and dignity formerly enjoyed by the Secretary of State.
More ominously, why would a news network like MSNBC so obviously
haul
water for the failed allegations of the Bush administration?
Events happen
in seconds on the internet, but merely scrubbing uncomfortable
sentences
from articles cannot stop the tens of thousands of readers who
are wise
enough now to save the evidence before it evaporates in a cloud
of silicon.
These deletions display a manifest breach of faith on behalf
of MSNBC, and
call to mind issues surrounding the conflict of interest that
are inherent
in the ownership of this network. MSNBC, along with NBC and
CNBC, are owned
by the corporate giant General Electric. GE is one of the largest
defense
contractors on the face of the earth, and will, bluntly, be
paid a king's
ransom in the event of a war. Following this line of questioning
leads to
some dark corners, indeed. How often is the data being manipulated
by the
corporate-owned media? Are we to rely solely on the nimble fingers
of
keyboarded citizens to get to the heart of the matter?
A report appearing later on Tuesday on MSNBC.com served to refute
the
claims of collusion between bin Laden and Hussein. "Although
Powell sought
to characterize the tape as a concrete link between al-Qaida
and the Iraqi
government," the MSNBC.com report read, "White House officials
acknowledged
later to NBC News that it did not. Powell did not know it had
not been
broadcast when he spoke to the committee and was 'a little on
the front of
his skis,' a government source said." These lines were buried
deep within
the report.
By Wednesday morning, this text had been completely removed
from the article.
Virtually the entire global community stands against us today
on the
subject of this war, with nations willing and able to destroy
NATO before
allowing it to take place. The Bush administration has cut billions
of
dollars from street-level homeland defenders like police forces
and fire
houses, yet has the eagle screaming for a war that will be fought
simultaneously in downtown Baghdad and in your utterly undefended
neighborhood. They have the gall, simultaneously, to speak of
trillion
dollar tax cuts for rich people that will further debilitate
our budgetary
ability to defend ourselves. Links between Osama bin Laden and
Saddam
Hussein have proven to be not only false, but laughable. The
credibility of
the Bush administration has been destroyed.
And yet we go, with the news media whistling 'Onward Christian
Soldiers'
all the while. The Bush administration is ecstatic, believing
they can spin
bin Laden's statement of support for Iraqi civilians into a
connection
between the terrorist and Hussein.
You are being lied to, clumsily.
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