A censored war, censored veterans, media black

out of Pentagon propaganda "experts" on their payroll and the upcoming

war with Iran. What is the facts? will we ever know?

We start

our story with Joe Everybody, Kristofer Goldsmith,who starts his on

Sept. 11 2001,  with rage in his heart, he signed up to protect America

Goldsmith

saw the World Trade Center towers collapse on September 11, 2001. He

enlisted in the Army and went to Iraq in 2005. In Sadr City, he

witnessed abuse of Iraqi civilians. He was assigned to take pictures of

Iraqis found in a shallow grave, ostensibly for intelligence purposes,

but they were only used as trophies by those who received them. After

repeated commendations, he was expecting to return to civilian life and

college when President Bush announced the “surge,” and the military

adopted its stop-loss policy, essentially making Goldsmith a prisoner

of war. He tried to kill himself rather than return to Iraq, but

survived. He was diagnosed with depression, anxiety, and PTSD, but then

was discharged for misconduct as a malingerer. He now delivers pizzas

and struggles to overcome his persisting symptoms with treatment

through the VA.

This video was played at the "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan conference (3/13/08-3/16/08)", where dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars gathered in Silver Spring, Maryland and offered harrowing testimony about atrocities they had witnessed or participated in directly.

The BBC predicted that the event, organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War [1], "could be dominating the headlines around the world this week(*March---Joe)", and while it was truly broadcast internationally, here in the States it was almost completely blacked out.

Even

with the bullshit media blitzing of supporting our troops, when it came

down to actually listening to the over 1000 member group of veterans

and getting their message out, The New York Times claimed that they had

"not been aware of the group or its meeting,"

According to FAIR - Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting [2] (4/8/08) :

The Times’ D.C. bureau editor’s claim to have not heard of the hearings is remarkable, given that the AP

newswire carried a story on the hearings, and IVAW has confirmed to

FAIR that the D.C. bureau had been sent three separate rounds of

different IVAW press releases [3]. In addition, at least 150 Times staffers were sent press releases about Winter Soldier by the Institute for Public Accuracy [4],

a group that encourages inclusion of overlooked facts and progressive

perspectives in media coverage. Given that media organizations

operating on a small fraction of the Times' budget were aware of and able to find the resources to cover these hearings, the Times’ D.C. bureau’s plea to ignorance about the hearings is all the more disappointing.

Blackouts

are only the beginning, and the New York Times actually came forward to

explain that the Pentagon had strategically placed "war experts into

the media" to say all is going well in Iraq. They seem to have been

placed there in an effort to sell the American public the Iraq war.

From Source Watch [5]:

"Internal

Pentagon documents repeatedly refer to the military analysts as

'message force multipliers' or 'surrogates' who could be counted on to

deliver administration 'themes and messages' to millions of Americans

'in the form of their own opinions.' ... Don Meyer [6],

an aide to Ms. Clarke, said a strategic decision was made in 2002 to

make the analysts the main focus of the public relations push to

construct a case for war." Clarke and her senior aide, Brent T. Krueger [7],

eventually signed up more than 75 retired military officers, who

appeared on television and radio news shows as military analysts,

and/or penned newspaper op/ed columns. The Pentagon held weekly

meetings with the military analysts, which continued as of April 2008,

when David Barstow reported on the program in the New York Times.

So,

if you don't read the Times, you know nothing of what I'm speaking

about, do you? It has also been blacked out by the national media

outlets, an illegal media propaganda campaign completely blacked out.

Isn't this the type of thing we fought Hitler for?

From PR Watch.org [8] (5/6/08) :

Here is the official Pentagon website [9]

with the 8,000 pages of documents, the most interesting and revealing

of them previously secret and only available to the Pentagon and the New York Times:

http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/milanalysts/ [10]

More than two weeks after the New York Times reported on the Penatgon's military analyst program [11]

to sell controversial policies such as the invasion of Iraq, the

broadcast television news outlets implicated in the program are hoping

to tough out the scandal by refusing to report it. Recently Media Matters of America [12] (MMA) reported [13] that, according to a search of the Nexis database, "the three major broadcast networks -- ABC [14], CBS [15], and NBC [16] -- have still not mentioned the report at all."

The Pew Excellence in Journalism project has a chart showing that " there was virtually no mainstream media follow up [17] to The Times’ expose" with the only national TV coverage being the introduction segment and live debate featuring CMD's John Stauber on the PBS NewsHour [18].

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro [19] and three dozen colleagues have sent a letter [20]

to the Department of Defense Inspector General calling for an

investigation of this "propaganda campaign aimed at deliberately

misleading the American public."

Last month. one of the propaganda team came forward and saw a vision, in April one of the Pentagon’s propaganda [21] team of military analysts exposed by David Barstow in the NYT [22], a Ret. Gen. Thomas McInerney, speaking on FOX News [23], openly called for the US to begin committing “tit-for-tat” terrorist attacks by proxy inside Iran.

Craziness

you may say, apparently Iran seems to believe it to be a fact,

according to the Tahran Times, Iran's leading international daily, in

an article entitled "Iran busts CIA terror network [24]" (5/18/08) :

n

a coordinated operation on May 7, Iranian intelligence agents arrested

the terrorist network’s members, who were identified in Fars,

Khuzestan, Gilan, West Azerbaijan, and Tehran provinces, the

Intelligence Ministry announcement said.

The group’s plans were

devised in the U.S., according to the announcement, which added that

they had planned to carry out a number of acts such as bombing

scientific, educational, and religious centers, shooting people, and

making public places in various cities insecure.

One of the

terrorists was killed in the operation, but the rest are in detention,

the Intelligence Ministry said, adding that the group’s main objective

was to create fear among the people.

The United States Central

Intelligence Agency comprehensively supported the terrorist group by

arming it, training its members, and sponsoring its inhumane activities

in Iran, the Intelligence Ministry stated.

The terrorists had

maps, films, pictures, and sketches of important and sensitive sites in

various cities in their possession when they were arrested.

The Los Angeles Times says there is no proof to Iraq's claims in its article "IRAN: Tehran accuses West of waging war on its turf [25]" (5/16/08), while Bush and Israel have agreed that there needs to be "tangible action in Iran. [26]" (Yahoo News 5/16)

What's really going on in Iraq, Iran and in the United Stated media? I don't know if this generation will ever know.

Censorship

is the bane of our society, to get some Journalistic integrity and/or

some type of opposing view, check the links below and familiarize

yourself with the sites.

• U.S. Sergeant Refuses to Go to Iraq: "This Occupation is Unconstitutional and Illegal" [27] - AlterNet (5/16/08)
• Why Are Winter Soldiers Not News? [28] - FAIR (3/19/08)
• Pentagon Propagandist General Calls for US to Sponsor Terrorism Against Iran [29] - Crooks and Liars (5/15/08)
• The Common Man News [30]
• Dahr Jamail's MidEast Dispatch [31]
• Iraq Vets Will Detail U.S. Atrocities in Winter Soldier Hearings [32] - AlterNet (3/11/08)
• Iraq Veterans Against War [33]
• UTNE Reader [34]
• Mother Jones [35]

And if you really want to support our troops, check out

• IAVA - The Iraq an Afghanistan Veterans of America [36]
• The Wounded Warriors Project [37]

While we are on the political take, may I place this great cartoon for all of my readers to enjoy

Sphere: Related Content [38]