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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
Joined: 14 Apr 2003
Posts: 7295
Location: Amsterdam
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 Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 1:29 am Post subject: Tribunal: Media Held Guilty of Deception |
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Media Held Guilty of Deception
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail
*ROME, Feb 14 (IPS) - A peoples tribunal has held much of Western media
guilty of inciting violence and deceiving people in its reporting of
Iraq.*
The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), an international peoples initiative
seeking the truth about the war and occupation in Iraq made its
pronouncement Sunday after a three- day meeting. The tribunal heard
testimony from independent journalists, media professors, activists,
and member of the European Parliament Michele Santoro.
The Rome session of the WTI followed others in Brussels, London,
Mumbai, New York, Hiroshima-Tokyo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Lisbon. The Rome
meeting focused on the media role.
The informal panel of WTI judges accused the United States and the
British governments of impeding journalists in performing their task,
and intentionally producing lies and misinformation.
The panel accused western corporate media of filtering and suppressing
information, and of marginalising and endangering independent
journalists. More journalists were killed in a 14-month period in Iraq
than in the entire Vietnam war.
The tribunal said mainstream media reportage on Iraq also violated
article six of the Nuremberg Tribunal (set up to try Nazi crimes) which
states: "Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating
in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to
commit
any of the foregoing crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes and
crimes against humanity) are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such a plan."
The panel that heard testimonies included Francois Houtart, director of
the Tricontinental Centre in Belgium that has backed several peoples
movements in Latin America, and Dr. Samir Amin, director of the Third
World Forum in Dakar, Senegal. Dr. Haleh Afshar, who teaches politics
and women's studies at the University of York in Britain, and Italian
author and newspaper editor Ernesto Pallotta witnessed the proceedings.
"This is not simply an exercise to denounce the mainstream media for
their bias and incompetence," said Dr. Tony Alessandrini, a human
rights
activist who has published several articles on the U.S. colonisation of
Iraq. "These denunciations have been going on for months. Here in Rome,
we must go further.."
Alessandrini, who helped organised the WTI added, "What we are being
asked to consider is not simply media bias, but rather the active
complicity of media in crimes that have been committed and are being
committed on a daily basis against the people in Iraq."
Several experts gave strong testimony. Dr. Peter Philips, director of
'Project Censured' at Sonoma State University in California where he
teaches media censorship provided taped testimony. He said that at no
time since the 1930s has the United States been so close to
"institutionalised totalitarianism", and added, "U.S. society has
become
the least informed, best entertained society in the world."
The WTI Rome session also heard testimony from Dr. David Miller from
Scotland, author of 'Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in
the Attack on Iraq'. "This is about condemning journalistic complicity
of war crimes," said Dr. Miller, who is also co-editor of Spinwatch, a
group that monitors public relations and propaganda.
Miller said the Pentagon "does not recognise the concept of independent
journalists, because they are providers of unfriendly information", and
that mainstream media in the United States and in Britain was
"complicit
in furthering the selling of the invasion, and ongoing occupation. All
studies conducted on mainstream media show dominance by government
policies, and wartime coverage of TV news in the UK was generally
sympathetic to the government's case.."
Fernando Suarez, who lost his son Jesus during the invasion of Iraq
when
he is said to have stepped on an illegal U.S. cluster bomb, also
testified at the tribunal.
Suarez testified that he was first told by the Pentagon that his son
died from a gunshot to the head, then that he died in an accident, and
then that he had died in 'friendly fire'.
On inspecting his son's body Suarez said he discovered that his son had
died from stepping on a cluster bomb.
"I never had the truth from them," Suarez added. "I found the truth,
and
the truth was very simple. On March 26 the Army dropped 20,000 cluster
bombs in Iraq, but only about 20 percent exploded. The other 80 percent
are in the cities and the schools and acting like mines."
Suarez said: "Bush sent my son because he said Iraq had illegal
weapons,
and my son died from an illegal American weapon, and nobody has spoken
about this. The media will not talk about the illegal American
weapons."
Several witnesses testified about media disinformation over the siege
of
Fallujah. They were presented copies of the award winning documentary
'Weapons of Mass Deception' by journalist and film-maker Danny
Schechter, who is also executive editor of Mediachannel.org, an online
media issues network.
Alessandrini said evidence of active complicity of the mainstream media
in wrongs committed against the people of Iraq, and the wrongs of
deception and incitement, was now overwhelming.
"We work from the understanding that history will recall the crimes
committed against the people of Iraq by the U.S.," he said. "It is our
responsibility to record these crimes in order to ensure these crimes
are never again repeated.”
More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com
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Torkel
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 1396
Location: West Virginia, USA
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| Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 5:56 pm Post subject: |
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that's a crock of shit, ain't it?
Until gw is removed from power those type of war/humanity crimes will continue, don't you think?
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Miller vs U.S. (230 F 2nd 486,489): "The claim and exercise of a Constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime."
Miranda vs Arizona (384 U.S. 436, 125): "Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule-making or legislation which would abrogate them."
HAGANS vs LAVINE (415 US 533 N-3,note 5): "Once JURISDICTION is challenged it must be proven by the Plaintiff." |
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entropical
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Joined: 10 Jan 2005
Posts: 95
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| Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 6:03 pm Post subject: |
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personaly, I cant see how it began with him and I dont see it ending with him either. hes just one man and people come and go.
| Quote: |
| "I never had the truth from them," Suarez added. "I found the truth, and the truth was very simple. On March 26 the Army dropped 20,000 cluster bombs in Iraq, but only about 20 percent exploded. The other 80 percent are in the cities and the schools and acting like mines." |
interesting. never saw any concrete numbers before but this now is 20,000 bombs in one day. hm.
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"Rastafari is not a faith which can be converted to. No one person can say, 'This is exactly what the Rastafari doctrine is,' because the beauty of the faith is that it is seen through the eyes of the beholder...it is a way of life, which, like life itself, continues to grow in mind, body and spirit." |
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Mystic Power
admin THC-Ministry YahooGroup
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3605
Location: Key West
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| Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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| entropical wrote: |
personaly, I cant see how it began with him and I dont see it ending with him either. hes just one man and people come and go.
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You're right, entropical.
It didn't start with him.
The famous Patriot Act was actually written during the Clinton years. But... it didn't start with him, either.
I think Oliver Stone's film, JFK, is a lot closer to the truth than some folks would like to realize.
With his death, a new political and cultural paradigm was born with an unholy alliance between the Pentagon and those in the business of war.
The Democrats are bought and paid for by the same people who own the Republicans.
Bush is a puppet...a figurehead. That bonehead isn't calling the shots. He can bearly speak...
It's going to take a profound shift in the public's reality model before we'll see any significant change.
There's a hard rain gonna fall.
Bliss on,
Ben
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"In Lak'ech"
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Fyrefly1
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 07 Sep 2004
Posts: 2209
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| Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2005 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Mystic Power wrote: |
| entropical wrote: |
personaly, I cant see how it began with him and I dont see it ending with him either. hes just one man and people come and go.
|
You're right, entropical.
It didn't start with him.
The famous Patriot Act was actually written during the Clinton years. But... it didn't start with him, either.
I think Oliver Stone's film, JFK, is a lot closer to the truth than some folks would like to realize.
With his death, a new political and cultural paradigm was born with an unholy alliance between the Pentagon and those in the business of war.
The Democrats are bought and paid for by the same people who own the Republicans.
Bush is a puppet...a figurehead. That bonehead isn't calling the shots. He can bearly speak...
It's going to take a profound shift in the public's reality model before we'll see any significant change.
There's a hard rain gonna fall.
Bliss on,
Ben |
You're right.
The Johnson years were the crucible...where they showed a lot of 'Nam war footage every night on the evening news until people got fed up and told the gov't in so many words that they just wanted to watch Hee haw and Andy Griffith intead and not have to think about "all those horrible things going on." The gov't learned that the people wanted to stay ignorant and in the dark naively trusting in their 'elected leaders' to save them!
The trouble is, all the admins since then have been playing the game in a way that we could accept with words such as 'diplomacy' and 'negotiate'. Until now...
Bush&Co has actually done us a favor by way over playing their hand and showing the true colors of a nation gone mad....
I'd rather have the light on when there's a mosquito (or a war hawk) in the room...
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Fyrefly1
"All truth passes through three stages: first it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th Century Philosopher |
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