Silencing the Critics
by Paul Craig Roberts
February 20, 2012
In 2010 the FBI invaded the homes of peace activists in several states and
seized personal possessions in what the FBI-the lead orchestrator of fake
"terrorist plots"-called an investigation of "activities concerning the
material support of terrorism."
Subpoenas were issued to compel antiwar protestors to testify before grand
juries as prosecutors set about building their case that opposing
Washington's wars of aggression constitutes giving aid and comfort to
terrorists. The purpose of the raids and grand jury subpoenas was to chill
the anti-war movement into inaction.
Last week in one fell swoop the last two remaining critics of Washington/Tel
Aviv imperialism were removed from the mainstream media. Judge Napolitano's
popular program, Freedom Watch, was cancelled by Fox TV, and Pat Buchanan
was fired by MSNBC. Both pundits had wide followings and were appreciated
for speaking frankly.
Many suspect that the Israel Lobby used its clout with TV advertisers to
silence critics of the Israeli government's efforts to lead Washington to
war with Iran. Regardless, the point before us is that the voice of the
mainstream media is now uniform. Americans hear one voice, one message, and
the message is propaganda. Dissent is tolerated only on such issues as to
whether employer-paid health benefits should pay for contraceptive devices.
Constitutional rights have been replaced with rights to free condoms.
The western media demonizes those at whom Washington points a finger. The
lies pour forth to justify Washington's naked aggression: the Taliban are
conflated with al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction,
Gaddafi is a terrorist and, even worse, fortified his troops with Viagra in
order to commit mass rape against Libyan women.
President Obama and members of Congress along with Tel Aviv continue to
assert that Iran is making a nuclear weapon despite public contradiction by
the US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and the CIA's National Intelligence
Estimate. According to news reports, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta
<
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_19978801?source=rss> told members
of the House of Representatives on February 16 that "Tehran has not made a
decision to proceed with developing a nuclear weapon." However, in
Washington facts don't count. Only the material interests of powerful
interest groups matter.
At the moment the american Ministry of Truth is splitting its time between
lying about Iran and lying about Syria. Recently, there were some explosions
in faraway Thailand, and the explosions were blamed on Iran. Last October
the FBI announced that the bureau had uncovered an Iranian plot to pay a
used car salesman to hire a Mexican drug gang to kill the Saudi Ambassador
to the US. The White House idiot professed to believe the unbelievable plot
and declared that he had "strong evidence," but no evidence was ever
released. The purpose for announcing the non-existent plot was to justify
Obama's sanctions, which amount to an embargo-an act of war-against Iran for
developing nuclear energy.
As a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty, Iran has the right to
develop nuclear energy. IAEA inspectors are permanently in Iran and report
no diversion of nuclear material to a weapons program.
In other words, according to the reports of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, the US National Intelligence Estimate, and the current Secretary of
Defense, there is no evidence that Iran has nukes or is making nukes. Yet,
Obama has placed illegal sanctions on Iran and continues to threaten Iran
with military attack on the basis of an accusation that is contradicted by
all known evidence.
How can such a thing happen? It can happen because there is no Helen Thomas,
who also was eliminated by the Israel Lobby, to question, as a member of the
White House press, President Obama why he placed war-like sanctions on Iran
when his own CIA and his own Secretary of Defense, along with the IAEA,
report that there is no basis for the sanctions.
The idea that the US is a democracy when it most definitely does not have a
free watchdog press is laughable. But the media is not laughing. It is
lying. Just like the government, every time the US mainstream media opens
its mouth or writes one word, it is lying. Indeed, its corporate masters pay
its employees to tell lies. That is their job. Tell the truth, and you are
history like Buchanan and Napolitano and Helen Thomas.
What the Ministry of Truth calls "peaceful protesters brutalized by Assad's
military" are in fact rebels armed and financed by Washington. Washington
has fomented a civil war. Washington claims its intention is to rescue the
oppressed and abused Syrian people from Assad, just as Washington rescued
the oppressed and abused Libyan people from Gaddafi. Today "liberated" Libya
is a shell of its former self terrorized by clashing militias. Thanks to
Obama, another country has been destroyed.
Reports of atrocities committed against Syrian civilians by the military
could be true, but the reports come from the rebels who desire Western
intervention to put them into power. Moreover, how would these civilian
casualties differ from the ones inflicted on Bahraini civilians by the US
supported Bahraini government, the military of which was fortified by Saudi
Arabian troops? There is no outcry in the western press about Washington's
blind eye to civilian atrocities committed by its puppet states.
How do the Syrian atrocities, if they are real, differ from Washington's
atrocities in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Abu
Ghraib, Guantanamo prison, and secret CIA prison sites? Why is the american
Ministry of Truth silent about these massive, unprecedented, violations of
human rights?
Remember also the reports of Serbian atrocities in Kosovo that Washington
and Germany used to justify NATO and US bombing of Serbian civilians,
including the Chinese consulate, dismissed as another collateral damage.
Now 13 years later, a prominent German TV program has
<
http://www.freenations.freeuk.com/news-2012-02-19.html> revealed that the
photographs that ignited the atrocity campaign were grossly misrepresented
and were not photographs of atrocities committed by Serbs, but of Albanian
separatists killed in a firefight between armed Albanians and Serbians.
Serbian casualties were not shown.
The problem that truth faces is that the western media continually lies. On
the rare instances when the lies are corrected, it is always long after the
event and, therefore, the crimes enabled by the media have been
accomplished.
Washington set its puppet Arab League upon Syria in order to establish
Syria's isolation among its own kind, the better to attack Syria. Assad
forestalled Washington's set-up of Syria for destruction by calling a
nationwide referendum on February 26 to establish a new constitution that
would extend the prospect of rule beyond the Ba'athists (Assad's party).
One might think that, if Washington and its Ministry of Truth really wanted
democracy in Syria, Washington would get behind this gesture of good will by
the ruling party and endorse the referendum. But Washington does not want a
democratic Syrian government. Washington wants a puppet state.
Washington's response is that the dastardly Assad has outwitted Washington
by taking steps toward Syrian democracy before Washington can obliterate
Syria and install a puppet.
Here is Obama's response to Assad's move toward democracy: "It's actually
quite laughable-it makes a mockery of the Syrian revolution," White House
spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Obama, the neoconservatives, and Tel Aviv are really pissed. If Washington
and Tel Aviv can figure out how to get around Russia and China and overthrow
Assad, Washington and Tel Aviv will put Assad on trial as a war criminal for
proposing a democratic referendum.
Assad was an eye doctor in England until his father died, and he was called
back to head the troubled government. Washington and Tel Aviv have demonized
Assad for refusing to be their puppet. Another sore point is the Russian
naval base at Tartus. Washington is desperate to evict the Russians from
their only Mediterranean base in order to make the Mediterranean an american
lake. Washington, inculcated with neocon visions of world empire, wants its
own mare nostrum.
If the Soviet Union were still extant, Washington's designs on Tartus would
be suicidal. However, Russia is politically and militarily weaker than the
Soviet Union. Washington has infiltrated Russia with NGOs that work against
Russia's interests and will disrupt the upcoming elections. Moreover,
Washington-funded "color revolutions" have turned former constituent parts
of the Soviet Union into Washington's puppet states. Shorn of communist
ideology, Washington does not expect Russia to push the nuclear button.
Thus, Russia is there for the taking.
China is a more difficult problem. Washington's plan is to cut China off
from independent sources of energy. China's oil investment in eastern Libya
is the reason Gaddafi was overthrown, and oil is one of the main reasons
that Washington has targeted Iran. China has large oil investments in Iran
and gets 20% of its oil from Iran. Closing down Iran, or converting it into
Washington's puppet state, closes down 20% of the Chinese economy.
Russia and China are slow learners. However, when Washington and its NATO
puppets abused the "no-fly" UN resolution concerning Libya and violated the
UN resolution by turning it into armed military aggression against Libya's
armed forces, which had every right to put down a CIA sponsored rebellion,
Russia and China finally got the message that Washington could not be
trusted.
This time Russia and China did not fall into Washington's trap. They vetoed
the UN Security Council's set-up of Syria for military attack. Now
Washington and Tel Aviv (it is not always clear which is the puppet and
which is the puppet master) have to decide whether to proceed in the face of
Russian and Chinese opposition.
The risks for Washington have multiplied. If Washington proceeds, the
information that is conveyed to Russia and China is that they are next in
line after Iran. Therefore, Russia and China, both being well-armed with
nuclear weapons, are likely to put their foot down more firmly at the line
drawn over Iran. If the crazed warmongers in Washington and Tel Aviv, with
veins running strong with hubris and arrogance, again override Russian and
Chinese opposition, the risk of a dangerous confrontation rises.
Why isn't the american media raising questions about these risks? Is it
worth blowing up the world in order to stop Iran from having a nuclear
energy program or even a nuclear weapon? Does Washington think China is
unaware that Washington is taking aim at its energy supply? Does Washington
think Russia is unaware that it is being encircled by hostile military
bases?
Whose interests are being served by Washington's endless and multi-trillion
dollar wars? Certainly not <
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suJCvkazrTc>
the interests of the 50 million americans with no access to health care, nor
by the 1,500,000 american children who are homeless, living in cars, rundown
motel rooms, tent cities, and the storm sewers under Las Vegas, while huge
amounts of public funds are used to bail out banks and squandered in wars of
hegemony.
The US has no independent print and TV media. It has presstitutes who are
paid for the lies that they tell. The US government in its pursuit of its
immoral aims has attained the status of the most corrupt government in human
history. Yet Obama speaks as if Washington is the font of human morality.
The US government does not represent americans. It represents a few special
interests and a foreign power. US citizens simply don't count, and
certainly Afghans, Iraqis, Libyans, Somalians, Yemenis, and Pakistanis don't
count. Washington regards truth, justice, and mercy as laughable values.
Money, power, hegemony are all that count for Washington, the city upon the
hill, the light unto nations, the example for the world.
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RPaul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic
Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for
Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has
had many university appointments. His Internet columns have attracted a
worldwide following. Read more articles by
<
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/author/paul-craig-roberts/> Paul Craig
Roberts.
<
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org>
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org
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