statism watch

Flashback: US Government Propaganda To Infest Network TV Shows | Obama: We Need To Bailout Newspapers To Stop New Media Taking Over | Canadian media watched closely in Afghanistan | Reuters Steps Up; Says Linking, Excerpting, Sharing Are Good Things For The News | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Murdoch CEO Labels Bloggers “Political Extremists” | Supreme Court to rule on ‘tidal-wave’ of press freedom cases | Ottawa considering aid for private broadcasters | Berners-Lee W3C Consortium to ‘Authorize’ Website Content? | Blogger arrests hit record high | The Death of Canadian Journalism | Prepackaged News

Brad Jacobson, RawStory.com
October 21, 2009

Figure in Bush propaganda operation remains Pentagon spokesman

In Part I of this series, Raw Story revealed that Bryan Whitman, the current deputy assistant secretary of defense for media operations, was an active senior participant in a Bush administration covert Pentagon program that used retired military analysts to generate positive wartime news coverage.

A months-long review of documents and interviews with Pentagon personnel has revealed that the Bush Administration’s military analyst program — aimed at selling the Iraq war to the American people — operated through a secretive collaboration between the Defense Department’s press and community relations offices.

Raw Story has also uncovered evidence that directly ties the activities undertaken in the military analyst program to an official US military document’s definition of psychological operations — propaganda that is only supposed to be directed toward foreign audiences.

The investigation of Pentagon documents and interviews with Defense Department officials and experts in public relations found that the decision to fold the military analyst program into community relations and portray it as “outreach” served to obscure the intent of the project as well as that office’s partnership with the press office. It also helped shield its senior supervisor, Bryan Whitman, assistant secretary of defense for media operations, whose role was unknown when the original story of the analyst program broke.

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Flashback: Landmark E. Howard Hunt JFK Confession Video Tape Ignored

Prof. Peter Dale Scott, GlobalResearch.ca
October 21, 2009

The New York Times, on October 17, published a page-one story by Scott Shane about the CIA’s defiance of a court order to release documents pertaining to the John F. Kennedy assassination, in its so-called Joannides file. George Joannides was the CIA case officer for a Cuban exile group that made headlines in 1963 by its public engagements with Lee Harvey Oswald, just a few weeks before Oswald allegedly killed Kennedy. For over six years a former Washington Post reporter, Jefferson Morley, has been suing the CIA for the release of these documents. [1]

Sometimes the way that a news item is reported can be more newsworthy than the item itself. A notorious example was the 1971 publication of the Pentagon Papers (documents far too detailed for most people to read) on the front page of the New York Times.

The October 17 Times story was another such example. It revealed, perhaps for the first time in any major U.S. newspaper, that the CIA has been deceiving the public about its own relationship to the JFK assassination.

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Hell just froze over – a Post columnist used the phrase ‘corporatism’. Terence Corcoran does some great work and deserves a lot of respect for sticking his neck out on this issue - the major international issue of the next few months. Come December and the Copenhagen summit, an unelected international forum will decide how and to what extent national sovereignty gets kicked to the curb, to be replaced with global taxation in the name of saving us from the presently non-existent terror of global warming. Mr. Corcoran is right to identify this ‘green industrial statism’ with history’s darkest authoritarian periods.

Flashback: Lord Nicholas Stern: The world’s future is being decided this weekend | Thatcher science adviser: Copenhagen goal is world government | UN plans ’shock therapy’ for world leaders at Copenhagen summit | German Scientists Call for ‘World Climate Bank’ | G8 Summit: Rich nations to pay green tab | US Congress Passes the 1,200-page Climate Bill that it was not allowed to read | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | The great carbon credit con: Why are we paying the Third World to poison its environment? | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | Economic stabilization may rely on carbon economy, economist says | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Obama, Gore, tied to Chicago carbon exchange | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | EU calls for global carbon trading system to fight climate change

Terence Corcoran, National Post
October 21, 2009

Industry, government and NGOs are creating a new political model

One of the big green lies about global warming science and climate change policy is that the issues are vicious battlegrounds between corporate interests and environmentalists. David Suzuki has been pushing this idea for years, at times going so far as to claim that the National Post and some of its editors/writers are corporate pawns and shills for big business’s anti-climate change agenda. One of Mr. Suzuki’s associates and chairman of the Suzuki Foundation, Jim Hoggan, operates a blog site and has a new book dedicated to the corporate-manipulation theme. Mr. Hoggan claims there exists a concerted public relations assault on climate science and policy that “could not be accomplished without the compliance of media as well as the assent and participation of leaders in government and business.” He talks of “a global PR machine that is too often in the service of special interests and too little concerned about the public interest.”

Let us now return to reality, where this idiot’s guide to climate policy making doesn’t survive 24-hours’ worth of news reports and press releases. The daily news flow is packed with evidence to the contrary and proof that the opposite is true: Big business and the globe’s greatest corporate powers are marching in lock step with governments and environmentalists to impose climate policy on the world and its people. At the Copenhagen climate conference in December, no group looks forward more fervently than big business to a global carbon control agreement filled with firm targets, big tax increases and massive subsidies for special interests all over the world.

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Mr. Walsh failed, strangely enough, to mention any of the following revelations in his coverage of the Abdullah Mehsud group.

Flashback: Whistleblower Who Linked “Taliban” Leader To US Intelligence Is Assassinated | Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | The Main Result of the “War on Terror”: The Destabilization of Pakistan | Not very cricket: Witnesses report Pakistani security abandoned convoy prior to attack | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | Key Benazir Bhutto assassination witness shot dead | CIA, Pakistani ISI have long, complicated relationship | Video: ‘The most conclusive evidence’ Bhutto was shot | Police abandoned security posts before Bhutto assassination | London terror plotter was ‘hardened’ in ISI camp | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

Declan Walsh, the Guardian
October 21, 2009

The “good” Taliban were clustered ^­ outside a tall gate down a dusty back street in Dera Ismail Khan, a troubled frontier city close to the mountain battleground of South Waziristan.

As Taliban go, they looked like the real deal – lanky young men with shoulder-length hair, bullet-filled bandoliers and well-worn AK-47 rifles. Some wore white basketball boots, the fighting footwear of choice for tribal gunmen.

These Islamist militants were not fighting against Pakistan’s embattled government, however, but for it. “We are proud Pakistanis,” declared their spokesman, a tall man wearing a prayer cap. “We are with the army in their fight against the brutal terrorists.”

As part of its huge assault on the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan, Pakistan’s army has struck controversial agreements with four Islamist outfits – Taliban in all but name – to boost its chances of crushing the main Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group.

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One cannot call this looting or graft, for these are mortal terms. And, really, what is money to the denizens of Olympus? The gods do not trouble themselves about such trifles.

Flashback: As Olympics loom, B.C. wants to force homeless into shelters in extreme weather | Olympics a ’stimulus package’ for Vancouver: VANOC | Vancouver dodges public referendum requirement for funding to finish Olympic Village | Vancouver mayor to recall legislature to handle Olympic Village crisis | Author wins award for work identifying categories of state corruption | Former mayors support secrecy surrounding Olympic Village bailout| Donations of money, property and services continue to corrupt Canadian politics

CBC News
October 21, 2009

B.C. New Democrats have released documents that show the provincial government purchased box suites at GM Place and the Pacific Coliseum for the use of MLAs and cabinet ministers during the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The price of the tickets was deleted from the documents, but the advertised prices for GM Place suites for the duration of the Olympics alone range from $133,650 to $496,500. At the Coliseum, the price is $115,000.

The tickets were apparently purchased by the Olympic Secretariat, the branch of government responsible for the Games, so that politicians can host business leaders and dignitaries, according to documents obtained by the NDP through a Freedom of Information request.

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Because that’s what you do when you see kids selling weed – you stomp on their skulls and scream ’stop resisting’! Then when you get caught, you pass the buck to the Police Complaints Commission so it can hold an inquiry and release the doctored results months later at the end of a news cycle.

Flashback: PQ wants probe after Taser used on mentally challenged man | Toronto high school arrest caught on video | RCMP actions ‘gratuitous, ‘violent,’ BC needs own police lawyer tells inquiry | Merced police used TASER on unarmed, legless man in a wheelchair | Pregnant mother tasered at baptism party | US Lawsuit: Cops tasered 3 kids in shelter, threatened one with sodomy | Latest TASER victim looked ’scared’ as officer approached with knife | Mounties discussed Tasing Dziekanski prior to altercation | UK Police watchdog to investigate Taser arrest, beating posted on YouTube | New video shows officer shove, then taser 72-year-old great grandmother

CBC News
October 21, 2009

Police in Abbotsford, B.C., are investigating after a video was posted on YouTube showing an officer stomping on and kicking a drug suspect who is lying face down on the ground, while another officer walks on the back of the suspect’s legs.

The incident happened Oct. 9 during a police takedown of three drug-trafficking suspects near a high school, according to a police news release.

The two officers involved reported that they witnessed a drug deal and then moved in and applied a variety of physical tactics to keep one of the suspects on the ground.

Watch the video:

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The crime here is that pensions aren’t a secured investment, whereas every employee is given the impression they are. It’s a breach of trust, if not of contract. But, wait, what’s this? The sound you hear is that of high-powered financial sector lobbyists beating a path to Ignatieff and Layton’s doors in the wake of these promises. We’ll see what becomes of this.

Flashback: Stephen Harper trumpets economic report card | Carney says G20 must stay the course on stimulus | Credit card debt balloons | The Economy is a Lie, too | Thousands rally against coming HST tax in BC | Unemployed to reach postwar high: OECD | Ottawa’s deficit plan would hike EI premiums | Canada’s $1-trillion debt baby | Flaherty sees deficit, debt, and timetable to return to surplus all expanding | More US Bank Failures and The Coming Deposit Insurance Bailout | A Stock Market Rally Engineered by Government | Boost Bank of Canada powers: Carney | Bank of Canada declares recession over

CBC News
October 21, 2009

The Liberal Party says it is committed to changing Canadian bankruptcy laws so former employees of failed companies like Nortel don’t lose their pensions and disability benefits when their employer goes bust.

“You gotta know that I’m hearing you loud and clear — the Bankruptcy Act must be changed,” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told Nortel pensioners at a rally on Parliament Hill Wednesday.

Ignatieff said his party will be meeting Monday to discuss new proposals for the pension system. Liberals are committed to changing bankruptcy laws “so that you are not left at the back of queue in insolvency and bankruptcy,” Ignatieff said. “It’s not right; we agree with you.”

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So the Supreme Court has reversed its decision to ‘reserve’ decision. Great, though it would be interesting to know why.

Flashback: Top court reserves decision in reporter confidentiality case | Don’t let media shield ‘criminals’, hearing told | Supreme Court to rule on ‘tidal-wave’ of press freedom cases | Barclays bank gags Guardian newspaper over tax avoidance leaks | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | Publication ban law too broad, top Ontario court rules | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | RCMP lays no charges in Maher Arar ‘terrorist’ leaks, declares case closed | Son of ‘Patriot Act’ Author Denies Connection to Obama-NAFTA Leak | Signs point to PMO in NAFTA leak

CBC News
October 21, 2009

Canada’s top court is reviewing a controversial ruling that could force a Globe and Mail reporter to reveal key confidential sources in the federal sponsorship scandal.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear the newspaper’s appeal of a lower court ruling requiring journalist Daniel Leblanc to release the identity of people who assisted him in exposing fraud in the sponsorship program five years ago, including a source code-named Ma Chouette.

The appeal contests a Quebec Superior Court ruling that authorized lawyers for advertising company Le Groupe Polygone Éditeurs Inc. to question Leblanc under oath about Ma Chouette.

The anonymous source provided Leblanc with details that led to his award-winning reporting on the so-called adscam.

Leblanc has said he would rather go to jail than reveal the source’s identity.

The Quebec Superior Court also granted Polygone lawyers the right to question more than 20 other witnesses — mostly government employees — about whether they assisted Leblanc in his investigation.

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Flashback: IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | Another War in the Works | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

CBC News
October 21, 2009

Iran has agreed to a draft deal on its nuclear program, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Wednesday, and diplomats say it has the Islamic Republic shipping most of its enriched uranium to Russia.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said representatives from Iran, Russia, the U.S. and France have signed off on the draft deal after talks held in Vienna this week. ElBaradei said he hoped the respective leaders of the countries involved would approve the deal by Friday.

“Everybody who participated at the meeting was trying to look at the future, not at the past, trying to heal the wounds,” ElBaradei said.

“I very much hope that people see the big picture, see that this agreement could open the way for a complete normalization of relations between Iran and the International community.”

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Health Canada is most assuredly not the body that approved the H1N1 vaccine. Canadian trials started yesterday. The UN’s World Health Organization is the international body that has approved the fast-tracked vaccine. When they say jump, we say how high – these central public health bodies are full of pharmaceutical industry employees, and their companies are benefitting handsomely from what amounts to an industry bailout. (And that they’re off the hook if this hurts you). They’re not going to tell you about its links to neurological disease. They’re not going to tell you the German government and the approval body in that country are getting their own special shipment of unadjuvanted vaccine. They’re not going to tell you nurses and doctors in the UK and New York are resisting taking this shot, or that a number of doctors and virologists – including the guy that invented Tamiflu – think this virus ‘escaped’ from a lab somewhere, and that there are epidemiologists that think this is all scaremongering. So think carefully before you roll up your sleeve, Canada.

Flashback: German Government to get special swine flu vaccine | Harper’s hedge on H1N1 shot sparks confusion | Higher instance of severe H1N1 cases in natives, women | UK: National Health Service frontline staff shun H1N1 vaccine | US: Hospitals fear ‘Flumist’ H1N1 nasal vaccine could spread swine flu | New swine-flu wave hits GTA: Provincial Health Official | Canadian taxpayers on hook for any H1N1 vaccine damages | Second wave of swine flu pandemic begins to hit US | Seasonal flu shots delayed for non-seniors on fears of increased H1N1 risk | Seasonal flu shot may increase H1N1 risk | Swine flu death rate similar to seasonal flu: expert | Swine flu unlikely to become superbug | UK: Half of all pregnant women will refuse swine flu jab, poll reveals | Flu vaccine plan will be too slow: CMAJ | Swine flu jab link to killer nerve disease: Leaked letter reveals concern of neurologists over 25 deaths in America | Canada to order 50.4 million H1N1 vaccine doses – with adjuvant additive | Genetically modified Swine Flu hybrid may provide vaccine yield solution | Washington Post: Swine Flu Vaccine Will Contain Mercury | UK Government Swine Flu Advisor On Vaccine Maker Payroll | Fast-tracked swine flu vaccine will be safe, officials insist | Swine flu: How scared should we be? | Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fearmongering | Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers | Swine flu ‘related’ to 1918 pandemic virus – survivors exhibit resistance | Did leak from a laboratory cause swine flu pandemic? | Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim | Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | ‘Accidental’ Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible | Officials investigate how bird flu contaminated vaccines in Europe | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic

CBC News
October 21, 2009

The H1N1 vaccine has been approved for rollout across Canada, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced Wednesday.

“I’m happy to say that today Health Canada has authorized the H1N1 flu virus vaccine,” Aglukkaq told an Ottawa news conference. “This is a milestone in our efforts to fight H1N1 flu virus.”

She encouraged all Canadians to get the vaccine once it is available in their community, as early as next week.

The overriding objective in reviewing the H1N1 influenza A vaccine, called Arepanrix, was to protect the health and safety of Canadians, she said. Health Canada will continue to monitor use of the vaccine in collaboration with regulators worldwide.

The announcement means the vaccine performed as expected in tests, and most people will gain immunity within 10 days of receiving one dose, said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada’s chief public health officer.

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