- PHILADELPHIA March 22, 2002,
19:10 pm - The war against Iraq is being conducted by the Anglo-American
coalition in an atmosphere of complete information vacuum. Turn on the
CNN, MSNBC, FOX or any other major news network and the picture is the
same everywhere - no news.
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- The same old statements from the same old
Rumsfeld; the same video footage used and reused by all TV news networks
thousands of time over the past three days; the same old Wesley Clark reminding
the world that he is still the US Army's most incompetent general, even
if now retired. The TV news channels seem to have all of that but real
news on what is happening on the front.
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- Yesterday, I was flipping through the hundreds
of channels offered by my satellite TV service in hopes of finding any
new information about the war in Iraq. CNN was showing photos and
headlines from some Kuwaiti newspaper. After talking for half-an-hour about
this newspaper and looking at the print from every possible angle, the
CNN "field reporter" pulled out one more Kuwaiti newspaper and
talked about it for another fifteen minutes. That was pathetic even for
the CNN.
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- I wonder how this works: "Camera! Lights!
We are going live in one, two Quickly! Get me a newspaper!" They
are getting desperate there, I'm telling you But you've probably been watching
the news as well, so you should already know all of that. This day and
age after being unable to find any decent news on TV or in the press, well-connected
people turn to the Internet, so here you are reading what some "Venik"
has to say about the war in Iraq.
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- The complete lock down by the coalition command
on the flow of information is rather unusual. Normally, the military would
at least actively use the media for disinformation purposes, as the US
military did during the first Persian Gulf War and during the bombing of
Yugoslavia (and during all those dozens of other armed conflicts in between).
But a complete absence of any significant news makes one very suspicious:
how are things really going in Iraq? Is Saddam really losing control of
the country and of his troops? Are the Americans and Brits really
in Basra and Umm Quasar? Did all the planes really return to their bases
as the Pentagon officials in Washington say?
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- And then there are some very lame attempts
at propaganda by the US military. Consider the false report about the entire
Iraqi 51st Infantry Division surrendering to the coalition troops. An entire
division surrendered, really? This must be huge news. There must be hundreds
of videos all over the world's news networks showing hordes of demoralized
and hungry Iraqi troops. There must be hundreds of interviews with the
Iraqis themselves and much more footage of all the destroyed and abandoned
armor and artillery numbering in hundreds.
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- Where in the hell is all this stuff? All
we got was one or two lame staged videos shot by the military showing a
few dozen Iraqis half of whom are not even wearing any uniforms. For all
I know they may be civilians or not even Iraqis. There is no footage of
any weapons - was the entire division unarmed? And then, of course, all
the speculation fueled by official US government reports of a possible
missile strike that might have killed Saddam. As Rumsfeld put it: "He
[Saddam] is either dead or alive." Yeah, no shit.
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- Meanwhile, we have no clue as to what is
going on in Iraq. Thank God for the ex-Soviet <http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news072.htm>GRU
and a few dedicated Russian army experts who provide their <http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news066.htm>intelligence
reports on the Web. But as far as mainstream media goes in terms of accurate
war reporting- you might as well be watching the Junk Yard Wars on the
TLC.
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- A day ago it was reported that Bush was meeting
with his entire cabinet, the top military commanders and all of his advisors
at Camp David. Even the elusive, like the white rabbit from "Alice
in Wonderland", Dick Cheney was to be there. That in itself is major
news. Clearly Bush was not meeting with all these smart folks just to drink
beer and eat pretzels. And, yet, this meeting was not, in my opinion, adequately
covered by the media.
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- It is clear that the war in Iraq was the
reason for this meeting. And after the meeting Bush said that it will be
harder and longer than some expected. That's the second time in the past
three days that he mentioned the "harder and longer" part of
this war. Obviously, something is going on and, as usual, CNN's got no
clue and continues repeating Rumsfeld's abracadabra. I understand when
the government wants to brainwash the enemy, but bullshitting its own people
is just sad.
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- http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news075.htm
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- http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news075.htm
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