*THIS MORNING'S WAR NEWS BEYOND THE DECEPTIVE MASS MEDIA VERSION
* ** *Glenn Greenwald has a piece this morning <http://www.salon.com/2012/05/01/since_bin_ladens_death/>, in the wake of all the boasting by President Obama that he has killed Osama bin Laden and made the country safer, that since bin Laden's death, "the war on terror and its various civil liberties assaults have escalated, not been reversed or even slowed down," concluding "As always: combating Terrorism is not the end of the War on Terror; the War on Terror is the end in itself, and Terrorism is merely its pretext."* ** *David Swanson tells us <http://warisacrime.org/content/leaving-afghanistan-staying> "President Obama has signed an agreement with President Karzai to keep a major U.S. military presence in Afghanistan (currently about three times the size Obama began with) through the end of 2014, and to allow a significant unspecified presence beyond that date, with no end date stipulated." Change you can believe in. * ** *And finally, /al Jazeera/ has an interactive map <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2012/04/2012417131242767298.html> showing the US bases surrounding Iran, even as our mass media convince the public that Iran is threatening the USA. It is all propaganda, all the time, in the Land of the Free.* ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *MASS MEDIA DECEPTION REVEALED * ** *FAIR has an activism update <http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4535> on its having revealed that /PBS/ took money from Dow Chemical to underwrite programming supposedly giving viewers objective information about Dow. These scumbags refuse to take what they call "special interest" money, such as labor union funding for a labor program representing the overwhelming majority of citizens in the working class, while kneeling and kissing butt for the corporate bucks in what they euphemistically call "public broadcasting." And from British news we get a report on an American group demanding that the broadcasting licenses for FOX News be revoked <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/may/01/rupert-murdoch-fox-licences-us>, after a British finding that FOX owner Rupert Murdoch was "not fit to run a major international company." Mara Liasson, who works for both /FOX News/ and /NPR/ explained why there's little difference this morning on /NPR/, by describing Rudy Giuliani as "the hero of nine-eleven." All we can think of for her to present this exaggeration as "news" is that Giuliani didn't go into hiding as did President Bush. Apparently Liasson sees this as heroic for our alleged leaders. * ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ** ** ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **On Facebook I am Jack Revolutionist, whose Facebook friends include Medea Benjamin, who wrote the following piece. I say that because, unlike the deceptive corporate media we try to be open about relationships here at /LUV News/, and I admire what Medea does in bringing attention to the most extreme fascism our alleged "representative government" practices, with its horrible war crimes and other human rights violations covered up by mass media, who are always in on the scam. When the deceptive John Brennan spoke in Washington a few days ago, the part of his speech that stunned me most as a combat veteran who's seen the consequences of bombing, including the horrible wounds of fellow soldiers, and a great many women and children splattered across the fields of Vietnam 46 years ago still burning in my memories, was when Brennan said that drone bombing was "ethical." My immediate thought was "I hope his fat ass encounters an ethical drone and he survives to see how ethical the shrapnel can be." We have sunk to a new low when scumbags like Brennan are allowed to run loose in our streets after justifying horror that has resulted in the deaths and serious wounding of thousands of innocents. Not that Brennan is alone, the rest of the government leadership is as deeply in denial, so as not to acknowledge the thousands of innocents dead in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Libya, Central Africa, the Philippines and so many other places from American weapons over the past decade, all justified by an extremely phony "war on terrorism" responsible for creating terrorists after committing large-scale terrorism itself. The rich and their "defense" corporations are making a killing from the weapons, and putting a fraction of such ill-gotten gains into the political campaigns of President Obama and the other corporate pols running for president and Congress this November in a hopelessly corrupt system. Drone victims are dying for profit, with Pentagon spending dramatically increased since President Bush began the phony war, and not one of the scumbags running our government or spewing propaganda in our mass media, will admit that cold, hard fact. My friend Medea stood up to Brennan, and this is her story --Jack <http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/01-10>** **'Shame on You': Why I Interrupted Obama Counter-Terrorism Adviser John Brennan <http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/01-10> ** ** ** **** **by Medea Benjamin** **** **** **** **Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan spoke at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington DC on April 30 to mark the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. It was the first time a high level member of the Obama Administration spoke at length about the U.S. drone strikes that the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command have been carrying out in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. ** **"President Obama has instructed us to be more open with the American people about these efforts," Brennan explained. ** **** **** **I had just co-organized a Drone Summit over the weekend, where Pakistani lawyer Shahzad Akbar told us heart-wrenching stories about the hundreds of innocent victims of our drone attacks. We saw horrific photos of people whose bodies were blown apart by Hellfire missiles, with only a hand or a slab of flesh remaining. We saw poor children on the receiving end of our attacks---maimed for life, with no legs, no eyes, no future. And for all these innocents, there was no apology, no compensation, not even an acknowledgement of their losses. Nothing. ** **The U.S. government refuses to disclose who has been killed, for what reason, and with what collateral consequences. It deems the entire world a war zone, where it can operate at will, beyond the confines of international law. ** **So there I was at the Wilson Center, listening to Brennan describe our policies as ethical, "wise," and in compliance with international law. He spoke as if the only people we kill with our drone strikes are militants bent on killing Americans. "It is unfortunate that to save innocent lives we are sometimes obliged to take lives -- the lives of terrorists who seek to murder our fellow citizens." The only mention of taking innocent lives referred to Al Qaeda. "Al Qaeda's killing of innocent civilians, mostly Muslim men, women and children, has badly tarnished its image and appeal in the eyes of Muslims around the world." This is true, but the same must be said of U.S. policies that fuel anti-American sentiments in the eyes of Muslims around the world. ** **So I stood up and in a calm voice, spoke out. ** **"Excuse me, Mr. Brennan, will you speak out about the innocents killed by the United States in our drone strikes? What about the hundreds of innocent people we are killing with drone strikes in the Philippines, in Yemen, in Somalia? I speak out on behalf of those innocent victims. They deserve an apology from you, Mr. Brennan. How many people are you willing to sacrifice? Why are you lying to the American people and not saying how many innocents have been killed?" ** **My heart was racing as a female security guard and then a burly Federal Protection Service policeman started pulling me out, but I kept talking. ** **"I speak out on behalf of Tariq Aziz, a 16-year-old in Pakistan who was killed simply because he wanted to document the drone strikes. I speak out on behalf of Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, a 16-year-old born in Denver, killed in Yemen just because his father was someone we don't like. I speak out on behalf of the Constitution and the rule of law." My parting words as they dragged me out the door were, "I love the rule of law and I love my country. You are making us less safe by killing so many innocent people. Shame on you, John Brennan." ** **I was handcuffed and taken to the basement of the building, where I was questioned about my background and motives. To their credit, it seems the Wilson Center thought it would not be good to have someone arrested for exercising their right to free speech, so I was released. ** **Brennan's speech came the day after another U.S. drone strike in Pakistan, one that killed three alleged militants. After the strike, the Pakistani government voiced its strongest and most public condemnation yet, accusing the United States of violating Pakistani sovereignty, calling the campaign "a total contravention of international law and established norms of interstate relations." Earlier in April the Pakistani Parliament unanimously condemned drone strikes and established a new set of guidelines for rebuilding the country's frayed relationship with the United States, which included the immediate cessation of all drone strikes in Pakistani territory. ** **The attacks in Pakistan, carried out by the CIA, started in 2004. Since then, there have been over 300 strikes. The areas where the strikes take place have been sealed off by the Pakistani security forces, so it has been difficult to get accurate reports about deaths and damages. John Brennan has denied that innocents have even been killed. Speaking in June 2011 about the preceding year, he said "there hasn't been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we've been able to develop." Mr. Brennan later adjusted his statement somewhat, saying, "Fortunately, for more than a year, due to our discretion and precision, the U.S. government has not found credible evidence of collateral deaths resulting from U.S. counterterrorism operations outside of Afghanistan or Iraq." ** **This is just not true. The UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism is the group that keeps the best count of casualties from U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. According to its figures, since 2004, U.S. has killed between about 2,500-3,000 people in Pakistan. Of those, between 479 and 811 were civilians, 174 of them children. ** **Shahzad Akbar, a Pakistani lawyer who has been representing drone victims and who started the group Foundation for Fundamental Rights, disputes even these figures and claims that the vast majority of those killed are ordinary civilians. "I have a problem with this word 'militant.' Most of the victims who are labeled militants might be Taliban sympathizers but they are not involved in any criminal or terrorist acts, and certainly not against the United States," he claimed. He said the Americans often assumes that if someone wears a turban, has a beard and carries a weapon, he is a combatant. "That is a description of all the men in that region of Pakistan. It is part of their culture." Shahzad believes that only those people who the Americans label "high-value targets", which would be less than 200, should be considered militants; all others should be considered civilian victims. ** **While President Obama is gearing up for an election campaign and using his drone-strike killing spree to as a sign of his tough stance on national security, people from across the United States and around the world are organizing to rein in the drones. ** **Gathering in Washington DC on April 28-29, they came up with a new campaign to educate the American public about civilian deaths in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere as a result of the use of drones for illegal killing and to pressure members of Congress, President Obama, federal agencies, and state and local governments to restrict the use of drones for illegal killing and surveillance. The tactics include court challenges, delegations to the affected regions, direct action at U.S. bases from where the drones are operated, student campaigns to divest from companies involved in the production of killer drones and outreach to faith-based communities. ** **If you would like to get involved, make sure to sign up here <http://codepink.salsalabs.com/o/424/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=6057>. ** **** **http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/01-10** **** ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *If you wish to be removed from this list, please let us know* ** *To join the Liberty Underground news service email libertyuv@hotmail.comwith "join" for a subject* ** *You may also join our talk group athttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/ <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/>if you would like to participate* ** *email: libert...@hotmail.com* ** *Tell your friends about /LUV News/ because some people just don't get it* [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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