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Let’s turn the ‘civil war’ into a media war |
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What you can do
I must say that the independent media have done a damn good job in exposing the sham that is the 'civil war' in Iraq. However, before we get all righteous, the corporate/state media still need to be called to task over their distorted and misleading coverage, replete with every stereotype; ethnic, religious, 'tribal', et al, as well their predictable 'I told you so' bullshit and predictions of doom. Yet the reality is, that if the agent provocateurs are allowed to continue in their murderous assault on the good people of Iraq on behalf of their USUK paymasters, the situation could well reach the proverbial 'point of no return'. Therefore, I suggest readers take it upon themselves to bombard the MSM with stories, links, eyewitness accounts etc of what really went down at the Askariyah shrine in Samarra. How much longer are we to stand by, full of anger and outrage at the propaganda campaign being waged on our consciousness? To this end, I have compiled a list of links to accounts and I have also included a list of email addresses to which you can forward or write your own objections at the end of the newsletter. It’s all in the timing 25/2/06 Many commentators on the left have pointed to the 'fortuitous' timing of the blast coming as it did hot on the heels of the videos of the beatings of Iraqi youth by British troops and more horrific images of the treatment of detainees in Abu Ghraib by US forces. As night follows day, every time there is a 'PR disaster' for the occupiers, some diversion is engineered to divert us from the crisis that has become the 'liberation' of Iraq. Undoubtedly, the bombing bears all the hallmarks of a so-called black-ops, after all the entire area surrounding the mosque was supposedly under occupation control in a 'free-fire' zone, so how come a handful of men were able to penetrate a cordon of heavily armed occupation forces? Predicably, Western pundits are now predicting all-out 'civil war' between Sunni and Shiite but then they started doing that back in 2003, shortly after the disastrous invasion and occupation. But what does the puppet government stand to gain from triggering a civil war? Nothing: everything points to Western, that is, USUK involvement in an effort to Balkanise the country, which as many have pointed out, has been intrinsic to USUK strategic doctrine in Iraq for the past six years.
Divide and rule, a tactic that has been used for centuries especially by British colonialism and every act of the occupiers since March 2003 points to this as the central strategy of the USUK.
Most tellingly, the desecration of the mosque has had the opposite effect than the one intended; far from dividing Sunni and Shiite, it has in fact united them, once more revealing just how out of touch the occupiers are with the Iraqi people. The Western media has, of course, played its part in spreading the myth of 'sectarian violence' with gory headlines such as the one in the Independent on 23/2/06, "The day hell was unleashed". The body of story bylined to Patrick Cockburn, contained the usual deceits, with talk of a "lethal step closer to disintegration and civil war" followed by similar omens that fit the Western pre-conceptions of a society that according to Cockburn "has always been riven by sectarian divisions." An amazingly inaccurate statement when you consider that modern Iraq was created by British colonialism in the 1920s and set up along predictable 'ethnic and religious' lines. And of course, the piece contains the predictable statements about the role of Iran in fomenting the strife with reference to meddling by the Iranian government, who are, according to Cockburn (and/or his sub-editor) the lynchpin of any Shia reaction to the bombing. Great minds think alike eh. Entirely missing from the article is any reference to the presence of occupation forces as the primary cause of the breakdown of order from day one of the occupation. But it's in the Independent's editorial where the ideological methodology that binds the corporate media to the capitalist state is spelled out for us,
And if this statement is not enough, even hardened unpackers of the capitalist press to swallow, the following makes even more outrageous reading
Which planet do the editors of the Independent live on I wonder? The same editorial, in its usual sanctimonious way continues
So as far as the Independent is concerned, the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis is merely the result of recklessness and bad management style! See also: Protests Planned Against Media War Coverage Eyewitness Accounts Witness 1: I live in a district very near to the mosque and I will tell you exactly what I saw hours before the bombing. There is a daily curfew in our city (Samarra) starts from 8,00 in the evening until 6,00 in the morning, in the night before the bombing and just when it’s getting dark there was unusual activities by the ING in the area around the mosque, I heard their cars the whole night until next day in the morning. The Mosque Guards testimony says: Four people with ING uniforms blind folded them and set the bombs. The witness continues, so ask I you how could the terrorists enter the area which is usually surrounded by the ING and enter the mosque then runway without being got by the police?. www.iraqirabita.org/index.php?do=article&id=3065 Witness 2: Witness 2 gives more detailed information and the Americans connection to the events before the bombing, so I made it as timeline of the events. My name is Muhammad Al-Samarrai, I own an internet-cafe near the mosque, I sleep in my shop because I am worry about my computers from thieves. 8,30 (evening) joint forces of Iraqi ING and Americans asked me to stay in the shop and don’t leave the area. 9,00 (evening) they left the area. 11,00 (evening) they came back and started to patrol the area until the morning. 6,00 (next day morning) ING leave the area . 6,30 Americans leave the area . 6,40 first explosion. 6,41 second explosion. He confirmed again that the curfew starts at 8,00 (evening) until next day 6,00 (morning), INGs and the Americans will surround and patrol the city all that time. www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=20924&s2=24 Minister Says Iraq Shrine Bombing Was Specialist Job: 2/24/2006 Agence France Presse, BAGHDAD The bombing of a revered Shiite shrine which sparked a wave of violence in Iraq was the work of specialists, Construction Minister Jassem Mohammed Jaafar said Friday, adding that the placing of the explosives must have taken at least 12 hours. “According to initial reports, the bombing was technically well conceived and could only have been carried out by specialists,” the minister told Iraqia state television. Jaafar, who toured the devastated thousand-year-old shrine on Thursday a day after the bombing which brought down its golden dome, said “holes were dug into the mausoleum’s four main pillars and packed with explosives.” “Then the charges were connected together and linked to another charge placed just under the dome. The wires were then linked to a detonator which was triggered at a distance,” the minister added. To drill into the pillars would have taken at least four hours per pillar, he also estimated. Some links to articles Exit without a strategy Sami Ramadani 24/2/06 Occupation and Sectarianism by Ghali Hassan 23/2/06 Civil War in Iraq: Who are the Winners and Who are the Losers by Yamin Zakaria 23/2/06 Mosque Outrage Also Brings Solidarity Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed 25/2/06 Update: Samarra Catastrophe Salam Adil CNN Pundit: Mosque Bombing Shows Bush Strategy Is Working In Iraq The Caricatures in Middle East Politics James Petras and Robin Eastman-Abaya – peacepalestine Iraq shrine bombing was specialist job: minister AFP Samarra Felicity Arbuthnot The neo-con plan for Iraq civil war Is western media complicit in the murder of Iraqis? Truth About Iraqis Mission Accomplished in Iraq! an iraqi tear This is by now means a complete list, I know there are some that I've missed, so all who have contributed and who are not included here, apologies all round. Some Media Contacts Helen Boaden Write to Paul Reynolds Write to Jeremy Bowen Nicholas Witchell Mary Riddell Write to Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger Write to the Guardian’s Timothy Garton Ash Write to the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee Write to the Times’ Gerard Baker Write to Simon Kelner, editor of the Independent: Write to Leonard Doyle, foreign editor of the Independent: Write to Bruce Anderson |
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