posted 03-07-2003 02:27 PM            

(YellowTimes.org) – A campaign of deceit, lies, demagoguery, arm-twisting, and bribery is currently being committed by so-called political leaders who are responsible to their people to provide truthful information, but in recent months have refrained from doing so.

There have been thousands upon thousands of lies about Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Islam and the Middle East, lies about the intentions of France, Germany, Russia and anyone who dares raise a voice in protest. Lies about 9-11, about Osama bin Laden, about Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia. Lies in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Lies to justify a war, false hope for peace to justify a war, crocodile tears for Iraqi civilians. All to justify war.

In his prime time news conference, U.S. President George Bush lied to the American people, and no one questioned him. He systematically, strategically, and surreptitiously conjured up the painful emotions associated with 9-11 to justify a war on Iraq. The bottom line: We were hit in 9-11; now we have to hit back.

He continuously made the connection between Iraq and 9-11, so that when Americans remember 9-11, they think Iraq. And the poll figures supporting the Bush war will jump.

Never mind no intelligence outfit in the world has been able to conjure up even a paragraph of evidence linking the two. Never mind that bin Laden has called Saddam an infidel and an inconsequential figure.

Some six to seven thousand innocent Afghan civilians were not enough last year. Now, there is a hunger for Iraqi blood.

It baffles the mind that the real reasons for invading Iraq are not imagined by mainstream media nor by the unwittingly complicit American public. Does no one bother to ask why some things are never mentioned? Why, we are talking about Israel, of course!

Does no one bother to ask why White House officials have said Iraq is only the beginning and that Iran, Syria, and Libya will follow? Does no one bother to ponder that these are precisely the countries that refuse to make peace with Israel unless the inalienable rights of the Palestinians are first recognized and Israel withdraws from the West Bank? Does no one bother to ask who Israel's greatest threat is in a conventional war? And by an incredible coincidence Iraq is linked with al-Qaida and every other ramshackle terrorist organization.

Anything to justify a war.

The American public is not informed that one of the reasons for going after Iraq is Israeli security, and to scare other "non-compliants" into making hasty concessions to Israel.

"Oh, but Sad Damn has weapons of mass destruction which he has used against his own people and is preparing to use against us. Why else would he have them if not to attack the U.S.?" say U.S. politicians.

Either these politicians are incredibly naive, have no knowledge of world politics except within their caucus, or are purposefully misleading the American public. The fact that Iraq is situated in a highly volatile, highly unstable, and highly hostile neighborhood is not mentioned. The fact that Turkey wants a chunk of northern Iraq, and Iran wants a chunk of southern Iraq, is not mentioned. The fact that Israel is the biggest threat to Iraq is not mentioned. Nor that Israel can hit Iraq whenever it wants to like they have in the past.. The fact that the best deterrent to an attack from your enemies is a powerful military is not mentioned. Oh yes, it is okay for the U.S. to beef up its military but for others to maintain they need their military to thwart hostiles -- nope, that's a no no.

We know he has weapons of mass destruction, stockpiles of this and that, they repeat over and over. Fine, Senator, tell us where they are. No can do, that's a matter of national security. Okay, Senator, how about lending the UNMOVIC inspectors a hand and identifying those areas. Sure, sure we will help the inspectors, wink, wink.

Too bad the American public does not get to hear that the inspectors have called U.S. "intelligence" on Iraq, "garbage, garbage, garbage." UNMOVIC members have been frustrated with the erroneous and misleading information U.S. "intelligence" has provided.

Iraq, however, fesses up to having the al-Samoud missile program and destroys nearly 25 percent of those missiles. Oh, now we have you Sad Damn, say the U.S. Senators. He has weapons of mass destruction; he has been lying and now he is caught with his pants down. Uhm, Senator, those are conventional missiles that have exceeded their range by 23 miles in 17 out of 40 tests. No, gosh darn it, they are WMDs. Sad Damn is lying. Let's roll!

No wonder the French and other more reputable European nations have refused to budge on their positions against a war.

Them damn French, we liberated their butts in WWII, they would all be speaking German now! They only want their oil interests in Iraq secured. But Senator, isn't Iraq's number one client the U.S.? Isn't it true that in the past 2 years, the U.S. imported through third parties 70 percent of Iraq's oil output?

No answer. The American public is not told that securing U.S. oil interests is another reason for going into Iraq.

Europe is with us, we are told. Yes, Senator, but which Europe. Why, free New Europe! Senator, do you mean by New Europe the former Soviet satellites who are begging to enter NATO? Do you mean the New European countries like Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Bulgaria, Hungary and so on, who know that a U.S. veto could prevent them from entering NATO and enjoying cooperative security? Is that the New Europe you mean, the easily intimidated and threatened?

No answer. This aspect of Europe is not revealed to the American public.

We will liberate the people of Iraq, we are told in a manner that insults integrity. Does no one remember the promise in 1990, when Bush Sr. sought to convince the American public that he would bring democracy to a liberated Kuwait? Thirteen years on, women are barred from gaining equal representation in parliament; the Al Sabah family rules with an iron hand; every bastard child of the Al Sabah is in every ministry, every government office. There are no elections in Kuwait. Saddam enters Kuwait, Al Sabah escape; Saddam is ejected from Kuwait, Al Sabah is reinstated. No one elected him. No referendum. Nothing.

Some democratic promise. The American public is not told this little piece of information.

Remember that small place called Palestine? Where 87 Palestinians and 17 Israelis have been killed since February? Where Palestinian firefighters putting out a fire were shelled by Israeli tanks? Eleven Palestinians, among them 2 firefighters and several civilians, were killed.

In the U.S., a firefighter is a hero. In Palestine, just another Arab terrorist.

The sensitive American viewer is spared that carnage. No reporting of Palestinian deaths. After all, they are just another bunch of dead Arabs, right?

[Firas Al-Atraqchi, B.Sc (Physics), M.A. (Journalism and Communications), is a Canadian journalist with eleven years of experience covering Middle East issues, oil and gas markets, and the telecom industry.]

Firas Al-Atraqchi encourages your comments: fatraqchi@YellowTimes.org

posted 03-07-2003 05:41 PM            

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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31363

WHISTLEBLOWER MAGAZINE
Report: 12-year-old Palestinian boy's martyrdom 'staged'
French media complicit in perpetuating 'myth' of Mohammed al-Dura

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Posted: March 5, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

The "martyrdom" death of 12-year-old Palestinian Mohammed al-Dura at the hands of Israeli soldiers – which received widespread international news coverage and spurred on the current intifada, inspiring countless "suicide bombers" to attack Israel – was actually a "staged" piece of street theater, according to an in-depth report in the current issue of WND's monthly magazine, Whistleblower.

The entire world was transfixed as news broadcasts played the sensational video footage of the 12-year-old Palestinian boy and his father, pinned down in crossfire between Arab snipers and Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza's remote Netzarim junction on Sept. 30, 2000. The image of the boy crouching in terror behind his father, both of them struggling in vain to protect themselves from Israeli gunfire, only to be shot – the boy apparently dying in his father's arms – became immortalized in posters that were later plastered up and down the streets of the West Bank and Gaza.

Although the Israeli military initially assumed responsibility for the incident, it soon became apparent that the IDF could not have shot the boy, due to a large barrier between the Israeli military outpost across the remote junction and the location of the boy and his father.

Now, a just-completed, long-term journalistic investigation conducted in France concludes that the Mohammed al-Dura affair was actually a piece of Palestinian theater – similar to the dramatic Palestinian funeral processions last April after the Israeli incursion into the Jenin refugee camp. During that public spectacle, a martyred "corpse" twice fell off the stretcher, only to hop back up and retake his place in the procession. The Palestinians had claimed 3,000 deaths in Jenin – the actual toll was 52.

The groundbreaking investigation and its conclusions are spelled out in "Contre-expertise d’une mise en scène" published by Éditions Raphaël, and translated into English for Whistleblower by Nidra Poller. In the book, Gérard Huber, a psychoanalyst and permanent Paris correspondent of the Israel-based Metula News Agency, reports on the investigation conducted by a team of journalists, including Huber and Stéphane Juffa, Metula's editor in chief.

"What really happened at Netzarim junction?" asks Huber. "One thing is certain: Given the position of the protagonists during the firefight it is impossible that the child was hit by Israeli bullets. Mohammed al-Dura was not killed by Israelis. And the bigger question remains: Was Mohammed really killed?"

Street theater

Whistleblower cites stunning reports of Palestinians playing to the camera, including Israeli commentator Amnon Lord's account of the larger scene at Netzarim Junction when al-Dura was supposedly shot to death. He describes "incongruous battle scenes complete with wounded combatants and screeching ambulances played out in front of an audience of laughing onlookers, while makeshift movie directors do retakes of botched scenes."

Palestinian journalist Sami El Soudi echoes Lord's observation, who discloses that "Almost all Palestinian directors take part more or less voluntarily in these war commissions, under the official pretext that we should use all possible means, including trickery and fabulation, to fight against the tanks and airplanes the enemy has and we don’t. … Our official press reported 300 wounded and dead at Netzarim junction the day when Mohammed was supposedly killed. Most of the cameramen there were Palestinians. … They willingly took part in the masquerade, filming fictional scenes, believing they were doing it out of patriotism. When a scene was well done the onlookers laughed and applauded."

"It is incredible," says Huber, "how many people were calmly filming the battle of Netzarim on September 30th, 2000. Not only professionals – some of them standing no more than ten meters away from the al-Dura incident – but amateurs as well.

"The rushes [video clips] are full of surprising incongruities: Children smile as ambulances go by. A 'wounded' Palestinian collapses and two seconds later an ambulance pulls up to take him to the hospital. It looks as if the driver had been cued in, knew in advance where the Palestinian was going to fall, or was waiting in the upper right hand corner just out of the photographic field ready to zoom in on signal (there is a scene like this in the France 2 report.)

"In another rush we are startled to hear a Palestinian shouting: 'It's a flop! We have to do the whole thing over again!'"

The French close ranks

Even more disconcerting, says the Whistleblower report, is the fact that France 2, the news organization that broke the story of Mohammed al-Dura's supposed "martyrdom" at the hands of Israeli soldiers, adamantly refuses to release all the raw footage taken by its Palestinian cameraman. For instance, journalist Charles Enderlin, who narrated the original story of the shooting, claims his employer, France 2, holds onto images of the child’s death throes – which he says he took out of his report for ethical reasons – because they were just too terrible to view.

To this day, says Huber, it remains unproven whether Mohammed al-Dura is dead or alive.

Meanwhile, every French television station to this day refuses to broadcast a film by German director Esther Schapira, titled "Three Bullets and a Child: Who Killed the Young Mohammed al-Dura?" Nominated for best TV documentary in Germany, it also concludes Israelis did not kill the boy. Although she understands why the Palestinians are not interested in further investigation, Schapira, a staff filmmaker for German public television, wonders why the West should be so resistant to a solid, impartial investigation.

And French author and Whistleblower translator Nidra Poller asks some probing questions about the French media's behavior:

"Of course the Palestinians won't allow any investigation on the evidence they hold," Poller tells Whistleblower. "However, France 2 is not the Palestinians. It is a public service TV station in a democratic country. And Huber makes a convincing case for the collusion of France 2 in this stunt.

"How is it possible that France 2 refuses to cooperate with the investigation? If they have nothing to hide, wouldn't it be to their interest to come forth, even partially? Would the American media sit back and allow this kind of enormous question to remain in the box? If CNN cheats, does Fox News back them up? Well, that's what happens in France."

"The truth," says Huber in the Whistleblower report, "is, first of all, that the child shown on the screen is not dead. He plays dead."

But what about Mohammed al-Dura's funeral?

"The badly wounded corpse of a child was shown by doctors at the Shifa hospital in Gaza," says Huber. "[That] child was dead, but he is not the child seen in the famous TV newscast."

The sensational 5,000-word report by WND Managing Editor David Kupelian, titled "Mohammed al-Dura martyrdom a media myth?" is published in the March edition of Whistleblower.

Subscribe to Whistleblower, starting with the March issue, "MIDEAST REVOLUTION," including the exclusive report, "Mohammed al-Dura martyrdom a media myth?"