BBC Blackout on Gaza

The London Daily News has learned there is an informal news blackout at BBC Radio over the mounting public outrage following the Gaza incursion by Israeli troops.

According to sources, radio station phone in's have been screening out any callers wanting to talk about the Israeli air strikes and ground offensives in the Middle East.

The BBC's Have Your Say comment sites are being heavily moderated - its main board 'How can a truce be achieved in Gaza?' has had half of its 4,500 comments rejected on the basis of defamation, incitement to crime and hate, harassment, abuse, threats, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, homophobic or racially offensive language.

On the board 'Are the Israeli strikes on Gaza justified?' Half of the 5,000 comments have also been removed for breaking the House Rules stated above.

Radio ban

Producers and presenters have been told to 'stay away' from the subject despite thousands taking to the streets the past few weeks in protest and support of the military action that has seen 600 killed and just recently 40 dead from an air strike at a school.

The self imposed ban has also been reflected in commercial radio with stations like Talksport rarely wanting to broach the subject and many others clearly steering away from on-air debates on the topic. LBC has attempted to tackle the subject with on air debates.

Why?

Radio bosses are keen not to enflame the situation and leave themselves open to accusations of bias toward one side or another - the Beeb, still reeling from the Jonathan Ross affair is in no mood for any controversy.

Also there is a responsible editorial reason behind the scaling back of listener comment.

Today we reported on the increase of anti-Semitism on London’s streets, the attempted torching of a Synagogue, 24 attacks in total and the appearance of sickening graffiti saying "Kill Jews" and "Jews are scumbags" across the city.

By taking the heat out of the debate it cools an already charged atmosphere, though that will have no effect on the most agitated and likely to let their feelings spill out on the street in direct action.

The denying of debate in a public forum such as the BBC could also leave organisations open to accusations of curtailing freedom of expression.

'We'll kill Jews abroad'

Tension is high in London between Jewish areas of Golders Green, North Finchely, Stanmore, Stanford Hill and St John's Wood which are receiving extra "reassurance patrols" by police and Muslim areas of West Ham, Tower Hamlets, Southall, Hackney, Stoke Newington and Camden.

The heightened sensitivity on the airwaves and chat rooms comes in the wake of chilling comments by the Hamas leader that they will kill Jewish children anywhere in the world in revenge for the devastating attacks of the past few weeks. Mahmoud Zahar said:

"They have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine. They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people."

Speaking to the Times, Mark Gardner, of the Jewish charity Community Security Trust, warned Jews:

"When the Hamas leadership calls for revenge attacks on Jewish people, we have to be very, very concerned about what that means."

Violent embassy protests

Meanwhile pro-Palestinian protesters continue to mass outside the Israeli embassy in a demo they vow will last all week despite the plunging temperatures.

A wave of anti-Israeli feeling spread over the city this weekend when large rallies were held across the city culminating in angry exchanges and clashes with the police as they fought to protect the Kensington embassy from attack.

Hundreds of demonstrators ripped up and hurled barriers threw sticks and missiles and attempted to rush the building.

Roads were closed and police in riot gear had to contain the 5,000 strong crowds on Kensington High Street. Protesters burned the Israeli flag and labeled the country a terrorist state.

Police say they are working with Muslims to insure protests pass off peacefully with non confrontational stewarding methods.

Jews under attack across Europe

Jews are on their guard across the continent as young disaffected Muslims bring the conflict in the Middle East to the capitals of Europe.

In Paris on Saturday riot police had to separate the 25,000 pro-Palestinian and 4,000 pro-Israeli demonstrators outside the Israeli embassy.

The National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism in France reported petrol bomb and hate attacks on synagogues, there have been similar reports in Belgium.

Source: thelondondailynews.com

Iran: West uses media to control world

The Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has criticized western powers for using media outlets as a means of ruling the world.

Superpowers use media outlets to dominate other countries, wage wars and spread enmity across the world, said President Ahmadinejad speaking at a Thursday ceremony on the occasion of the national 'Journalists Day'.

He called on Iranian media and journalists to do their best to counter western media propaganda campaigns aimed at downplaying the country's capabilities and achievements.

"Today, we are tasked with presenting the world with accurate image of Iran,” the Iranian president concluded.

August 8, Journalist Day, marks the death anniversary of Iranian journalist Mahmoud Saremi, who was killed along with six Iranian diplomats, when the Iranian consulate in Mazar Sharif, Afghanistan came under Taliban fire in 1998.

Source: Presstv.ir

Meanwhile........

Massive US Naval Armada Heads for Iran

Operation Brimstone ended only one week ago. This was the joint US/UK/French naval war games in the Atlantic Ocean preparing for a naval blockade of Iran and the likely resulting war in the Persian Gulf area.

The build up of naval forces in the Gulf will be one of the largest multi-national naval armadas since the First and Second Gulf Wars. The intent is to create a US/EU naval blockade (which is an Act of War under international law) around Iran (with supporting air and land elements) to prevent the shipment of benzene and certain other refined oil products headed to Iranian ports. Iran has limited domestic oil refining capacity and imports 40% of its benzene. Cutting off benzene and other key products would cripple the Iranian economy.

The large and very advanced nature of the US Naval warships is not only directed at Iran. There is a great fear that Russia and China may oppose the naval and air/land blockade of Iran. If Russian and perhaps Chinese naval warships escort commercial tankers to Iran in violation of the blockade it could be the most dangerous at-sea confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The two-ton elephant in the living room of the neo-con strategy is the advanced biowar (ABW) that Iran, and to a lessor extent Syria, has. This places the motherlands of the major neo-con nations (America, France, the United Kingdom), as well as Israel, in grave danger. When the Soviet Union fell the Iranians hired as many out-of-work former Soviet advanced biowar experts as possible. In the last 15 or so years they have helped to develop a truly world class ABW program utilizing recombination DNA genetic engineering technology to create a large number of man made killer viruses. This form of weapon system does not require high tech military delivery systems. The viruses are sub-microscopic and once seeded in a population use the population itself as vectors. Seeding can be done without notice in shopping malls, churches, and other public places. The only real defense to an advanced global strategic biowar attack is to lock down the population as rapidly as possible and let those infected die off.

Unless the public gets it act together and forces the neo-cons to stop the march to yet another war in the Middle East we are apt to see a truly horrific nightmare unfold in OUR COUNTRIES.

Read the full article here: Thetruthseeker.co.uk

Chief suspect in US anthrax attacks, Bruce Ivins, found dead

A top government scientist who helped to investigate America's deadly 2001 anthrax attacks has killed himself just as he was about to be charged in the case, in an extraordinary and unexpected twist to the biggest criminal investigation in US history.

Bruce Ivins, 62, who had worked for 18 years at the US Government's biodefence research laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland, died from an overdose of painkillers after being told that the Justice Department was about to charge him over the attacks, which brought fresh terror to the US days after the September 11 atrocity.

The death of Dr Ivins may put an end to one of the most baffling criminal investigations of modern times: the posting of weapons-grade anthrax spores in September and October 2001 that killed five people, sickened 17, closed Capitol Hill and crippled the US Postal Service.

Read the rest of the article here: Timesonline.co.uk

Yet again the good old BBC step up their propaganda effort and REFUSE to say why Bruce Ivins was being charged. This is the exact text on the BBC webpage.

"A top US scientist suspected of anthrax attacks in 2001 has apparently killed himself just as he was about to be charged, a newspaper reported"

Charged of what BBC???? An Anthrax attack, never! are you certain members of Al CIA da are not responsible...of course not, they do not even exist!

News.bbc.co.uk

Blogger arrests hit record high

Freedom of speech springs to mind! Trust our favourite propaganda network to be distributing this article in the hope of creating yet more fear amongst society. BBC - it's NOT working.

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a report.

Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report.

In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed.

More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.

Jail sentence

Citizens have faced arrest and jail for blogging about many different topics, said the World Information Access (WIA) report.

Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. They criticised public policies and took political figures to task.

The report said the rising number of arrests was testament to the "growing" political importance of blogging. It noted that arrests tended to increase during times of "political uncertainty", such as around general elections or during large scale protests.

Jail time followed arrest for many bloggers, said the report, which found that the average prison sentence for blogging was 15 months. The longest sentence found by the WIA was eight years.

It acknowledged that the true number of bloggers arrested could be far higher than the total it found as, in some cases, it proved hard to verify if an arrest had taken place and on what grounds.

For instance, it said the Committee to Protect Bloggers has published information about 344 people arrested in Burma - many of whom are thought to be be bloggers - but the WIA could not verify all the reports.

It also noted that many nations, perhaps as many as 30, imposed technological restrictions on what people can do online. In nations such as China this made it difficult for people to use a blog as a means of protest.

The report pointed out that it is not just governments in the Middle East and East Asia that have taken steps against those publishing their opinions online. In the last four years, British, French, Canadian and American bloggers have also been arrested.

The report predicted that the number of blogger arrests in 2008 would exceed the 36 seen in 2007 thanks to greater popularity of blogging as a medium, greater enforcement of net restrictions, and elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the US.

Source: News.bbc.co.uk

Readers may also find this article interesting:

BBC's Pro-Israeli Bias

In its near 86 year history, BBC has a long, unbroken and dubious distinction. Today it's little different from its corporate-run counterparts in America, Britain and throughout the world. In fact, on its tailored for a US BBC America audience, what passes for news matches stride for stride what people here see every day - mind-numbing commercialism, shoddy reporting, pseudo-journalism, celebrity and sports features, and other diverting and distracting non-news that should embarrass correspondents and presenters delivering it. It offends viewers and treats them like mushrooms - well-watered, in the dark, and uninformed about the most important world and national issues affecting their lives and welfare.

Read more here: sjlendman.blogspot.com

Mass Media Propaganda

Below are highly revealing one-paragraph excerpts of key media articles on the role of mass media propaganda in suppressing news of important cover-ups affecting our world. These powerful articles expose media collusion in disseminating government propaganda and keeping government and corporate corruption secret.

Whistle-blower Had to Fight NSA, LA Times to Tell Story:
Whistle-blower AT&T technician Mark Klein says his effort to reveal alleged government surveillance of domestic Internet traffic was blocked not only by U.S. intelligence officials but also by the top editors of the Los Angeles Times.
Blogs.abcnews.com

Buying the War:
Despite profound questions over the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction and the increasing violence in Baghdad, many in the press confirmed the White House's claim that the war was won. How did the mainstream press get it so wrong?
PBS.org

Behind the Eavesdropping Story, a Loud Silence:
My queries concerned the timing of the exclusive Dec. 16 article about President Bush's secret decision in the months after 9/11 to authorize the warrantless eavesdropping on Americans in the United States
NYtimes.com

Bribes offered to scientists:
Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine the UN climate change report.
SMH.com.au/news

Experts Urging Broader Inquiry In Towers' Fall:
Saying that the current investigation into how and why the twin towers fell on Sept. 11 is inadequate, some of the nation's leading structural engineers and fire-safety experts are calling for a new, independent and better-financed inquiry that could produce the kinds of conclusions vital for skyscrapers and future buildings nationwide.
Query.nytimes.com

New UFO Sighting Reported In Stephenville Texas:
"If the military is testing a secret military device, why do they keep doing it here?" she asked me. "If it's not a secret why do they keep scaring the bejesus out of people?" Adding a further wrinkle to this story, Joiner was fired from The Empire-Tribune a week ago.
Blog.washingtonpost.com/offbeat/

Letter to Thomas Kean from Sibel Edmonds:
After [9/11] we, the translators at the FBI's largest and most important translation unit, were told to slow down, even stop, translation of critical information related to terrorist activities.
atimes.com

How the spooks took over the news:
One product among many from a new machinery of propaganda which has been created by the United States and its allies since the terrorist attacks of September 2001. For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception.
Independent.co.uk/news/

The ricin ring that never was:
Yesterday's verdicts on five defendants ... make clear there was no ricin ring. Nor did the "ricin ring" make or have ricin. Moreover, ricin is not a weapon of mass destruction. It is a poison which has only ever been used for one-on-one killings.
Guardian.co.uk

Lifting the Censor's Veil on the Shame of Iraq:
While at work in a headquarters office, he said, he learned that most of the detainees at Abu Ghraib had committed only very minor nonviolent offenses, or no offenses at all.
Query.nytimes.com

US seizes independent media sites:
"The constitution does not permit the government unilaterally to cut off the speech of an independent media outlet, especially without providing a reason or even allowing Indymedia the information necessary to contest the seizure,"
News.bbc.co.uk/

Original Source: Wanttoknow.info/

Lies, damn lies and 'counterknowledge'

"The battle between knowledge and counterknowledge is not just a struggle to protect the public domain from bogus facts. It has profound implications for the safety of the West. And, make no mistake about it: this is a battle we are losing".

Deservedly so Damian Thompson of the Telegraph. The article you have written and published is nothing more than dis-information and more propaganda, you should be ashamed of yourself. I hope the money you have earned writing this article gives you great pleasure!

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

The Truth is a Dangerous Thing

Yes it is. It is often inconvenient; uncomfortable, embarrassing- confining under the wrong circumstances and… dangerous. There are countless examples in history of how the truth interferes with you; ask Galileo, Copernicus and Giordano Bruno.

It’s no different today than it ever was. One of the most amazing things is how people will insist on supporting a lie even when the truth is patently obvious. Quite often the people who support a lie are completely uninformed about the details that compose the lie or the truth of the matter. They just decide something is so because that is what they were told and that’s that. In many cases, when the lie is coming from the authorities; even though it is a known fact that the particular authorities have lied about nearly everything they have said previously, it’s just easier to accept and often safer too.

Another thing about lies is that when they are routinely reported in the various media they take upon themselves the veneer of the plausible. When you factor in government spokespeople and seemingly respectable members of the business and religious worlds along with anyone from anywhere who gets face time in front of you due to a perceived expertise on the matter under discussion- you can find yourself hemmed in on all sides by the sirens singing and unless you are one of the few; those with a thirst for the real, a curious nature that won’t be diverted or an intellect that possesses an objective reasoning capacity it is likely to overwhelm you. If you are such a person, things begin to reveal themselves to you in a way they do not reveal themselves to the majority of personalities under hypnotic control.

It is nearly impossible to convince a hypnotized person of their state because they are, in fact, hypnotized. It’s the same with dreaming and takes place in the same area of the mind. Only suffering seems to have any effect on the dreaming, hypnotized state. Sooner or later, after many traumas and disappointments, something within the person begins to long for a way out. Until the soul becomes thirsty for reality it will go on being the ball in the pinball machine and each life is counted as each ball goes down the chute and another ball comes into play.

Those who are not hypnotized are aware of a divine symmetry in the physical universe. It’s a natural and obvious perception. They also know that everything visible has an invisible source. It’s basic math. It is how physicists finally came to the realization that the universe is thought born. Independent thought is possible… however, the majority of humanity is herded like livestock by the common thoughts of their time; their hungers and hopes, their weaknesses and all of the common drives that hide the true light behind the veil of phenomena.

People want to be safe. Safety without the awareness of what real security consists of is only a temporary fix. It doesn’t matter how big your walls are, how many guards and guns you have. You may command armies but disease, old age and death will find a way in. Watching people go about their lives as if there were some permanence and harmony that will always continue is like being in a mental institution. It can be tough being in an institution when you aren’t actually crazy. You find that you have to swim in the opposite direction of the other fish without drawing attention to yourself.

People do not want to hear the truth. The truth is the enemy of all that they attempt to build for themselves. The truth knows that wealth is often a curse and beauty too. Fame and power lead you into a world very different than you imagined it to be before you set out in pursuit of these states. But the power of the hypnosis is very strong. It seems that most people are just incapable of stepping outside of their subjective state for long enough to look directly at their condition.

This vast shopping mall of a world offers a million products. It promises you everything and delivers none of what it promises aside from temporary self-forgetting. The desire to escape from reflection on the profundity of now is a consuming thing. It is big business. The main business of the world is to make you forget why you are here. That’s enough for most people. If replacing the truth with something closer to the heart’s desire puts a rosy light on the approaching tomb of darkness then, why not? That is something for everyone to ponder, or more likely avoid, at their leisure.

Searching for the truth is like panning for gold in a dangerous stream. Telling the truth is akin to painting a target on your forehead. Why would you tell the truth? Telling the truth goes contrary to the mercantile instincts and contrary to the mercantile game set of the world you walk in. Those who manufacture the illusion of the manifest world are not amused by the things you say which reveal the world to be something else beneath its air-brushed, glossy exterior.

There has been an opportunistic machine, relentlessly at work for 6 years because of an attack that took place on New York City. Observing where certain powerful forces have taken the world since, it should stir the curiosity of anyone possessing any as to how serendipitously fortunate this event was for them. It has justified all manner of violence, repression and lies and effectively divided the country against itself. It has cost the lives of a million Iraqis and displaced millions more. It has justified the ongoing and brutal hammering of The Palestinians. It has resulted in the suspension of many previous freedoms and that goes on apace as I speak. Well, it could be coincidence.

But… when one actually investigates the evidence one finds that there is very little to support the official version and a quantitatively enormous amount of evidence that says something smells bad. If what we had been told was true there would have been no resistance of the sort that occurred when questions arose and there was hard refusal on the part of the government to release key evidence that has yet to be released today. Things just don’t add up; not just a few things but a mountain of things.

If someone knows certain truths, for some reason, they feel compelled to share them. Parents like to pass on important truths to their children. Wanting to share the truth with others seems to be born out of love and compassion for others. What other reason could there be? There’s no money in the truth. The truth is already a currency of its own. Shading and shaping the truth does have money in it, lots of money. You can’t really shade and shape the truth but you can make it appear so.

Caring about the truth is a hard thing. People really don’t want to hear it. They are already afraid of what the truth might be which, in a particular way, indicates that they may well know what the truth is after all.

If you are going to tell the truth- and God help you if you do- you can’t be concerned with the static that ensues and it’s pointless to argue about it. It either is or it isn’t and that will show itself in time as it did in the case of Galileo and many others. It comes down in the end- as does everything- to what you value and hold dear. It speaks to intention and ultimately, to where you end up.

In the New Testament there is made mention of a broad highway and a narrow, seldom used road. On this broad highway are all of the souls who pursue the shiny things and the lies which they hope will come true. On the narrow path are those few souls engaged in the truth’s pursuit of itself. It’s been going on since the beginning and it goes on today the same as it ever did. The forces massed against the truth and the methods of aggression against those who would tell it are the same as ever. The saving grace within the intensity of struggle for the light of the truth is that the truth is a living thing and it endures and will endure long after the world that opposes it is gone.

The truth is a dangerous thing but not nearly as dangerous as the alternatives.

....I wonder what OJ Simpson is up to today... and are Brad and Angelina really headed toward Splitsville?!?

Source: Zippittydodah.blogspot.com