Action Alert: Support George Monbiot. Write to the Guardian.

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have” – James Baldwin

"To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." - Judgment of the International Military Tribunal for the Trial of German Major War Criminals - Nuremberg, Germany 1946

Last Sunday at the Hay festival activist and journalist George Monbiot called for a citizen's arrest of war criminal John Bolton, one of the architects of the war of aggression against Iraq, the Nuremberg’s supreme international crime. The Guardian reported it and Monbiot wrote, always on the Guardian, about it.

It’s unfortunate that the Guardian’s readers had to count on Michael White to know the rest of the story.

Michael White, assistant editor of the Guardian and its political editor from 1990-2006, wrote two pieces on this story; Campaigner fails to arrest ex-Bush official over 'war crimes', Michael White, the Guardian, Wednesday, May 28, 2008 - and - What I really think about John Bolton, Michael White, the Guardian, Thursday, May 29, 2008

In both pieces Michael White fails to understand – and therefore to explain it to the Guardian’s readers - the illegality of the war of aggression against Iraq, the Nuremberg’s supreme international crime.

It seems White doesn’t understand that Monbiot’s action was grounded on international law and – to use Monbiot’s words – he reinforces that “process of normalisation” thanks to which a major war criminal “will be coming here - to Hay-on-Wye, the epicentre of polite society - to promote his book and sell some copies.” In other words, normalizing the unthinkable.

Among serious international law experts there are no doubts about the illegality of the war of aggression against Iraq. "This intervention is illegal” denounced former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 2003. “I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN charter from our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal", condemned then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2004

It’s really unfortunate Michael White doesn’t get it. Even more unfortunate because it’s not the first time White seems not to understand complex matters but decides nevertheless to offer his opinion to the Guardian’s readers.

In October 2006 he wrote, always on the Guardian:

“I have two problems. Firstly, the figures offered by the study range from 392,976 to 942,636, so the 655,000 estimate splits the difference. This is both strikingly imprecise (not necessarily avoidable), and also at variance with other estimates, both governmental and more disinterested. The Observer's Peter Beaumont, who explained the horrifying murder campaign against professional Iraqi women on Sunday, sets out the numbers in today's Guardian: 98,000 (US researchers), 128,000 (Iraqi NGOs).

Either way, that is appalling and the manner of the US-UK occupation, notably the abolition of internal security without adequate ground forces to sustain law and order against criminal and ''resistance'' forces, has much to answer for: one third, according to the Lancet. One goal of the invasion was to end the loss of Iraqi civilian life - 500,000 on some estimates - caused by the UN sanctions imposed to stop Saddam Hussein troubling his neighbours again.

My second problem arises from Lancet editor, Richard Horton's, commentary in today's Guardian. It transpires that he has views on Iraq, the invasion of 2003 and what will put things right: the withdrawal of US and other coalition forces. This is a leap of logic which seems quite brave. But it would allow a lot of people to sit back and wash their hands of what happens next. When you can't blame the Yanks it's less fun.” [A serious note of caution. I have two problems with the Lancet's headline-grabbing estimates of Iraqi casualties, Michael White, the Guardian, October 12, 2006]

In March 2008 he wrote, always on the Guardian:

“It will not be enough to spare the paper attacks from people for whom the bad news cannot be bad enough. When I queried the Lancet/Johns Hopkins estimate of a likely 600,000 dead in 2006, as being improbably out of line with all other data, I got a kicking. Others still share my view. I stand by it.” [Invasion was the least worst option. One way or another most of us got it wrong about Iraq, Michael White, the Guardian, March 20, 2008]

Yet in March 2008 he confessed me a third problem he didn’t dare to tell the Guardian’s readers:

“a complex subject which arouses strong emotions as well as difficult technical arguments about data and methodology which few of us (certainly not me) can claim to understand.”

Some common sense would have suggested Michael White to look for some experts’ advice before writing an uninformed comment for the Guardian’s readers. It seems his writings on the legality of the Iraq war, the Nuremberg’s supreme international crime, and on Monbiot’s action about Bolton, lacked the same common sense.

It’s unfortunate the Guardian’s readers are offered such a bad level of journalism in such paramount issues.

The UNESCO’s International Principles of Professional Ethics in Journalism also seem to support George Monbiot:

Principal VIII: Respect for Universal Values and Diversity of Cultures

A true journalist stands for the universal values of humanism, above all peace, democracy, human rights, social progress and national liberation, while respecting the distinctive character, value and dignity of each culture, as well as the right of each people freely to choose and develop its political, social, economic and cultural systems. Thus the journalist participates actively in the social transformation towards democrative betterment of society and contributes through dialogue to a climate of confidence in international relations conducive to peace and justice everywhere, to d?tente, disarmament and national development. It belongs to the ethics of the profession that they journalist be aware of relevant provisions contained in international conventions, declarations and resolutions.

Principle IX: Elimination of War and Other Great Evils Confronting Humanity

The ethical commitment to the universal values of humanism calls for the journalist to abstain from any justification for, or incitement to, wars of aggression, and the arms race, especially in nuclear weapons, and all other forms of violence, hatred or discrimination, especially racialism and apartheid, oppression by tyrannical regimes, colonialism and neo-colonialism, as well as other great evils which afflict humanity, such as poverty, malnutrition and diseases. By so doing, the journalist can help eliminate ignorance and misunderstanding among peoples, make nationals of a country sensitive to the needs and desires of others, ensure the respect for the rights and dignity of all nations, all peoples and all individuals without distinction of race, sex, language, nationality, religion or philosophical conviction.

In times when the state-corporate media and many of its professional journalists and editors are actively aiding and abetting in war crimes and crimes against humanity and contribute to normalize the unthinkable, George Monbiot deserves all the support we can offer him.

Please write to:

Michael White - Assistant editor of the Guardian and its political editor from 1990-2006
michael.white@guardian.co.uk

Siobhain Butterworth – Guardian’s reader editor
siobhain.butterworth@guardian.co.uk
reader@guardian.co.uk

George Monbiot
g.monbiot@zetnet.co.uk


Please maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.

An Immemorial Day for the progressive media

Four among the most prestigious US progressive media outlets (CommonDreams, CounterPunch, TruthOut and ZNet) published on Memorial Day (26-5-’08) an article titled “War Immemorial Day – No Peace for Militarized U.S.” penned by Bill Quigley.

One paragraph in particular got my attention:

2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. British medical journal Lancet estimates over 90,000 civilian deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates over 84,000 civilians killed.

On May 27, I spent much time writing emails to the article’s author and to the editors of CommonDreams, CounterPunch, TruthOut and ZNet as well as to other writers, intellectuals and activists.

You may read the full correspondence on my blog, Giant mistakes on CounterPunch AND CommonDreams AND TruthOut AND ZNet RE: Iraq war death toll, Lancet and IBC

Following are the changes those progressive media made (or didn’t make) to the original paragraph.

ORIGINAL PARAGRAPH: "2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. British medical journal Lancet estimates over 90,000 civilian deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates over 84,000 civilians killed."

CommonDreams' correction: “2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. British medical journal Lancet estimates over 655,000 civilian deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates over 84,000 civilians killed.”

CounterPunch's correction: “2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. Civilian deaths? Researchers from Johns Hopkins, using the most orthodox and conservative sampling methodology, reported in the Lancet, after extensive peer review, their estimate of a post-invasion civilian death toll of about 655,000 by the end of 2006.”

TruthOut didn’t issue any correction but deleted the paragraph in question; no explanation was given to the readers.

ZNet didn’t issue any correction (as yet?) and ZNet’s readers can still read: “2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. British medical journal Lancet estimates over 90,000 civilian deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates over 84,000 civilians killed.” (see update)

Waiting for ZNet to develop a resistance strategy (hopefully ZNet’s Michael Albert won’t tell anyone to call me “contemptable” again – as he did a few months ago in a similar situation) it’s important to consider the following:

1) The article in question, in its original edition, has been posted, sent and forwarded from those four outlets all through the internet to several websites, mailing lists, forums and so on. The correction issued by CounterPunch and CommonDreams and the unusual deletion made by TruthOut won’t touch those who already had read the article on these three outlets, even less those who are still reading it around the internet.

2) ZNet distinguished itself - once again! - for its peculiar fashion to edit a publication; its readers are - once again! - deceived by an article ZNet published but ZNet’s editors don’t think to issue a simple correction: probably too bourgeois for the Z world? (see update)

3) Bill Quigley’s article appeared simultaneously in some among the most prestigious US left progressive media. One wonders why this article could reach such a vast readership. One wonders why the author mentioned, next to Iraq Body Count, the Lancet study published in 2004 instead of the one published in 2006. One wonders why all those left progressive media could miss altogether such giant mistakes. One wonders why ZNet decided to not issue any correction (See update). One wonders…

UPDATE: Today, at 9:40 pm London Time - ZNet published the following correction:

2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. Civilian deaths? Researchers from Johns Hopkins, using the most orthodox and conservative sampling methodology, reported in the Lancet, after extensive peer review, their estimate of a post-invasion civilian death toll of about 655,000 by the end of 2006.

Let’s welcome the correction, of course. Better late than never!

Giant mistakes on CounterPunch AND CommonDreams AND TruthOut AND ZNet RE: Iraq war death toll, Lancet and IBC

Dear Bill Quigley,

Thanks for your article “War Immemorial Day” published on CounterPunch on 26 may 2008. You write:

2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. British medical journal Lancet estimates over 90,000 civilian deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates over 84,000 civilians killed.

I’d like to bring to your attention two grave errors and kindly ask you to correct them.

The first, giant mistake is that the 2006 Lancet study estimated more than 650,000 deaths as a result of the US illegal war of aggression of Iraq. That was two years ago. [Then there was a ORB poll that estimated more than a million deaths.]

The second mistake is that the IBC figures are NOT estimates but a simple count based mostly on Western media reports.

Please, will you issue a correction as soon as possible and ask CounterPunch to publish it. Here below you find more info on this important matter.

Thank you for your time.

Best wishes,
Gabriele Zamparini
London
http://thecatsdream.com

Useful resources:

Iraq: the Human Cost

Updated Iraq Survey Affirms Earlier Mortality Estimates

ORB Update on Iraqi Casualty Data

Answers to Questions About Iraq Mortality Surveys

Counting Iraqi Casualties -- and a Media Controversy

What is the real death toll in Iraq?

Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'

***

UPDATE

Dear Bill Quigley,

I have now seen that your article is also published on CommonDreams.

Please, I urge you once again to issue a proper correction and to ask both CommonDreams and CounterPunch to publish it.

I also kindly ask CommonDreams and CounterPunch to issue a formal correction so to inform their readers about those GIANT mistakes. It’s really appalling to read those GIANT mistakes in progressive media outlets such as CounterPunch and CommonDreams.

Thank you all for your time

Best wishes,
Gabriele Zamparini

***

UPDATE 2: Bill Quigley's reply

Gabriele Zamparini:
Thank you. I will.
Bill Quigley

***

UPDATE 3: REPLY TO BILL QUIGLEY

Dear Bill Quigley,

Thank you for your reply.

I have just seen your article has also been published by TruthOut

I hope TruthOut too, together with CounterPunch and CommonDreams, will issue a proper, formal correction and give it the same space and relevance in their websites as the original article.

This is a very serious, giant mistake and it’s appalling that three well respected, progressive news outlets could let it reach their readerships.

I look forward to reading the correction on TruthOut, CounterPunch and CommonDreams (anywhere else?)

Thank you for your time

Best wishes,
Gabriele Zamparini

***

UPDATE 4: Bill Quigley's reply

Dear Gabriele Zamparini:
I have alerted the outlets. Counterpunch will make the correction this afternoon. The others are in process. This is my error and I appreciate you bringing it to my attention.
Bill Quigley

***

UPDATE 5: REPLY TO BILL QUIGLEY

Dear Bill Quigley,

Thank you again for your reply.

After CounterPunch, CommonDreams and TruthOut, I have now noticed that your article is on ZNet as well.

It seems ZNet has not learned yet to report correctly on this important matter and it’s still allowing this kind of mistakes to reach its readers.

I wonder why this article has spread so quickly on all these left progressive media outlets. This certainly is the coincidence of the year!

Well done!!!

Kind regards,
Gabriele Zamparini

***

UPDATE 6: REPLY TO BILL QUIGLEY

Dear Bill Quigley,

I have just read now the correction on CommonDreams. It reads: “2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. British medical journal Lancet estimates over 655,000 civilian deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates over 84,000 civilians killed.”

I guess this correction will appear (sooner or later) on all the other prestigious left progressive media?

First of all, those left progressive media’s unlucky readers who happen to have already read your article will NEVER read that correction. Maybe those prestigious left progressive media should have given a more prominent space to this correction and be professional enough to assume their own responsibility

Also, this is NOT an acceptable correction, because:

1) you write “2003 to present” and then you continue, “British medical journal Lancet estimates over 655,000 civilian deaths”. That Lancet’s was published in 2006. Two years ago. That is NOT “present” exactly.

2) you write “Iraq Body Count estimates”. Iraq Body Count doesn’t estimate anything; as I wrote you, the IBC is a simple count.

CounterPunch and ZNet are still giving more time to their readers to be misinformed. Take it easy, as you say in the US.

TruthOut didn’t issue any correction but deleted any reference to Iraq. Considering what I wrote above and in my previous emails, maybe that was the wiser choice!

Kind regards,
Gabriele Zamparini

***

UPDATE 7: REPLY TO BILL QUIGLEY

Dear Bill Quigley,

Just to let you and everyone on this mailing list know the latest:

CounterPunch has finally made a good correction, which is different from (and much better than) the CommonDreams’ I previously reported. The CounterPunch correction is:

“2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. Civilian deaths? Researchers from Johns Hopkins, using the most orthodox and conservative sampling methodology, reported in the Lancet, after extensive peer review, their estimate of a post-invasion civilian death toll of about 655,000 by the end of 2006.”

Credits to CounterPunch even though all those unlucky readers who happen to have already read your article in these days on CounterPunch will never read that correction.

Two days and many e-mails later, Michael Albert’s ZNet seem to be the only left progressive media to have left your original article intact and ZNet’s readers can still read:

“2003 to present Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom. 4082 U.S. military killed. British medical journal Lancet estimates over 90,000 civilian deaths. Iraq Body Count estimates over 84,000 civilians killed.”

The Spirit of Resistance Lives... somewhere else!

Kind regards,
Gabriele Zamparini

P.S. I have just found in my e-mail box a sarcastic e-mail from ZNet’s Paul Street, one of the people included in this little mailing list. Paul authored a good article published a few days ago on ZNet. It’s unfortunate this good article contains the following paragraph:

As veteran journalist and author Jonathan Steele notes in his important book "DEFEAT: Why America and Britain Lost Iraq" (2008), the latest reliable mortality estimates from the leading British medical journal The Lancet "suggest that more people have been killed in Iraq during the occupation than during the 32 years of Saddam [Hussein]'s rule. Even the [research group] Iraq Body Count, which uses a statistically more conservative methodology and tabulates deaths confirmed by at least two sources," Steele notes, "produces a death toll of civilians killed by violence that averages around 16,000 annually over the first four years of the occupation. The annual rate of killing exceeds Saddam's." (Steele 2006, p. 250).

What’s even more striking is that in a correspondence I had with him a few months ago, Paul agreed that IBC was playing a bad role and he assured me he wouldn’t use IBC numbers again. Private vices and public virtues?

***

READ THE UPDATES HERE

The Most Important Question to Ask About Patrick Cockburn: Is he repeating US and Iraqi Government's propaganda?

Yesterday’s question was: Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government's propaganda?

Today’s question is: Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government's propaganda?

A few weeks ago, in an article titled “The Most Important Questions to Ask About the Trial of Tariq Aziz”, Patrick Cockburn, to describe the assassinated Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, used the following words: Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Stalin and monster, all at once. Even Bush has never dared much!

Mentioning Ali Hassan al-Majid, a former Iraqi Defense Minister of the Republic of Iraq and a general of the Iraqi Army before the supreme international crime, the illegal Anglo-American invasion in 2003, Cockburn writes, “also known as ‘Chemical Ali’”. Of course the propagandized Western audiences, while know nothing about Iraq and its history, surely must have read and heard “Chemical Ali” thousands of times; that was part of the Anglo-American propaganda to invade the country after all. [For a different view on this specific issue, read here]

Some excerpts from Cockburn’s essay:

“Many Iraqis say their lives were safer under Saddam but this does not mean they want him back. They know he ruined their country.”

And now, you readers know as well. Let’s forget the First Gulf War, the Anglo-American imposed UN genocidal embargo and the 2003 supreme international crime, the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq – still going on.

“Will Tariq Aziz be given a fair trial? Iraq is still engulfed in war and no trial will be regarded as fair by all of the population (…) The trials are not fair but then neither was Nuremburg.”

After what happened to Saddam Hussein (and his lawyers) and other members of his government, Cockburn here may win the Pulitzer for reporting from Mars.

“Should the trials be stopped because they inflame hatreds? No.”

Of course not, Patrick! How could possibly “Iraq's new rulers” let you do your job if you wrote anything different?

“How will history judge Saddam and his lieutenants? Saddam Hussein was a monster.”

Of course, “history” never judges anything; the winners do, with the help of the “first rough draft of history", that journalism playing an essential role in modern propaganda. Besides, have you ever heard or read our journalists calling Bush, Blair & Co. “monsters” when in fact they are responsible for unspeakable crimes and sufferance all over the world?

Like the Lernaean Hydra, propaganda has many heads. The problem is, the anti-war movement and the left are no Hercules.

Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government's propaganda?

Today’s question is: Is Patrick Cockburn repeating US and Iraqi Government's propaganda?

"The Iraqi government is increasingly confident that it has the upper-hand over its enemies in both the Shia and Sunni communities. It launched a further operation, called "the Roar of the Lion", against al-Qa'ida in the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, deploying 15,000 troops to seal off the city, and yesterday banned all vehicles from the streets." - Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, 13 May 2008

“Mosul looks like a city of the dead. American and Iraqi troops have launched an attack aimed at crushing the last bastion of al Qaida in Iraq and in doing so have turned the country's northern capital into a ghost town.” - Patrick Cockburn, CounterPunch, May 19, 2008

Cockburn takes for granted that the so-called Mosul operation is "against al-Qa'ida". No question there? No skepticism?

If you’re interested in the topic, you may read the following articles and make up your own mind.

Iraq: Mass detentions in Mosul as troops move into Sadr City
James Cogan,WSWS

Sunni resistance calls for closing ranks against the Mosul campaign
badger, Arablinks

Heavy fight started in Mosul
Roads to Iraq

Mosul operation enters fourth day
Aljazeera.net

Latest news (with an update)
Arablinks

Mosul curfew: Residents speak out their fears
Voices of Iraq

Mosul Offensive Catches Residents Off Guard; Turks Bomb N. Iraq; New Bloc in Parliament?
Juan Cole, Informed Comment

ACTION ALERT: ask the European Parliament to conduct an enquiry into the human cost of the war in Iraq

Dear friends,

After my e-mail exchange with Graham Watson MEP - Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament - Mr. Watson replied again today:

Dear Mr Zamparini,

I write further to my Caseworker James Sully’s holding reply of 8 May regarding events in Iraq.

I have written to the European Parliament’s Chairman of the Foreign Affairs, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski MEP asking for the Committee to conduct an enquiry into the human cost of the war in Iraq.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Watson MEP
Member of the European Parliament for South West England and Gibraltar and
Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe in the European Parliament

I'm really grateful to Graham Watson for pursuing this important matter and I think we should keep some pressure on our representatives at the European Parliament now.

PLEASE, ask the European Parliament to conduct an enquiry into the human cost of the war in Iraq:

Write to the European Parliament’s Chairman of the Foreign Affairs, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski MEP asking for the Committee to conduct an enquiry into the human cost of the war in Iraq. His e-mail is:

jacek.saryusz-wolski@europarl.europa.eu

Also write to your representatives to the European Parliament. Find their contact info here

Please, maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone. Also, please help circulate this action alert. Thank you!

Gabriele Zamparini

UPDATED - Google: Kiss Freedom Goodbye

Google's censorship against Uruknet.info [see below, Google: Kiss Freedom Goodbye] and other anti-Zionist blogs and websites may better be understood by reading the following:

1) Israel News Agency Creates Israel 60 Birthday Website Resource Center

"In addition to illustrating the latest news and events listed on this Israel 60 mother of all blogs, we are optimizing this news and event blog as we do all news and feature content on the Israel News Agency. The Israel 60 Birthday Website will combat Palestine, Iran, Nazi and Syria sites which have started to attack Israel's 60th birthday by enjoying a stronger search engine optimization (SEO) marketing and public relations ranking on Google and appearing throughout the Net using all of the tools of Web 2.0."

(...)

A long list of celebrities will be coming to Israel for the Israel 60th birthday anniversary celebrations. They include: film director Steven Spielberg, US President George W. Bush, former USSR president Mikhail Gorbachev, ex-US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair, Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, French philosopher Bernard-Henri Le'vy, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, former German foreign minister Joscka Fischer, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, News Corporation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, social networking Web site Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

***

2) Facebook, Google founders to attend Jerusalem conference in May
By Guy Grimland, Haaretz Correspondent

Co-founder of internet giant Google, Sergey Brin, will join Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Yahoo president Susan Decker at a presidential panel on technology to be held at the Jerusalem International Convention Center May 13-15.

The convention, which was formed at the initiative of President Shimon Peres, will also be attended by a number of Israeli political, religious and financial leaders, as well as academics and cultural figures.

The panel will discuss issues facing technology in today's age and the future, in particular in regard to how it will affect Israel and the Jewish world.

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair will also take part in the conference, as will French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former prime minister of the Czech Republic Vaclev Havel, Nobel Prize Laureate Eli Wiesel, and Georgia President Michael Saakashvili

***

3) The following article was published by dozens of Zionist websites:

Google’s news and the hate sites by Islamic radicals: such as “uruknet”

Can anyone explain to me how did such a — pro Hamas terror and anti Israel hate — site manage to be bumped at GoogleNews?One of the typical examples of this crazy site’s language and “credibility” is such a title (in 2007) “Israelis enjoy torturing the Palestinians”.

No further explanation is really needed, it is against Fatah, it backs the GENOCIDE party of Hamas all the way as “martyrs” and presents its crimes against humanity — of using its civilians as pawns, especially their kids — as “heroic”. [continues]

***

Now enjoy Google: Kiss Freedom Goodbye

"Looking-glass, looking-glass, on the wall,
Who in this land is the fairest of all?" - Grimm Brothers, Snow White

Once upon a time, in a Land of the Free far-far away…

On April 24, 2008 Google Inc. has stopped (again!) indexing Uruknet.info as a news source.

This is the fourth time Google Inc. discontinues indexing Uruknet; in the past Google Inc. reinstated it following many complaints sent in by Uruknet’s readers. But this time we’re lucky: we may know the exact reason why Google Inc. did it directly from a Google News Help page.

On April 14, 2008 Uruknet posted an article by Malcom Lagauche, the pseudonym used by author and journalist Jeff Archer

The second paragraph of Lagauche-Archer’s article read:

My friend is a Shi’ite Muslim who grew up in Basra and gained his university education in Baghdad. Naturally, our conversation was mostly about current Iraq. Within a minute of our sitting down to chat, he said, "Those fucking Iranians. I never thought they would do this." Then, he told me how he has not made contact with his sister in Baghdad for eight months. He added that his uncle, an Iraqi Air Force pilot during the Iran-Iraq War, was murdered by Shi’ite militia people who were aligned with Iran.

Lagauche-Archer used “Those fucking Iranians” (using the inverted commas) as the title for his piece.

The same day, on April 14, one “Panda Gear” wrote to Google:

I was wizzing through the news and came across this title on news about Iran "Those Fucking Iranians". I find this kind of reporting to be offencive and racist despite the actual quote coming from a source by the reporter. This kind of heading should not be allowed, I care for freedom of speech but I also care for respect amongst all of us. Why has google allowed this to go ahead? and is this the level of reporting we are going to expect if there was a showdown with Iran this summer?

With all the propaganda directed against Iran one can find everywhere, including on Google News, it seems odd this "Panda Gear" complained against Uruknet.info for an article which reports on Iraq and whose title comes directly from an Iraqi testimony. Even odder, Google's reply, which came the following day:

Thanks for pointing this out, Panda Gear -- it should be taken care of now.

Keep in mind that in order to maintain our objectivity, we have an automatic system for crawling and indexing headlines. So if you see something that you think goes against our policy, please let us know! We just launched a nifty new form designed to streamline this process:

http://www.google.com/support/news/bin/request.py?contact_type=report...

Cheers to Panda Gear and others for the report :)

And “taken care of” it was indeed! In other words: first Corporate Amerika launches a war of aggression - the supreme international crime - against Iraq, using those notorious WMD that Iraq didn’t have against the civilian population and killing more than one million of human beings, making five millions more refugee. Now that Iraq is completely annihilated, the same Corporate Amerika censors what Iraq’s citizens say. Welcome to Politically Correctness’ World, much better than Disneyland!

Now, before someone starts to consider the 'pros and cons' of Google Inc.’s behavior – and since Voltaire seems to have been completely forgotten in these times beyond Orwell and Kafka – it may be useful to quote Noam Chomsky:

"If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don’t like. Goebbels was in favor of freedom of speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re in favor of freedom of speech, that means you’re in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise."

I was reminded of this quote by Mary Rizzo, Editor of Peacepalestine, who recently wrote: Censorship and Press Freedom: at home and away

Google, Google on the Wall… Who's The Biggest Censor Of All?

Popcorn and Champagne - The Trial of Tareq Aziz

Getcha popcorn ready! The Green Zone Puppet Theatre in Baghdad is putting on a new show, The Trial of Tareq Aziz.

The charges against the former deputy premier of Iraq – when Iraq was still free and a country – are related to the execution of 42 Baghdad merchants in 1992. At the time Iraq was under the genocidal embargo imposed by the United States and its British vassal through the United Nations.

The New York Times reported on 5 August 1992:

But the final straw came when the Iraqi authorities, facing mounting public anger at rising food prices brought about by the devaluation, arrested some 500 merchants on charges of speculation and profiteering and then executed 42 of them in an effort to force prices lower.

It’s difficult to understand what the responsibilities of a deputy prime minister could be in such a case, but if the bloodthirsty puppets wanted to find the responsible they wouldn’t need to look further than their Washington and London’s puppeteers.

Tareq Aziz has been held hostage by the illegal, foreign Occupation of his country for five years; he’s not been charged, tried or investigated so far. But the new amnesty law states that anyone held for a year without being referred to court must be released. The puppets and the puppeteers can’t allow that to happen to Aziz who not only refused to testify against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but also praised Saddam defiantly when he was called as a witness:

"I had the honour to work with the former regime and with the hero Saddam Hussein. He is the hero behind the unity of Iraq and its sovereignty. This is an honour to me."

In April 1980 Tareq Aziz – then Foreign and Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq– survived an Iranian-backed assassination attempt carried out by members of the Islamic Dawa Party (the party of Prime Puppet Maliki). In the attack, members of Islamic Dawa Party threw a grenade at Aziz in central Baghdad. The attack killed several people. This terrorist act was among the casus belli of the Iran-Iraq War.

Aziz is a Chaldean Catholic; how many Christian countries have a Muslim serving as Foreign or Deputy Prime Minister? Washington and London have put much effort in depicting pre-occupation Iraq as a sectarian country ruled by a minority. This propaganda, aiming to demonize Iraq and instrumental for the invasion and occupation (Iraqi Freedom, remember?), have been spread not only by the War Party and its many lackeys in the state-corporate media but also – and much more disgracefully – by many leftists and alternative news outlets. The result is New Iraq, a place - not even a country anymore - torn into pieces by Saddam Hussein’s enemies, a bunch of terrorists and warlords installed and supported by the great puppeteers, the United States and Iran. Credits for the precious assistance must of course be given to Nostalgic Britain, a former Empire which still didn’t get it’s become a colony, Holy Israel, the 51st (or 1st – it depends where one starts to count) of the United States of Amnesia and the never missing International Community of hyenas and vultures.

The Green Zone Puppet Theatre’s Show, The Trial of Tareq Aziz, will star Kurdish “judge” Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman, who also presided the last stages of Saddam Hussein’s lynching in 2006, after his predecessor, Kurdish judge Rizgar Amin, resigned over fear for his life after being criticized by the sectarian Quisling government for being “soft” on Saddam in court. At the time, Moqtada al-Sadr played a big role in that show, which also included the kidnapping, torture and killing of a few defense lawyers.

Out of curiosity, just a few days before Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was assassinated, Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman fled Iraq and applied for political asylum in Britain with his family.

Now he’s back on the stage, the show must go on after all! The other time Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations gave that show very bad reviews. But who cares for the reviews? The few spectators are already athirst to open a new bottle of Champagne!

After more than five years

After more than five years of this war of aggression, the Nuremberg supreme international crime, the BBC continues its genocide denial business.

"Another website run by academics and peace activists, iraqbodycount.net, estimates up to 90,782 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the same period."

After more than five years of this war of aggression, the Nuremberg supreme international crime, Iraq Body Count still doesn’t care its work is used to deny the Iraq genocide.

After more than five years of this war of aggression, the Nuremberg supreme international crime, the anti-war movement establishment still doesn’t consider the human cost of the Iraq war THE priority and its agenda still doesn’t include a campaign to inform the public of the real extent of this carnage and to denounce unequivocally the War Party’s propaganda.

After more than five years of this war of aggression, the Nuremberg supreme international crime, the people in the United States and United Kingdom are still kept in the dark about what the Liberation of Iraq has meant for the people of Iraq.

After more than five years of this war of aggression, the Nuremberg supreme international crime, Iraq has being torn into pieces by Saddam Hussein’s enemies, a bunch of warlords installed and supported by the United States and Iran, while the Western maîtres à penser are still clapping at that political process. Freedom! Freedom! Democracy! Democracy!

After more than five years of this war of aggression, the Nuremberg supreme international crime, history has being re-written by the victors: The genocide denial business is the most important chapter of the book.