TACTICS & STRATEGIES | RICK STAGGENBORG, M.D.  SOLDIERS FOR PEACE INTERNATIONAL

Obama has been and remains one of the most loyal and efficient salesmen of the imperial project.  He has clearly met and probably exceeded the expectations of the plutocrats that chose him as a front. (Image by DonkeyHotey, via flickr)

AUTHOR’S NOTE:  I  wrote this article as an example of how to break through the corporate media with editorials explaining important facts that syndicated columnists and mainstream media reporters are clueless about. While this type of article is unlikely to ever make the New York Times, there are many newspapers that will publish well-supported guest editorials. 

I hope it will be read with an eye to understanding how to communicate with the general public on the US Deep State as much as for what it has to say about that topic itself.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]ruth is the first casualty of war. Engaged in an unprecedented state of endless war to fight the phantom enemy of “terrorism,” it has never been so important that Americans understand this. They must recognize that like throwing gasoline on a fire, fighting terrorism with military means only makes it worse. ISIS did not arise spontaneously. It is the result of the US government manipulating public opinion to support policies unthinkable before 9/11 and that have remained unquestioned. Americans have been duped into accepting the use of terrorists for proxy wars in Libya and Syria. The US is ultimately responsible for the atrocities being committed by ISIS and will bear the brunt of the blame for making the problem worse if it supports further violence in the region.

Mark Twain observed: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you in trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Self-governing nations have the moral responsibility to understand why they are at war. That means seeking answers to questions beyond the superficial ones posed by the mainstream media. Despite the widespread distrust of most US news sources by both those who consider themselves liberal and those who consider themselves conservative, we continue to get most of our information from these corporate-funded sources whose main goal is profit, not enlightenment. News is therefore framed to reinforce self-serving myths that increase profit industries connected to war and the police state apparatus that supports it.

The Hillary threat: As a  warmongering corporatist, we can expect worse than Obama from this woman.

There are many reasons why the news industry has become stenographers for politicians and the economic elite most of them represent. Concealing the abuses of corporate power maintains advertising revenue and profits in the six megacorporations that own most of the media and have interests in many other industries.

Failing to cover the real issues during political campaigns leaves a void they can fill with enormously profitable campaign ads. Omitting important information about world events and providing superficial analysis of what is covered keeps us ignorant of the real goals of US foreign policy, which can only be understood by studying the underlying power structure of the US and the world. That information is not taught in school and is not talked about in the corporate media but must be sought after. In sum, we can say it’s a class question: The US government is a tool of corporate power at home and abroad, that is, it is an instrument to design and carry out policies of chief benefit to the 0.0002% of the human race at the expense of everyone else, plus nature itself. This requires a permanent apparatus of massive disinformation, which the US media, and their associates around the world well represent.

ISIL at work. (Credit: Aljazeera)

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]omprehending how we are being lied into supporting chaotic global violence requires understanding how certain powerful interests control information.  Few people realize that one of the CIA’s most critical duties is influencing media for propaganda purposes. Various sources have documented a network of media corporations that are CIA fronts, both in the US and overseas.  A prominent German media figure admitted to being a CIA employee for years, stating that this was common practice in both Europe and the US. While its authorization to propagandize is legally restricted to foreign media, the CIA has exercised extensive influence over US media since its creation shortly after WWII, when America’s empire building experiment began in earnest. Those who doubt this should read about the LATimes reporter who last year admitted letting the CIA edit his work. There is also the story of how investigative reporter Gary Webb, whose work revealing how CIA drug trafficking in Iran-Contra led to a drug epidemic in LA, was persecuted in a CIA-led disinformation campaign in the press that cost him his career, his marriage and his life, in a reported suicide.

We now know that claims of WMDs in Iraq were false, as were similar claims in Syria. Seymour Hersh, who uncovered much of the hidden truth of the Vietnam War, revealed the lies about Syrian chemical weapons. Robert Parry, who gave us the facts about Iran-Contra, is now trying to wake us up to the fact that the US is supporting a fascist government in Ukraine. It is not a coincidence that both are no longer New York Times reporters. The Times has set the standard for a media that parrots government lies without question. The hope for democracy in America lies in getting the truth out. That will on happen when more of us open our eyes to how we are systematically being deceived by a global economic elite who regard the world as their chessboard, and people as their pawns.

[box] Rick Staggeborg, MD is a social and political activist based in Eugene, Oregon. Rick founded and heads the antiwar organization Soldiers for Peace International (SFPI).  [/box]

Contact Rick:  staggenborg4senate@hotmail.com

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What is $1 a month to support one of the greatest publications on the Left?

By Black Agenda Report editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Created 03/31/2010 [print_link]

Global public opinion has been called the “second superpower” – second only to the United States in capacity to shape world events. But the premiere intelligence agency of the presiding state superpower routinely manipulates world opinion to suit U.S. purposes. The CIA distorts global realities in furtherance of President Obama’s war aims in Afghanistan/Pakistan.

“The United States government believes it has the right to undermine people and governments around the world.”

It is easy to understand the actions taken by the current presidential administration if certain facts are acknowledged. The most important fact is this: the system doesn’t change because parties in power change. The same rulers still rule, and White House occupants, whether Republican or Democrat, don’t get near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue unless they make those rulers extremely happy first.

All of this means that government agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency, will do what they have always done. The CIA’s job is to undermine opposition to American military and corporate power. That was true in the days of the cold war, and it is still true in 2010.

The investigative website, Wikileaks [1], did the world an enormous favor by leaking a CIA document called “CIA Red Cell Special Memorandum [2]: Afghanistan: Sustaining Western European Support for the NATO Led Mission – Why Counting on Apathy Might Not be Enough.” The long winded yet creepy title says it all.

Last month the Dutch parliamentary government fell when its citizens decided they no longer wanted to be engaged in the continued occupation of Afghanistan. Europeans are overwhelmingly opposed to this policy, yet have been unable to get their governments to act as they would like on this issue. Afghanistan is not their biggest priority, and their other concerns are apparently addressed well enough to keep them from focusing on this particular aspect of their countries’ foreign policy.

“Apathetic citizens may mumble and grumble and wring their hands, but they won’t take action against the powers that be.”

The CIA report states that apathy is a good thing for people in the line of work of subverting popular will. Apathetic citizens may mumble and grumble and wring their hands, but they won’t take action against the powers that be. French and German voters will tell pollsters that they oppose their nations’ presence in Afghanistan, but those feelings haven’t led to policy changes as of yet. The CIA fears that this dysfunctional dynamic may change:

“If some forecasts of a bloody summer in Afghanistan come to pass, passive French and German dislike of their troop presence could turn into active and politically potent hostility. The tone of previous debate suggests that a spike in French or German casualties or in Afghan civilian casualties could become a tipping point in converting passive opposition into active calls for immediate withdrawal.”

The author of the memo presumes to know how best to appeal to French and German noble instincts. According to these CIA experts, the French will be swayed by appeals from Afghan women and the Germans are afraid of drugs and terrorism. It is unclear if they know what they are talking about, but that is hardly the point. The most important point is that the United States government will find the means to propagandize citizens of other nations, and subvert the popular will. Whether from allied nations or not, human beings are not supposed to get any big ideas about controlling their own destinies. They are supposed to act as the United States wants them to and in this case that means continuing to bring death to the Afghan people.

“According to these CIA experts, the French will be swayed by appeals from Afghan women and the Germans are afraid of drugs and terrorism.”

The memo doesn’t explain how to go about making the French weep for Afghan maidens and the Germans to fear that they will be invaded by drug dealing terrorists, but that doesn’t matter either. The very fact that the United States government believes it has any right to undermine people and governments around the world ought to be a scandal and should not be forgotten.

This is not a new story. The Obama administration CIA is behaving in the same way as every other president’s CIA. If it were not so serious, it would be laughable that the CIA would use fears of drug dealing in order to sway public opinion in Germany or anywhere else. The CIA has itself been a drug dealer for many decades in Southeast Asia, in Latin America and in Europe. There would never have been a French Connection drug route without American government support of organized crime.

The United States continues to be a threat to peace around the world. It is unfortunately still the most powerful nation, and this time has a popular president who as the CIA memo points out, is uniquely qualified to persuade people to work against their better instincts and their own best interest. “The confidence of the French and German publics in President Obama’s ability to handle foreign affairs in general and Afghanistan in particular suggest that they would be receptive to his direct affirmation of their importance to the ISAF mission—and sensitive to direct expressions of disappointment in allies who do not help.” The current Nobel Peace Prize winner has a lot of undeserved credibility. It is indeed unfortunate when the American president is popular and well liked.

This CIA memo is the latest in a long list of evidence proving that it really isn’t possible to change our system, assuming that anyone in power is ever really interested in doing that. Barack Obama certainly isn’t. He is up to the old tricks of every other American president, speaking softly perhaps, but still carrying the big stick of aggression against the rest of the world.

Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

Source URL: http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-obama%E2%80%99s-cia

Links:
[1] http://www.wikileaks.org/
[2] http://file.wikileaks.org/file/cia-afghanistan.pdf
[3] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-obama%E2%80%99s-cia&linkname=Freedom Rider: Obama’s CIA