Mike Whitney

The Corporate Media's Threat to Freedom

Mike Whitney — 2005-11-16T04:20:00Z

There is no similarity between the corporate media and a “free press.” The corporate media operates according to its structural make up, which requires it to serve the interests of ownership and maximize profits. Its top down style of management ensures that it will align itself with the political centers of power, which create the opportunity for greater prosperity. This explains why the media giants have consistently concealed the Bush administration's attacks on civil liberties, supported the expansion of executive power, and paved the way for global war. After all, they are just acting in their own best interest, accommodating the political establishment to allow for more consolidation and expansion. One hand washes the other.

The cozy relationship between the administration and the media has made it nearly impossible to tell where one ends and the other begins. In fact, the media is the primary instrument of state policy. Its task is to shape the public's perception of government and to project a benign image of the US to the world beyond. (...)

- / Dissident Voice

Basra: Another Milestone in the War on Terror

Mike Whitney — 2005-09-25T02:05:00Z

“What our police found in their car was very disturbing — weapons, explosives, and a remote control detonator. These are the weapons of terrorists. We believe these soldiers were planning an attack on a market or other civilian targets.” — Sheik Hassan al-Zarqani, spokesman for the Mehdi Army

We are only interested in one thing regarding the melee that broke out in Basra following the arrest of two British commandoes on September 20: whether or not the car they were driving contained explosives?

The answer to that question could decide the future of Iraq as well as the fate of Bush's war on terror. Nothing should deter us from getting to the bottom of this crucial question and no extraneous fact or fiction should divert our attention from uncovering the answer. (...)

- / Dissident Voice

Tal Afar: Crackdown in the Sunni Heartland

Mike Whitney — 2005-09-15T04:00:00Z

The siege of Tal Afar follows a familiar pattern of brutal American incursions into densely populated areas under the pretense of fighting terrorism. It is a ritual that is repeated endlessly despite the dismal results. The Pentagon seems to prefer these grand displays of military strength to anything that might produce a political solution. It brings to mind the old saw, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again: expecting a different result.” This appears to be the guiding principle of the Defense Department with Tal Afar serving as the most recent example.

In the present case, a city of 250,000 has been almost entirely evacuated following weeks of artillery bombardment, aerial bombing raids, downed power lines and water systems, and house-to-house searches.

Ho-hum. Such paltry events never even reach the front page of American newspapers where the ceremony of American suffering is the only topic of interest. (...)

- / Dissident Voice

Consolidation of Powers

Mike Whitney — 2005-08-01T13:15:00Z

John Roberts should have no problem elucidating the "separation of powers", because according to him it doesn't exist. All power resides with the supreme executive; a supposition that Roberts has supported throughout his judicial career.

Ah, yes, judges can still gad about in their black robes drawing the reverential praise of the American public, but the final word on matters of state and law is the president. Period.

This explains Roberts's recent ruling in the DC Circuit Court, when he voted with the majority (3 to 0) that the Geneva Conventions do not supersede the Presidents authority to conduct the war on terror any way he sees fit; he's not required to abide by international law. As a matter of fact, President Bush cannot be constrained by any law in carrying out his "constitutionally mandated" powers according to Roberts. (...)

- / CounterPunch

Guantanamo: the Calculus of Human Misery

Mike Whitney — 2005-07-22T01:06:00Z

[...] A recent article in The New York Times confirmed that psychiatrists, psychologists and other medical professionals worked intimately with the military at Guantanamo advising “officials on how to conduct harsh interrogations of detainees.” Their experimentation focuses on establishing the limits of human endurance; trying to gauge, through original and highly controversial techniques, the maximum agony their subjects can withstand before they die or become unresponsive. This is not merely torture, but the science of sadism, a finely tuned regimen of systematic abuse, the calculus of human misery. It has become a vital adjunct to the new American foreign policy. (...)

- / Dissident Voice

Incinerating Iraqis: the napalm cover up

Mike Whitney — 2005-06-28T22:52:42Z

"You smell that? Do you smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for twelve hours. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like... victory. Robert Duvall, "Apocalypse Now" (1979)

Two weeks ago the UK Independent ran an article which confirmed that the US had "lied to Britain over the use of napalm in Iraq". (06-17-05) Since then, not one American newspaper or TV station has picked up the story even though the Pentagon has verified the claims. This is the extent to which the American "free press" is yoked to the center of power in Washington. As we've seen with the Downing Street memo, (which was reluctantly reported 5 weeks after it appeared in the British press) the air-tight American media ignores any story that doesn't embrace their collective support for the war. The prospect that the US military is using "universally reviled" weapons runs counter to the media-generated narrative that the war was motivated by humanitarian concerns (to topple a brutal dictator) as well as to eliminate the elusive WMDs. We can now say with certainty that the only WMDs in Iraq were those that were introduced by foreign invaders from the US who have used them to subjugate the indigenous people.

"Despite persistent rumors of injuries among Iraqis consistent with the use of incendiary weapons such as napalm" the Pentagon insisted that "US forces had not used a new generation of incendiary weapons, codenamed MK77, in Iraq." (UK Independent) (...)

- / Information Clearing House

The EU Constitution; savaging national sovereignty

Mike Whitney — 2005-05-31T04:20:00Z

The EU constitution is a Trojan horse slapped together by corporate and banking elites with the clear purpose of undermining national sovereignty and accelerating globalization. Thank God the French had the common sense to read the document and vote it down. Unlike their American counterparts, who have been the victims of a barrage of free trade agreements (NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA) which have sacrificed the environment, eviscerated national sovereignty, and savaged the middle-class, the French thumbed their noses at a plan that was designed to torpedo their economic system. If the constitution had passed, its neoliberal policies would inevitably put Frenchmen in direct competition with the lowest paid workers in Canton Province.

No thanks; that' a model that only works for the corporate oligarchy and their friends in the “free press”. (...)

- / ZNet

Europe to Bush: "Hands off Iran"?

Mike Whitney — 2005-03-01T01:13:00Z

Bush's trip to Europe produced few surprises and rarely diverted from a script that was prepared by the White House public relations team. A full week before he left Washington the media had already decided how the junket would be played out in the press. The headstrong Bush would be remade into a receptive statesman willing to engage the allies in open dialogue. Nearly every story in the print media reiterated the hackneyed expression “fence-mending” to underline Bush's eagerness to patch up differences and look for common ground. It was all bunkum. Bush didn't budge an inch on any of the key issues. The extremists who surround him would never allow that to happen. They believe that negotiation is a sign of weakness and that compromise is the same as defeat. (...)

- / ZNet

Condi's Euro Tour

Mike Whitney — 2005-02-13T04:25:00Z

In case you missed it, Condi's Euro-tour was a complete flop. Far from being the "triumph" celebrated by FOX News, the trip was just another opportunity to parrot the belligerent policies of the Bush Administration to our former allies. Unlike her predecessor, Rice never deviates from the White House script she has painstakingly memorized. Powell, however lacking in candor, was known to diverge from the hard-right fanaticism of his superiors from time to time. That will never be said of Condi, who flatly refuses to engage in any impromptu conversation that might take her off message. (...)

- / CounterPunch

A Desperate State of the Union

Mike Whitney — 2005-02-04T03:19:00Z

No doubt about it; the State of the Union was Bush's lamest performance to date. He may have lunged to the dais like a prize-fighter; soaking in the adulation of the Republican faithful, but when the bell rang he made a few wheezing sounds before nose-diving to the canvas.

Off his game, was he? (...)

- / CounterPunch

Cheney at Auschwitz

Mike Whitney — 2005-02-01T04:15:00Z

The appearance of Dick Cheney at the 60 year commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz is an affront to anyone who has even minimal regard for the horrendous suffering of the victims of the Holocaust. Cheney is the driving force behind America's global resource-war and is personally liable for the estimated 100,000 dead Iraqis and countless others maimed or wounded. To hear Cheney recite his duplicitous platitudes about "freedom" and "evil" is enough to leave even the most hardened cynic among us retching. (...)

- / CounterPunch

The Widening Chasm Among Conservatives

Mike Whitney — 2005-01-28T04:58:00Z

The machinery of state decision-making is rarely exposed to public scrutiny. The cover of representative government is a scrupulously maintained fiction concealing the nuts-and-bolts of real statecraft. Normally, politicians and their accomplices in the media can keep the illusion of representative government intact; avoiding the embarrassing implication that the current order is really upheld by the decision-making of elites. It's only when a major rift appears between the members of the ruling class that we have the opportunity to marvel at the moving parts of the imperial apparatus. (...)

- / CounterPunch

Coronation in the Garrison State

Mike Whitney — 2005-01-21T04:57:00Z

The Bush inauguration is designed to shock the American public into noticing the fundamental changes within the government. Like Guantanamo, it is intended to be more symbolic than substantive. The event is a means of acclimating people to the seismic shift in the basic structure of the state. The administration has taken the country from Republic to National Security State in four short years. Now, they,re determined to saturate the public consciousness with that new reality. (...)

- / CounterPunch

Bush's Grand Plan: Incite Civil War

Mike Whitney — 2005-01-16T02:41:00Z

The Bush Administration is intentionally steering Iraq towards civil war. The elections are merely the catalyst for igniting, what could be, a massive social upheaval. This explains the bizarre insistence on voting when security is nearly nonexistent and where a mere 7% of the people can even identify the candidates. (This figure gleaned from Allawi's Baghdad newspaper, Al-Sabah) Rumsfeld is using the elections as a springboard for aggravating tensions between Sunnis and Shiites and for diverting attention away from the troops. It's a foolhardy move that only magnifies the desperation of the present situation. The Pentagon brass expected a “cakewalk” and, instead, they've found themselves mired in a guerilla war. (...)

- / ZNet

Pink Slips at CBS

Mike Whitney — 2005-01-13T04:29:00Z

The only thing surprising about the purge at CBS was that they handed out the pink slips with a straight face. Other than that the episode was sadly reminiscent of Porter Goss wielding his scimitar over at the CIA. A few quick swishing motions and the erring parties were removed. Dan Rather, of course, was spared the humiliation of getting the boot down the office stairwell and, instead, was asked to commit ritual seppuku in the privacy of his own Park Ave. penthouse. The others simply got a brisk walk to the front door. (...)

- / CounterPunch