Report: Active-Duty Army PSYOPS Soldiers Embedded in Local Media

To better manufacture consent, U.S. Army soldiers are embedded as intern and fellows at local TV affiliates, along with previously reported newspapers and national outlets.

How Do You Become a ‘Suspected Militant’?

Die in a drone strike.

Attorney: Gov’t Raids Targeting Antiwar Activists, Searching Docs Containing ‘Palestine’

F.B.I. raids over the weekend in Minneapolis and Chicago aimed to “quiet activists”.

Daily Briefing—14th Sept 2010

News and views from around the web posted to the Wonderland Wire:

Report: U.S. Troops See Combat in Iraq… Again

Weeks after Obama announced the end of combat operations in the Iraq War, ‘residual troops’ engaged in lethal combat reportedly for the second time over the weekend.

Chomsky’s Lectern: China and the New World Order

Noam Chomsky discusses U.S. political class ‘fears’ relating to China as an emerging superpower.

Media Manipulates ‘End’ of Iraq War

Michael Corcoran: Just as the media lied to help us get into a war, they are now lying us out of one.

Iraq and the Big Picture (Video)

Jack Hunter, a.k.a. “The Southern Avenger”, notes that Dick Cheney was right about Iraq—in 1991 (5:24):

The Tragedy of Omar Khadr (mp3)

Omar Khadr, a 23-year-old Canadian citizen was kidnapped by the military in Afghanistan after being shot to the infirmary at the U.S. detention center at Bagram Air Base, where he was tortured and threatened with rape before being transferred the prison at Guantánamo Bay—all when he was only 15—where he’s been held captive since. The ‘war crime’ was throwing a hand grenade at U.S. troops and allegedly killing one of them, though the cause of the soldier’s death is in question, the burden of proof cannot be met of who threw any grenades, throwing a grenade at a uniformed enemy is not a war crime and child soldiers are legally distinguished as victims.

At AntiWar Radio with Scott Horton, journalist, legal analyst and Human Right First senior associate in law and security Daphne Eviatar discussed the U.S. military commission to try Mr. Khadr for war crimes (25:55):

Chomsky’s Lectern: U.S.-Israel ‘Prefer Expansion Over Security’ (mp3)

Prof. Noam Chomsky discussed the history of the ‘special relationship’ between the U.S. and Israel, how the mainstream media manufactures consent for it, how it relates to the manipulation of language regarding factions like Hamas and Hezbollah, the U.S.-Israel ‘preference for expansion over security’, and the history of U.S.-Israel active rejection of establishing the Middle East as a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone with Kathleen Wells at Race-Talk (38:19):

Khadr Show-’Trial’ Blacked Out of NY Times, So Obamaphiles Won’t Care (Video)

The first military commission of a detainee renditioned to the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay under the Obama Administration opened Tuesday. Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen, was kidnapped eight years ago in Afghanistan at the age of 15 by the U.S. military, threatened with rape in detention at the U.S. air base at Bagram, transferred to Guantánamo where he was tortured until he confessed that he threw a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier. Monday evening, Texas A&M at Qatar associate professor Todd Kent noted that it will likely not be a political issue for the Adminsitration because the mainstream media is downplaying it, though criminal justice is a large part of the president’s avatar, at Al Jazeera English’s “Inside Story”—which focused on the coming so-called ‘trial’ (23:41):

Jeremy Scahill on Obama’s Iraq Withdrawal That Isn’t (Video)

With 70,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, President Obama yesterday dropped his 2009 pledge to remove all combat troops before September, extending the target date 15 months, Gareth Porter reported today at Inter Press Services. The drawdown is intended by the Administration to leave 50,000 ‘residual troops’ indefinitely, but investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill notes the so-called “withdrawal” is a replacement of combat troops with ‘private’ mercenary firms. Earlier today, he spoke with Amy Goodman at Democracy Now! (11:48):

New Evidence About Prisoners Held in Secret C.I.A. Prisons in Poland and Romania

Investigative journalist Andy Worthington dissects recently released documents shining more light on the Bush Administration’s dark rendition program and the complicity of collaborating governments in the mass-scale extrajudicial kidnapping program.

95% of Pentagon Funding for Iraq Reconstruction ‘Unaccounted For’ (Video)

Of the $9.1bn allocated to the Pentagon for development in Iraq, $8.7bn is not ‘properly accounted for’—$2.6bn for which there are no records at all—according to a audit by the Spc.I.G. for Iraq reconstruction. “The report also said the U.S. military continues to hold at least $34.3 million of the fund, even though it was required to return it to the Iraqi government in December 2007,” Ernesto Londoño reported last week at The Washington Post after stating: “U.S. officials failed to create bank accounts for $8.7 billion in the Development Fund for Iraq, as mandated by the Department of Treasury”.

“Inside Story”, hosted by Mike Hanna at Al Jazeera English, discussed with:

• Mundher Adhami, an analyst on Iraqi affairs;
• Jeremy Carver, a board member of Tranparency International; and
• Scott Lucas, a professor of American Studies at the University of Birmingham and editor of Enduring America.com

Mr. Adhami and Mr. Carver are right—this was no “blunder”, but a “deliberate effort”. Government accounting flaws, especially relating to international affairs, are calculated under-rug sweepings. the blunder is when the rug is lifted. Mr. Lucas added that, “ironically”, the policies to create what the U.S. calling a “free market economy” were antithetical to that of a free market, though still very different from the “State-controlled economy under Saddam Hussein” (24:41):

Ethics, Congress and War (Video)

Sooo, Congress is bothered by a little corruption? Hah! Also, will there be war with North Korea and/or Iran? (9:30):