FOX ATTACKS: Iran (sound familiar??)

This is part of the fruit of the destruction of the education system in the US. FOX can re-run such crap, confident that the vast majority of citizens won't have a clue they're "being fooled again". Don't be one of them!! Get real news at Signs of the Times.

Blue Ibis

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Fox Does Unto Iran As It Did Unto Iraq

Robert Greenwald and Juan Cole
Brave New Films

Rupert Murdoch wants to kill your 18 year-olds in a fruitless war with Iran. Robert Greenwald's video shows how Faux Cable News is running the same scam on Iran that it ran on Iraq, with side by side footage so you can see the Goebbels techniques at work. Liberals don't like anything that smacks of censorship, but I really think our body public won't be safe from this nefarious media conspiracy until we mount an effective campaign of advertiser boycott against the corporations who underwrite this fascist horse manure.


I remember very clearly the daily fearmongering led by FOX as they cheered for war with Iraq. The 24/7 images, sound effects, yelling and threatening were an ever-present drumbeat for war. We had to invade, and we had to invade now.. anyone who didn't see that was a traitor. They viciously attacked those of us who worked to get out the truth.

You'd think that with the complete failure in Iraq, those days would be behind us. Sadly, you'd be wrong.

FOX wants war with Iran.

It's almost too ridiculous to believe, but it's shockingly real. We've already compiled over 4 hours of FOX footage... the same images, sound effects, yelling and threatening that led the U.S. to invade Iraq is happening right now to sell a war with Iran. They are saying the exact same things!!

Here is the video evidence, side-by-side with what they said about Iraq.

This time is different though. We're prepared, and we have the means to alert people to what FOX is doing. Everyone has seen the terrible tragedy and the awful price paid by so many Iraqis and Americans. We know this is coming, and we can stop it.

It was about this time in the lead-up to the Iraq war when the other TV networks started following FOX's lead. As CNN's Christiane Amanpour says in the video, they were intimidated by FOX into cheerleading for the Iraq war.

WE CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN.

This is a critical moment, and we must send a message to the major television networks urging them to ask tough questions, be skeptical, and tell us what is really happening. They must not follow FOX down the road to another war.

We've put together an open letter to the networks. Will you sign it?

Please pssst the video and forward it to everyone you know. We must raise our voices now. This is so important, we cannot let history repeat itself.

P.S. Here are some recent articles on the Iran issue:

* "Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran" (Guardian)
* "Prelude to an attack on Iran" (Bob Baer, Time)
* Bush admin labels Iran's 125k Revolutionary Guard troops "terrorists" (New York Times)

Heads UP!!

Just had to add this in. Things are heating up folks . . . . . . . Again, the Signs of the Times brings you the most important news and analysis weeks and months ahead of the MSM

Blue Ibis
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White House preparing to stage new September 11 - Reagan official

RIA Novosti
Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:54 EDT

A former Reagan official has issued a public warning that the Bush administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist attack in the United States, transform the country into a dictatorship and launch a war with Iran within a year.

Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, blasted Thursday a new Executive Order, released July 17, allowing the White House to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies and giving the government expanded police powers to exercise control in the country.

Roberts, who spoke on the Thom Hartmann radio program, said: "When Bush exercises this authority [under the new Executive Order], there's no check to it. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule."

"The American people don't really understand the danger that they face," Roberts said, adding that the so-called neoconservatives intended to use a renewal of the fight against terrorism to rally the American people around the fading Republican Party.

Old-line Republicans like Roberts have become increasingly disenchanted with the neoconservative politics of the Bush administration, which they see as a betrayal of fundamental conservative values.

According to a July 9-11 survey by Ipsos, an international public opinion research company, President Bush and the Republicans can claim a mere 31 percent approval rating for their handling of the Iraq war and 38 percent for their foreign policy in general, including terrorism.

"The administration figures themselves and prominent Republican propagandists ... are preparing us for another 9/11 event or series of events," he said. "You have to count on the fact that if al Qaeda is not going to do it, it is going to be orchestrated."

Roberts suggested that in the absence of a massive popular outcry, only the federal bureaucracy and perhaps the military could put constraints on Bush's current drive for a fully-fledged dictatorship.

"They may have had enough. They may not go along with it," he said.

The radio interview was a follow-up to Robert's latest column, in which he warned that "unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the U.S. could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."

Roberts, who has been dubbed the "Father of Reaganomics" and has recently gained popularity for his strong opposition to the Bush administration and the Iraq War, regularly contributes articles to Creators Syndicate, an independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns for daily newspapers.

Long Bomb Passes of All Sorts

In honour (?) of Superbowl Sunday (one reason to be glad I am blessed with 'peasantvision' as opposed to cable), here is an article by the remarkable Joe Quinn. His analyses of the larger dynamics of the world's political events should be required reading for anyone who fancies themselves to be up on "how the world works".

Blue Ibis

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The Tale Of The Unwitting "Suicide Bomber" And SuperBowl XLI

Joe Quinn
Signs of the Times
Sat, 03 Feb 2007 13:52 EST

Today, Iraq, Baghdad, hot off the mainstream media presses, this just in:

Police estimate 80 killed in Baghdad bombing

A suicide truck bomber struck a food market in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad today, killing at least 80 people and wounding dozens, police and hospital officials said.

The attacker was driving a truck carrying food when he detonated his explosives, destroying stores and stalls that had been set up in the busy outdoor Sadriyah market, police said.

Officials said at least 80 people were killed and 150 wounded as nearby hospitals were flooded with victims from the blast.

The blast occurred at 4:40pm local time as the market was crowded with people buying food for their evening meal, the latest in a series of attacks against commercial targets in the capital as insurgents seek to maximise the number of people killed ahead of a planned US-Iraqi security sweep.

The mainstream media is apparently as lifeless as the 80 Iraqi civilians, murdered by today's mysterious detonating food truck. How else to explain their reporting that "insurgents" desire to kill as many of their own people as they can. Can it be possible that the person who penned this report really did not stop at that point and think to him or herself: "hmmm... but aren't the 'insurgents' those members of Iraqi society that have taken up arms in order to expel the invading American army? Isn't their very existence justified only by the presence of American troops in their country? Why then would they want to kill as many Iraqi civilians - their own people whose support constitutes the lifeblood of the resistance - as possible?" Perhaps he or she did, but then just shrugged and said, "who cares, it's not my job to think."

Anyway, back to the mysterious exploding food truck. We are meant to believe that this was a "suicide bombing" because someone drove a truck into a market and it exploded. Just like we are meant to believe that every time an Israeli restaurant or bus blows up, it is the work of a "Palestinian suicide bomber" simply because what appeared to be a Palestinian happened to enter the restaurant or bus just before the explosion.

I've presented this scenario before, and I'll give it here again because it really is a concept that everyone should be able to grasp:

A two man Shin Bet (Israeli internal intelligence) team sneak up to a fixed Falafel stand in Tel Aviv in the dead of night. They open the doors to the storage area of the stand and attach 5kg of plastic explosives to the top corner, way at the back. The close it up and leave. The next morning they contact one of their informers, a Palestinian youth, little more than 20 years old. Known to the authorities, the youth enjoys free passage in and out of Israel. He is told his handlers want to see him at 1pm that afternoon. The meeting place is a Falafel stand in Tel Aviv. He is told to go and buy a Falafel and wait for them to arrive. At 1pm he approaches the Falafel stand. From a distance of 50 meters his two handlers are watching. As he orders something, they push a button. Two hours later, news reports are flying around the world of a new Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, at a Falafel stand no less, with lots of eyewitness to testify that the explosion occurred when a Palestinian man approached the stand.

In Iraq, the same tactics are being used. Here are two first hand accounts of real events from last year:

"A few days ago, an American manned check point confiscated the driver license of a driver and told him to report to an American military camp near Baghdad airport for interrogation and in order to retrieve his license. The next day, the driver did visit the camp and he was allowed in the camp with his car. He was admitted to a room for an interrogation that lasted half an hour. At the end of the session, the American interrogator told him: "OK, there is nothing against you, but you do know that Iraq is now sovereign and is in charge of its own affairs. Hence, we have forwarded your papers and license to al-Kadhimia police station for processing. Therefore, go there with this clearance to reclaim your license. At the police station, ask for Lt. Hussain Mohammed, who is waiting for you now. Go there now quickly, before he leaves his shift work."

The driver did leave in a hurry, but was soon alarmed with a feeling that his car was driving as if carrying a heavy load, and he also became suspicious of a low flying helicopter that kept hovering overhead, as if trailing him. He stopped the car and inspected it carefully. He found nearly 100 kilograms of explosives hidden in the back seat and along the two back doors.

The only feasible explanation for this incident is that the car was indeed booby trapped by the Americans and intended for the al-Khadimiya Shiite district of Baghdad. The helicopter was monitoring his movement and witnessing the anticipated "hideous attack by foreign elements".

The same scenario was repeated in Mosul, in the north of Iraq. A car was confiscated along with the driver's license. He did follow up on the matter and finally reclaimed his car but was told to go to a police station to reclaim his license. Fortunately for him, the car broke down on the way to the police station. The inspecting car mechanic discovered that the spare tire was fully laden with explosives.
On May 13, 2005, a 64 years old Iraqi farmer, Haj Haidar Abu Sijjad, took his tomato load in his pickup truck from Hilla to Baghdad, accompanied by Ali, his 11 years old grandson. They were stopped at an American check point and were asked to dismount. An American soldier climbed on the back of the pickup truck, followed by another a few minutes later, and thoroughly inspected the tomato filled plastic containers for about 10 minutes. Haj Haidar and his grandson were then allowed to proceed to Baghdad.

A minute later, his grandson told him that he saw one of the American soldiers putting a grey melon size object in the back among the tomato containers. The Haj immediately slammed on the brakes and stopped the car at the side of the road, at a relatively far distance from the check point. He found a time bomb with the clock ticking tucked among his tomatoes. He immediately recognized it, as he was an ex-army soldier. Panicking, he grabbed his grandson and ran away from the car. Then, realizing that the car was his only means of work, he went back, took the bomb and carried it in fear. He threw it in a deep ditch by the side of the road that was dug by Iraqi soldiers in preparation for the war, two years ago.

Upon returning from Baghdad, he found out that the bomb had indeed exploded, killing three sheep and injuring their shepherd in his head. He thanked God for giving him the courage to go back and remove the bomb, and for the luck in that the American soldiers did not notice his sudden stop at a distance and his getting rid of the bomb.

"They intended it to explode in Baghdad and claim that it is the work of the 'terrorists', or 'insurgents' or who call themselves the 'Resistance'.

I decided to expose them and asked your reporter to take me to Baghdad to tell you the story. They are to be exposed as they now want to sow strife in Iraq and taint the Resistance after failing to defeat it militarily. Do not forget to mention my name. I fear nobody but God, as I am a follower of Muqtada al-Sadir."

Add to that the following:

Israel trains US assassination squads in Iraq

Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday December 9, 2003
Guardian

Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces in aggressive counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassination squads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and military sources said yesterday.

And then this from the UK Independent's Robert Fisk:

Unknown Americans Are Provoking Civil War In Iraq

The Americans, my interlocutor suspected, are trying to provoke an Iraqi civil war so that Sunni Muslim insurgents spend their energies killing their Shia co-religionists rather than soldiers of the Western occupation forces... "One young Iraqi man told us that he was trained by the Americans as a policeman in Baghdad and he spent 70 per cent of his time learning to drive and 30 per cent in weapons training. They said to him: 'Come back in a week.' When he went back, they gave him a mobile phone and told him to drive into a crowded area near a mosque and phone them. He waited in the car but couldn't get the right mobile signal. So he got out of the car to where he received a better signal. Then his car blew up."

Impossible, I think to myself. But then I remember how many times Iraqis in Baghdad have told me similar stories.


And we begin to get a very different picture and understanding of what is happening in Iraq, Israel and many other places.

For example:

U.S. can't prove Iran link to Iraq strife

LA Times
03 Feb 2007

Bush administration officials acknowledged Friday that they had yet to compile evidence strong enough to back up publicly their claims that Iran is fomenting violence against U.S. troops in Iraq.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but don't such things usually happen the other way round? Ya know, the compiling of evidence before making the case? Or am I just being naive?

Administration officials have long complained that Iran was supplying Shiite Muslim militants with lethal explosives and other material used to kill U.S. military personnel. But despite several pledges to make the evidence public, the administration has twice postponed the release - most recently, a briefing by military officials scheduled for last Tuesday in Baghdad.

"The truth is, quite frankly, we thought the briefing overstated, and we sent it back to get it narrowed and focused on the facts," national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley said Friday.

[...]

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates seemed to concede Friday that U.S. officials can't say for sure whether the Iranian government is involved in assisting the attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq.

"I don't know that we know the answer to that question," Gates said.

Earlier this week, U.S. officials acknowledged that they were uncertain about the strength of their evidence and were reluctant to issue potentially questionable data in the wake of the intelligence failures and erroneous assessments that preceded the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"Erroneous assessments"?" The real problem here is, now that Colin Powell is gone, there's no one gormless enough to agree to sit in front of the world's cameras and present obviously faked documents as cold hard proof.

In rejecting the case compiled against Iran, senior U.S. officials, including Hadley, Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, confirmed Friday that they were concerned about possible inaccuracies.

"I and Secretary Rice and the national security advisor want to make sure that the briefing that is provided is absolutely accurate and is dominated by facts - serial numbers, technology and so on," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.

[dominated by facts? As in, sort of mostly truthful??! Ok, so what is the acceptable truth percentage? 85%, 50? or our expectations unrealistically high . . .]


[...] That report, called a National Intelligence Estimate, was issued Friday, concluding that Iraq was deteriorating and faces a bleak future that U.S. efforts may do little to avert.

"The involvement of these outside actors is not likely to be a major driver of violence or the prospects for stability because of the self-sustaining character of Iraq's internal sectarian dynamics," says the report, compiled by experts from the nation's 16 intelligence agencies.

Geeze! Reading this somehow we are left with the impression that US covert forces are not heavily involved in manufacturing civil war in Iraq. How bizarre!

So far, the U.S. government has provided scant evidence that the government of Iran is directly supporting militant Shiite groups.

In a major speech on Iraq last month, Bush accused Iran of "providing material support for attacks on American troops" and vowed to "seek out and destroy" weapon transport networks.

Since then, Air Force officials have said they are planning new missions that could include flights along the Iran-Iraq border aimed at disrupting weapons shipments.

Iranian officials challenged the Americans to produce evidence of their charges, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, pledged last week to do so.

The increasingly harsh words from the Bush administration stoked fears of a possible U.S. attack on Iran. In recent days, the White House and top U.S. officials have sought to counter the concern. Gates became the latest administration official to offer such reassurances.

"The president has made clear, the secretary of State has made clear, I've made clear ...we are not planning for a war with Iran," Gates said Friday.

The US government is "not planning for a war with Iran", but that says nothing about Israel, which most definitely is planning on attacking Iran, concocted evidence or no concocted evidence, and once that happens, and Iran retaliates, the US will of course be forced to go to the aid of its "ally".

On last point. The US and Israeli governments are currently engaged in carrying out fake terror attacks in Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in order to cow the local populations and force them to submit to their agenda. We should remember, however, that the current massive bloodletting in Iraq would have been almost impossible absent one defining moment, not in Iraqi but American history: The September 11th 2001 attacks in New York.

It is fitting indeed that the 9/11 attacks gave rise to a wave of fake terror attacks by the US and Israeli governments in Iraq and Israel, because 9/11 was itself a fake terror attack, carried out by sections of the same US and Israeli governments.

Tomorrow is 'Superbowl Sunday'. Tens of thousands of American citizens, all grouped together in one confined space. It is unlikely, for a number of reasons, that a terror attack similar to 9/11 will happen tomorrow at the Miami Garden's Dolphin Stadium in Florida, but if it does, we will know where to look for the culprits.