Okay, this blows MY mind just a tad…
Adrian Morgan. The Looming Threat of Islamist Terror in Pakistan 2008-01-15. URL:http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/terrorism.php?id=1386093. Accessed: 2008-01-15. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/5UrdxXjTK )
Family Security Matters is considered to be a front group for the Center for Security Policy , which is, of course, Frank Gaffney ’s baby. If you have questions on the front group allegations, I suggest using the Internet Archive WayBack machine to verify the information in the SourceWatch article. FamilySecurityMatters.com has been redirecting to .org for a couple of years now. I looked at the archives awhile back and the info checks out.
Yet they ran the above article which mentioned the London Sunday Times piece on Sibel Edmonds’ story?
The same Sibel Edmonds who has put up a page on her site with pictures of 18 persons of interest, including photos of Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Eric Edelman, Brent Scowcroft, Larry Franklin, Dennis Hastert, Dan Burton, Tom Lantos, Bob Livingston, Stephen Solarz, and
Graham Fuller (among others)?
I’m left scratching my head, here. The US mainstream media (so far) won’t touch the blockbuster story broken last week in London’s Sunday Times, (which has gotten worldwide coverage in both news and blogs) yet Neocon Frank Gaffney’s front group will?
January 18, 2008 at 1:50 pm |
Yes, that was pretty weird. What’s even more surprising is that the author of the article is a very knowledgeable guy named Adrian Morgan, obviously not associated with the Family Security Matters organization per se. I mean: even neoconservative militants must let some facts slip through their fingers now and then
It’s really worth reading.
OTH, you can find Adrian Morgan writing under nome de plume Gerald Cambrensis for Western Resistance (westernresistance.com), one of those anti-muslim sites popping up everywhere.
BTW, It’s still damned incredible that US bloggers can’t unite in some sort of effort to bring the Sibel Edmonds case to the forefront. The comment page of The Washington Note dropped dead on January 12 after a comment from Lukery. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald is another blogger that ought to be “encouraged” to at least mention Sibel. His comment section is one of the most active to be found.
January 18, 2008 at 1:57 pm |
“BTW, It’s still damned incredible that US bloggers can’t unite in some sort of effort to bring the Sibel Edmonds case to the forefront.”
I agree with you there. I’m not sure how that can be accomplished, but it seems increasingly obvious that it will be a necessary part of getting her story out. And I would actually extend it to bloggers worldwide…
January 19, 2008 at 11:05 am |
As I wrote in another comment (recommending this article by Chris Floyd) it’s vital to get the Big Picture. Since the Sibel Edmonds story is very much alive and can work as a drill through all layers of forgetting history and cover-ups it’s, as you say, important to work more to spread the word.
The difference between US and the rest of the world is that your nation (you are in the US, aren’t you?) have a sufficient background knowledge among at least a not insignificant minority of the population. Try to tell the story of BCCI, just to take on example, to people in Europe and they will not understand at all. There are of course exceptions, but we are then counting one hundred of thousands or more people.
Just imagine that that Time Magazine had a long series of articles on the BCCI scandal when it was revealed!! These articles were then the basis for a book by the same journalists: “The Outlaw Bank” published by a major publishing house (Random House) in 1993. I also have two other books about BCCI: “False Profits” and another one I couldn’t find right now.
So I think The Work (to change the world) has to focus on the US of America. Perhaps you informed citizens should start a campaign knocking doors all over the nation: “Do you know that ….”??
January 19, 2008 at 12:57 pm |
But we can’t exclude Luke Ryland’s work from Australia (to name just one example). I agree that US bloggers will need to be a big part of any possible solution. However, a lot of times it seems that we can only get information on “the bigger picture” from media and bloggers outside the US. Which is part of the issue, of course. And, since US foreign policy has a large influence on the rest of the world, it’s not just a matter of US interest that these things be exposed.
Yes, we in the US will probably need to be the ones to clean house, since the International Criminal Court doesn’t seem to have much standing in the US at present (another part of the big picture, of course)
“The United States of America was one of only 7 nations (joining China, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Qatar and Israel) to vote against the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998.
The Bush administration’s hostility to the ICC has increased dramatically in 2002. The crux of the U.S. concern relates to the prospect that the ICC may exercise its jurisdiction to conduct politically motivated investigations and prosecutions of U.S. military and political officials and personnel. The U.S. opposition to the ICC is in stark contrast to the strong support for the Court by most of America’s closest allies.
In an unprecedented diplomatic maneuver on 6 May, the Bush administration effectively withdrew the U.S. signature on the treaty. At the time, the Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues Pierre-Richard Prosper stated that the administration was “not going to war” with the Court. This has proved false; the renunciation of the treaty has paved the way for a comprehensive U.S. campaign to undermine the ICC.”
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/us.htm
January 19, 2008 at 3:16 pm |
“But we can’t exclude Luke Ryland’s work from Australia”
Ooops… didn’t know Luke was writing from down yonder. Thanks for correcting my ignorance.
“However, a lot of times it seems that we can only get information on “the bigger picture” from media and bloggers outside the US.”
From my own experience of the European “information scene” there is absolutely nothing that can be compared to the US tradition of investigative journalism and blogging. Nada. First of all you really have to make a HUGE distinction between media and journalists/writers.
I don’t have a very comprehensive library, but it consists of some 150 or so books by mostly US authors. Starting with something like “CIA Diary” by Philip Agee (1975) up to more recent work like “The One Percent Doctrine” by Ron Suskind and “American Fascists” by Chris Hedges there are very few serious gaps in the Big Picture. A tremendous amount of effort and an amazingly high standard. In BOOKS. I think Americans should be proud of this tradition, even if it may not make such a huge difference (since those really needing the information don’t read books).
To be redundant: My point is that the information is HERE. If you have enough of time to browse the web you will also become VERY informed. Keep up with sites like Alternet, Common Dreams, Antiwar.com, TruthDig, CounterPunch and so on and the Big Picture will very soon emerge.
Something like the International Criminal Court is a non-issue in most layers of the European populace since we don’t discuss the war crimes performed by and via the Bush administration and so on.
“And, since US foreign policy has a large influence on the rest of the world, it’s not just a matter of US interest that these things be exposed.”
So true. But stuff like the article about Sibel is VERY rare in European MSM. Heck, even a conservative paper like Washington Post is vastly superior to most newspapers in Europe.
January 19, 2008 at 3:37 pm |
Right, I agree that we have the information we need through a combination of the internet and books. Also, I agree that the lion’s share of that information has probably been collected and put together through the efforts of US journalists and authors. My point was just that I think that bloggers worldwide could potentially help spread that information, not just limiting ourselves to US bloggers. Even if stories like the London Times’ story on Sibel are rare, they still do an enormous amount of good in a situation where there is literally NO mainstream coverage in the US. A lot of people in the US will question a source like Common Dreams, Antiwar.com, etc. simply because they aren’t a mainstream media source of information. Those same people will be much more willing to look at the same information once it hit the pages of the London Sunday Times. Which is not in any way a denigration of the efforts of the sites you mention. It’s more an indictment of the conditioning which has been foisted on the populace. The alternative sources are often the only place where REAL journalism is taking place these days.
January 20, 2008 at 10:44 am |
We seem to agree on everything but the part media and bloggers outside of US can really change the depressing state of US media. I have followed Google news closely to see how many follow-ups there have been on the first Time story, but it has remained fairly constant. Let’s hope THE SECOND article yesterday/today will help a bit more. But I am not going to hold my breath.
I posted a longer rant on Luke’s “Let Sibel Edmonds speak” blog about what we started to discuss here: what can be done to improve the dissemination of information. Synergy.
The Brad blog is also covering the latest story.
Perhaps it’s time to restart the comments on the Washington Note?