Sally spins Afghanistan

Afghanistan under US occupation has been very very good for Sally Armstrong's career. Her writing about the country has vaulted her into the top ranks of "Afghanistan experts," those privileged voices entrusted to explain to us what's really going on over there. Her explanatory career has garnered her honorary degrees and an Order of Canada.

Ms. Armstrong has a lengthy feature in yesterday's Globe and Mail bemoaning the imminent US troop withdrawal. After 18 years of occupation, thousands of US lives lost, hundreds of thousands of Afghan lives lost, and a bill that runs into the trillions, Trump's ill-advised capitulation threatens all the gains made by women in Afghanistan!

I have no doubt at all that some Afghan women have prospered under the US occupation. Like the Toronto-born 27 year old Afghan woman who finds herself Communications Director for "elected" President Ashraf Ghani. Armstrong makes much of the fact that the "elected" President has been sidelined by the current negotiations between the US and the Taliban. The reason he is sidelined is because all concerned (ie the US, the Taliban, and everybody at that recent summit in Russia) are fully cognisant of the fact that Ghani is a US installed cipher, or "stooge," if you will.

Here's the lowdown on that 2014 election as reported in the New York Times. Not even a hint of voter fraud in Armstrong's numerous references to that election.

Reading Armstrong's story one gets the impression that the Taliban are an occupying power, and the US Marines are some sort of benevolent feminist militia in the country. No Sally; the Americans are the occupiers - "Taliban" is what we call the Afghans fighting to end the occupation.

One also gets the distinct impression that Afghan history started in 1996, the year Sally first began reporting from there. Afghanistan, or at least its women, have made great progress since the US invasion of 2001. And compared to 1996, that's probably true.

But Afghanistan did have a history before 1996. The Afghan refugees that my family sponsored to Canada were a part of that pre-Taliban history. Mom and Dad were both university professors in Kabul during that prehistoric era. Alas, the government of Afghanistan at the time was a little too chummy with the commies in Soviet Russia next door, so it became America's mission to rid Afghanistan of its secular government and support whatever warlords or religious nutters were willing to take it on.

If the status of women in Afghanistan was ever a concern for the Virtuous West, we should have left well enough alone from the get-go. Instead, we did all we could to destabilize that secular government, and eventually it was the Talibs who successfully filled the power vacuum.

Here's a different slant on the Afghanistan story, by Mathew Hoh, who first encountered the country as a US Marine.


My suggestion for a balanced news diet is that the reader engage both stories and then make up their own mind.

How to bury Gaza

I've been reading newspapers long enough to know that the biggest stories go on the front page. Or at least the story that the editors deem to be the biggest.

For a whole lot of reasons, the Gaza story is by far the most important at the moment. Sure, global warming could bake us to a crisp, but not this week. MH17 is a plane crash that killed three hundred people. That deserves to be front page news, for a day or two, maybe a little longer if there are peripheral elements to the story, such as when that plane is shot down by a missile.

I was therefore perturbed when, as I was perusing the front page of Canada's newspaper of record yesterday morning, I couldn't find Gaza. Instead, five days after the event, MH17 remains the top story.

Except it's not so much about MH17 anymore; it's all about what Putin will do next, which could be anything from shooting down another civilian airliner to annexing Lithuania or Poland or the rest of Ukraine, apparently. Other stories deemed worthy of the front page are the Duffy Drama, a Chinese guy in BC charged with spying for China, and a court ruling about Canadians' legal rights to portage a canoe.

But no front page news about Gaza.

I'm leafing through the paper... mayor dies of wasp sting... car gets stolen... Rob Ford...

Pages 6 and 7 are entirely given over to anti-Putin propaganda presented as an insiders report on the imaginary Donetsk People's Republic.

Still no Gaza news.

On page 8 I was shocked to learn that big-talkin' John Baird wants Europe to take a tougher line toward Moscow.

Finally, on page 9, I encounter a Gaza story; "Hamas shows resilience despite shelling."

Hmm... that's not a good sign. Globe editors with an admiring headline for Hamas? Things must be going worse than we realize in Netanyahu's "Operation Over the Cliff."

OK, no wonder they buried it on page 9.

So today I pick up my paper, and guess what the top story is? Putin! Oh for f@cks sakes! And once again two pages of anti-Putin propaganda on pages 6 and 7!

First glimpse of Gaza-related news comes on page 8, where I learn that Ottawa has not yet formally banned flights to Israel but Air Canada is cancelling them anyway.

They're probably anti-Semites.

The editorial board at The Globe and Mail, on the other hand, should know better than to bury the biggest story in the world deep in their newspaper.

Russian tanks advance on Kiev

Operatives in the Falling Downs network have forwarded images of Sovi... I mean Russian tanks heading in the general direction of Ukraine's capital. This confirms a story seen earlier on Deutsche Welle about a Russian tank column having crossed the border into Ukraine.

Pictures don't lie.

The German news organs claim that there are ongoing discussions between Putin and Poroshenko. Of course they would say this, because the Germans are keen on appeasing Putin, just like they tried to appease that Chamberlain chap back in the 30's.

And isn't it just like the sneaky commi... I mean Russians to slip a tank battle group across the border while the world is distracted by the latest jihadi hi-jinx in Iraq!

Bullshit story of the day

In case you missed it here is a link to a BBC story about a Hezbollah arms cache found by Nigerian authorities.

Yup, Hezbollah is keeping weapons stores in the Land 'o Good'nuff Jonathan.

I guess the wily Shiites are keeping a few RPGs out of harms way, and four thousand miles away from the Lebanon-Israel border would seem safe enough.

At least they're out of range of the IAF F-16's that haunt Lebanon's skies on a daily basis.

You have to especially like the last sentence in the BBC report; the local Boko Haram terror outfit has been getting support from al-Qaeda-linked militants in other countries.

Like Hezbollah!

The only story here is that the Goodluck government is obviously so out of luck and utterly desperate for Western support that they are making up stories beyond ridiculous.

Horsemeat baloney knocks eurocrisis off front page

Does it really matter if the ground "beef" you throw into the chili came from Black Beauty instead of Betsy the cow?

Apparently over there among your effete European connoisseurs of all things beef it does.

Meanwhile there's a move afoot in Oklahoma to reintroduce horse meat processing in the state, which used to account for a healthy export trade of horse meat to Europe.

In Ontario there are at least 13,000 horses destined for the sausage factory since the provincial government stabbed the horse racing industry in the back.

So there's no shortage of product, and the Europeans have been eating the stuff for years, so why the sudden issue?

Even corporate uber-pirate Nestle was in the news today because researchers found horse DNA in some of their processed foods. Of all the indignities Nestle has perpetrated on the food chain I would think this is one of the least malign.

I think it's one of those manufactured front page "issues" designed to take your mind off more important stories.

Canadian journalism's reputation threatened by shabby journalism

That's a lame bit of reportage on view at the Globe and Mail.

Campbell Clark manages to spin 1500 words of uncorroborated speculation into a vaguely threatening yarn about Islamic terrorists using Canadian passports, with not so much as a nod in the direction of the well-documented use of Canadian passports by Israeli agents.

Maybe that's why the Islamists have started using them; border guards around they world will automatically assume they are Israeli secret agents!

Today's Toronto Star offers a similarly ahistorical perspective in a story about women's rights in Afghanistan.
(What Afghan women fear, p A3)  After reading this story by Hamida Ghafour one could be forgiven for thinking Afghan history began in 2001, before which a centuries-long reign of Islamist darkness ruled the land

This conforms neatly to the narrative the Nations of Virtue like to project; that the world would be a wretched place indeed if not for our civilizing efforts. The truth of the matter is that women in Afghanistan were free to be educated and free to work in the bad old days of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, but Cold War imperatives compelled the USA to destroy that society by creating, arming, and funding the Taliban.

The subtext is obvious; without the civilizing hand of the occupiers, all the gains made by Afghan women in the past ten years are at risk.

The Toronto Star's bullsh@t headline of the week

Yesterday the Toronto Star carried this headline on page A16; Mali residents repel rebels.

In the first place you want to high five the editor who came up with that triple alliteration. Well played, my friend!

And that certainly looks like a good-news story! Maybe they don't even need the forces of Hollande the Conqueror if they're going to stand up for themselves.

The subhead is even cheerier; Islamists driven out of Diabaly by brave townspeople.

By God, those folks have found their backbone! Wonder what they're driving the limb-hacking, child-raping forces of evil out of town with?...

Prayer?

Spears?

Some divinely empowered combination of the two?

Turns out the brave townspeople are ringing up the French commanders and calling in French air strikes. The story in the Star is this story from McClatchy with a little tweaking of the title.

Chadians advance in Mali: case study in Media Bullshit 101

Here's a headline from Reuters.

"Chadians advance in troop moves against Mali Islamists."

Take a glance at that headline, and whoa! You know Hollande's blackface backup crew has arrived!

Hallelujah!

Then start reading the story.

Oh, seems the Chadians and their troop moves aren't actually in Mali...

This is from Reuters, one of the most trusted brands in news reporting...

The trouble with headlines

Take this one  for example; "1,600 businesses sign up for BB 10 training."

What the hell does that mean?

Does that mean "Toys 'r Us" or "Nails r us?"

Ford Motor Company or Rob Fords Used Car Emporium?

General Electric or Jerry's Electric?

General Motors or Bob's General Repairs?

They're all businesses...

From everything I've heard RIM just might have a gamechanger ready to unleash, but bullshit headlines like this don't help their case.

Why is Latvia suddenly newsworthy?

Latvia?

Newsworthy?

Don't take my word for it. Google "Latvia".

You'll get a bunch of stories about how the austerity agenda has worked wonders. Latvia's GDP per capita has almost hit pre-austerity levels.

You'll get another bunch of stories about how the austerity agenda has caused half the population to flee the country.

When you think it through, those two stories actually work well together.

Of course the GDP per capita goes up when people leave the country!

The latest to pile on the Lettisch newswagon is none other than Hillary herself. 


That's the third Latvian theme. 


Hillary figures this is a good time for the present government of Latvia to compensate everybody who ever lost property to either the Nazis or the Communists. 


When Hillary bestrides the headlines with moronic statements like that, it can only be because she is trying to draw your eye away from something else.

US General busted recycling his own media releases

I see where AFRICOM boss General Carter Ham is all over the news today sounding the alarm about “Islamist militants” in Africa joining forces to wreak havoc on the African renaissance currently being enjoyed by Libya, Tunisia, et al.

Carter’s warning bells rang a bell, as it were, and low and behold, with a little digging you’ll find it was just back in February that the good General ran the exact same story through the news cycle! (See for example the AP story of 29 Feb. US General: 3 Africa terror groups may collaborate.)

But that’s not all! General Ham was floating the same news balloon way back in September of last year! (See for example AP story of 14 Sept. 2011 General worried by terror collaboration in Africa.)

This constant recycling of the same story points to a serious weakness in AFRICOM’s  psy-ops capabilities.

How are you gonna scare anybody if you keep trotting out the same old story?

Why it's so easy to scoop the New York Times

Even for “pot-addled hillbillies”.

And not just the Times of course, or the Globe or Reuters.

You see, it’s not that they’ve been “scooped,” it’s just that they choose to ignore certain stories.

Here’s a fine example. For almost a year major American media outlets reported the fiction that the conflict in Syria consisted of the Syrian military on the one side and “unarmed protesters” on the other. Then in February CNN aired video that had come to it via the BBC that showed a completely different reality.

Suddenly the “unarmed” protesters were very well armed indeed. Who knew?

The very networks and news sites who had failed to pass this news on to the news consumers obviously knew, but chose not to share the information. The information that the Syrian opposition was armed from the beginning of the uprising was readily available on news sites from Turkey, Russia, and Iran among others.

So why did so many media outlets suppress this crucial aspect of the story? Because it doesn’t fit into the over-arching narrative, which requires an evil dictator on the one side and innocent victims on the other, just like in Libya.

The purpose of this “news” isn’t so much to inform us of what’s going on; it’s to groom us for the next “humanitarian intervention”.

Similarly, coverage of the never-ending eurobaloney crisis has it’s own not unrelated narrative, and the “news” we are permitted is all about how the irresponsible over-spending under-working Greeks are the authors of their own misfortune and only a strong dose of neo-liberal tough love can save them.

It simply wouldn’t do to write stories about how the same clutch of  financial wizards who profited every step of the way while Greece was running up huge debts continue to profit from these supposed “bail-outs”.

So these “scoops” aren’t scoops at all. If our news media were about delivering news I’m sure they know where to find these stories.

But they’re in the business of propaganda.

Waziristan drone festival bags al-Qaeda top gun twice in a week

Seems like they got yet another high-ranking senior al-Qaeda number two leader the other day.

"This would be a serious blow to al-Qaeda, getting the number two leader twice in less than a week" said a US Army spokesman.

That must be one unique organizational structure those towelers have going. Nobody at the top, nobody at the bottom, and the other dozen or so guys are all either "no. 2" or "senior leaders".

This particular fantasy is on view at the Washington Post website at the moment. The al-Qaeda chimera is a terror network in constant flux, that's for sure. There seems to be no end to the "senior leaders" we're knocking off. I guess the rank and file are all those collateral damage civilians who might have raised a hand against us if they'd had the chance.

Every once in awhile when Obama or Biden is trying to make the case for leaving Afghanistan you'll hear them talk about how al-Qaeda is all but wiped out. In fact, I saw where Panetta was making exactly that case just today. But you watch, they'll bag a few more senior leaders before the month is out.

Of course everytime you kill anybody over there, senior leader or not, you've made an enemy for life. The brothers, the sons, the cousins, the in-laws, the rest of the village will all be biding their time till they can wreak vengeance.

So lets keep celebrating our success and wondering why they hate us.

How do you like those NATO rebels now?

The Guardian has an interesting story about how the various NATO empowered militias have become the scourge of civil society in post Gaddafi Libya. In this most recent episode a rebel faction kidnapped a prominent surgeon and human rights activist and tortured him for a few days, just to let him know that it's the guys with guns who call the shots, and not the NTC crowd busy getting the oil flowing for their NATO overlords.

In short, they've had a taste of power and they like it. They like it so much it doesn't look like they intend to turn it over to the pathetic NTC any time soon.

Al Jazeera has a story about another rebel group taking over the Tripoli airport. What's obvious is that there is no central authority that can hold the estimated 500 rebel factions to account.

And what are the Nations of Virtue saying about Libya's decline into anarchy? Why nothing of course. The US/NATO hegemon has moved on to greener pastures, and the Western media has moved along with them.

The media are all over saving Syria next.

If the salvation of Syria looks anything like the liberation of Libya they should spare themselves the trouble and let the Syrians figure it out.

In the meantime they could, just as a goodwill gesture, return to Libya and clean up the mess they created there.

The art of shoveling sh*t

This is about the New York Times and CNN. If you were hoping for some tips on scooping up dog turds, move along, nothing to see here.

Thom Shanker has a macho fluff piece in the NYT today about how America is taking its Afghan & Iraq experience and settling into Honduras to get serious about the war on drugs.

It's a story remarkable for the utter stupidity of its underlying assumptions. Here's just a few:

• something was learned in Afghanistan and Iraq
• that knowledge is transferable
• drug cartels are interchangeable with resistance fighters
• more guns will solve every problem
• America knows what's best for the rest of the world

It is reasonable to question whether this increased involvement in Honduras is about drugs at all. If it is, how can the educated and urbane Times readership possibly believe that the further militarization of the war thereon will bring about better results?

Meanwhile, over at the CNN website, Ashley Fantz has an extremely long-winded overview of the Mexican war on the cartels. The story contains nothing new except a revisionist spin that locates its beginning two years before Calderon and Bush hammered out the Merida Initiative, thereby absolving the US of any responsibility.

The reason these news outlets peddle such abject shit is because there is an audience for it. There are people who find these stories entertaining at some level, and that's all news aims to be.

News doesn't have to be new.

News doesn't have to be true.

It just needs to find a consumer.