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Systematic Lies and Disinformation From Above
"In October 1962, John F. Kennedy, a level-headed president, sat in the White House and spoke with the Soviet leader Khrushchev through a secret "back channel" behind the backs of his generals and secret services and prevented Cuba's bombing and invasion - proposed by his whole "Joint Chiefs" and the CIA. Today, the generals must keep their president from panic reactions instead of the opposite."
SYSTEMATIC LIES AND DISINFORMATION FROM ABOVE
Interview with Mathias Brockers
[This interview published on April 18, 2018 is translated abridged from the German on the Internet, http://www.nachdenkseiten.de.]
When journalists agitate "against a people or group or go to war, the penal code must take effect," says author Mathias Brockers. "The way Russia was pilloried and accused in the case of Syria without any evidence borders on the illegal," Brockers says. This is one interview among others on the "chemical gas week at McMedia" and the terrible reporting on the world soccer match in Russia.
Mr. Brockers, you write on your blog: the West wants war. The NachDenkSeiten news portal has referred again and again to the manipulations and lies in current politics. You have long observed political developments. Is our situation really so terrible?
One can become fearful and worried after reading Trump's martial declaration of war on Twitter – "Get ready, Russia" – and the news that an American aircraft carrier is underway to the Syrian coast because two nuclear superpowers are directly colliding there. Great Britain and France rattle their swords against Russia and Germany also wants to join in possible military confrontations, at least according to the first statements of its new foreign secretary. The situation seems very dangerous tome. The current escalation did not develop accidentally but was brought about with the poison gas affair and the alleged new use of gas in Syria.
Sometimes you say the situation is even worse than at the time of the Cold War.
In the hottest phase of the Cold War during the Cuba crisis in October 1962, John F. Kennedy, a level-headed prudent president sat in the White House, spoke with the Soviet leader Khrushchev on a secret "back channel" behind the back of his generals and secret services and so prevented Cuba's bombing and invasion – proposed by his whole "Joint Chiefs" and the CIA. That was a happy eventuality for America and humanity because the Soviets had equipped their missiles stationed in Cuba with nuclear warheads – which the Americans did not know. A single missile at a metropolis on the East Coast would have been enough to trigger a disaster and a nuclear world war. Today, the exact opposite of a level-headed president governs with Trump. It seems as though the generals must keep their president from panic reactions instead of the opposite. To that extent, the situation is much more explosive than at that time.
What is your opinion about reporting in Germany? Does peace journalism or war-mongering dominate?
Journalists need not champion disarmament and peace. Their job is to report as comprehensively and objectively as possible. The penal code must take effect if they launch smear campaigns against a people or group or go to war. The way Russia was pilloried and accused in the case of Syria without any evidence is nearly illegal… Any journalist duty of care seems thrown overboard.
What causes this journalism? Editors know about clean work.
This is mob conduct. When a few leading wolves howl, the pack simply join in. There are only a handful of international corporations operating the mammoth news agencies, broadcast stations, and newspapers that set the tone. Whatever comes from the ticker is regarded as "serious" and is parroted… even if it is a conspiracy theory and not solid information, a chain of indications, suppositions, assertions, and suspicions without any evidence about the origin of the weapons and the perpetrators. That a sin register consisting of conjectures could provoke a great diplomatic crisis and be enough for a judgment is alarming.
"Fake news" and "conspiracy theories" are often announced by the highest authorities and disseminated by the McMedia outlets. Politics can be simply concocted with impudent brazen assumptions. The "Zeit" weekly journal confirmed this in declaring "no unequivocal evidence is necessary!"
Constitutional state norms are obviously secondary. This is astonishing in a paper that once represented the liberal constitutional state.
What does this mean for the future?
This means nothing good… Media and politics lose their already damaged trust again and again. The reason is systematic disinformation and lying, not social media or Russian trolls. More and more people notice since the patterns are repeated. The "poison gas week at McMedia" as I described the campaign is certainly a clear lesson… After the latest bombardments, Russia has now announced consequences. We can only hope Russia remains rational and does not get the idea of sinking a US warship in the Mediterranean…
That every second report may focus on nerve gas is frightening… 20 million Russians were murdered by Hitler's armies in the 2nd World War… With the current exaggerations, Russian bashing is hot air upwards… However, the German army and NATO want to arm since a great enemy is indispensable…
WAR IN TIMES OF DECREASING REASON
Missile Attack on Syria
By Gotz Aly
[This article published on 4/17/2018 is translated from the German on the Internet, http://www.berliner-zeitung.de.]
A former FBI director described Donald Trump as a liar who governs in the style of a Mafia boss. (German defense secretary) Ursula von der Leyen praises the bombing of Syrian facilities tweeted by Trump as "necessary." She assumes "a despicable attack of Assad against his population with poison gas."…
The missile attack carried out by the US, France, and Great Britain last weekend in Syria was actually in violation of international law. A UN mandate would have been necessary – but that never occurred. The same three NATO powers struck that extinguished Libya as a state in 2011 and left behind nothing but violence, misery, and death.
At that time, the French, British and US governments shamelessly exceeded a mandate for limited humanitarian interventions of the UN Security Council made possible by Russia and China. This serious breach of trust and law must be recalled when it is claimed today that Russia obstructs the Security Council. President Obama later described the Libya war as the most momentous mistake of his term in office.
The Spread of Human Rights and Democracy
Whether a poison gas attack occurred in Syrian Duma is now being scrutinized. If so, the question is whether the crime was committed by government troops or by the rebels. People in western capitals are unfortunately hardly interested in solid evidence. They should be reminded of several proven facts. In the 1980s, the US along with its NATO allies supported the Taliban in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union with modern weapons, advisors, funds, and places of retreat in Pakistan. This weapon brotherhood did not protect the rule of law, peace, and tolerance.
At the same time, the US allied with the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who – with poison gas – waged a war of aggression against Iran that killed hundreds of thousands of people. That war also did not serve the spread of human rights and democracy.
"Schroeder does not speak for all Germans"
When George W. Bush instigated the Iraq war in 2003 with Great Britain, an Iraqi arsenal of weapons of mass destruction was invented as a reason for war even though the UN weapon inspectors expressed considerable doubt. These were fairy stories or a web of lies as people know today and the former US Defense Secretary Colin Powell later admitted. The war justified in such a disgusting way made Al Qaida strong, produced the terror brigades of IS and sowed discord and hatred. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people were killed and millions reduced to abject poverty.
Happily, Gerhard Schroeder and Joschka Fischer kept Germany out of this orgy of violence. But the opposition leader at that time Angela Merkel tried to attack them from behind, encouraged the war-mongerer in Washington and declared "Schroeder does not speak for all Germans." Did she ever repent? I presume so but she is silent about this.
Whoever rashly takes sides today should remember all that.
RELATED LINKS:
Gabriel Krone-Schmalz, "The West Must Take the First Steps to Détente," February 15, 2018, https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/02/15/18806735.php and https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/04/14/18808465.php
Albrecht Mueller and Joachim Kleppe, "Ultimatums instead of Diplomacy," April 19, 2018, https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/04/29/18808857.php
Interview with Mathias Brockers
[This interview published on April 18, 2018 is translated abridged from the German on the Internet, http://www.nachdenkseiten.de.]
When journalists agitate "against a people or group or go to war, the penal code must take effect," says author Mathias Brockers. "The way Russia was pilloried and accused in the case of Syria without any evidence borders on the illegal," Brockers says. This is one interview among others on the "chemical gas week at McMedia" and the terrible reporting on the world soccer match in Russia.
Mr. Brockers, you write on your blog: the West wants war. The NachDenkSeiten news portal has referred again and again to the manipulations and lies in current politics. You have long observed political developments. Is our situation really so terrible?
One can become fearful and worried after reading Trump's martial declaration of war on Twitter – "Get ready, Russia" – and the news that an American aircraft carrier is underway to the Syrian coast because two nuclear superpowers are directly colliding there. Great Britain and France rattle their swords against Russia and Germany also wants to join in possible military confrontations, at least according to the first statements of its new foreign secretary. The situation seems very dangerous tome. The current escalation did not develop accidentally but was brought about with the poison gas affair and the alleged new use of gas in Syria.
Sometimes you say the situation is even worse than at the time of the Cold War.
In the hottest phase of the Cold War during the Cuba crisis in October 1962, John F. Kennedy, a level-headed prudent president sat in the White House, spoke with the Soviet leader Khrushchev on a secret "back channel" behind the back of his generals and secret services and so prevented Cuba's bombing and invasion – proposed by his whole "Joint Chiefs" and the CIA. That was a happy eventuality for America and humanity because the Soviets had equipped their missiles stationed in Cuba with nuclear warheads – which the Americans did not know. A single missile at a metropolis on the East Coast would have been enough to trigger a disaster and a nuclear world war. Today, the exact opposite of a level-headed president governs with Trump. It seems as though the generals must keep their president from panic reactions instead of the opposite. To that extent, the situation is much more explosive than at that time.
What is your opinion about reporting in Germany? Does peace journalism or war-mongering dominate?
Journalists need not champion disarmament and peace. Their job is to report as comprehensively and objectively as possible. The penal code must take effect if they launch smear campaigns against a people or group or go to war. The way Russia was pilloried and accused in the case of Syria without any evidence is nearly illegal… Any journalist duty of care seems thrown overboard.
What causes this journalism? Editors know about clean work.
This is mob conduct. When a few leading wolves howl, the pack simply join in. There are only a handful of international corporations operating the mammoth news agencies, broadcast stations, and newspapers that set the tone. Whatever comes from the ticker is regarded as "serious" and is parroted… even if it is a conspiracy theory and not solid information, a chain of indications, suppositions, assertions, and suspicions without any evidence about the origin of the weapons and the perpetrators. That a sin register consisting of conjectures could provoke a great diplomatic crisis and be enough for a judgment is alarming.
"Fake news" and "conspiracy theories" are often announced by the highest authorities and disseminated by the McMedia outlets. Politics can be simply concocted with impudent brazen assumptions. The "Zeit" weekly journal confirmed this in declaring "no unequivocal evidence is necessary!"
Constitutional state norms are obviously secondary. This is astonishing in a paper that once represented the liberal constitutional state.
What does this mean for the future?
This means nothing good… Media and politics lose their already damaged trust again and again. The reason is systematic disinformation and lying, not social media or Russian trolls. More and more people notice since the patterns are repeated. The "poison gas week at McMedia" as I described the campaign is certainly a clear lesson… After the latest bombardments, Russia has now announced consequences. We can only hope Russia remains rational and does not get the idea of sinking a US warship in the Mediterranean…
That every second report may focus on nerve gas is frightening… 20 million Russians were murdered by Hitler's armies in the 2nd World War… With the current exaggerations, Russian bashing is hot air upwards… However, the German army and NATO want to arm since a great enemy is indispensable…
WAR IN TIMES OF DECREASING REASON
Missile Attack on Syria
By Gotz Aly
[This article published on 4/17/2018 is translated from the German on the Internet, http://www.berliner-zeitung.de.]
A former FBI director described Donald Trump as a liar who governs in the style of a Mafia boss. (German defense secretary) Ursula von der Leyen praises the bombing of Syrian facilities tweeted by Trump as "necessary." She assumes "a despicable attack of Assad against his population with poison gas."…
The missile attack carried out by the US, France, and Great Britain last weekend in Syria was actually in violation of international law. A UN mandate would have been necessary – but that never occurred. The same three NATO powers struck that extinguished Libya as a state in 2011 and left behind nothing but violence, misery, and death.
At that time, the French, British and US governments shamelessly exceeded a mandate for limited humanitarian interventions of the UN Security Council made possible by Russia and China. This serious breach of trust and law must be recalled when it is claimed today that Russia obstructs the Security Council. President Obama later described the Libya war as the most momentous mistake of his term in office.
The Spread of Human Rights and Democracy
Whether a poison gas attack occurred in Syrian Duma is now being scrutinized. If so, the question is whether the crime was committed by government troops or by the rebels. People in western capitals are unfortunately hardly interested in solid evidence. They should be reminded of several proven facts. In the 1980s, the US along with its NATO allies supported the Taliban in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union with modern weapons, advisors, funds, and places of retreat in Pakistan. This weapon brotherhood did not protect the rule of law, peace, and tolerance.
At the same time, the US allied with the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who – with poison gas – waged a war of aggression against Iran that killed hundreds of thousands of people. That war also did not serve the spread of human rights and democracy.
"Schroeder does not speak for all Germans"
When George W. Bush instigated the Iraq war in 2003 with Great Britain, an Iraqi arsenal of weapons of mass destruction was invented as a reason for war even though the UN weapon inspectors expressed considerable doubt. These were fairy stories or a web of lies as people know today and the former US Defense Secretary Colin Powell later admitted. The war justified in such a disgusting way made Al Qaida strong, produced the terror brigades of IS and sowed discord and hatred. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people were killed and millions reduced to abject poverty.
Happily, Gerhard Schroeder and Joschka Fischer kept Germany out of this orgy of violence. But the opposition leader at that time Angela Merkel tried to attack them from behind, encouraged the war-mongerer in Washington and declared "Schroeder does not speak for all Germans." Did she ever repent? I presume so but she is silent about this.
Whoever rashly takes sides today should remember all that.
RELATED LINKS:
Gabriel Krone-Schmalz, "The West Must Take the First Steps to Détente," February 15, 2018, https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/02/15/18806735.php and https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/04/14/18808465.php
Albrecht Mueller and Joachim Kleppe, "Ultimatums instead of Diplomacy," April 19, 2018, https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2018/04/29/18808857.php
For more information:
http://www.freembtranslations.net
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