From Mike Wallace To Judith Miller

One of the greats of television journalism is dead. He passed away Saturday night at a caring home in the United States. 

At 93, Mike Wallace leaves behind a tremendous legacy. There is little question that American ingenuity takes the credit for the rise of TV journalism in the world. Mr. Wallace belonged to a generation of American TV professionals who set the standards for what we recognize globally today as news television. 

That generation of American journalists set the bar very high. 

That's the reason why the US media became so influential in the world. It certainly didn't happen because America had a formidable military power. 

What is unfortunate is that influential parts of US media failed to maintain the standards set by Mr. Wallace's generation, of rigorous questioning of authority. And of maintaining a credible distance between journalism and authority. Certainly the media's relationship with government must not be confrontational. But it should not be prone to government manipulation at critical times, such as when the state decides to launch a war of choice characterized by deceit. 

That's what happened with Judith Miller who misled The New York Times, the American people and the world on Iraq and the links between terrorists and WMD.  But she was not alone. NYT editors helped her and the paper become a PR arm for the government. It took one of those editors eight years to come clean on this. 

It gets worse. In recent years, some American editors willingly provided accreditation to intelligence agents disguised as journalists. It happened in the case of Roxana Saberi, caught red handed in Tehran spying for Central Intelligence Agency. She was released under a deal whose terms remain secret but appear to include a commitment on her part never to speak to US media about what she was doing in Iran. She was not a journalist and yet an editor of an American newspaper issued her a press card as cover for spying for CIA in another country. 

After 2002, a new type of journalism invaded US media and we in Pakistan experienced it firsthand. All of a sudden there was a rush of 'news reports' and opinion pieces all seemingly coming from diverse outlets quoting unnamed sources but reading from the same talking points: Pakistan is evil, nukes are up for grab, and this is a place worse than Iraq and hence needs to be fixed. 

None of this has anything to do with Mr. Wallace's legacy. 

And yet his passing provides us an opportunity to remember what endeared America to the world. It is the pure American ingenuity personified by Mr. Wallace's creed. That's the real face of America that the world should see. Not the militaristic, deceitful and the warmongering one personified by Ms. Miller, Ms. Saberi and those who backed them. Recently, this Miller-Saberi side of America has turned hateful, with the near assassination of Gabrielle Gifford and the brutal murder of an Iraqi mother in an American suburb. 

It's been a long way from Mike Wallace to Judith Miller. But it is Wallace that represents what's good about America. Let's stick to that. 

New York Times' Links To CIA Propaganda Established

The New York Times published a bogus claim of responsibility for the Norway attack. According to NYT, the attack was committed by 'Ansar al-Jihad al-
Alami' [Supporters of Global Jihad] which no one heard of before. Once a pro-Israel Christian terrorist was arrested, the NYT quietly removed this highlighted
part from its report. Of course, no apologies and no accountability for the broadsheets that cooperate with CIA in promoting wars. [CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

 

New York Times Caught Publishing CIA Propaganda On Norway Attack

An American investigative journalist uncovers how the New York Times tried to link the Norway attack to a Muslim group that doesn’t exist and then how it quietly pulled the story later from its online edition, without offering an apology. Alexander Higgins, also uncovers how two other news outlets, one American and the other British, continued to demonize Muslims hours after a Christian extremist was arrested.

SPECIAL REPORT | Monday | 25 July 2011
WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—In the first few hours after a Christian terrorist killed tens of Norwegians, the New York Times published a report claiming an unknown Muslim group, Ansar al-Jihad al-Aalami [Supporters of Global Jihad] has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Within a couple of hours of the attack, an online report warned that CIA and its broadsheets in the US media will exploit the attack to garner European support for the failing Afghan war.

This is exactly what many CIA-affiliated websites and ‘translation companies’ have been doing for the past decade, translating claims of responsibility after every terrorist attack anywhere in the world.

As expected, the New York Times published this claim quoting an unknown American analyst who said he saw the claim of responsibility on a website in Arabic and that he translated it into English.

The truth is that an ordinary discussion forum in Arabic, like millions of similar online forums, published what appears to be a celebratory note on the Norway attack arguing the attack was punishment for all the wrong done in Libya and Afghanistan, the two wars where Norway is a participant by default because of its NATO membership.

But nowhere in the Arabic was text there a claim of responsibility. Also, the person who posted the text in Arabic used a fake name.

So a claim by an unknown group that no one heard of, using a fake profile on a discussion forum? Any real journalist would ignore it.

But not the New York Times, which is famous for publishing absolute lies drafted by the CIA. The paper spent the whole of 2002 publishing sophisticated ‘news reports’ about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction complete with expert illustrations of alleged Iraqi weapons. One of NYT’s top reporters, Judith Miller, was discredited because she ran CIA-planted stories under her byline and went to jail in another case of harassment of a US diplomat and his wife who exposed US government lies on Iraq.

UK's The Sun knew it was al-Qaeda before anyone else! [CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

HOW NEW YORK TIMES
WAS CAUGHT

The credibility of the mainstream US media and its links to US government and the CIA is an open secret. The Pakistani military has accused the New York Times of running a ‘slander campaign’ against Pakistan, its military and its spy agency at CIA’s behest.

Even the Norwegian media was cautious when the NYT came up with this claim of responsibility. Norway TV did its own translation of the text and discovered there was no explicit claim of responsibility for the attack.

The investigative work that reveals NYT’s professional dishonesty was done by Alexander Higgins, and published on his blog under the telling title, Corporate Media Runs False CIA Story Stating Muslim Group Claimed Responsibility For Oslo  .

Here we reproduce images from Mr. Higgins blog along with their original captions that tell the full story.

[CLICK HERE to see how Fox News misled American viewers. Some parts of the US media were desperate to implicate Muslims. Pro-war lobbies want any excuse to continue a policy of deception and wars.]

CIA Runs B.S. Story That Muslim Group Claimed Responsibility For Oslo Bombings - Highlighted. Text & image courtesy of Alexander Higgins' blog. [CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

SHOOTER IS PRO-ISRAEL AND IMPRESSED
BY ANTI-MUSLIM AMERICANS

Mr. Higgins makes several interesting observations in his report.

The first is that Norway is a Muslim-friendly country that has not followed the American policy of harassing its Muslim community. It is also a supporter of Palestinian rights and an independent Palestinian state. The Norwegian government has also formally apologized for a couple of local newspapers that reprinted cartoons offensive to Muslims. So unlike the propaganda in American media, Muslims have little reason to attack Norway.

The second important observation is that while the American media continues to emphasize that the Christian extremist is anti-Islam, more important is the fact that he is pro-Israel and a big admirer of anti-Islam writers and bloggers in the US.

This last point is very critical because it confirms our longstanding argument that the United States government and in particular its main intelligence service the CIA are promoting anti-Muslim feelings inside the US and worldwide to continue their interventions in other countries in the name of war on terror. 

The anti-Pakistan propaganda worldwide is also the work of CIA and other elements of the US government. They have been using the same twisted methods of demonizing Pakistan that have come to the surface now after the Norway attacks.

Jihadica, one of many websites suspected of links to CIA that have sprung up to scare the Americans of Islam
and secure their support for endless wars in the Middle East. Photo courtesy of Alexander Higgins' blog
[CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE]

Ignore Guardian's Claim Of 'Fake' India WikiLeaks

The Guardian newspaper is claiming this report is 'fake'. Here is why you should disregard Guardian's claim for being biased:

WikiLeaks is not saying this. UK's Guardian newspaper is. It's one of 4 or 5 newspapers that have been selectively releasing the Wiki cables. About 1,200 have been released so far out of 251,000 or so. Guardian and others have manipulated the leaks to release material that supports US policy on Pakistan, specifically on Pakistani nukes and Pakistani policy on Afghanistan, India and Kashmir.

This selective approach was not limited to Pakistan. It extended to countries such as Russia and China, in addition to Pakistan, countries with whom US foreign policy is at odds.

WikiLeaks handed over the entire stash of cables to these 4 or 5 newspapers. What these papers did is to hold off everything and target these few countries in a surprising overlap with US objectives.

So the good work of WikiLeaks has been hijacked by these newspapers, including the Guardian.

Now there is this story in the Pakistani media and The Guardian is horrified that there is someone else practicing manipulation besides them.

Substantial parts of the story in Pakistani media is correct. It's only that The Guardian and the other newspapers are misleading the world public opinion by a selective focus on the things they want from WikiLeaks cables.

WikiLeaks did a good job of exposing US bully diplomacy, and here comes NYT, Guardian and 2 or 3 other 'partner' newspapers of WikiLeaks to selectively release the material to suit US policy objectives.