All posts tagged: CNN

CNN Hires Top al-Qaeda Propagandist for Documentary

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by Jay Syrmopoulos, July 12, 2017, Free Thought Project Bilal Abdul Kareem, of On the Ground News, was contracted by CNN to film a documentary called Undercover in Syria.  Kareem is a self-proclaimed media activist living in rebel-held Syria and is considered “one of the top English-language propagandists for al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabat al-Nusra,” according to an Alternet expose on Abdul Kareem and his connections to terrorism and CNN. On June 16 Abdul Kareem went public with his intimate connection to CNN, and its documentary “Undercover in Syria”.  He relayed his frustration with the network, having essentially whitewashed him out of his credit for a documentary he had a large hand in creating for CNN, which won a prestigious Peabody Award. Abdul Kareem explained how CNN contracted him and his online news outlet, On the Ground News, to film the award-winning documentary. “This was with CNN and their correspondent Clarissa Ward, which I have big-time respect for, big-time respect as a journalist, as a person,” Abdul Kareem said. “This Undercover in Syria, you can Google it — it won the prestigious Peabody Award, and …

The Western media refute their own lies on Syria

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by Michel Chossudovsky, 7 April 2017, globalresearch.ca The Western media refute their own lies. Not only do they confirm that the Pentagon has been training the terrorists in the use of chemical weapons, they also acknowledge the existence of a not so secret “US-backed plan to launch a chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime”  London’s Daily Mail in a 2013 article confirmed the existence of an Anglo-American project endorsed by the White House (with the assistance of Qatar) to wage a chemical weapons attack on Syria and place the blame of Bashar Al Assad. The following Mail Online article was published and subsequently removed. Note the contradictory discourse: “Obama issued warning to Syrian president Bashar al Assad”, “White House gave green light to chemical weapons attack”. This Mail Online report published in January 2013 was subsequently removed from Mail Online. For further details click here The Pentagon’s Training of  “Rebels” (aka Al Qaeda Terrorists) in the Use of Chemical Weapons CNN accuses Bashar Al Assad of killing his own people while …

MSM and Selective Blindness

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The McCarthy-like witch-huntery is gaining momentum. Where it’s going is hard to gauge…but, where ever it is, it will get there fast. Currently in the media cross-hairs is Trump’s AG Jeff Sessions. He is accused of lying about talking to the Russian Ambassador when asked by the Senate, his defence being he didn’t speak to them about the election, which is how he understood the question. He contends that, as a Senator and member of the Armed Services Committee, it was not unusual for him to be contact with the Russian Ambassador’s office. Essentially, unless you’re inclined to believe that a career politician who, in over 30 years in public office, never had a kind word to say about either Russia or the USSR has actually s been a deep cover agent for the past few decades, it seems like a minor semantic misunderstanding. It probably means nothing…as an issue in and of itself. As a chess move relating to the crazy media storm and intelligence leaks trying to undermine the new administration, it means …

CNN using intentionally misleading headlines (again)

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This is CNN’s latest article on the all ways Trump is allegedly linked to Russia, Russian spies and Vladimir Putin. Above, a screen-grab of their headline. It seems intercepted communications show that members of Trump’s campaign were “in contact” with Russian officials. This is shocking and treason and stuff, so the CNN brought in “intelligence experts” to analyse what all this could mean. It’s all very serious. Buried half-way through the story is this: Officials emphasized that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual. “Not unusual”. So what it could mean…is nothing. So that’s that then.

Pannell Beaters…

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by Mark Doran Various friends of mine — smart folks, every one of them! — are telling me that they expect Donald Trump to be ‘Grassy Knolled’ by elements of the US ‘deep state’ before he even graduates from ‘President-Elect’ to ‘President’ on 20 January. I myself don’t think that such an event is especially likely … as, to me, it appears far more probable that he and the people around him will be ‘disciplined’ by various powerful forces — not least those that act through state-corporate media — to the extent that his entire project simply mutates into another ‘cookie-cutter’ US administration dedicated to neo-imperial violence and corporate empowerment. The media-based ‘disciplining’ to which I refer actually has two aspects to it — and both of them can already be discerned without the slightest difficulty: first, there is the smacking; secondly, there is the silence. The ‘smacking’ is what you get when something you have done, or are merely said to have done, is used as something for which you can be hammered in …

Urgent to [US] Progressives: Stop Fueling the Anti-Russia Frenzy

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by Norman Solomon, via Antiwar.org This week began with a mass email from the head of the Democratic National Committee, who declared: “By now, Americans know beyond any reasonable doubt that the Russian government orchestrated a series of cyberattacks on political campaigns and organizations over the past two years and used stolen information to influence the presidential campaign and congressional races.” DNC chair Donna Brazile went on: “The integrity of our elections is too important for Congress to refuse to take these attacks seriously.” The importance of election integrity had eluded Brazile when she was a regular on CNN, posing as neutral in the Clinton-Sanders battle.  “Brazile is not apologizing for leaking CNN debate questions and topics to the Hillary Clinton campaign during the Democratic primary,” the Washington Post reported last month.  “Her only regret, it seems, is that she got caught.” Many big factors affect any presidential race, and the Russian government may have tried to be one of them for the 2016 election – though it’s hardly the slam dunk that agencies like …

British Govt-Funded Outlet Offered Journalist $17,000 a Month to Produce Propaganda for Syrian Rebels

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by Rania Khalek, via AlterNet Emails reveal that a popular source for mainstream Western media is a U.K.-backed propaganda outlet. The Revolutionary Forces of Syria (RFS) media office, a major Syrian opposition media outfit and frequent source of information for Western media, is funded by the British government and is managed by Westerners operating out of Turkey, according to emails provided to AlterNet by a Middle East reporter RFS tried to recruit. The outlet stirred controversy this November when it released a video at the height of the Mannequin Challenge, a pop culture craze in which people compete for how long they can freeze in place on video.  The RFS video depicted a staged rescue by the White Helmets, the Western-funded rescue group that operates exclusively in rebel-held territory.  RFS quickly removed the video and issued an apology out of apparent concern that the staged rescue could raise questions about the authenticity of other videos by the White Helmets. Over the summer, the Middle East reporter, who asked not to be named, was contacted by an American acquaintance …

VIDEO: CNN cuts Congressman off 3 seconds after he mentions Wikileaks

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Poor CNN seem to be having more technical problems. Here we see Congressman Chris Collins having the satellite feed cut literally only three seconds after he says Wikileaks: CNN have had trouble with their satellite feeds before, their temperamental equipment has cut off reporters who bring up Clinton’s past: …and then prematurely ended interviews with African-American voters who endorse the “wrong” candidate: And this isn’t the only problem CNN have had working around “the W word” recently. A clip of the same host – Chris Cuomo – recently went viral when he claimed it was illegal for members of the public to view the wikileaks files, but that it was “different for the media”. Cuomo goes on to say: Everything you learn about [wikileaks], you’re learning through us.” You wish, CNN.

Well, that didn’t take long…

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by Kit The past two weeks, the ten days following our article predicting a marked increase in a pro-Syrian war rhetoric…there has been marked increase in pro-war rhetoric. The Guardian, CNN and the Washington Post have all published editorials decrying the West’s “lack of action” in Syria, and especially in Aleppo. In the Guardian, Janine di Giovanni declares that: The West cannot stand back and let Aleppo be destroyed” …although she is rather vague on what she would have “the west” do about it. A little background on Janine de Giovani: She is the middle-east editor for Newsweek, a fellow of the New America Foundation and a frequent speaker and author for The Council of Foreign Relations. No prizes for guessing the general tone of her article. She repeatedly compares Syria with Yugoslavia – maintaining the myth that the illegal NATO bombings were “humanitarian”, and neglecting to mention that the conflict nearly escalated into hostilities with Russia. She quotes “experts” from notionally non-partisan NGOs such as the Carnegie Institute and The Atlantic Council. One such …

Ukraine’s ‘October Surprise’ – may be coming in September

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by Justin Raimondo, from antiwar.com When a Russian FSB agent and a Russian soldier were killed by a team of Ukrainian saboteurs, and one of the captured Ukrainians was shown on Russian media in handcuffs, US ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt tweeted: US government has seen nothing so far that corroborates Russians allegations of a ‘Crimea incursion’ & Ukraine has strongly refuted them.” Apparently two dead Russians don’t count for much in Pyatt’s book: perhaps Putin personally killed them, and the whole thing is a set up. And how has Ukraine “strongly refuted” this accusation? According to the Ukrainian authorities, the captured would-be saboteur, one Yevgeny Panov, was “kidnapped” from his home town in Zaporizhia – a distance of some 200 miles – by the Russians and transported to Crimea. The Ukrainian police have solemnly announced that “We are taking all necessary measures to promptly, fully and impartially investigate all circumstances of this crime.” One has to admire the ability of the Ukrainian authorities to utter the most portentous absurdities with the perfect aplomb of …

“A System Rigged against Voters”

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by Eric Zuesse Even for the post of U.S. President, the preferences of the American people have only a marginal, if any, impact upon the selection of the person to occupy that post. In Colorado’s Republican race to win delegates to the Republican National Convention for selecting the Republican Presidential nominee, there was no primary, and there was no caucus.  As the Republican magazine National Review headlined on April 11th, attempting to justify what a Republican wag had just headlined as “Cruz Celebrates Voterless Win”: “Donald Trump Laid a Colorado Goose Egg because He Was Disorganized and Amateurish.”  Their argument (since they campaign for any Republican but Trump) was: he lost “because he was disorganized and amateurish” — not because he had been cheated by the Party-hierarchy. National Review explained that in the process which had been set up by the Colorado Republican Party (it’s set up by each individual state’s Republican Party, not by the National Republican Party), “delegates to the national convention would be selected at congressional-district conventions and the Republican’s [sic] state convention”, and this was done in …

Sanders Campaign gets Sparks and Sparkle

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by Bryan Hemming On February 12th this year Dan Froomkin, the influential Washington Editor of the Intercept, used an article slamming Hillary Clinton’s slavish adherence the doctrines of Henry Kissinger to solicit likely names for a ‘dream foreign policy team’. Taking up the challenge, I dashed off an email expressing grave doubts as to whether there were anywhere near enough politicians in the U.S. political establishment possessing sufficient knowledge of foreign affairs to form a whole team. Having said that, I do believe there is one politician eminently qualified to lead a dream foreign policy team, and she might even get to do it. “I cannot remain neutral any longer; the stakes are too high.” Using those words Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard resigned from her post as vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee on February 28th to endorse the candidacy of Bernie Sanders. Announcing her resignation on NBC’s Meet the Press she cited her main reason as being that members of the committee were proscribed from expressing their opinions in the primaries. And Gabbard has plenty of opinions, particularly on the abysmal failure of …

The Caesar Photos and Impunity in Syria

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by Steven Chovanec Western media are reporting headline claims that “new evidence supports claims about Syrian state detention deaths”, saying that “a leading rights group has released new evidence that up to 7,000 Syrians who died in state detention centres were tortured, mistreated, or executed”, noting that this information is a moral wakeup call and demanding that officials being held to account should be “central to peace efforts.” However, as is usually so, not everything is quite as it seems.  So let’s take a look at the facts. First the timing. As has been commonplace the timing of the reports like these have almost always coincided with important diplomatic meetings or just after important UN resolutions are passed. For example, beginning in mid-March claims began to pour in that Assad had been using chlorine bombs against his opponents.  Media reports would cite the fact that only 2 months later the government had already been accused of using chlorine 35 times.  What they failed to mention however was that no claims were made for an entire …

The Fakery of ‘The Free World’

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by Eric Zuesse 13 October 2015 is the release-date of the report from the fake investigation –by the governments of Ukraine, Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and later Malaysia — into who and what and why caused the shoot-down of the Malaysian MH17 Boeing airliner over the conflict-zone in Ukraine on 17 July 2014. That’s the plane which, at the last moment, was inexplicably instructed by the Ukrainian Government’s Air Traffic Control to go off the normal course avoiding the Ukrainian civil war zone over the east, and to go instead right into the war-zone. The airliner got shot down with all 298 aboard dead. Obama and his coup-installed Ukrainian Government blamed Russia immediately, and the European Union (which knew that he had actually taken Ukraine in a bloody February 2014 coup that was staged to look like a ‘revolution’) promptly caved to Obama’s demand to hike the anti-Russia sanctions that had been instituted in March 2014, when Crimea rejected Obama’s Ukrainian-coup-imposed government and held a referendum which resulted in Crimea’s switching to become again a part …

US “Repeatedly and Precisely” Bombs Afghan Hospital

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by Vaska Three days ago, during the night of October 2-3, and although it had the precise co-ordinates for the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, US-led NATO forces repeatedly bombed the medical facility bitself, leaving at least 22 people dead—12 staff members and 10 patients, including three children—and wounding 37 more. Ben Norton analyzes the US media reporting on this for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR): AFP, the first network to report the story, in the early hours of October 3, quoted NATO saying, “US forces conducted an air strike in Kunduz city…. The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility.” MSF promptly issued a statement (10/3/15), revealing that it had been “hit several times during sustained bombing and was very badly damaged.” In an update hours later, MSF said it “condemns in the strongest possible terms the horrific bombing of its hospital in Kunduz, which was full of staff and patients.” The humanitarian organization also indicated multiple times—and in bold capital letters—that “all parties to the conflict, …

Anatomy of a hatchet job: Regarding Women Cross DMZ in CNN’s Situation Room

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By Gregory Elich in Monthly Review A television news program opens with a clip of marching soldiers, an obligatory image when the subject is North Korea. A voice-over intones: “A bold, ambitious plan apparently sanctioned by Kim Jong Un. Is he in league with the women’s group to promote peace between North and South Korea?” The program in question is the April 6th broadcast of CNN’s Situation Room, with Wolf Blitzer and Brian Todd. The focus, an organization called Women Cross DMZ, and its audacious plan for thirty women peacemakers to walk across the demilitarized zone from North to South Korea in a symbolic gesture for peace. Symposiums will be held in Pyongyang and Seoul, where the group will engage in dialogue with women on both sides of the Korean border. Participants, Women Cross DMZ says, will “share our experiences and ideas of mobilizing women to bring an end to violent conflict.” The walk is timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the division of the Korean Peninsula, and one of its chief aims …

Does ISIS really smuggle “$3M worth of oil” into Turkey EVERY DAY?

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by BlackCatte Part 2 of our series “Questions you aren’t supposed to ask about ISIS”. Part 1 is here Last summer, quoting either David Cohen, the “US Treasury department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence” or a statement from Iraq Energy, a “non-profit policy Institute”, ISIS was suddenly revealed by media storm to be bootlegging crude across the Turkish border, and to be getting shockingly rich as a result. The media reaction was intense and – as ever – unified. Claims were rarely examined, sources rarely verified, amounts were often vague, but by God the message was clear. ISIS raking in cash: Extremists earn more than $1 million a day…” National Post October 23 …the ISIS–controlled oil market in Iraq…is believed to be raising at least $2 million a day…” CNN August 22 …ISIS Makes Up To $3 Million a Day Selling Oil…” ABC News August 2 …How ISIS makes up to $6M A DAY… Newsweek Nov 6 ISIS raises $1 million a day selling crude oil Daily Mail July 12 So incredibly successful were …