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Western media ‘complicit in hiding truth’ of Afghan war,
allowing ‘extraordinary lie’ to last two decades – WikiLeaks'
25 Aug, 2021 20:36
The abrupt US withdrawal from Afghanistan should not surprise anyone, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson told RT, saying the fact that Washington was able to deceive the world for two decades is more shocking.
Washington’s 19-year-long war campaign in Afghanistan was one “big lie” that only benefited America’s military industrial complex and private contractors, Hrafnsson said. The WikiLeaks editor-in-chief said it was not the ongoing chaotic withdrawal of the US and its allies that was now a surprise, but the fact that mainstream media did not catch on to the lies which prolonged the war long ago.
WikiLeaks published a trove of documents that “all painted a true picture of what was going on in Afghanistan 11 years ago,” Hrafnsson said, referring to the so-called Afghan War Diary – a collection of internal US military logs, diplomatic cables and CIA documents covering the period between 2004 and 2010.
The leak that included a total of 91,000 documents was considered one of the biggest in US military history. It did hit the headlines at that time, eventually leading to the arrest and prosecution of whistleblower Chelsea Manning and put WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange in Washington’s crosshairs.
Yet despite the document dump, somehow the general perception of the Afghan war did not change and “the lies continued,” Hrafnsson said, calling such a state of affairs “astonishing.”
“It is extremely surprising how long this went on,” the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief said, calling the war “an extraordinary 20-years-[long] lie.” It became the “forgotten war,” overshadowed by another US military adventure – the war in Iraq, he believes.
Discussions about what was truly going on inside the country were “largely avoided” until the Washington Post exposed it all over again by publishing the so-called Afghan papers in 2019, he said.
The documents, obtained by the Post through Freedom of Information Act requests, painted a picture of a sustained effort by several US administrations to mislead the American public on the engagement in Afghanistan.
Hrafnsson accused Western media that paid no attention to the reality of being “complicit in concealing this truth” and allowing it to happen. “There is a lot of soul-searching in my mind that the journalists have to do,” he added.
Ultimately, it was the US military industrial complex that benefited from what appears to be a tremendous waste of money, the WikiLeaks editor said.
Of course, isn't that what war is for?
“More than a trillion of dollars did go into the pockets of the US military industrial complex and private contractors that were supposedly training the Afghan police,” he told RT, adding that America’s biggest arms manufacturers saw “a tenfold increase" in their stock value over the 20 years the war lasted.
It was a massive flow of money that went into the wrong pockets and it can be only called corruption on a large scale.
The truth about the war has now been laid bare for everyone to see as Washington and its allies are frantically pulling out of Afghanistan, which fell into the hands of the Taliban in mere weeks. However, it is unlikely to change the political course of the western elites that still prefer to “punish the truth-tellers” rather than draw lessons from their own mistakes, Hrafnsson believes.
But, you see Kristinn, it was never a mistake for the American elites; it was very profitable. The number of lives lost and life-long injuries incurred matter not in the least. They made kazillions of dollars and that's all that matters.
“The war that is going now is the war on journalism and a war on Julian Assange, who still has to spend time in jail in London,” he said, adding that Assange’s prosecution is “political.”
“It is not about the law anymore... Will the truth matter there? I doubt it,” he said.
If we had some real investigative reporters in America, they would uncover the connection between the media and the military industrial complex. This is Deep State!
Row over appointment of ‘left-wing’ editor continues to fuel
debate about broadcaster’s impartiality
30 Aug, 2021 12:40
A controversial new hire at the BBC has reignited discussion about the outlet’s political neutrality, while also prompting allegations that the British government has too much influence over the public broadcaster.
Reports emerged last week revealing that Jess Brammar, former editor-in-chief of Huffpost UK, had been tapped by the BBC to serve as its executive news editor. Her appointment was scrutinized in a piece published by the Mail on Sunday, which pointed to the “left-winger’s” previous criticisms of Brexit and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The article claimed that Robbie Gibb, a member of the BBC board, warned that Brammar’s appointment would shatter the government’s “fragile trust in the BBC.”
The report led to accusations from both sides of the political divide: conservatives claimed that Brammar’s new job was further proof of the BBC’s left-wing bias, while critics of the Tory government alleged that Johnson was attempting to influence the public broadcaster’s hiring decisions.
Things quickly escalated after Lewis Goodall, policy editor of the BBC’s current affairs programme Newsnight, publicly defended Brammer against her critics. Brammer had previously worked as a deputy editor for Newsnight.
In a tweet, Goodall lashed out at the “unhinged” and “simply misogynistic” attacks on Brammer published in the Mail.
But the tweet was quickly scrubbed. According to Goodall, he had been asked by the BBC to delete the commentary, apparently because it concerned an “internal matter.”
The Daily Mail responded by provocatively claiming that Goodall had been “silenced” by the BBC for “sticking up” for his “new anti-Brexit boss.”
The scandal continues to divide pundits. Emily Bell, a professor at Columbia Journalism School, argued that the episode revealed how Downing Street uses “friends” on the BBC board to “de facto dictate” appointments to the BBC.
Well, that didn't seem to work!
Others said the saga was a clear example of “media censorship in Britain.”
But critics of Brammar’s appointment have continued to highlight the BBC’s alleged left-wing bias.
Meanwhile, in recent tweets, Goodall has criticised the government for not being more forthcoming with the media regarding the fallout from the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. But his complaint has elicited shrugs from those who argue that the BBC has only itself to blame for “pandering” to Downing Street.
The BBC has long faced accusations of political bias. In June, Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis was found in violation of impartiality rules after she shared a tweet critical of the government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis. In recent months, some of the outlet’s new hires have faced scrutiny for their alleged left-wing leanings.
ECHR says Russia failed to examine 2009 death of
activist Natalya Estemirova
By Zarrin Ahmed
Flowers are seen with a photo of journalist and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova in Moscow, Russia, on August 24, 2009, about a month after she was found dead. File Photo by Maxim Shipenkov/EPA
Aug. 31 (UPI) -- The European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday that Russian authorities failed to properly investigate the death of journalist and human rights activist Natalya Estemirova more than a decade ago.
Estemirova was abducted and killed in Chechnya on July 15, 2009. No one has ever been charged in her death.
The court said Tuesday that it found no evidence of Russian state involvement in Estemirova's death and Moscow can't be held responsible.
The ruling noted, however, that authorities' "cynical inaction" led to an intensified assault on human rights.
The judgement also said there were parallels between Estemirova's death and the assassination of human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, who reported purported human rights abuses in Chechnya.
Estemirova was a high-profile defender of human rights who investigated disappearances, extrajudicial executions and torture during the Chechen conflict between 1999 and 2009. She was often the target of criticism and threats from Chechen authorities.
"The perpetrators of these and other crimes ... have enjoyed complete impunity for their actions," Amnesty International said in a statement after Tuesday's ruling.
The France-based European Court of Human Rights is a court of last resort for rights cases in Russia and Moscow is bound by its rulings.
Chechnya
Facebook, Twitter & Telegram face nearly $1 million in fines
for repeated failure to delete content
4 Sep, 2021 13:09
Social media giants Telegram, Facebook and Twitter are facing a fresh round of fines in Russia totaling 72 million rubles, or $988,605, for refusing to delete illegal content.
“[Moscow’s Tagansky district] court received two protocols in relation to Telegram, drawn up under the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation for ‘Failure to delete information by the information resource under legislation on information, information technology and information protection.’ The maximum sanction for this offense is a fine of up to eight million rubles,” the court stated on Saturday.
Five protocols for a similar offense were received against Facebook and two more in relation to Twitter. Court hearings are to take place on September 14.
Facebook is currently facing another fine in Russia of 40 million rubles ($549,231), while Twitter and Telegram face additional fines of 16 million rubles ($219,688) each for the same violations. The companies have not been eager to pay up, and Facebook tried to appeal against the court’s previous decisions, but to no avail.
In total, since the start of the year, Facebook alone received 49 million rubles ($672,800) in court fines in Russia.
Since February, Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor has been drawing up administrative protocols in relation to social networks and instant messengers that have not removed posts with calls to participate in unauthorized political actions in the country.
Separately, last month Russian authorities fined Facebook, Twitter and messaging service WhatsApp for failing to process Russian users’ private data exclusively within the country.
Russia has been increasingly watchful in terms of regulation of social media, with many fines issued since the beginning of 2021 for a variety of content violations. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year accused tech firms of operating unaccountably, and their decision-making led only by their own best interests.
“These platforms are, of course, primarily businesses…and what is the primary concern of a business? Making a profit. They don’t care if this content or that content causes harm for the people at whom it is directed,” the Russian president said in February, stressing that the major problem is that IT companies are increasingly beginning to control people’s consciousnesses.
Fauci never lies? CNN, NYT, WaPo & other MSM outlets ignore report
showing US funded coronavirus research in Wuhan before pandemic
9 Sep, 2021 18:10
in Washington, DC, US on July 20, 2021. © Reuters / J. Scott Applewhite
America’s biggest media outlets refused to cover the news this week that the US funded bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology years before the Covid-19 pandemic – a fact Dr. Anthony Fauci has denied.
More than 900 documents were obtained by The Intercept, following a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) that revealed the NIH gave millions of dollars in grants to the US NGO EcoHealth Alliance. Nearly $600,000 was used at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, at least partially “to identify and alter bat coronaviruses likely to infect humans.”
“Even before the pandemic, many scientists were concerned about the potential dangers associated with such experiments,” The Intercept reported, publishing quotes from several people concerned about the relation between the research and the health crisis affecting the world today.
The grant used to research bat coronaviruses was active between 2014 and 2019. Former president Donald Trump shut down a decision to renew the funding in 2020, after Covid-19 became a global pandemic.
Despite the newsworthiness of The Intercept’s bombshell report, the US’ largest media outlets – including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC – failed to air or publish any coverage. Fox News on Thursday scanned through transcripts from CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, and ABC News and found the report had not even been mentioned this week. Similarly, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, Axios, USA Today, and even the Associated Press failed to report on the concerning development online.
“Shame on the other networks and print news. It seems they don’t like reporting the truth,” protested one American on social media, arguing that the story was even “bigger than Watergate.”
“If corporate media doesn’t acknowledge, did it really happen?” questioned another person, while others accused the media organizations that omitted the report of being “propaganda outlets” that wanted to suppress the truth.
Conservatives questioned whether National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) President Dr. Anthony Fauci had lied to Congress about the NIH’s funding of Wuhan coronavirus research. Fauci has repeatedly denied the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and its sub-institute, the NIAID, funded gain-of-function research since he was grilled about the matter by Republican Senator Rand Paul in May.
Fauci told Paul the NIH “has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” to which Paul responded with the warning that “it is a crime to lie to Congress.”
On Tuesday, following the release of The Intercept’s report, Paul tweeted, “Surprise, surprise – Fauci lied again... And I was right about his agency funding novel coronavirus research at Wuhan.”
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