Censorship By Top Social Media Websites

Facebook pays low-wage foreign workers to delete certain content based upon a censorship list. For example, Facebook deletes accounts created by Palestinian resistance groups.

Digg was caught censoring stories which were controversial or too critical of the government. See this and this.

Now, even social media site Reddit – which helped launch the anti-Sopa Internet blackout and publicize GoDaddy’s slimy Sopa support – is doing the same thing.

As just one example, posts from this website are being censored by Reddit. Specifically, a friend of this site who has submitted stories to Reddit has received the following messages of rejection from a Reddit moderator named davidreiss666:

from davidreiss666 via /r/worldnews/

WashingtonBlog is not something we consider a good source for r/Worldnews.

from davidreiss666 via /r/worldnews/

Please submit that story from an alternate domain. Thank you.

And another moderator named Maxion:

from Maxion via /r/worldnews/

I am sorry but this submission is not appropriate for this subreddit.

There are certainly also more open-minded moderators at Reddit. But a couple of censors can squash discussion on entire topics.

Why Are They Censoring?

Why are they censoring?

Well, censorship is rampant in America … and social media has grown so big that it has become a target as well.

In addition, as I pointed out last year [for ease of reading, we'll skip indentation]:

Wired reported on Friday:

The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it.

On Thursday, Defense Department extreme technology arm Darpa unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program. It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media. SMISC has two goals. First, the program needs to help the military better understand what’s going on in social media in real time — particularly in areas where troops are deployed. Second, Darpa wants SMISC to help the military play the social media propaganda game itself.

This is more than just checking the trending topics on Twitter. The Defense Department wants to deeply grok social media dynamics. So SMISC algorithms will be aimed at discovering and tracking the “formation, development and spread of ideas and concepts (memes)” on social media, according to Darpa’s announcement.

***

SMISC needs to be able to seek out “persuasion campaign structures and influence operations” developing across the social sphere. SMISC is supposed to quickly flag rumors and emerging themes on social media, figure out who’s behind it and what. Moreover, Darpa wants SMISC to be able to actually figure out whether this is a random product of the hivemind or a propaganda operation by an adversary nation or group.

Of course, SMISC won’t be content to just to hang back and monitor social media trends in strategic locations. It’s about building a better spin machine for Uncle Sam, too. Once SMISC’s latches on to an influence operation being launched, it’s supposed to help out in “countermessaging.”

***

SMISC is yet another example of how the military is becoming very interested in what’s going on in the social media sphere.

Indeed, as I wrote in February:

I noted in 2009, in an article entitled “Does The Government Manipulate Social Media?”:

The U.S. government long ago announced its intention to “fight the net”.

As revealed by an official Pentagon report signed by Rumsfeld called “Information Operations Roadmap”:

The roadmap [contains an] acknowledgement that information put out as part of the military’s psychological operations, or Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary Americans.

“Information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and Psyops, is increasingly consumed by our domestic audience,” it reads.

“Psyops messages will often be replayed by the news media for much larger audiences, including the American public,” it goes on.

***

“Strategy should be based on the premise that the Department [of Defense] will ‘fight the net’ as it would an enemy weapons system”.

Indeed, the Pentagon publicly announced years ago that it was considering using “black propaganda” – in other words, knowing lies.

CENTCOM announced in 2008 that a team of employees would be “[engaging] bloggers who are posting inaccurate or untrue information, as well as bloggers who are posting incomplete information.”

The Air Force is now also engaging bloggers. Indeed, an Air Force spokesman said:

“We obviously have many more concerns regarding cyberspace than a typical Social Media user,” Capt. Faggard says. “I am concerned with how insurgents or potential enemies can use Social Media to their advantage. It’s our role to provide a clear and accurate, completely truthful and transparent picture for any audience.”

In other words, the government is targeting “social media”, including popular user-ranked news sites.

In addition, when you look at what the Israeli lobby has done with Megaphone software to automatically vote stories questioning Israel down and to send pro-Israel letters to politicians and media (see this, this and this), you can start to see how the U.S. military – an even larger and better-funded organization – could substantially influence voting on social news sites with very little effort.

Moreover,the military has outsourced many projects to private contractors. For example, in Iraq, much of the fighting has been outsourced to Blackwater. And governmental intelligence functions have largely been outsourced to private companies.

It is therefore not impossible that the government is hiring cheap labor to downvote stories on the social media sites which question the government, and to post pro-government comments.

(other governments and large companies “astroturf” online as well. See this, this and this.)

I pointed out the same month:

Government propagandists, their hired private contractors and useful idiots are creating “downvote bots” or scripts to bury stories which question the government.

***

One free, simple scripting program to create automatic downvotes of certain topics or news posters is called “Greasemonkey”, which is commonly used on large social news sites such as Reddit.

For example, there are some 2,480 hits … for the google search site:reddit.com greasemonkey downvote. This is some 2,480 times that Reddit users are publicly admitting to using greasemonkey (see also this).

Propaganda agents obviously aren’t going to publicly brag about what they are doing, and you can bet that their use of downvote bots is much greater. Moreover, they probably have more sophisticated software than Greasemonkey.

Today, Raw Story reports that the Air Force ordered software to manage army of fake virtual people:

Internet users would be well advised to ask another question entirely: Are my “friends” even real people?

In the continuing saga of data security firm HBGary, a new caveat has come to light: not only did they plot to help destroy secrets outlet WikiLeaks and discredit progressive bloggers, they also crafted detailed proposals for software that manages online “personas,” allowing a single human to assume the identities of as many fake people as they’d like.

The revelation was among those contained in the company’s emails, which were dumped onto bittorrent networks after hackers with cyber protest group “Anonymous” broke into their systems.

In another document unearthed by “Anonymous,” one of HBGary’s employees also mentioned gaming geolocation services to make it appear as though selected fake persons were at actual events.

“There are a variety of social media tricks we can use to add a level of realness to all fictitious personas,” it said.

Government involvement

Eerie as that may be, more perplexing, however, is a federal contract from the 6th Contracting Squadron at MacDill Air Force Base, located south of Tampa, Florida, that solicits providers of “persona management software.”

While there are certainly legitimate applications for such software, such as managing multiple “official” social media accounts from a single input, the more nefarious potential is clear.

Unfortunately, the Air Force’s contract description doesn’t help dispel their suspicions either. As the text explains, the software would require licenses for 50 users with 10 personas each, for a total of 500. These personas would have to be “replete with background , history, supporting details, and cyber presences that are technically, culturally and geographacilly consistent.”

It continues, noting the need for secure virtual private networks that randomize the operator’s Internet protocol (IP) address, making it impossible to detect that it’s a single person orchestrating all these posts. Another entry calls for static IP address management for each persona, making it appear as though each fake person was consistently accessing from the same computer each time.

The contract also sought methods to anonymously establish virtual private servers with private hosting firms in specific geographic locations. This would allow that server’s “geosite” to be integrated with their social media profiles, effectively gaming geolocation services.

The Air Force added that the “place of performance” for the contract would be at MacDill Air Force Base, along with Kabul, Afghanistan and Baghdad. The contract was offered on June 22, 2010.

It was not clear exactly what the Air Force was doing with this software, or even if it had been procured.

Manufacturing consent

Though many questions remain about how the military would apply such technology, the reasonable fear should be perfectly clear. “Persona management software” can be used to manipulate public opinion on key information, such as news reports. An unlimited number of virtual “people” could be marshaled by only a few real individuals, empowering them to create the illusion of consensus.

***

That’s precisely what got DailyKos blogger Happy Rockefeller in a snit: the potential for military-run armies of fake people manipulating and, in some cases, even manufacturing the appearance of public opinion.

“I don’t know about you, but it matters to me what fellow progressives think,” the blogger wrote. “I consider all views. And if there appears to be a consensus that some reporter isn’t credible, for example, or some candidate for congress in another state can’t be trusted, I won’t base my entire judgment on it, but it carries some weight.

“That’s me. I believe there are many people though who will base their judgment on rumors and mob attacks. And for those people, a fake mob can be really effective.”

***

“Team Themis” [tasked by the Chamber of Commerce to come up with strategies for responding to progressive bloggers and others] also included a proposal to use malware hacks against progressive organizations, and the submission of fake documents in an effort to discredit established groups.

HBGary was also behind a plot by Bank of America to destroy WikiLeaks’ technology platform, other emails revealed. The company was humiliated by members of “Anonymous” after CEO Aaron Barr bragged that he’d “infiltrated” the group.

And see this, this, this, this.

***

Postscript: Gaming social media is only one propaganda technique employed by the government:

• Famed Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein says the CIA has already bought and paid for many successful journalists

• The New York Times discusses in a matter-of-fact way the use of mainstream writers by the CIA to spread messages

• A 4-part BBC documentary called the “Century of the Self” shows that an American – Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays – created the modern field of manipulation of public perceptions, and the U.S. government has extensively used his techniques

• The Independent discusses allegations of American propaganda

• And one of the premier writers on journalism says the U.S. has used widespread propaganda

Top Social Media Websites Caught Censoring Controversial Content was originally published on Washington's Blog

For those involved in support of US government-sponsored disinformation and massive crimes that annually kill millions, harm billions, and loot trillions of the 99%’s dollars, I invite you to consider the quality of human relationships you wish to work for in creating your future.

National security and a brighter future is not a function of fear, manipulation, and psychopathic control. Our best security follows cooperation, justice under the law, dignity, and freedom.

Working for your best imagined self-expression of virtue may include a unique contribution from the inside of your agency. Please consider the wisdom of a “Scrooge conversion” to act for the benefit of all humanity rather than your self-proclaimed loveless “masters.” From Dickens’ 1843 text:

“Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.”

Public attraction to the stories of Star Wars and the Harry Potter books/movies recognize that our society’s jump to civilized relations for all of us might require support from people within the “dark side” acting as covert agents for building a brighter future.

Both Darth Vader (see video) and Professor Snape realized they were only tools of powers above them, things to be manipulated rather than sentient beings of free will. The severest irony is they both recognized their service to the “dark side” included deaths of their loved-ones and even themselves whenever convenient to their “masters.”

But that should be an obvious conclusion to those working in the real-world version of these analogies. They see it in the macro picture of millions killed every year through war and poverty, and in micro with individuals who they know.

Both Vader and Snape chose strategic heroism from their unique positions within the “dark side;” both became heros. One option is becoming a whistle-blower; Project Camelot is a popular venue for people in sensitive positions.

For years, I have recommended Truth and Reconciliation to exchange full truth and return of public assets for no prosecution. Indeed, I am prepared to speak on the 1%’s corporate media to present this option with full confidence it is the most efficient in ending the crimes and avoiding a violent end-game as the 1% are recognized for who they really are by the 99%.

“Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will inflict on their fellow humans to gain or maintain power…What is more, those who choose not to empathize may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it through our own apathy…If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”  – J. K. Rowling, Harvard Commencement, June 5, 2008.

As 1% face extinction, Scrooge, Darth Vader, Professor Snape offer advice was originally published on Washington's Blog

Would you support a war against Iran if you knew that:

• Iran has one of the largest Jewish populations in the world, and the second-largest in the Middle East behind Israel

• Jews are protected by the Iranian constitution, and are guaranteed seats in the Iranian parliament

• The CIA admits that the U.S. overthrew the moderate, suit-and-tie-wearing, Democratically-elected prime minister of Iran in 1953. He was overthrown because he had nationalized Iran’s oil, which had previously been controlled by BP and other Western oil companies. As part of that action, the CIA admits that it hired Iranians to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its prime minister

• If the U.S. hadn’t overthrown the moderate Iranian government, the fundamentalist Mullahs would have never taken over. (Moreover, the U.S. has had a large hand in strengthening radical Islam in the Middle East by supporting radicals to fight the Soviets and others)

• The U.S. armed and supported Iraq after it invaded Iran and engaged in a long, bloody war which included the use of chemical weapons. Here is former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meeting with Saddam Hussein in the 1980′s, several months after Saddam had used chemical weapons in a massacre:

• The U.S. has been claiming for more than 30 years that Iran was on the verge of nuclear capability

• The U.S. helped fund Iran’s nuclear program

• The U.S. has been actively planning regime change in Iran – and throughout the oil-rich Middle East and North Africa – for 20 years

• The decision to threaten to bomb Iran was made before 9/11

• America and Israel both support a group designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization which is trying to overthrow the Iranian government

• Top American and Israeli military and intelligence officials say that Iran has not decided to build a nuclear bomb

• Top American and Israeli military and intelligence officials say that – even if Iran did build a nuclear bomb – it would not be that dangerous, because Israel and America have so many more nukes. And see this

• American military and intelligence chiefs say that attacking Iran would only speed up its development of nuclear weapons, empower its hardliners, and undermine the chance for democratic reform

• The people pushing for war against Iran are the same people who pushed for war against Iraq, and said it would be a “cakewalk”. See this and this

• Well-known economist Nouriel Roubini says that attacking Iran would lead to global recession. The IMF says that Iran cutting off oil supplies could raise crude prices 30%. War with Iran would kill the American economy. And see this and this

• China and Russia have warned that attacking Iran could lead to World War III

Would You Support an Iran War If … was originally published on Washington's Blog

We’ve previously noted that there are real questions about who carried out the recent car bombs in India, Thailand and Georgia.

We’ve also noted that both America and Israel support the terrorist group MEK, made up of Iranians trying to overthrow the Iranian government through terrorism and through forged documents.

The Bangkok Post noted Sunday:

Four Iranians suspected of involvement in a botched bomb plot targeting Israeli diplomats in Bangkok were members of an exiled Iranian opposition group which wanted the incident to reflect badly on Teheran, Syedsulaiman Husaini, Shia leader of Thailand, said on Sunday.

He claimed the four belonged to the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organisation (also known as MEK, MKO and the People’s Mujahedeen Organisation of Iran, or PMOI) which aims to overthrow the current Iranian government.

Iran is primarily a Shia nation, and so the Shia leader of Thailand may just be supporting the Iranian government.

But given the fact that it makes no sense that Iran would attack its closest allies, it’s worth looking further, instead of rushing to war based upon incomplete evidence.

Thai Religious Leader Says Anti-Iran Terrorists Behind Car Bombs was originally published on Washington's Blog

We’ve repeatedly noted that the U.S. is oddly fighting on the same side as Al Qaeda in Syria.

We’ve also pointed out that top American and Israeli experts say that Iran has not decided to build a nuclear bomb, and that – even if Iran ever does decide to build one – it would pose no real threat to the U.S. or Israel.

Pat Buchanan echoes both facts, saying about Syria, “If its good for Al Qaeda, can it be good for us?”, and noting that Israel has 300 nukes, so Iran possessing a couple of nuclear bombs would pose no threat.

Like Buchanan or hate him … he’s right here.

“If Its Good For Al Qaeda, Can It Be Good For Us?” was originally published on Washington's Blog

Via: Ammo.net

Ammo.net explains:

The perceived hostility towards gun owners by President Obama has actually helped the firearms industry tremendously. Since the 2008 election, more Americans than ever before are purchasing firearms & ammunition. This has meant massive increases in sales by firearm & ammunition makers ….

Ammo.net informed us by email:

Starting in 2008 with the primary battle between then-Senators Clinton & Obama for the Democratic Party’s nomination, the firearm industry has experienced an unprecedented boom. Despite the lackluster economy, numbers such as the ones below when visually illustrated … show an industry which continues to experience record (and under-reported!) growth, thanks primarily to “the Obama effect”:

• Ruger’s firearm sales have gone from $117 million to $232 million, an increase of 98%
• Winchester’s sales of ammunition have gone from $431.7 million to $572 million, an increase of 33%
• Federal excise taxes collected on the sale of new firearms and ammunition has risen 48.3%
• January 2012 was the 20th straight month of increases in NICS background checks compared to the same month in the previous year
• Dec. 2011 saw over 1.41 million NICS background checks run, the most ever for a single month
• The few states which regularly report concealed carry permit numbers have seen increases in active permit holders ranging from 46% to 161%

The Greatest Gun Salesman In America: President Barack Obama was originally published on Washington's Blog

Reasons to Attack Iran

By leading anti-war activist David Swanson, author of Day Break and War Is A Lie, who runs the websites DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org (formerly AfterDowningStreet.org)

1. Iran has threatened to fight back if attacked, and that’s a war crime. War crimes must be punished.

2. My television says Iran has nukes. I’m sure it’s true this time. Just like with North Korea. I’m sure they’re next. We only bomb places that really truly have nukes and are in the Axis of Evil. Except Iraq, which was different.

3. Iraq didn’t go so badly. Considering how lousy its government is, the place is better off with so many people having left or died. Really, that one couldn’t have worked out better if we’d planned it.

4. When we threaten to cut off Iran’s oil, Iran threatens to cut off Iran’s oil, which is absolutely intolerable. What would we do without that oil? And what good is buying it if they want to sell it?

5. Iran was secretly behind 9-11. I read it online. And if it wasn’t, that’s worse. Iran hasn’t attacked another nation in centuries, which means its next attack is guaranteed to be coming very soon.

6. Iranians are religious nuts, unlike Israelis and Americans. Most Israelis don’t want to attack Iran, but the Holy Israeli government does. To oppose that decision would be to sin against God.

7. Iranians are so stupid that when we murder their scientists they try to hire a car dealer in Texas to hire a drug gang in Mexico to murder a Saudi ambassador in Washington, and then they don’t do it — just to make us look bad for catching them.

7. b. Oh, and stupid people should be bombed. They’re not civilized.

8. War is good for the U.S. economy, and the Iranian economy too. Troops stationed in Iran would buy stuff. And women who survived the war would have more rights. Like in Virginia. We owe Iranians this after that little mishap in 1953.

9. This is the only way to unite the region. Either we bomb Iran and it swears its eternal love to us. Or, if necessary, we occupy Iran to liberate it like its neighbors. Which shouldn’t take long. Look how well Afghanistan is going already.

10. They won’t give our drone back. Enough said.

The 10 Most Excellent Reasons to Attack Iran was originally published on Washington's Blog

Chris Christie

The defendant’s victory shames the Bush-appointed Christie, his successors from the Obama administration and those in the news media who accepted the prosecution version of events without digging deeper. Christie, at right, has long been touted in the media as a politician of national stature. But political reporters who focus on successful image-making make scant effort to examine such substance as his vast spending as a prosecutor — both in local politically driven cases such as Manzo’s and or in the tens of millions of dollars in no-bid contacts that he provided to his former Justice Department cronies.

Also, Manzo’s victory provides rare hope to other defendants nationwide who can now hope for justice if they are fortunate enough to find a fair judge, such as the Bush-appointed Linares. Linares has twice thrown out charges from prosecutors who were trying to create new law by prosecuting Manzo without a basis in legislation.

“This case,” said Manzo, a Democratic former state assemblyman, “hopefully will stand a long time for the proposition that federal prosecutors can’t come into a locality and selectively target local candidates thereby disrupting local elections with a federal political agenda.” He expressed thanks to the judge, whom he described as providing a “scholarly and fair” judgment in a 60-page decision.

Manzo praised also his attorney, John Lynch, as extraordinarily dedicated and talented, and thanked also the Justice Integrity Project for featuring his case beginning more than two years ago. The non-partisan project I direct, which takes no funding from defendants or their supporters, cited the Manzo case more than two years ago as a prominent national example of a political prosecution arising from the Bush administration’s 2006 political purge of nine of Bush’s first U.S. attorneys for political reasons, thereby leaving such fervent loyalists as Christie in office with incentive to use their vast powers for personal and party political gains.

Authorities have insisted they were prosecuting Manzo for legitimate reasons. Nonetheless, a spokeswoman told a New Jersey reporter after the verdict they would not pursue Manzo any longer. Prosecutors have maintained that their informant, Solomon Dwek, obtained admissions from two of Manzo’s campaign aides (who pled guilty) that he would accept some $27,500 in donations for his mayoral campaign. Authorities alleged that Manzo would get the money if he would help Dwek’s supposed development project, and also name a purported Dwek ally to a city post if elected. Manzo has said he never received any money and never agreed to take any actions in return for donations. The defense has said a government witness supported Manzo’s contention in a statement to the FBI that it withheld from the court.

Judge Jose Linares

Our Project’s primary interest in the case stemmed from the its overall circumstances. For example, Christie approved a leniency deal permitting more than $10,000 a month for Dwek — a cruise ship brothel operator who has pleaded guilty to a $50 million bank fraud — if he would help set up suspects for arrest by offering campaign donations in local elections. The money authorized by Christie and his successors for the donations was from taxpayers showing a high-degree of central government involvement in local elections. Manzo this year filed an extensive brief alleging selective prosecution against Democrats and requesting a hearing. That brief remains under seal, with arguments and a call for oversight now void because the judge dismissed the case.

Christie was the Bush administration’s Republican U.S. attorney from 2001 to the end of 2008. Before winning election as a crime-fighter he awarded tens of millions of dollars in no-bid federal contracts to Republican former New Jersey U.S. Attorney Herbert Stein and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Upon election as governor, Christie hired for state jobs a dozen former subordinates in the U.S. attorney’s office for key posts, including top executives who implemented the dragnet capturing Manzo after Christie put the sting in motion. These included the top two interim prosecutors who carried forward the Dwek-focused “Bid Rig III” corruption investigation whose arrest of Manzo and more than 40 others in July 2009 helped create momentum for Christie’s gubernatorial victory that fall.

Christie’s spokesman has called Manzo’s allegations “total nonsense,” and has denied irregularities in the 2009 corruption sting congruent with Christie’s campaign theme that he was fighting corruption by dishonest Democrats.

Obama-appointed U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman, left, and his team obtained a new indictment against Manzo. It alleged Manzo corruptly crossed state lines in 2009 from Jersey City to Staten Island for his meeting with Dwek. Manzo says he never obtained funds from Dwek, and alleges that the new indictment shows manufactured government jurisdiction because it was Dwek who requested the meeting across the Hudson River. Further, Manzo charges that authorities misused their powers when they arranged a leniency deal with Dwek that allowed payments to Dwek of between $10,000 and $12,000 each month in funds belonging to Dwek’s bank fraud victims. There is something wrong with a federal arrangement for Dwek to be paid top-dollar by powerless victims of his bank to inveigle others into compromising situations far less serious, even if proven, than Dwek’s own crimes.

News media coverage of the case has been heavily pro-prosecution, just as it is in similar cases around the nation. Even after the verdict, some reporters couldn’t resist including pro-prosecution spin that Manzo “beat the rap” or is “off the hook” implying guilt instead of reflecting on the repeated rulings that no law applied to the situation.

Jersey Journal columnist Agustin Torres was one of the few reporters open to the possibility that there might be more to the case than crime-fighting prosecutors. There were very few others among at least a hundred relevant New Jersey political and court reporters on an information list our Project maintains. Most reporters must rely for their information primarily on prosecutors, governors and similar public officials, especially in these days of reduced newsroom budgets. So, scrutiny of such of officials increasingly remains within private conversations among journalists not easily shared with readers and viewers.

Yet Torres wrote in the Jersey Journal: “Legal arguments aside, with no trial, New Jersey residents have been cheated out of hearing the names of Republican officials in the state who met with FBI informant Solomon Dwek and who were never indicted. Those names were part of Manzo’s expected prosecutorial misconduct defense and have never been publicly released by the court. Any appeal [by prosecutors to keep pursuing Manzo] may mean eventually opening this can of worms.”

As for Manzo? “‘The Ghost Who Walks’ is also known in comics as ‘The Phantom,’” Torres continued, saying the term could apply also to Manzo. The reporter quoted Manzo as saying: “With God nothing is impossible. He blesses the truth….John Lynch was an awesome Guardian Angel who delivered a truthful and brilliant defense. I am thankful for the many people who prayed vigilantly for this victory, which was delivered by a just God.”

Judge Absolves NJ Christie Political Target was originally published on Washington's Blog

This brief explains, documents, and proves objective and independently verifiable facts of the 1%’s crimes that kill millions , harm billions, and loot trillions of our dollars every year. Importantly, Occupy and the 99%’s victory annually saves millions of lives, helps billions of people, and redirects trillions of our dollars for constructive and literal Earth-changing transformation.

Please repost, share, and command this brief as one resource to:

• accomplish the 99%’s recognition of the 1%’s “emperor has no clothes” obvious crimes,
• inspire the 99%’s civic advocacy,
• ignite the 99%’s beautiful, unique, and powerful self-expressions.

Part 1: Why Occupy? A government/economics teacher explains 

Part 2: How a government teacher easily proves Occupy’s claim of US War Crimes

Part 3: How an economics teacher presents Occupy’s economic argument, victory

Part 4: Why everyone should Occupy US 1% corporate media: they lie

Important history that makes crimes in the present easy to see and understand:

Occupy This: US History exposes the 1%’s crimes then and now (6-part series)

My personal history: I worked in direct contact with the criminal 1% for 18 years as a lobbyist working to end domestic and global poverty. We were key players to create two UN Summits: the 1990 World Summit for Children (largest meeting of heads of state in world history) and the 1997 Microcredit Summit (topic of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize).

Despite the investment to save a million children’s lives from preventable poverty being just 0.7% of our gross national income, despite that every historical case of ending poverty reduces population growth rates, and despite US promises to make that investment at global summits, the 1% “leadership” in government and corporate media renege on all promises and allow this crushing torture, these excruciating and prolonged death spirals of children.

That’s who the criminal 1% are: psychopaths.

I’ll repost this concise introduction to this Occupy Brief on a regular basis. As you know, part of the 1%’s strategy for their psychopathic control is to allow any published facts of their crimes to erode from public memory. Indeed, I began writing in 2006 because I personally couldn’t keep in mind all the lies and War Crimes of current US wars.

Occupy brief: Common Sense resources to end 1%’s War Crimes, looting, lies was originally published on Washington's Blog

“We denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains.”  – Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties: The Extremes of Good and Evil,  44 BCE, translated by H. Rackham (1914).

This is part 4 of the following 4-part series:

Part 1: Why Occupy? A government/economics teacher explains 

Part 2: How a government teacher easily proves Occupy’s claim of US War Crimes

Part 3: How an economics teacher presents Occupy’s economic argument, victory

Part 4: Why everyone should Occupy US 1% corporate media: they lie (you’re reading it)

Important history that makes crimes in the present easy to see and understand:

Occupy This: US History exposes the 1%’s crimes then and now (6-part series)

Parts 2 and 3 of this series explains, documents, and proves that US “leadership” in politics, economics, and corporate media engage in War Crimes and looting in the trillions. Their respective criminal roles are policy, money (fake money as credit/debt, actually), and propaganda (easily provable lies of commission and omission).

They’re complicit in criminal acts that annually kill millions, harm billions, and transfer trillions from the 99% to the 1% (a fraction of the 1% actually).

Occupy’s mission includes public education to the 99% to recognize these crimes, arrest the criminals to end the crimes, and enact policy for 100% of Earth’s inhabitants.

Let’s examine the lies of commission and omission of US corporate media in this part of our series. The factual evidence in parts 2 and 3 of War Crimes and economic looting may have been new and surprising to you. Given the importance of these independently verifiable facts, and the stunning supportive expert testimony, the fact that corporate media will not comprehensively report it reveals their support of these criminal and ongoing actions that harm the 99%. These actions provide money to the 1%, but do not help them in any comprehensive sense.

Slave-owners’ lives are woven into the vices and justifications of slavery, vicious control, and are loveless.

The 1% are to be pitied for their lack of experiencing and expressing available human virtues. And that said, I support their immediate arrest and removal from any power to engage in further violence, looting, and “official” lying. For years I’ve offered to represent their interests in corporate media for Truth and Reconciliation to exchange their surrender and return of assets for no prosecution and living the remaining years of their lives in peace. Indeed, I’d welcome their teaching roles to improve the 99%’s critical thinking skills from their lessons of how they played us as suckers for so long. I even suggest a stipend for relative lives of ease for the benefits of ending their destructive acts without a “fight to the finish” that likely would include attempts to kill millions (or billions) of the 99% and countless other planetary species’ members.

Onto the evidence of corporate media lies that become “emperor has no clothes” obvious upon inspection:

We have verified history of official government propaganda having infiltrated corporate media. The Church Senate Committee hearings had the cooperation of CIA Director William Colby’s testimony that over 400 CIA operatives were controlling US corporate media reporting on specific issues of national interest in Operation Mockingbird. This game-changing testimony was confirmed by Pulitzer Prize reporter Carl Bernstein’s research. Of course, corporate media refused to publish Bernstein’s article; it became a cover-story for Rolling Stone. Bernstein provided additional information of CIA control in the Senate report and corporate media subsequent “reporting”:

“Pages 191 to 201 were entitled “Covert Relationships with the United States Media.” “It hardly reflects what we found,” stated Senator Gary Hart. “There was a prolonged and elaborate negotiation [with the CIA] over what would be said.”

Obscuring the facts was relatively simple. No mention was made of the 400 summaries or what they showed. Instead the report noted blandly that some fifty recent contacts with journalists had been studied by the committee staff—thus conveying the impression that the Agency’s dealings with the press had been limited to those instances. The Agency files, the report noted, contained little evidence that the editorial content of American news reports had been affected by the CIA’s dealings with journalists. Colby’s misleading public statements about the use of journalists were repeated without serious contradiction or elaboration. The role of cooperating news executives was given short shrift. The fact that the Agency had concentrated its relationships in the most prominent sectors of the press went unmentioned. That the CIA continued to regard the press as up for grabs was not even suggested.”

Importantly, US corporate media is heavily concentrated in just six corporations, making the message much easier to control.

Let’s consider a specific case of corporate media collusion with official government rhetoric to lie about Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s October 2005 speech to contrive a non-existent physical threat to Israel. First: for US political leaders and corporate media to accuse the president of Iran with threatening to destroy Israel is the most serious of accusations. A threat of national destruction is the most vicious statement a head of state can make. For corporate media to not be in collusion to “report” this proven lie would have to mean that everyone involved in the story never read the speech in question, never consulted with Persian experts, disregarded all people like me who informed them of their egregious “error,” and then failed to correct the “error” for seven years.

This is textbook “guilt beyond reasonable doubt” because is is not at all reasonable under any spin to find the above “reporting” some kind of innocent mistake. It is deliberate and persistent lies of commission and omission that killed up to a million Iranians in recent history, and threatens to kill millions more today.

As I’ve continuously reported for three years and wrote a comprehensive brief for publication and members of Congress beginning in 2006, here are the explanations and documentation of the facts versus corporate media’s “reporting” regarding Iran. This is criminal conspiracy between the 1% in politics and media, with both required for these paper-thin criminal lies:

US overthrew Iran’s democracy 1953-1979, helped Iraq invade 1980-1988, now lies for more war (and an analogy if the US were the victim of empire)

What Iran’s president said about Israel, and how US War Criminal 1% lie for war

What IAEA reports on Iran’s nuclear energy/medicine, how US War Criminal 1% lie

US constantly violates war law: arrest Obama before ‘false flag’ war on Iran

Analogy: US wars on Iraq, Iran as US criminal gangster “business”

Of course, you have to verify the facts in order to see for yourself. In the example of the Iranian president’s speech, corporate media “reporting” this as a war threat to Israel is tragic-comic impossible given the crystal-clear content and context of the speech as encouraging Israel’s government to act lawfully with Palestinians.

It is verifiable in just a few minutes of reading the speech for yourself.

This is appropriately analogous to checking the instant replay of a pitch at a baseball game that appeared ten feet over the batter’s head to make sure it really was so outrageously outside the strike-zone that an “official” call that the pitch was a strike is stating a known lie. If it was even possible to be an error when it occurred, it becomes impossible to be an error when it was not “corrected” after seven years.

This one example is absolute evidence of an official propaganda arm of the same oligarchy spinning for unlawful war against Iran.

I’ve written articles revealing similar obvious war propaganda identical to what we witnessed before the US attacked Iraq. An example from my article on CNN’s “reporting”:

When we now know that all claims for war with Iraq were known lies as they were told (and verbally explained here), and CNN provides similar innuendo for war by an unsourced alleged report with concerns of what might occur in the future allegedly stated by an unnamed US source reporting on an unnamed foreign source, this is propaganda and not news.

You might need to read the above twice to feel the impact of this lying sack of spin 1% choice of communication.

For another damning example, Mike Wallace of the famed television show 60 Minutes won an Emmy for a contrived interview with President Ahmadinejad in 2006, where Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments encouraging democracy for Palestinians was edited to appear that he was hostile to Israel. You can verify this “emperor has no clothes” obvious lies and propaganda by watching the brief 5-minute clip for yourself in this article.

US corporate media lie to allow torture, a War Crime, as official US policy:

“Torture at Times: Waterboarding in the Media,” a paper published from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government that reviewed the US’ four most-read newspapers, found from the 1930s to 2004 that The New York Times reported waterboarding as torture 82% of the time, and The Los Angeles Times did so 96%. After stories broke that the US was waterboarding “detainees” in US unlawful wars, the papers’ reporting of waterboarding as torture dropped to 1% and 5%, respectfully. In addition, after the US admitted to waterboarding, The Wall Street Journal called it torture in just 1 of 63 articles (2%), and USA Today never called it torture.

US 1% corporate media lie to allow a million children to die excruciating deaths from poverty every month:

And check this “reporting” from the NY Times to bury after the comics the largest meeting of heads of state in world history. The topic was ending global poverty with proven solutions that, yes, was an investment of only 1% of the developed nations’ income. I had personal experience with this. Of course, the 1% in political “leadership” of both parties reneged on every promise to end poverty, with corporate media allowing the story, and a million children every month, to die.

Polling proves the 99% are waking to US corporate media lies:

Just as only one in five Americans report trust and satisfaction with their government (and here), Americans also perceive corporate media disinformation and are rejecting their “reporting.” According to a 2007 poll by the Pew Research Center, the majority of the American public see the US major media news organizations as politically biased, inaccurate, and uncaring. Among those who use the Internet, two-thirds report that major media news do not care about the people they report on, 59% say the news is inaccurate, 64% see bias, and 53% summarize their view on major media news as, “failing to stand up for America.” In their latest poll, “just 29% of Americans say that news organizations generally get the facts straight, while 63% say that news stories are often inaccurate.”

A June 2010 Rasmussen poll found 66% of voters “angry” at the media, with 33% “very angry.” Rasmussen also found 70% “angry” at current federal government policies.

And how long has corporate media been lying to the 99%….?

The genesis of oligarchic control of American major media was reported in the US Congressional Record in 1917. US Congressperson Oscar Callaway claimed evidence that J.P. Morgan had purchased editorial control over 25 of the nation’s most influential publications in order to create public support for US entry into World War 1 and his new banking legislative victory: creation of the Federal Reserve system. Mr. Callaway’s colleagues voted down an official investigation. Read this to see how even Abraham Lincoln’s powerful prose to explain and document how US war on Mexico was in obvious treaty violation didn’t have the votes to stop it. And read this to see how ridiculous the spin for US involvement in WW1 was compared to the absence of any threat to national security, followed by the 1%’s violent suppression of political dissent allegedly protected by the 1st Amendment. Of course, corporate media owns the history textbook publishing companies that “taught” you this history with the lies of omission of Lincoln’s actions to point to the rule of law and what you’ll recognize from WW1 history.

Related history is summarized and documented in this brief article, The news media at war, and Mainstream Media: Presstitutes for the Rich and Powerful.

War pimps and sock puppets:

Importantly, disinformation programs infiltrate the comments of independent writers, probably including the source that you’re reading. Expect classic rhetorical fallacies such as slurs of my character, straw-man arguments, denial of facts, lies of omission of central facts, and whatever other BS (thank you, Professor Frankfurt, for your best-seller to help explain).

The discerning characteristic of all propaganda is non-factual bravado and specious argument in order to maintain manipulative control of an agenda and distract attention from the damning facts.

You, the reader, are sharp enough to discern such propaganda. Or if not, you’d better learn if you want to end the killing of millions, harm to billions, and looting of trillions of the 99%’s dollars.

Occupy will win as Dr. King and Gandhi discovered: through trial and error. What we’ve learned through their process is broad public and political communication of the facts with simultaneous formal policy requests to honor what we’ve already won under the law. When the 1% ignore the law, it helps our cause because more of the 99% recognize the 1% are guilty of massive crimes of war and money.

Attributed to Gandhi (but unsourced) is today’s pattern we see from political and corporate media “leadership”:

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. And then you win.

Martin King and Mohandas Gandhi demonstrated that transformative civic education causes the 99% to wake-up and achieve game-changing public policy. The difference with Occupy is that the criminals will be arrested and removed from power; not allowed to psychopathically give lip-service to Occupy in strategic retreat while retaining power.

This is what the criminal 1% do when confronted with real change:

Dr. King was assassinated by the 1% to stop his “Occupy DC” plan for the summer of 1968. This is a legal fact; the verdict of the King Family Trial against the US government. This, of course, was ignored by corporate media and never spoken of by the 1% in politics today when they “praise” Dr. King’s life. Read this for the full story (you owe it to Dr. King to know the full truth); here’s the trial evidence summary:

The overwhelming evidence of government complicity introduced and agreed as comprehensively valid by the jury includes the 111th Military Intelligence Group were sent to Dr. King’s location, and that the usual police protection was pulled away just before the assassination. Military Intelligence set-up photographers on a roof of a fire station with a clear view to Dr. King’s balcony. 20th Special Forces Group had an 8-man sniper team at the assassination location on that day. Memphis police ordered the scene where multiple witnesses reported as the source of shooting cut down of their bushes that would have hid a sniper team. Along with sanitizing a crime scene, police abandoned investigative procedure to interview witnesses who lived by the scene of the shooting.

Please let that penetrate: the criminal 1% killed the US’ greatest Civil Rights figure in our nation’s history, our strongest voice for peace on Earth, and chose vicious dictatorial domination rather than confront Dr. King’s voice for Occupy.

Corporate media lies to this day so the 99% do not know the 1% killed Dr. King.

How dare anyone informed of the facts support the 1%?

Take heart, for Gandhi and Dr. King live within our hearts and minds. Please imagine: how could you have helped the Civil Rights movement if Dr. King had asked? What would you have done if Gandhi asked for your help?

In the converse: would you be proud today of rejecting Dr. King’s direct invitation for partnership in a Revolution for Civil Rights when he was only asking for public education on the clear letter and spirit of the 14th Amendment? Would you be proud today of rejecting Gandhi’s direct request for partnership in civic revolution to end the evils of unwanted imperialism by the strong against the weak?

Would you be proud to reject Occupy when the facts my colleagues and I document become “emperor has no clothes” obvious?

How Mr. Gandhi and Dr. King saw their civic educational challenge:

“One thing we have endeavoured to observe most scrupulously, namely, never to depart from the strictest facts and, in dealing with the difficult questions that have arisen during the year, we hope that we have used the utmost moderation possible under the circumstances. Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution. That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with a view to hurt. Facts we would always place before our readers, whether they are palatable or not, and it is by placing them constantly before the public in their nakedness that the misunderstanding… can be removed.” -  Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian Opinion(1 October 1903)

“‘A time comes when silence is betrayal.’ That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world.” - Dr. Martin Luther King, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.”

I do not place myself in Gandhi and Dr. King’s company, and I assert that We the People are like in spirit. We will stand to arrest these murderers of millions, torturers, and stop the destructive use of trillions of our families’ and children’s dollars.

Occupy in the steps from Gandhi and MLK are simple to understand:

• Because the facts are so easily verified and all on our side, education of anyone and everyone is one component. This is becoming a sophisticated and multi-front campaign similar to the Civil Rights Movement.

• Create public and political will. Gandhi demanded political independence of India. Dr. King demanded equal treatment under the law. Occupy demands an end of unlawful wars, return of Constitutional rights, and the end of parasitic criminal fraud of trillions of our dollars every year. The fact of “emperor has no clothes” obvious UNLAWFUL war is a trigger for those of us with Oaths to defend the US Constitution to refuse all orders for unlawful acts and to arrest those who issue them.
• An elegant way for peaceful surrender of War Criminals and “banksters.” I’m happy to support Truth and Reconciliation, and also willing to arrest the criminal 1% right now without it. The criminal 1% need to choose: join 100% of humanity with what they can do for us in Scrooge conversions, or face the consequences of the law when the light exposes you.

There are related issues with war, economic oligarchy, and propaganda that are documented by other writers, that can and should be included in Occupy. To keep this paper relatively brief, I’ve kept the topics limited. These related issues include torture, unlimited detention, extrajudicial assassination (all of which are unconstitutionally applied, including to American citizens), unaccountable elections on electronic voting machines that exit poll data prove are “fixed,” and more; all or which cannot exist in a society worthy of the title, “free.”

Occupy is the 99%’s independence from the crimes and lies of the 1%. Occupy’s position is congruent to America’s beginning of independence from the crimes and lies of the 1% in 1776:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. –Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.”

• US Declaration of Independence. July 4, 1776.

Occupy is what 21st century democracy looks like.

Why everyone should Occupy US 1% corporate media: they lie was originally published on Washington's Blog