John Pilger: Media lies fuel war drive

January 8, 2012
Issue 
The May 22, 2007 Guardian front page derived from Pentagon propaganda.

On 22 May 2007, the British Guardian's front page announced: Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq.

The writer, Simon Tisdall, claimed that Iran had secret plans to defeat United States' troops in Iraq, which included "forging ties with al-Qaeda elements". The coming "showdown" was an Iranian plot to influence a vote in the US Congress.

Based entirely on briefings by anonymous US officials, Tisdall's "exclusive" rippled with lurid tales of Iran's "murder cells" and "daily acts of war against US and British forces". His 1200 words included just 20 for Iran's flat denial.

It was a load of rubbish: in effect a Pentagon press release presented as journalism and reminiscent of the notorious fiction that justified the bloody invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Among Tisdall's sources were "senior advisers" to General David Petraeus, the US military commander who in 2006 described his strategy of waging a "war of perceptions... conducted continuously through the news media".

The media war against Iran began in 1979 when the West's placeman Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, a tyrant, was overthrown in a popular Islamic revolution. The "loss" of Iran, which under the shah was regarded as the "fourth pillar" of western control of the Middle East, has never been forgiven in Washington and London.

In November, the Guardian's front page carried another "exclusive": "MoD prepares to take part in US strikes against Iran". Again, anonymous officials were quoted. This time the theme was the "threat" posed by the prospect of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

The latest "evidence" was warmed-over documents obtained from a laptop in 2004 by US intelligence and passed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Numerous authorities have cast doubt on these suspected forgeries, including a former IAEA chief weapons inspector. A US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks describes the new head of the IAEA, Yukiuya Amano, as "solidly in the US court" and "ready for prime time".

The Guardian's November 3 "exclusive" and the speed with which its propaganda spread across the media were also prime time.

This is known as "information dominance" by the media trainers at the British Ministry of Defence's psyops (psychological warfare) establishment at Chicksands, Bedforshire, who share premises with the instructors of the interrogation methods that have led to a public enquiry into British military torture in Iraq.

Disinformation and the barbarity of colonial warfare have historically had much in common.

Having beckoned a criminal assault on Iran, the Guardian opined that this "would of course be madness". Similar arse-covering was deployed when Tony Blair, once a "mystical" hero in polite liberal circles, plotted with George W. Bush and caused a bloodbath in Iraq.

With Libya recently dealt with ("It worked," said the Guardian), Iran is next, it seems.





The role of respectable journalism in Western state crimes — from Iraq to Iran, Afghanistan to Libya — remains taboo. It is currently deflected by the media theatre of the Leveson enquiry into phone hacking, which the London Daily Telegraph's Benedict Brogan describes as "a useful stress test". Blame Rupert Murdoch and the tabloids for everything and business can continue as usual.

As disturbing as the stories are from Lord Leveson's witness stand, they do not compare with the suffering of the countless victims of journalism's warmongering.

The lawyer Phil Shiner, who has forced a public inquiry into British military's criminal behaviour in Iraq, says that embedded journalism provides the cover for the killing of "the hundreds of civilians killed by British forces when they had custody of them, [often subjecting them] to the most extraordinary, brutal things, involving sexual acts … embedded journalism is never ever going to get close to hearing their story".

It is hardly surprising that the Ministry of Defence, in a 2000-page document leaked to WikiLeaks, describes investigative journalists — journalists who do their job — as a "threat" greater than terrorism.

In the week the Guardian published its "exclusive" about Ministry of Defence planning for an attack on Iran, General Sir David Richards, Britain's military chief, went on a secret visit to Israel, which is a genuine nuclear weapons outlaw and exempt from media opprobrium.

Richards is a highly political general who, like Petraeus, has worked the media to considerable advantage. No journalist in Britain revealed that he went to Israel to discuss an attack on Iran.

Honourable exceptions aside — such as the tenacious work of the Guardian's Ian Cobain and Richard Norton-Taylor — our increasingly militarised society is reflected in much of our media culture.

Two of Blair's most important functionaries in his mendacious, blood-drenched adventure in Iraq, Alistair Campbell and Jonathan Powell, enjoy a cosy relationship with the liberal media, their opinions sought on worthy subjects while the blood in Iraq never dries.

For their vicarious admirers, as playwright Harold Pinter put it, the appalling consequences of their actions "never happened".

On November 24, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the feminist scholars Cynthia Cockburn and Ann Oakley, attacked what they called "certain widespread masculine traits and behaviours". They demanded that the "culture of masculinity should be addressed as a policy issue". Testosterone was the problem.

They made no mention of a system of rampant state violence that has rehabilitated empire, creating 740,000 widows in Iraq and threatening whole societies, from Iran to China. Is this not a "culture", too?

Their limited though not untypical indignation says much about how media-friendly identity and issues politics distract from the systemic exploitation and war that remain the primary source of violence against both women and men.

[First appeared at www.johnpilger.com.]

Comments

If you're going to have a go at anyone, have a got at Press TV for the bullshit they print. Their round table chats where their experts declare the stories about mass civillian casualties in Syria and completely fabricated by the west etc. . Get a grip man. If you aren't getting paid to right this crap by the Polit Bureau you should be.
Pull the other one John
I'm not sure why 'Free Press' thinks that so-called "information" from western sources is NOT fabricated or less fabricated than Press TV. I have seen a number of Reuters clips that narrate as follows: "Fire ... People shot ... People want the government to stop killing them." They do NOT tell us where the video footage is taken, who shot who (give us names), the context in which they were shot, etc. If you see two or three people die and then you hear a narrative that says thousands have died, you tend to believe it. Furthermore, I have heard from many sources that US, UK, French and Israeli secret services are training Syrian rebels and mercenaries in Turkey. Look at Russia Today and you will see videos of masked terrorists in Homs shooting civilians. Yet western media says it is a civil war. By definition, a war involving foreigners cannot be a civil war, so John Pilger is letting us know the extent to which we are being fed fabrications. And I think Press TV is also allowing us to question Reuters, Associated Press, etc. If their voices are not heard, then guess what? A repeat of Libya. That's right, Gaddafi's forces killed 5,000 people and NATO killed 30,000. And the war goes on.
This is no suprise to some of us. Especially GLW readers. But the majority of the public are still victims of propaganda. Haven't we seen how the major media orgs simply ignore/under-report news of sufferring of minority groups in Asia and Africa. Many thousands have died in Africa & Asia due to Poverty & War. Example, the slaughter of innocent civilians in Sri Lanka and the failure of media in relation to it. See the website http://aboutsrilanka.wordpress.com

You need Green Left, and we need you!

Green Left is funded by contributions from readers and supporters. Help us reach our funding target.

Make a One-off Donation or choose from one of our Monthly Donation options.

Become a supporter to get the digital edition for $5 per month or the print edition for $10 per month. One-time payment options are available.

You can also call 1800 634 206 to make a donation or to become a supporter. Thank you.