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dinsdag 14 maart 2006

Klimaatverandering 24

De BBC bericht: 'Sharp rise in CO2 levels recorded. US climate scientists have recorded a significant rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level. BBC News has learned the latest data shows CO2 levels now stand at 381 parts per million (ppm) - 100ppm above the pre-industrial average. The research indicates that 2005 saw one of the largest increases on record - a rise of 2.6ppm. The figures are seen as a benchmark for climate scientists around the globe. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) has been analysing samples of air taken from all over the world, including America's Rocky Mountains. The chief carbon dioxide analyst for Noaa says the latest data confirms a worrying trend that recent years have, on average, recorded double the rate of increase from just 30 years ago. "We don't see any sign of a decrease; in fact, we're seeing the opposite, the rate of increase is accelerating," Dr Pieter Tans told the BBC. The precise level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is of global concern because climate scientists fear certain thresholds may be "tipping points" that trigger sudden changes.' Lees verder:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4803460.stm

maandag 13 maart 2006

NRC/Handelsblad



Morgen verschijnt een nieuwe krant, gemaakt door de NRC. Gepoogd wordt jonge niet lezende krantelezers te trekken, carrieremakers die geen tijd hebben. Maar er zijn meer paradoxen. De Los Angeles Times bericht: 'More News Outlets, Fewer Stories: New Media 'Paradox.' A "new paradox of journalism" has emerged in which the number of news outlets continues to grow, yet the number of stories covered and the depth of many reports is decreasing, according to an annual review of the news business being released today by a watchdog group.Many television, radio and newspaper newsrooms are cutting their staffs as advertising revenue stagnates, but blogs and other online ventures lack the size or inclination to generate information, reports the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research institute affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The study depicts the media in an interregnum — with the reach of print, radio and television reduced, but the promise of an egalitarian online "citizen journalism" unfulfilled."It's probably glib and even naive to say simply that more platforms equal more choices," project Director Tom Rosenstiel said. "The content has to come from somewhere, and as older news-gathering media decline, some of the strengths they offer in monitoring the powerful and verifying the facts may be weakening as well."As a result, consumers need to get information from a variety of sources to understand the world around them, the study concludes. It also finds that public opinions about the traditional media, though still low, have improved in a few respects.The swiftly shifting platforms for information — with network news available by podcast and U.S. soldiers maintaining blogs from Iraq — have created an odd interplay between new and old media, the study found… The most threatened of the traditional media continue to be newspapers, particularly big-city dailies. Weekday circulation dropped 2.6% and Sunday circulation dropped 3.1% as of September from the year before; print advertising declined; and a 1% to 2% increase in ad revenue came almost entirely because of growth online of about 30%.The country lost 306 daily papers, 17% of the total, between 1960 and last year.At the remaining papers, cumulative cuts of reporters and editors over the last five years amounted to about 6.5%. The reductions are disturbing but constitute something less than a "death spiral" for the newspaper business, which still posts profit margins of 20%, the report says.Still, a funk has settled over many newspaper journalists who believe the public-service focus of the industry is endangered. At many old-media companies, "the decades-long battle at the top between idealists and accountants is now over," the report concludes. "The idealists have lost."' Lees verder:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-news13mar13,1,5953773.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Propaganda 15

Even een geheugenopfrissertje voor die collega's van me die zich geroepen voelen een oorlog met Iran mogelijk te maken door de Westerse propaganda ongeclausuleerd door te geven. Jullie herinneren je misschien nog wel hoe op 10 november 2002 de toenmalige Amerikaanse minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Colin Powell in de VN-Veiligheids Raad verklaarde: 'It took years for Iraq to finally admit that it had produced four tons of the deadly nerve agent VX. A single drop on the skin will kill in minutes. Four tons. The admission only came out after inspectors collected documentation as a result of the defection of Hussein Kamel, Saddam Hussein's late son-in-law.' Soortgelijke verklaringen deden president Bush op 7 oktober 2002 en vice-president Cheney op 27 augustus van datzelfde jaar. Toch wist de Amerikaanse regering dat luitenant-generaal Hussein Kamel tegenover de CIA en MI6 ook had verklaard: 'After the Gulf War, Iraq destroyed all its chemical and its biological weapons stocks and the missiles to deliver them.' Een feit dat door een andere gevluchte Irakese militair nog eens bevestigd werd. Op 26 februari 2006 kreeg Glen Rangwala, een Midden-Oosten expert van de Universiteit van Cambridge, een kopie van het transcript van Kamal's getuigeverklaring in handen met daarin de opmerking dat 'All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear - were destroyed.' Desondanks loog Powell tegenover de wereldgemeenschap en de eigen bondgenoten om zo een oorlog tegen Irak te kunnen beginnen. Links achter hem op de foto zit George Tenet, de toenmalige directeur van de CIA, wiens aanwezigheid de juistheid van Powell's opmerkingen moest benadrukken. Dus, mijn collega's zijn gewaarschuwd nu de oorlog tegen Iran verkocht moet worden.

Propaganda 14

Voordat we allemaal ten onder gaan in de propagandabrij die via de commerciele massamedia dagelijks over ons heen wordt gestort, maar weer eens wat feiten zoals beschreven door de gezaghebbende Amerikaanse geleerde Chalmers Johnson in zijn onthullende boek 'The Sorrows of Empire': 'Official lying increases exponentially as imperialism and militarism take over. Our military sees propaganda as one of its major new functions. During the autumn of 2001, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld created within the Pentagon an "Office of Strategic Influence" with the function of carrying out what defense planners call "information warfare" - disinformation and propaganda against foreign enemies as well as domestic critics who do not support presidential policies. Only when it became clear that the new office's operations would include funneling false stories to the American news media did Rumsfeld say that perhaps it was all a mistake and officially shut the operation down. Nonetheless, the idea did not go away. In the autumn of 2002, Rumsfeld created a new position, deputy undersecretary of defense for "special plans" (a euphemism for "deception operations")... Deception operations include managing (and restricting) public information, controlling news sources, and manipulating public opinion. As the air force explained, the military must prevent "the news media going to other sources [such as an adversary or critic] for information... U.S. and friendly forces must strive to become the favored source of information." "Information warfare," writes military analyst William M. Arkin, "includes controlling as much as possible what the American people sees and reads." In january 2003, the White House followed up by forming its own version of Rumsfeld's Pentagon propaganda agency, the "Offcice for Global Communications." (let ook op de namen. svh) It's offcials seem to spend their time auditioning generals to give media briefings and booking administration stars on foreign and domestic news shows. It's stated purpose is to see that "any war commentary by a U.S. official is approved in advance by the White House." Typical information-warfare operations range from the trivial to major projects like inventing pretexts for war.' Zoals het verzinnen van voorwendsels om Iran te bombarderen. Daarbij let het leger propagandisten, dat onze commerciele media met desinformatie voedt, op de kleinste details. Een voorbeeld daarvan gebeurde op 27 januari 2003 'when the government arranged to have a large blue curtain placed over a tapestry reproduction of Pablo Picasso's Guernica hanging near the entrance to the United Nations Security Council. Guernica, a small Basque village in northern Spain, was the site Adolf Hitler chose on April 27, 1937, to demonstrate his air force's new high-explosive and incendiary bombs. He was then allied with the Spanish fascist dictator Francisco Franco. The hamlet burned for three days, and sixteen hundred civilians were killed or wounded. Picasso's famous depiction of this atrocity is perhaps modern art's most powerful antiwar statement. The [American svh] government decided that the carnage wrought by aerial bombing was an inappropriate background for its secretary of state and its ambassador to the United Nation when they made televised statements that might lead to the bombing of Iraqi cities.' Het is goed dit niet te vergeten wanneer men de berichten in de commerciele massamedia leest of hoort, of dit nu het NOS-Journaal of de NRC is. Geen van de Nederlanse massamedia heeft tot nu toe geanalyseerd waarom ze de propaganda voorafgaand aan de Irak-oorlog zo gewillig slikten. En dat terwijl nu is gebleken dat alle officiele redenen om Irak aan te vallen niet op de waarheid berustten. Desondanks hebben de Nederlandse commerciele media nog steeds niet diepgravend onderzocht wat de ware redenen dan wel waren. Een serie artikelen over het belang van de Amerikanen bij de oliehandel zou toch het minste moeten zijn. Maar nee dus, men is nu te druk bezig met het doorgeven van de Amerikaanse propaganda over Iran. En dat doen ze bewust en met open ogen.

Iran 16

Tot april 2001 droeg deze supertanker van Chevron de naam: Condoleezza Rice. Uit dank voor haar werk voor de Amerikaanse oliemaatschappij, waar ze voor 35.000 dollar per jaar op de loonlijst stond, werd het in de Bahamas geregistreerde schip (om de Amerikaanse belasting te ontduiken) van 129.000 ton naar haar genoemd. Bovendien ontving ze, voordat ze de nationale veiligheidsadviseur en later minister van Buitenlandse Zaken werd, aandelen en andere extra voordeeltjes. Ze was de belangrijkste adviseur van Chevron voor Centraal Azie. Volgens de Amerikaanse geleerde Chalmers Johnson is 'Iran ... now the only serious obstacle to our military domination of the whole region.' Dus moet de enige dwarsligger nog van de Bush-regime gewelddadig aangepakt worden. Vandaar alle propaganda en de hetze tegen Iran. De Washington Post bericht: 'U.S. Campaign Is Aimed at Iran's Leaders. Uneasy About Tehran's Nuclear Plans, Bush Administration Tries to Build Opposition to Theocracy. As the dispute over its nuclear program arrives at the U.N. Security Council today, Iran has vaulted to the front of the U.S. national security agenda amid Bush administration plans for a sustained campaign against the ayatollahs of Tehran. President Bush and his team have been huddling in closed-door meetings on Iran, summoning scholars for advice, investing in opposition activities, creating an Iran office in Washington and opening listening posts abroad dedicated to the efforts against Tehran. The internal administration debate that raged in the first term between those who advocated more engagement with Iran and those who preferred more confrontation appears in the second term to be largely settled in favor of the latter. Although administration officials do not use the term "regime change" in public, that in effect is the goal they outline as they aim to build resistance to the theocracy. "We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Senate testimony last week. "We do not have a problem with the Iranian people. We want the Iranian people to be free. Our problem is with the Iranian regime."' Lees verder:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031201016.html?referrer=email&referrer=email

Irak 45


Ik ben benieuwd of Nederlandse militairen in het Midden Oosten ooit protesteren tegen het gewelddadig beleid van onze bondgenoot in de zogeheten 'war on terror.' Tot nu toe zijn de manschappen die namens ons in Afghanistan optreden bijzonder stilletjes geweest. Zoals uit de Tweede Wereldoorlog bleek zijn de meeste Nederlanders maar al te vaak geneigd om op een of andere manier te collaboreren tot de grootste ellende voorbij is. De Daily Telegraph bericht: 'SAS soldier quits Army in disgust at 'illegal' American tactics in Iraq. An SAS soldier has refused to fight in Iraq and has left the Army over the "illegal" tactics of United States troops and the policies of coalition forces.After three months in Baghdad, Ben Griffin told his commander that he was no longer prepared to fight alongside American forces.He said he had witnessed "dozens of illegal acts" by US troops, claiming they viewed all Iraqis as "untermenschen" - the Nazi term for races regarded as sub-human.The decision marks the first time an SAS soldier has refused to go into combat and quit the Army on moral grounds.It immediately brought to an end Mr Griffin's exemplary, eight-year career in which he also served with the Parachute Regiment, taking part in operations in Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Afghanistan.But it will also embarrass the Government and have a potentially profound impact on cases of other soldiers who have refused to fight.On Wednesday, the pre-trial hearing will begin into the court martial of Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force doctor who has refused to return to Iraq for a third tour of duty on the grounds that the war is illegal. Mr Griffin's allegations came as the Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, visiting Basra yesterday, admitted that Iraq was now "a mess".Mr Griffin, 28, who spent two years with the SAS, said the American military's "gung-ho and trigger happy mentality" and tactics had completely undermined any chance of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi population. He added that many innocent civilians were arrested in night-time raids and interrogated by American soldiers, imprisoned in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, or handed over to the Iraqi authorities and "most probably" tortured.Mr Griffin eventually told SAS commanders at Hereford that he could not take part in a war which he regarded as "illegal".He added that he now believed that the Prime Minister and the Government had repeatedly "lied" over the war's conduct."I did not join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy," he said. He expected to be labelled a coward and to face a court martial and imprisonment after making what "the most difficult decision of my life" last March.' Lees verder:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/12/nsas12.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/12/ixhome.html Of:
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12300.htm

Irak 44

En nu voor het goede nieuws: er wordt een foruin verdiend aan de oorlog in Irak. En dat was ook precies de bedoeling van de Westerse regeringen. De Independent bericht: 'The War Dividend: The British companies making a fortune out of conflict-riven Iraq. British businesses have profited by at least £1.1bn since coalition forces toppled Saddam Hussein three years ago, the first comprehensive investigation into UK corporate investment in Iraq has found. The company roll-call of post-war profiteers includes some of the best known names in Britain's boardrooms as well many who would prefer to remain anonymous. They come from private security services, banks, PR consultancies, urban planning consortiums, oil companies, architects offices and energy advisory bodies. Among the top earners is the construction firm Amec, which has made an estimated £500m from a series of contracts restoring electrical systems and maintaining power generation facilities during the past two years. Aegis, which provides private security has earned more than £246m from a three-year contract with the Pentagon to co-ordinate military and security companies in Iraq. Erinys, which specialises in the same area, has made more than £86m, a substantial portion from the protection of oilfields. The evidence of massive investments and the promise of more multimillion-pound profits to come was discovered in a joint investigation by Corporate Watch, an independent watchdog, and The Independent.' Lees verder: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article350959.ece

De Groene NAVO-Propagandist Maarten Muns

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