31st May 2006
‘Then they killed my Granny’ - Blair and Bush admit ‘mistakes’ in order to minimise impact of Haditha massacre
Media Lens is a website run by journalists whose aim is “Correcting for the distorting vision of the corporate media”
“Media Lens is our response to the unwillingness, or inability, of the mainstream media to tell the truth about the real causes and extent of many of the problems facing us, such as human rights abuses, poverty, pollution and climate change.”
In an article published yesterday, Media Lens explains how the mainstream media has failed over the past 6 months to adequately cover the Haditha massacre, yet they provided ample coverage last week to Bush and Blair’s carefully choreographed “mistakes” speeches designed specifically to soften up the public for mainstream coverage of the massacre.
Furthermore, no mention is made of the legal consequences of the massacre - to further enhance Bush and Blair’s status as war criminals.
“The BBC tells us that Bush and Blair now admit “mistakes” in Iraq and that “Iraq has cast a shadow over the leaders’ careers.” But the publicly-funded broadcaster has yet to report that Bush and Blair have committed crimes; in fact, “the supreme international crime” as defined at the Nuremberg trials.“
Here is an extract from the full article which can be read at
http://www.medialens.org/alerts/
Media Amplification of the Mythology of ‘Mistakes’
As we have repeatedly noted in our media alerts, the ‘news’ is often what powerful leaders want it to be. Consider an online BBC news article which channelled President Bush and Prime Minister Blair’s hand-wringing pronouncements on their “mistakes in Iraq.
The two leaders have never admitted their mistakes in such frank terms, the BBC’s Jonathan Beale says… BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says Iraq has cast a shadow over the leaders’ careers and both were seeking to play up the potential for change afforded by the new democratically-elected government in Baghdad.” (’Bush and Blair admit errors,’ BBC news online, May 26, 2006; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5016548.stm
The vital missing context from this report, and BBC news programmes generally, is as follows. The UK (though not the US) is a signatory to the treaty that set up the International Criminal Court (ICC). Underpinning the ICC are the Geneva conventions and the 1945 Nuremberg charter. The latter states clearly:
“To initiate a war of aggression … is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” www.counterpunch.org/herman05112006.html
The BBC tells us that Bush and Blair now admit “mistakes” in Iraq and that “Iraq has cast a shadow over the leaders’ careers.” But the publicly-funded broadcaster has yet to report that Bush and Blair have committed crimes; in fact, “the supreme international crime” as defined at the Nuremberg trials…
…It is entirely unsurprising that Bush and Blair are not under sustained pressure to face impeachment - the establishment media and political system, virtually en masse, has rejected even the possibility.
Despite overwhelming legal opinion on the illegality of the war, and huge public opposition to the invasion and occupation, not a single editorial in any British national newspaper has, as far as know, ever stated that western leaders ought to stand trial before the International Criminal Court. Not one newspaper in its leader column has called for Blair to be impeached for war crimes. The editorial silence from the Guardian, Independent, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, The Times and the rest is shameful.
A British Prime Minister may launch a war of aggression, cause death and suffering on an unimaginable scale, and +still+ not be held to account by the supposed ‘watchdogs’ of democracy.
Full article at http://www.medialens.org/alerts/
24th May 2006
“When The World Said No To War” comes to Scotland and Santiago de Compostela
When The World Said No To War is a photography exhibition and peace education forum inspired by the 2003 demonstrations against the war on Iraq.
When The World Said No To War was conceived as a tribute to the spirit of those 30 million people, to their belief that if enough people spoke out, governments would listen and the world would change. It is a tribute to the fact that this belief still persists and is growing every day.
It was opened by John Pilger in Sydney, Australia in February 2003 and is being held in Edinburgh in October 2006 in conjunction with the Word Power Book Fair, supported by the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre.
Karen Adler, coordinator of the project, is embarking on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage in Spain on the 28th May 2006. She will be walking from Pamplona to Santiago, a distance of 402 miles and is doing the pilgrimage as a sponsored walk.
The money raised will be used for various aspects of the project, including venue hire and technical support.
Donations can be sent to
When The World Said No To War Pilgrimage,
c/o Peace and Justice Centre,
St. John’s Church,
Princes Street,
Edinburgh
EH24BJ,
Scotland.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
