{"id":61076,"date":"2016-12-03T19:02:07","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T01:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=61076"},"modified":"2016-12-03T02:02:47","modified_gmt":"2016-12-03T09:02:47","slug":"iraq-how-journalist-lies-helped-destroy-nations-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/12\/03\/iraq-how-journalist-lies-helped-destroy-nations-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq: How journalist lies helped destroy nations & people"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

Shenali D Waduge<\/span><\/b><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0Mainstream media has lost all credibility. Most alarming has been the loss of viewers and readers. In a frantic damage control effort it is naming fake news sites majority of which exposed the mainstream media lies and they are all out to ensure people do not turn to alternative media, thus the calls to censor alternative & social media claiming they are protecting \u2018misinformation\u2019. Just like some people\u2019s terrorists are other people\u2019s freedom fighters, information & news will be liked by some, hated by others, accepted by some& rejected by others. There is no one news that is or can be accepted by all. However, no media or journalists can get away by creating false news and distorting truth. We take a look at some of these falsehoods fed us through the years. Everyone is guilty of telling a fib (innocent lie) but news that cause death, destruction and ruin to entire nations cannot be allowed.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to Timothy Alexander Guzman writing for Global Research the US foreign policy was part of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) a neoconservative think tank founded in 1997 (ceased operation in 2006) by William Kristol, a political analyst, media commentator for Fox News, ABC News and founder and editor of The Weekly Standard together with Robert Kagan, author, columnist and foreign-policy commentator who was a member of the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) and fellow at Brookings Institute. Kagan was the husband of Victoria Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs who orchestrated the coup in Ukraine. <\/span>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2QxZ8t3V_bk<\/span><\/a> (leaked phone call \u2013 Nuland says f\u2026ck the EU)
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

George Bush only carried out what was part of the plan starting off with Iraq invasion and toppling of Saddam in 2003 for which 9\/11 paved the way complimented with the propaganda lie about WMDs. Kristol doesn\u2019t think he needs to offer any apology for WMD lies \u2013 \u00a0On 7 February 2002 he says American and alliance forces will be welcomed in Baghdad as liberators.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=OQywPUQb75w<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Those in media who contributed to the lies that destroyed sovereign nation & their citizens. These are the personalities who remain columnists without offering any apology for how they fooled the American people and the world promoting lies to facilitate illegal invasions. It has not been just Iraq, ever seen numerous countries have been illegally invaded and in all cases there are journalists and media to promote these are \u2018humanitarian intervention\u2019 they write giving hyped up \u2018evidence\u2019 of \u2018human rights abuses\u2019 they \u2018introduce\u2019 \u2018witnesses\u2019 to substantiate their lies and as a result countries fall prey and the civilians of these countries become victims and collateral damage for other people\u2019s agendas. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Iraq war (invasion and occupation based on lies) has <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>killed more than 1.4million Iraqis (Just Foreign Policy) <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>killed more than 4488 US troops <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>tens of thousands are permanently injured (Iraqis and Western troops). <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>5m Iraqi\u2019s are displaced still. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>American tax payers are paying trillions for illegal wars. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Iraq land is devastated by chemical weapons and munitions <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Ancient buildings, artefacts and civilian structures were destroyed by US\/NATO bombing <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>The newly armed ISIS and other militant groups are continuing to destroy whatever is left of Iraq. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Who are the journalists who promoted and fed lies to the American people and the world through their columns?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Judith Miller<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Adjunct fellow at Manhattan Institute & contributor to New York Times \u2013 wrote articles on Iraq\u2019s WMDs justifying toppling of Saddam. Her 21 April 2003 article after effects: prohibited weapons; illicit arms kept till eve of war, an Iraqi scientist is said to assert\u2019 claims an Iraqi scientist led Americans to the material. She appeared on PBS News Hour the next day and spoke about her evidence. <\/span><\/span>http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/bb\/middle_east-jan-june03-search_04-22\/<\/span><\/a> Miller is also a Pulitzer prize winner.<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Miller\u2019s news was based on an Iraqi exile (Ahmed Chalabi) while refusing to name the other sources. Miller even wrote that a shipment of aluminium tubes had been intercepted claiming Saddam was using uranium gas to develop nuclear material. Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, VP Dick Cheney even congratulated New York Times for their journalism! NYT eventually was left embarrassed because there were no WMD as Judith Miller claimed. On 26 May 2004 editors of NYT admitted their error. It was too late. Iraq was destroyed by lies. Fake news had assisted in regime change and ruined an entire nation. But lessons have not been learnt \u2013 the same mainstream media continues lies on Syria, Russia, China, Iran and even Sri Lanka.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Bill Keller<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Played a key role as NYT Executive Editor in building the case for US Govt to attack and invade Iraq. The NYT never once brought up the UN Charter or International Laws that prohibited US attack on another nation that had not threatened the US. He too is a Pulitzer prize winner.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Charles Krauthammer<\/span><\/b><\/a> <\/b><\/p>\n

Hailed the Iraq war as \u2018Three Week War\u2019. His columns in the Washington Post before the invasions was full of \u2018attack Iraq \u2013 bring democracy to Iraq\u2019. He too believed in the WMD stories. Excerpts from <\/span><\/span>4\/19\/02:\u201dSaddam survived, rearmed, defeated the inspections regime and is now back in the business of building weapons of mass destruction.\u201d <\/span><\/span>http:\/\/www.brendan-nyhan.com\/blog\/2006\/11\/krauthammers_re.html<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

“Time Is Running Short. Saddam Has Weapons Of Mass Destruction.” (WP \u2013 April 2002)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Fred Barnes<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

He said winning the war was \u2018going to be easy\u2019 (18 Jan 2003 \u2013 FOX News). In April he writes <\/span><\/span>[I]t gets easier now. \u2026 When you see those statues topple\u2026you know that\u2019s victory.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/span>Take a look at FOX News propaganda before Iraq invasion to be shocked at how media promoted the invasion of a country that had not threatened the US \u2013 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>“[W]inning The War In Iraq” Is “Going To Be Easy.” (FOX News \u2013 Jan 2003)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>Military Will Find WMD\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00b7<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong>The Goal Here Is To Remove Saddam Hussein And Get Rid Of Those\u00a0Weapons Of Mass Destruction.”<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0(FOX News, Mar 2003)<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLE75EAE594A73155E<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.j-bradford-delong.net\/movable_type\/2003_archives\/002516.html<\/span><\/a> Fred Barnes makes things up. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He is executive director of The Weekly Standard and continues to contribute to FOX News. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Karl Rove<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

In 2002 the White House Iraq Group was set up to frame Iraq conflict. Rove was part of this strategy team tasked to promote WMD. In his article on 5 April 2003 to New York Times he presented the notion that Iraq would be disarmed and dictator Saddam\u2019s rule would end. He is also a FOX News contributor and writes to Wall Street Journal and Newsweek as well.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Washington Post openly advocated the WMD and Al Qaeda claims and pushed for the invasion of Iraq.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fred Hiatt<\/span><\/span><\/b>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

W<\/span>ashington Post<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/u>Editorial Page was another war cheerleader. He used his editorial position to justify going to war. He smeared the war critics who were exposing Bush\u2019s lies ot the American people. <\/span><\/span>A study by Columbia University journalism professor Todd Gitlin noted, The [Post] editorials during December [2002] and January [2003] numbered nine, and all were hawkish.\u201d [American Prospect, April 1, 2003]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Joe Scarborough<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

MSNBC analyst and host.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Congressman [Jack] Kingston [R-GA], Give Me A Quick Response. How Could There Be Anyone Left On The Planet Today That Doesn’t Believe That Saddam Hussein Has\u00a0Weapons Of Mass Destruction?” (MSNBC \u2013 2003)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Toppling Saddam “Will Mean The End Of His Weapons Of Mass Destruction.” (Mar 2003)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul Gigot <\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Wall Street Journal<\/span><\/span><\/i>\u00a0Editorial Page and Vice President Wall Street Journal. He was constantly using column to make alarmist claims on Iraq nuclear capabilities. He wrote in Jan 2003 that Iraqi National Congress had brought out scores of defectors and tons of information on Saddam\u2019s weapons programs\u2019. None of which was of course true. In February he wrote coalition will find nasty weapons and the cheering Iraqis \u2026 when it liberates the country\u201d. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Cohen<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Washington Post columnist during Iraq invasion. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Colin Powell Proved That Iraq “Still Retains [WMD].\u00a0Only A Fool-Or, Possibly, A Frenchman-Could Conclude Otherwise.”(Powell wrote after Powell fooled the UN with lies)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sean Hannity<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Co-host of Fox News’<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Hannity & Colmes. <\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“We’re Going To Find All Of The Weapons Of Mass Destruction.” (Feb 2003)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We’re Invading Iraq “So The Weapons Of Mass Destruction That We Will Be Finding Don’t End Up In American Cities.” (Mar 2003)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Iraq War Critics “Made Fools Of Them Themselves.” (Apr 2003)<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen Hayes<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Writer for The Weekly Standard. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His job was to promote falsehoods that Al Qaeda and Iraq were linked even in his book The Connection: How al Qaedas Collaboration with Saddam Hussein has endangered America\u2019. On 9 December 2005 he defended Dick Cheney\u2019s 2001 claim that 9\/11 hijacker M. Atta met with Iraqi intelligence in Prague in an interview on MSNBC. Spencer Ackerman says Hayes has made a career out of pretending Saddam & Al Qaeda were in league to attack the United States\u201d \u2013 we know of so many other journalists who have made fortunes writing books of political lies!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

CNN hired him in 2008 calling him <\/span><\/span>“a well-respected and knowledgeable journalist.”<\/span>\u00a0He left and joined FOX news.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas Friedman<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Was New York Times columnist during Iraq invasion claiming I<\/span><\/span>raq Invasion was “Worth Doing” because we needed to tell the Middle East to “Suck On This.”<\/span><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0(PBS Interview 2003) <\/span><\/span>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZwFaSpca_3Q<\/span><\/a>\u00a0
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Space restricts to cover the many journalists, media and even how Blair lied too. At least the UK Guardian owned up a country we helped ruin\u2019 <\/span><\/span>https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2016\/jul\/04\/the-guardian-view-on-war-in-iraq-a-country-that-we-helped-to-ruin<\/span><\/span><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Closer to home in Sri Lanka we will recall how very few media and journalists had the pluck to even call LTTE as terrorists \u2013 all LTTE attacks were reported as \u2018allegedly\u2019 being done by LTTE. Apart from the Island newspaper coverage during the war to spur the armed forces was lacking, many in media preferred to highlight the wrongs of the armed forces rather than their efforts to free the nation from the scrooge of terror. It is these locals whose lack of national commitment who are often been given jobs and are quoted by the external sources whose agenda we should now know.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, we know what damage terrorists can do but we cannot realize the extent of damage that media is doing or has done until after the damage when we look back to analyse what happened. The case of Iraq goes to show the multitude of players that lied to devastate a country and its people \u2013 most of these same people and agencies did the same damage to Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Serbia, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Haiti and now they are doing the same in Syria.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Its time people stop buying newspapers or advertising in print\/electronic media if people find that they are twisting the truth, distorting the truth or simply creating distortions. It is as a result of their own making that people are openly accusing them of being \u2018presstitutes\u2019. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Shenali D Waduge<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Sources:<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

http:\/\/rightweb.irc-online.org\/profile\/project_for_the_new_american_century\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/research\/2013\/03\/19\/where-are-the-medias-iraq-war-boosters-10-years\/193117#hiatt<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge \u00a0Mainstream media has lost all credibility. Most alarming has been the loss of viewers and readers. In a frantic damage control effort it is naming fake news sites majority of which exposed the mainstream media lies and they are all out to ensure people do not turn to alternative media, thus the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}