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Fear Factor: Press Plays 9/11 Card to Justify Somalia Slaughter

A few days ago we were – how to put it? – uncivil to New York Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman, taking him to task over his story about Somalia, in which he told readers of the “world’s leading newspaper” that the little tussle they were having over there was mostly the fault of a bunch of greedy gangsters with inborn anarchic tendencies who didn’t want to pay taxes. Mr. Gettleman’s story, we suggested, with unpardonable rudeness,

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Violence and Violation: An Update on Terror War III

There is much to write about concerning the Bush-backed assault on Somalia, where multitudes have died and hundreds of thousands have been ruined and dispossessed by the American-trained Ethiopian dictatorship and its Somali warlord allies. There is also the continuing distortion of the reality of this new “War on Terror” operation by the American press, which is largely parroting the lies and spin of the Bush Faction in its reports. We recently detailed one of the most egregious examples of this journalistic perversion here; but yesterday, an even more craven, bootlicking

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Time Regained: Keeping A Dissident Voice in Full Cry

Atthur Silber has returned from a season in hell and is giving us some of the finest writing yet from his excellent, enlightening, and insightful blog, Once Upon a Time. His pieces suffer from one defect, however; they are so good that they defy excerpting. To offer up a few quotes from a Silber article is like trying to convey the reality of the Atlantic Ocean by showing someone a glass of salt water. So take the plunge and try some of these recent offerings in full: Living Under the Guillotine’s

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Reality Check: Genuine Journalism Exposes Somali Horrors

Yesterday we examined the egregious distortions and outright lies that Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times employed in whitewashing (pun fully intended) the Bush Administration’s proxy war in Somalia: The Lies of the Times: NYT Pushes Bush Line on Somalia. Today, however, we are pleased to offer an antidote to Gettleman’s servile perversion of reality — a piece of honest-to-God journalism by Martin Fletcher of The Times of London.

Unlike Gettleman, Fletcher is actually on the scene in Mogadishu, where the

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The Lies of the Times: NYT Pushes Bush Line on Somalia

The New York Times has finally deigned to bestow prominent notice on the Bush Administration’s third on-going “regime change” operation, its blood-soaked proxy war in Somalia. But it should come as no surprise that today’s front page piece by Jeffrey Gettleman (People Who Feed Off Anarchy in Somalia Are Quick to Fuel It) is riddled with the same kind of slavish spin, artful omissions and outright lies that the paper produced in those glorious Judy Miller days of yore before the

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Borya, We Hardly Knew Ye — Because the Media Wouldn’t Tell Us

I was in Russia for part of the Boris Yeltsin years; Matt Taibbi, whom I worked with at the Moscow Times, was there for all of them. His take on the passing of bibulous Borya is pretty much on the money (literally so), although couched, as always, in the demure, whispery prose that has long been Taibbi’s hallmark. The whole thing is worth a read, but here a few choice bits to get going with:

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Bush-Backed Liberation of Somalia: “Most of the dead are poor people”

In the new Terror War front opened by the Bush Administration and its proxy armies – the brutal “regime change” invasion of Somalia, led by the American-trained troops of the Ethiopian dictatorship – conditions for innocent civilians are worsening by the day. The BBC reports that the Ethiopians and their Somali warlord allies have essentially sealed off large quadrants of the capital, Mogadishu, and are shelling the residential areas to root out “insurgents” – forces loyal to the Islamic Courts government overthrown by the invasion, tribal groups on

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Ghetto Blaster: Bush Accelerates Concrete Cage Plan for Baghdad

UPDATED BELOW.

Great Moments in International Diplomacy:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki: “Mr. Bush, tear down this wall!”
U.S. President George W. Bush: “Pound sand, raghead!”

That just about covers the developments of the past 24 hours, from Maliki’s bold declaration that he had ordered a halt to the American construction of a wall around the recalcitrant Adhamiya district of Baghdad to the American response: an announcement in the Washington Post that American forces are

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Where the Dead Rot in the Streets: Bush’s Terror War in Somalia Rages On

As sure as night follows day, when George W. Bush backs a “regime change” invasion of a country, you will see headlines like this: “Corpses Rotting in the Streets.” We see it every day in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we are seeing it again in Somalia – the third nation-breaking operation launched under the rubric of Bush’s “War on Terror.”

On Saturday at least 73 people were killed in Mogadishu as vicious fighting continued between the American-backed Ethiopian invaders (along with their Somali warlord allies) and the

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