- The neoconservatives, who learned the art form of the
Big Lie under their philosophical godfather, Professor Leo Strauss of the
University of Chicago and his ideological soul-mate and mentor, Joseph
Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, are at it again with their tactics
of deception and defamation. It is time for the world's record keepers
- journalists everywhere - to label neocon disinformation for what it is,
shameless propaganda aimed to destroy anyone who disagrees with the neocon
worldwide hegemony agenda.
-
- The latest outrage is the publication of a "list"
- yes, the right wing has always fancied "lists," from the days
of Senator Joseph McCarthy to today's "no-fly lists" - published
by a "new" Iraqi newspaper called Al-Mada. The list, ostensibly
taken from Saddam Hussein's government's archives, is said to contain the
names of 270 former government officials, legislators, political activists
and journalists from more than 46 countries who are accused of personally
profiting from oil money garnered by Saddam Hussein as part of the United
Nations food-for-oil deal.
-
- But the list was almost simultaneously translated and
published on the web site of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI),
a tax-exempt operation run from a Washington, DC, post office box. Not
surprisingly, MEMRI also maintains offices in Jerusalem and London. MEMRI's
"contributions" to the news media have, not surprisingly, been
only cited in neocon media outlets such as the New York Sun, The Weekly
Standard, New York Post, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Sunday Times of
London, World Net Daily, Washington Times, and UPI. In fact, very little
is known about Al-Mada, and the fact that it could be a neocon-owned newspaper
doing the propaganda work of its masters in Washington and Jerusalem cannot
be entirely ruled out.
-
- Progressives who are opposed to the war must become much
more savvy about countering the form of neocon propaganda disseminated
by the Al-Madas and MEMRIs of the world.
-
- The Al-Mada "list" and its translation by MEMRI
contains a predictable list of the accused. They are politicians, political
parties, and others who have been opposed to the invasion and occupation
of Iraq and who have voiced support for Palestinian rights. The list is
likely as phony as Senator McCarthy's infamous list of "57 known communists
in the State Department." He got the idea from a bottle of "Heinz
57" steak sauce on a table at a banquet where he was speaking. Al-Mada
obviously got its list from a notorious group of neocons, who enjoy the
administrative cover of the Pentagon and the Vice President of the United
States' office, who are teetering on oblivion after their duplicity in
creating bogus intelligence about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction
has come to light. Rather than face the facts that their gambit has been
uncovered, they now want to shift the subject and blame others for taking
oil money from Saddam.
-
- Al-Mada said it showed some documents from the Iraqi
Oil Ministry that it used to create its list to the Daily Telegraph of
London. That neocon outlet was already caught last year disseminating disinformation
about documents its Baghdad correspondent "found" in the ruins
of the Iraqi Intelligence Ministry. They suggested that British Labour
Member of Parliament George Galloway had received bribes from Saddam. The
documents were later proven to be crude forgeries. In the case of the list,
Agence France Presse reported from Baghdad that Al-Mada's management "refused
to disclose how the daily procured the documents." Of course, they
certainly would not want to disclose where they got the documents - which
were only photocopies at that. The originals may even have the fingerprints
of the Iraq National Congress' Ahmad Chalabi or the Pentagon's Harold Rhode
on them.
-
- Let us review the list that Al-Mada somehow "discovered"
and deconstruct it for its obvious propaganda value. Although Al-Mada claims
to be an unbiased and independent newspaper in Baghdad, it only surfaced
in relation to the bribery list story. Before that, it was a fairly unremarkable
newspaper, starting up after the U.S. occupation began and publishing stories
about daily car bombings in Iraq.
-
- First of all, the list contains the names of organizations
and individuals who are opposed to the neocon agenda in Iraq and other
countries. It includes the Russian Orthodox Church, which has been allied
with President Vladimir Putin in his crusade against the Russian-Israeli
mafia that has permeated Russian business and political life. It includes
Samir Vincent, an Iraqi-American who once arranged for a group of Iraqi
religious leaders to visit President Jimmy Carter. By default, the attack
on Vincent suggests that Carter may have somehow also been in Saddam's
pocket. As expected, George Galloway is once again on the list, the neocons
having before been unsuccessful in their attempts to link him to Saddam's
purse strings.
-
- Also on the list is found the Indian Congress Party and
the African National Congress, two parties opposed to the neocon agenda
in their respective regions of the world. Some neocon propaganda outlets
falsely offered up as news reports that French President Jacques Chirac
was involved in the Iraqi bribery. But it did not matter. One Big Lie begat
other Big Lies. It is the neocon method. We must become wise to it, deal
with it, and stamp out the intended effects of this form of arson in an
era of instant news.
-
- The neocons also apparently wanted to embarrass the sons
and daughters of the Non-Aligned Movement, a group that the neocons and
their Trotskyite parents always despised. Consequently, on the list are
found Megawati Sukarnaputra, the daughter of President Sukarno, and Khaled
Gamal Adbel Nasser, the son of Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser. Sukarno and
Nasser were co-founders of the Non-Aligned Movement.
-
- Eastern European political parties opposing Western interventionism
and the setting up of NATO military bases in Eastern Europe are also on
the list. They include the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the Yugoslav Socialist
Party, the Italian Party of Yugoslavia, the Romanian Labor Party, the Russian
Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, the Slovak Communist
Party, and the Party of Hungarian Interests.
-
- Similarly, politicians and businessmen in other countries
that were not members of Bush's "Coalition of the Willing" are
on the list. They include political leaders in France, Russia (including
the republics of Tatarstan and Chechnya), Serbia, Sudan, Yemen, Algeria,
Lebanon, Canada, Syria, Oman, Libya, Cyprus, Palestine, Vietnam, Liechtenstein,
Bangladesh, Malaysia, Jordan, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, India, Indonesia,
Morocco, Qatar, Chad, China, Nigeria, Kenya, Ireland, Austria, Brazil,
Bahrain, Panama, Turkey, Myanmar, and Belarus.
-
- More curious was the inclusion of Glencore of Switzerland
on the "list." Headed by American fugitive Marc Rich, who was
pardoned by Bill Clinton, the inclusion of Glencore may have been an attempt
to tarnish the former American president in an election year which will
see him stumping for Democratic candidates. But by naming Glencore, that
strategy may backfire. Rich's attorney was none other than Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and neocon arch-ally
of people like Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and James
Woolsey.
-
- So, if Saddam's oil money truly went to people like Rich,
could it have eventually ended up in the coffers in the neocons? And while
we are looking into the financing of politicians, maybe someone should
check into how the $125,000 senior fellowship chair that Lynne Cheney occupies
at the neocon citadel, the American Enterprise Institute, is funded. Word
has it that the money comes from sources linked to the Russian-Israeli
mafia oligarchs based in Israel.
-
- - Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based journalist and
author. He is the co-author of "America's Nightmare: The Presidency
of George Bush II."
-
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-
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