- Jeff - About 2 weeks ago I had the entire 7 part
series of this movie, The War You Don't See (the entire movie start to
finished), saved to my YouTube "favorites".
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- Today, I found that YouTube has censored the movie and
that it's been "removed" from the site in its entirety.
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- Note - Part 1 is still available - ed
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- 'The War You Don't See' - Part 1
- http://youtu.be/h3jtxT9wOo8
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- 'The War You Don't See' John Pilger Film Banned By Lannan
Foundation
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- By John Pilger
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- http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
- Information Clearing House
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- 6-10-11
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- An open letter to Noam Chomsky and the general public.
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- Dear Noam
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- I am writing to you and a number of other friends mostly
in the US to alert you to the extraordinary banning of my film on war and
media, 'The War You Don't See', and the abrupt cancellation of a major
event at the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe in which David Barsamian and
I were to discuss free speech, US foreign policy and censorship in the
media.
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- Lannan invited me and David over a year ago and welcomed
my proposal that they also host the US premiere of 'The War You Don't See',
in which US and British broadcasters describe the often hidden part played
by the media in the promotion of war, notably in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The film has been widely acclaimed in the UK and Australia; the trailer
and reviews are on my website www.johnpilger.com
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- The banning and cancellation, which have shocked David
and me, are on the personal orders of Patrick Lannan, whose wealth
funds the Lannan Foundation as a liberal centre of discussion of politics
and the arts. Some of you will have been there and will know the Lannan
Foundation as a valuable supporter of liberal causes. Indeed, I was invited
in 2002 to present a Lannan award to the broadcaster Amy Goodman.
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- What is deeply disturbing about the ban is
that it happened so suddenly and inexplicably: 48 hours before David
Barsamian and I were both due to depart for Santa Fe I received a brief
email with a 'sorry for the inconvenience' from a Lannan official who had
been telling me just a few days earlier what a 'great honour' it was to
have the US premiere of my film at Lannan, with myself in attendance.
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- I urge you to visit the Lannan website www.lannan.org
Good people like Michael Ratner, Jeremy Scahill and Glenn Greenwald are
shown as participants in discussion about freedom of speech. I am there,
too, but my name is the only one with a line through it and the word, 'Cancelled'.
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- Neither David Barsamian nor I have been given a word
of explanation. All my messages to Lannan have gone unanswered; my calls
calls are not returned; my flights were cancelled summarily. At the urging
of the New Mexican newspaper, Patrick Lannan has issued a one-sentence
statement offering his regrets to the Lannan-supporting 'community' in
Santa Fe. Again, he gives no reason for the ban. I have spoken to the
manager of the Santa Fe cinema where 'The War You Don't See' was to be
screened. He received a late-night call. Again, no reason for the ban was
forthcoming, giving him barely time to cancel advertising in The New
Mexican, which was forced to drop a major feature.
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- There is a compelling symbol of our extraordinary times
in all of this. A rich and powerful individual and organisation, espousing
freedom of speech, has moved ruthlessly and unaccountably to crush it.
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- With warm regards
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- John Pilger
- http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28296.htm
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- Update -
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- Lannan Foundation Cancels On 'Controversial' Speaker
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- Outspoken investigative journalist 'perplexed' by vague
last-minute email
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- By Paul Weideman The New Mexican 6-10-11
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- Patrick Lannan, president of the nonprofit Lannan Foundation,
on Wednesday night suddenly canceled a speaking engagement for the veteran
U.K.-based investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger
scheduled for June 15.
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- In an email Thursday morning, Pilger said Lannan had
given no reason for his decision. "Just like that. A short e-mail
- no explanation whatsoever."
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- Later in the morning, Pilger wrote, "All I have
is an e-mail from Barbara Ventrello (the foundation's Cultural Freedom
Special Projects director) saying Patrick Lannan called from California
saying cancel all my events. I know Patrick - all very friendly, Lannan
has flown me over before. I regarded them as friends. Now they won't even
answer their phones ... Am completely perplexed.
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- After repeated requests for an explanation, Ventrello
emailed this statement from Patrick Lannan: "Lannan Foundation regrets
the cancellation of Mr. John Pilger's events next week and any inconvenience
this may have caused the Santa Fe community members who support our public
programs."
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- The Lannan Foundation had the Pilger event on its schedule
for months. Part of its Readings and Conversations series, it was to be
a conversation between Pilger and David Barsamian, director of Boulder,
Colo.-based Alternative Radio.
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- Barsamian did not return phone calls Thursday.
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- While in Santa Fe, Pilger also was expected to attend
the U.S. premiere of his new film, The War You Don't See, on June 16 at
The Screen. Lannan paid the rental fee in advance, but canceled that event
as well. Peter Grendle, manager of theater on the Santa Fe University of
Art & Design campus, said he was informed about the decision in an
email from Ventrello. He said Pilger planned to introduce the film and
do a question-and-answer session afterward.
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- It is not known if the Pilger event was dropped because
of topics he might address in his talk, but Lannan is not known for exercising
any kind of censorship in the past.
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- Pilger, the author of eight books and nearly 60 documentary
films, has been a fierce and prolific critic of government and the media
for more than 40 years.
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- The War You Don't See opens with upsetting footage of
an "unreported Apache gunship attack" on people walking on a
Baghdad street in 2007. As the pavement erupts in bullet-sprayed dust and
the people fall and scramble, the voice of the commander directs, "Keep
shootin'. Keep shootin'. Keep shootin'."
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- When director Pilger questions Bryan Whitman, the United
States' deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, about
the attack, Whitman is relatively noncommittal. "These incidences
are unfortunate. Every one in which there is a civilian casualty is unfortunate,"
he says. "But again, it is the enemy who is deliberately trying to
inflict civilian casualties and put civilians in harm. It is the NATO forces,
it is the U.S. forces that are taking every precaution they can to prosecute
the war and prevent civilian casualties."
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- On the dearth of probing investigations into the truths
behind the Iraq war, Pilger grills journalists including David Mannion,
editor in chief of ITV News. He asks Mannion about his decision to report
uncritically a warning by then-Vice President Dick Cheney that Iraq would
soon have nuclear weapons. Mannion says the network "allowed our viewers
to make up their minds as to whether this was a man telling the truth or
not."
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- "But that's not fair on viewers, is it?" Pilger
says. "Because they may not know what we as journalists know or ought
to know: that this was an extremely dodgy politician who was making extraordinary
claims."
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- He gets former CBS correspondent Dan Rather to admit
in the film that, "If we had done our job, I do think a strong argument
can be made that perhaps we would not have gone to war."
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- In an email exchange June 1 for a Pasatiempo story -
now also canceled - about the Lannan event, Pilger said, "The point
is journalism. Real journalism, not the kind that takes authority at face
value, that is bored with the notion of truth-telling and is besotted by
'celebrities,' famous or not. If those of us paid to keep the record straight
don't do our job, who will?"
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- The War You Don't See was made before the killing of
Osama bin Laden. But in an interview with Pasatiempo, Pilger said, "The
impression I get is that much of the U.S. media rejoiced at the killing
of Osama bin Laden. For the victims of 9/11 that would be understandable.
But for Maureen Dowd, liberal columnist of The New York Times, to say words
to the effect that it was suddenly great to be American again is absurd.
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- "Why wasn't bin Laden brought back to the U.S. and
put on trial? Isn't that the way true democracies behave? Perhaps the reason
was that he might have thrown light on his earlier employment by the CIA
and Britain's MI6. The victims of 9/11 surely had a right to see him tried.
His killing will undoubtedly bring reprisals against innocents, media 'unpeople'
in those faraway places whose names we never know, whose faces we never
see. That's already happened."
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- At a little after 9 p.m. London-time Thursday, Pilger
sent an email to The New Mexican regarding the cancellation of his Santa
Fe appearances that said, "I'm e-mailing Patrick Lannan to ask why.
How can he not answer? What's going on? Is the U.S. an open or closed society?"
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- Contact Paul Weideman at 986-3043 or pweideman@sfnewmexican.com.
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