My editor (peace be upon him) gets justifiably twitchy when I move into the news or conspiracy genres too much. However, there are areas of the Iraq war that are not being covered by any media, but are available online for those wanting to understand more. So for those interested in online web trends, as well as the serious war watchers, here are some subjects that tend to be overlooked by the media — perhaps because they’re not simple or sexy enough for quick soundbites.
Starting off with quiet bribery — as the United States government puts out feelers for what’s almost a billion-dollar contract for cleaning up Iraq after the war. Look at the report in an engineering magazine: US Agency Seeks Bids for Post-War Construction. And here’s another article, in the same engineering magazine, talking about the $900-million contract that the US government is dangling as a carrot. Read The Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq.
The US is also putting out “tenders” (read: bribes) to the oil industry for very profitable contracts for oil-well fire contractors. Look at Department of Defense News Report.
Then, although it was covered in a previous column, it’s worth looking at again for an idea of how far the US is willing to go to achieve its aims. Read this article on the US spying on, tapping the telephones and reading the e-mails of various United Nations members in the lead-up to voting on Iraq sanctions. Thanks to a leaked memo, the world now knows about US Dirty Tricks.
And here’s a transcript of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview with one of the United Kingdom journalists who broke the story: ABC.
You’d imagine that the US media would expose this blatant disregard for the UN — but you’d be wrong. Read how the US media is carefully avoiding the issue at Dodging the Awkward Truth.
And in a follow-up to this whole story (very little of which has made the local media), a female employee at a top-secret communications installation in the UK was arrested for leaking the NSA memo. Read GCHQ Arrest over Spying Report.
People still have this stupid idea that everything to do with spies and intelligence agencies is entirely secret and unknown. Have a look at the deceptively simple webpage dedicated to the new amalgamation of 14 different intelligence (“intel”) agencies under one banner at United States Intelligence Community.
Often, to find out what is actually going on in the intelligence field, one has to operate like an astronomer trying to work out the existence of an invisible object by watching the actions of a visible one as it reacts to the unseen one. (I think that’s called the Keppler effect, if memory serves me right — bright readers will no doubt flame me right if I’ve got it wrong). Point being, to get a glimpse of aspects of what the CIA and “First World” intel agencies are planning for in the future, the director of central intelligence released info recently on the CIA awarding “fellowships” (basically academic bribes) for those working in fields that the CIA is keen on exploring. (These range from “probabilistic evidence marshalling” to the frankly creepy “bio-nano electronic circuitry” (a nice, scientific way of saying “miniaturised biological computer circuits” or “wetware” as it’s called in sci-fi novels). To examine the official document, and more importantly, the research subject headings of areas that the most powerful intelligence agency in the world is keen on having future experts on, grab the document.
Then, for a dive headfirst into the deep end, for a very densely written but deeply interesting analysis of the Internet and intelligence gathering, take a deep breath and try the fascinating article The Ambiguous Panopticon: Foucault and the Codes of Cyberspace.
It’s funny that almost all in the US administration who have actually taken part in military service are opposed to this war — yet all of the “hawks” in the White House, who have never seen a shot fired in anger, are real keen for war. Read this article on ex-CIA agents who are questioning the supposed Iraq information that Bush is using as justification. Go to Ex-CIA Agents.
Next, on to the propaganda arena. Psychological warfare — or “psyops” for short — is a large part of this coming military action (as well as any standard military engagement in this modern age). Take a look at some of the leaflets being dropped on Iraq, right now, by the US military — on display at the Central Command (Centcom) Psychological Warfare Unit Gallery.
The ex-CIA director’s son who was given the presidency of the US in spite of the popular vote against him is preparing to reward his troops. The media didn’t notice this, but I did. Take a look at a new presidential order creating a War on Terrorism medal: text version or PDF. For the main official page that lists developments, browse the Federal Register.
Bush also recently gave his second primetime “press conference” in two years. You’d imagine that a live press-conference would be spontaneous and unrehearsed — well, you’d be wrong. Bush accidentally let slip that this entire event was rehearsed and scripted. Naturally the US media quietly left this deeply disturbing admission out of their reporting and transcripts — but thanks to the folks at the Memory Hole, you can not only watch the moment by downloading the short clip, but also compare how the different US media simply censored this piece from their coverage. Go see 1984 and Big Brother in action at Rehearsed Press Conference.
For a nice, downloadable (2 meg) clip of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with his best friend Saddam Hussein, back in 1983 when the US sold Saddam all those weapons of mass destruction that Bush and the Poodle now keep talking about, grab the clip here. And to show you how history is being ignored and rewritten further, grab this declassified US document and this one, which state how Iraq’s leadership had been “extremely pleased” with Rumsfeld’s visit, and that “Tariq Aziz (Iraqi Foreign Minister) had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person”. (If you have the time and a decent webgrabber, you might want to grab all the info and declassified documents available under the NSA section titled Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction).
Then, because we’ve spent time this column knocking over rocks and watching things crawl out: while doing some idle browsing of PR and propaganda sites, I found this interesting but far too brief article on Shell South Africa, setting up a fake “front” group of black priests called Cosa to counter the anti-apartheid protests they were getting globally. Take a read and browse the various links at Coalition for Southern Africa.
Until the next time, if my editor (peace be upon him) doesn’t get me 🙂
Ian Fraser is a playwright, author, comedian, conspiracy nut, old-time radio collector and self-confessed data-junkie. Winner of numerous Vita and Amstel Awards, he’s been an Internet addict and games-fanatic since around 1995, when the Internet began to make much more sense than theatre.