Thursday, February 23, 2006
Pressing away our freedom
It was revealed today that a CBS correspondent listened to the Pentagon, and killed a story concerning improvised explosive devices in Iraq. It is already known that the U.S. and Britain used depleted uranium when they bombed Iraq. I am not quite sure when "improvised explosive devices" are, but they sure don't sound like flowers and puppies!
The story evidently was killed due to "security concerns." I am not exactly sure what security concerns they would be. It already is known that the place is being/was bombed to smitheerns...I am not sure what sort of "security concerns" there would be to show that yet another form of explosive is used in Iraq. The Pentagon Papers case was more closely related to potential national security concerns, and yet they were allowed by the Supreme Court. It appears that there is de facto censorship going on in this country, where the press simply listens to and accepts all that they are told when something is a "national security" concern. This is the same reason why the New York Times waited over a year to publish the story of the domestic wire tapping.
“But out of the gobbledygook, comes a very clear thing: [unclear] you can’t trust the government; you can’t believe what they say; and you can’t rely on their judgment; and the – the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the President wants to do even though it’s wrong, and the President can be wrong.”
-- H.R. Haldeman to President Nixon, Monday, 14 June 1971, 3:09 p.m. meeting.
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"An IED is a device placed or fabricated in an improvised manner incorporating destructive, lethal, noxious, pyrotechnic, or incendiary chemicals and designed to destroy, incapacitate, harass, or distract. It may incorporate military stores, but is normally devised from nonmilitary components."
These devices are called "roadside bombs," because, unlike landmines, they are not hidden underground (usually, anyway), but are right there on the surface. Many of the IEDs contain fairly innocuous-looking materials (including cellphones) strewen amidst the explosive ones that actually detontate when contact is made with the IED. Since we are idiotically using our forces as police forces by having them drive aroung in huge armoured tanks (what a great way to make sure that our "police" our "safe"), the "police" often don't even spot the IEDs. Over 300 U.S. troops have been killed by IEDs, which are cheap to build and cheap to replace.
Of course, many of the "military stores" contained in the IEDs represent components that the U.S. gave to Saddam Hussein or other countries in the Middle East that have now found thie way into the hands of terraists, so it's no wonder the press would bury the story before the White House would even have the opportunity to lie about it
"In the latest case, he said, he concluded that his report "might conceivably be news the enemy could use to make their IEDs more effective. It wasn't clear cut, but it was close enough."
You know the only way the IED's can be made more effective to the enemy? If we keep staying in Iraq! The enemy knows we plan on staying there. So, a reporter canned a "story" telling us something we already knew? riddikulous!
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