ACLU: Pentagon Made 'Unprecedented' Effort To Hide Human Cost of War

ACLU: Pentagon Made 'Unprecedented' Effort To Hide Human Cost of War

thinkprogress.org

The ACLU today released documents regarding Navy investigations of civilians killed by coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report notes that the administration has gone to “unprecedented lengths to control and suppress information about the human cost” of the wars. Some of the key findings:

– Banning photographers on U.S. military bases from covering the arrival of caskets containing the remains of U.S. soldiers killed overseas

– Paying Iraqi journalists to write positive accounts of the U.S. war effort

(visit the link for the full news article)

And the hits just don't stop with these criminals. Add to the "talking head pundit" program these guys waged on the populace through the totally corrupt and infiltrated mainstream media outlets, to a total cover-up and PAY OFF of journalists overseas to spew propaganda, and hide casualties!

And here these pathological liars are spinning the Iran boogey-man stories overtime, and people are STILL gulping down their kool-aid and believing what they say! Unreal!

– Inviting U.S. journalists to “embed” with military units but requiring them to submit their stories for pre-publication review

– Erasing journalists’ footage of civilian deaths in Afghanistan

– Refusing to disclose statistics on civilian casualties.

The New York Times revealed in April that the Pentagon also had used a domestic propaganda program to paint a rosy portrait of the war effort.

thinkprogress.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

If you talk to government officials about the failures of the Vietnam war, many of them won't even discuss the strategic errors made in the field, they'll talk about the media.

It's a widely held belief that the lack of a unified front in the media was what turned the public against the war, and ultimately led to our withdrawal from the region.

It seems that the prevalent view holds that winning the media over is more important than winning the actual war.

This is especially true if you're a corrupt revolving door government that's stuffed to bursting with former defense contractor executives. Dragging the war on is what matters, not winning. To these people, winning is actually a very bad thing. It means no more profits, no more no-bid contracts, and no more gouging. Peace means an end to 3000% profit margins, and not a whole lot else, in the mind of a money worshiper.

The idea, I think, is to spend as much time as possible engaged with the enemy, without actually dealing a deathblow. The same EXACT thing happened in Vietnam.

The contractors and energy executives were quite pleased with how the war was going then too (with the exception of the media and the American public), we were fighting the Viet Cong to a draw (essentially), squeezing the balloon (crush it in one place and it expands in another) and in every instance where we could have brought our foot down on their neck, we held back to allow for more profiteering.

As long as we keep expending ordinance, keep fueling armored vehicles and planes, and keep buying up their various goods and services (ala Haliburton's water and food, amongst other things), the companies behind this war, and their pet politicians, are happy.

It's vital to them, though, to paint the media picture of the war as an ongoing struggle, with a distant goal of peace. They can't tell the truth about why we're fighting, and they can't tell the truth about why we'll never win.

Peace never comes, not with these scumbags in charge.

This may be of intrest to some of you and i feel it fits the "theme" of the thread.

Zoriah: Embed Termination - Statement About My Situation in Iraq

A few hours after posting my story on the suicide bombing in Anbar Province, I was woken up by a young marine who took me to receive a phone call. A high ranking Public Affairs Officer told me that they were requesting that I remove my blog post immediately. I asked on what grounds, as media rules state that wounded and killed soldiers may be portrayed in images as long as their name tags and identifiable features are not shown. I made very sure my images followed those guidelines, and questioned a large number of soldiers on base to see if they could find anything at all that would identify the dead. I did this primarily out of respect for the families.

After the post was online, I was told that the Marine Corps would not allow even the pants or shoes of a injured or killed Marine to be depicted in images. This was a rule I had never been told or even heard of. I refused to remove the blog post. It seemed insane to me that the Marines would embed a war photographer and then be upset when photographs were taken of war. A few minutes later my embed was terminated and a convoy was arranged, despite a fierce sand storm, to bring me to Camp Fallujah where I would wait for the first flight out of the Marines area of operation and into the Green Zone. I still wait for my flight out one day later. Apparently they fear that someone is angry enough to do me harm, as I now must go to the chow hall with two armed escorts. However, I have had five or more Marines approach me on base and tell me that the images were the best and most powerful, real photographs of war they had ever seen, and that they supported my choices 100%.

[SNIP]

www.zoriah.net...

Read this and you'll get an idea of what there doing to the journalist(s) that report the truth.

You can find the post he was referring to here (warning can be a bit graphic)

[edit on 3-7-2008 by d11_m_na_c05]

– Inviting U.S. journalists to “embed” with military units but requiring them to submit their stories for pre-publication review

– Erasing journalists’ footage of civilian deaths in Afghanistan

– Refusing to disclose statistics on civilian casualties.

The New York Times revealed in April that the Pentagon also had used a domestic propaganda program to paint a rosy portrait of the war effort.

I hope nobody will still be downplaying the iraqi casuality numbers in this thread. According to several independent scientific sources, the death toll in Iraq is well over 1.000.000 All of them innocent civilians and most of them children. Including the millions deaths under Clinton's responsibility, the genocide in Iraq now claims around 3.000.000 victims. When will the war criminal zionist-neocon Clinton-Bush gang have to face it's criminal responsibilities of Hitlerian dimension?

reply to post by WyrdeOne


This ties in with what you had to say. After Bush's daddy declared in 1991, "By God, we've kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all!", his son saw fit to have a war where public opinion could be controlled. Conservatives viewed the public's anti-war, anti-interventionist stance (the so called V syndrome) as something to be overcome.

Reagan started to wean the public off this VS with his lic's (low intensity conflicts) in Central America and the Caribbean and to some extant the CIA's work in Afgahanistan. How can a nation invade other countries if its populace thought otherwise? Of course, the Bush's owe a debt of gratitude to Clinton in the Balkans.
How many young people know that Republicans at the time were against Clinton's war?

Conducting (not waging!) this Iraq war was a full blown effort to avoid any return of a VS. Get the people on your side, so they won't think otherwise, and, by golly, we can win this one!
Give phony beliefs about wanting to keep the return of the dead soldiers' quiet and personal. Don't say truthfully that it was a strategy to keep public opinion in line.

The ACLU - criticizing the war - and making sure they dramatize it? I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked.

[edit on 4-7-2008 by ALightinDarkness]

reply to post by ALightinDarkness


You think it's the ACLU that makes war dramatic?

I think it's a situation that's pretty goddamn dramatic without any help from anybody. Nothing says drama like air-dropped high-explosive ordinance rendering human bodies into a substance that most closely resembles BBQ pulled pork.

The ACLU annoys me too, frankly, but saying that they dramatize the war is pretty specious. If anything, they're asking people to recognize and appreciate the drama inherent in the conflict; begging people to break free from their little cocoons where everything is seen from a distance, through the television, and nothing is real.

Originally posted by ALightinDarkness
The ACLU - criticizing the war - and making sure they dramatize it? I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked.

[edit on 4-7-2008 by ALightinDarkness]

On this one the ACLU are absolutely right, and you are really off the mark to call it a dramatization when they are clearly bringing a light to the darkness of the Bush dictatorship.

reply to post by WyrdeOne


Take off those partisan glasses. The ACLU criticizing a conservative administration is like the Heritage Foundation criticizing a democrat administration. I note the ACLU didn't freak out when people were dying in Bosnia. Its not news, its political propaganda. Just because you agree with the propaganda does not change reality.

I really think ATS needs to just establish an RSS feeder to all of the known DNC propaganda sites, as its the only thing that the DNC political hacks here post from (the OP here is the exception, he occasionally bashes both sides) - and its not news.

[edit on 4-7-2008 by ALightinDarkness]

Talking about US casualties in Iraq, I got the feeling that in a few years when people would have the war gone from their minds with other issues, the big lie about the death toll real figures will come to light.

I still don't buy into what the government is selling to us.

I know down deep in my hart that is more death than reported, that is why is so much BS secrecy about keeping the death out of site and out of mind.

reply to post by ALightinDarkness


Don't call me a partisan - that's just insulting.

You're way off base, and you have no idea who I am. I'm apolitical, and proud of it. I don't cut the Democrats any more slack than the Republicans because I'm convinced that both groups are comprised almost entirely of liars, and I know for a fact that they feed at the same trough.

The way I see it, the motivation behind the ACLU's criticism is a moot point. The FACTS remain.

This war was, from the start, a coordinated exercise in media control with an end goal of dragging out an unpopular war.

What is it with you people? You think all the anti-war sentiment is a red/blue issue? As if people would be fine with the whole mess if a guy wearing a blue tie was in charge?

That's just nonsensical.

Sure, there are plenty of partisans, who believe the party of the pachyderms can do no wrong, but I aint one of 'em...

reply to post by WyrdeOne


Man, do I ever agree. This continual "bi-partisan" bickering and insult-fest is beyond antiquated. These issues aren't left vs. right anymore, and haven't been for quite some time. These parties are BOTH serving the same exact interests of the Elitists, the people of the nation are meaningless to them. The sooner people wake up to that, and quit wallering around in the mud fighting with one another (which is EXACTLY what TPTB want), the sooner we can get to the REAL issues, and start overhauling this disaster. The Frankenstein Monster has gotten up off the table and is running rampant...

I get its around 3.5 million people that have laid to rest with this foreign affair agenda. War is good for two things limiting control and dividing people. Along with limiting populations, along with limiting breeding programs setup for the seed to carry on. A lot of those missions over there are probably to eradicate the seed, nothing short of Hitler era.

[edit on 5-7-2008 by menguard]

It is reality. ATS is dominated by DNC propaganda agents- which includes the staff, apparently.

The FACTS remain that the ACLU is nothing more than a DNC propaganda tank, and anyone who trusts them is embracing ignorance. I even agree with the DNC about 50% of the time, but the amount of left-wing political hacks on here is disgusting.

[edit on 5-7-2008 by ALightinDarkness]

reply to post by ALightinDarkness


You've been a member here for, what, two months? And you've got the stones to call me and my colleagues propaganda agents?

Would you believe that the other 50% of the time we get called agents of the regime, right wing yes-men, and worse?

It's a good thing our job description doesn't entail making people happy, because we couldn't possibly avoid pissing off half the people no matter what we do. This red/blue rift has so completely divided the public consciousness, it's apparently impossible to break people free from it.

Originally posted by ALightinDarkness
It is reality. ATS is dominated by DNC propaganda agents- which includes the staff, apparently.

If you genuinely believe that, then you will probably be happier going to FreeRepublic or another forum and not darkening this door.

It is very poor form to make specious accusations that are demonstrably untrue.



[edit on 5/7/08 by Pellevoisin]

It is demonstrably true, look at the "hot threads" and look at the themes, then look at the DNC's daily talking points.

Shockingly, you see a ton of alignment.

As for you, its normal partisan propagandist tactics to claim that whoever points out the propaganda must be from the "other side." Sorry, I'm a libertarian. I take every opportunity to bash both sides. Unfortunately, I don't have that many republicans to bash, because this is DNC propaganda central. I'll happy join in on bashing the RNC when we have some of their propagandists here.

reply to post by WyrdeOne


LOL, I've looked at ATS for years. Your own posts give it away: the "media" has tried to make being anti-war hip and trendy since day 1, because that was a key part of the DNC's propaganda strategy - get the war going, then reverse course. You just talked about how the media somehow "encouraged" it. Classic.

I don't care if your a DNC propagandist, really I don't. And to be clear, I'm only talking about you - not the rest of the staff. Supporting a well known DNC lap dog interest group from a well known DNC propaganda site, no, your certainly not a party idealogue. Its OK that you are, by the way - but if your going to keep back slapping each other over DNC talking points and posting "news" sources from known DNC propaganda sites, I will point out what your doing. I expected to be lynched for it, but hey, thats OK, the truth will set you free.

[edit on 5-7-2008 by ALightinDarkness]

The Personal Attacks and Attention Stop Now.

Please Re-Direct Future Posts To The Topic, Which Is, "ACLU: Pentagon Made 'Unprecedented' Effort To Hide Human Cost of War".

Any further off topic discussion may be more readily subject to action.

Thank you.

On Topic:

I would think that "unprecedented lengths" would actually be more resultant of the explosion recently experienced in information communication in the civilian structure.

Not an indication that the past hasn't had similar atrocities in our (and their) names.