The Steady Stream of Lies about Venezuela or The Killers and Liars Prepare (tags)
"The fourth big lie is saved up to the end, and follows on that grand tradition of the great human rights abusers accusing others to deflect attention from themselves. Chavez is said to be “cultivating” regimes that are characterised by “rigged elections, media censorship, the criminalisation of dissent and leaders for life”. Not a touch of irony, as the death squads in Colombia murder trade unionists and civil leaders unchecked, as the Obama Administration pussyfoots around the coup regime in Honduras (which deposed a Chavez ally), as election fraud and bloody war rages in Afghanistan and as the US launches missile attacks on Pakistan. It can be tedious to document such lies. They are so common and, no sooner is one lot done than the next day’s lies appear – if not in The Economist then in the Washington Post, The Australian or The Times. These monopolies count on the vulnerable, who do not have alternate sources of information, who do not read history and are able to be swayed by crude and often racist agitation. In the bigger picture, this is a delegitimising process, organised by the private media monopolies which, in their hatred for the sort of popular democracy led by Chavez (as also in the past by Allende), are preparing the ground for coups, wars of intervention and conquest. It has been done before and – while these monopolies remain unchecked – it will be done again."
Boffins, Buffoons and Intelligence Agencies (tags)
Paul O'Sullivan, Director-General ASIO, recently fielded questions after his public address at the Sydney Institute. In response to a question relating to the Cronulla race riots, the ASIO chief confirmed that extremism from any quarter (left or right) would attract the attention of our domestic watchdog. His answer prompted a memory recall of the most infamous failure of our domestic spy agencies, the Sydney Hilton Bombing of February ’78.