wake up!! wake up!! It’s yer OASIS OF TRUTH Friday 16th April 2004 Free/Donation Issue 449 CRAP TERR-ARREST Workers at the DHKC (Revolutionary WUD’JA FALLUJA IT! People’s Liberation Front) Brussels in- formation Bureau were arrested last “How can the media report this when they by the American military. I stood atop my apart- don’t even have a correspondent in Falluja? ment listening to a speaker blaring instructions week by heavily armed anti terrorist Why are they failing so completely to re- that anyone who approached the area would be police, who had previously sealed off port the Iraqi side of the story? How much shot on sight. This is freedom.” A week earlier the whole district and broken in the more obvious can it be that they are only Iraqi soldiers, trained and controlled by coali- doors of the office. parroting the U.S. military lies concerning tion forces had opened fire on a demonstration The police commandos even dug up the situation?” Dahr Jamail, Independent there. As the protesters returned to their homes the garden hoping to find some explo- reporter in the poor neighbourhood of Sadr City, the US sives but all they found were vegeta- Remember the old Iraqi Information Minis- army followed with tanks, helicopters and bles and flowers. This ridiculous opera- ter nicknamed “Comical Ali” who amongst other planes, firing at random on homes, shops, tion was really aimed at the office of things proclaimed the defeat of U.S. forces even streets, even ambulances. According to local hos- as they moved into Baghdad? Well now it’s the pitals, 47 people were killed and many more Halkin Sesi TV, a TV channel broadcast turn of Comical Blair and Bush who denounce injured. by internet and whose office is on the any Iraqi resistance to the invasion and occupa- As Dahr Jamil angrily writes “It’s no wonder top floor of the same building. tion of their country as “outside terrorists, an the corporate media rarely reports on the tor- The channel committed the crime of extremist who has created his own militia, and turing of many of the over 10,000 detained Ira- broadcasting news about fighting units remnants of a brutal dictatorship.” While on qis by the US military, the constant home raids, of the DHKC reported by telephone the other side, they talk of “people of immense or the infrastructure in nearly complete disre- from Italy. courage and humanity…” (SchNEWS thinks pair as we begin the second year of the occupa- Blair is talking about American and British sol- tion. For most of the corporate media tend to “To Americans, “Fallujah” may still mean four diers!). stick closer to their hotels, rather than where mercenaries killed, with their corpses then mu- So while Secretary General Amr Moussa said the stories are occurring and being lived every tilated and abused; to Iraqis, “Fallujah” means at a meeting of the Arab League, that a U.S. war day - out amongst the Iraqi people. the savage collective punishment for that at- on Iraq would “open the gates of hell” in the “The majority of the corporate media tend to tack, in which over 600 Iraqis have been killed, West we are being drip fed corporate news which simply go where the U.S. military tells them it with an estimated 200 women and over 100 Dahr Jamil, one of the only journalists who has is safe to go, while donning their flak jackets, children. www.empirenotes.org Rahul also re- been in Falluja since the siege says is merely helmets, and the preferred ‘us vs. they’ mental- cently wrote ‘Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. “parroting the U.S. military lies”. In Iraq they ity with Iraqis…Instead, the US public is fed Power in Iraq and Beyond.’ are told instead of watching the televised im- bogus polls telling them half of Iraqis feel they * Read Dahr Jamail, Iraq weblog dispatches ages “of Americans and coalition soldiers kill- are better off now with a year of occupation “Solutions? One thing that remains glaringly ing innocent civilians”, to “change the channel” under their belts. That is an amazing figure, since apparent today is that Falluja has become an- because these “are not legitimate news sources”. nearly every one of the hundreds of Iraqis I other rallying point for the resistance. While In fact it was one of those ‘illegimate’ news interviewed throughout Iraq was understand- most media in the U.S. (and many other West- sources that helped precipitate this latest wave ably enraged at the 70% unemployment, less ern countries) are failing to report the Iraqi side of resistance, with the closure of the al-Hawza than 8 hours of electricity per day in Baghdad, of the story there, everyone here knows it’s newspaper. Shut down for reporting eyewit- water so terrible there are cholera outbreaks in turned into a full-on massacre, and people are ness claims that a supposed car bombing that southern Iraq, and a security situation that spi- extremely angry. This and the entire debacle of killed numerous volunteers for the New Iraqi rals further out of control on a daily basis. how the Americans have handled the situation defense forces was actually done by an Ameri- About the only time it’s easy to find Iraqis with Muqtada Sadr, have together brought riv- can helicopter. The newspaper also criticized who are pro-occupation is if you let the Coali- ers of volunteers into the already growing re- the Coalition Authority leader Bremner - some- tion Provisional Authority (CPA) show them sistance to the occupation.” http:// thing which is not allowed in the new ‘free’ to you thus it’s the journalists with the least newstandardnews.net/iraqdispatches Iraq. initiative that find the rarest selections of pub- * This Saturday (17) Ewa Jasiewicz who has US officials are fighting more than just the lic opinion by speaking to those pushing brooms been living in Baghdad and Basra will be speak- people of Iraq, but a huge propaganda war to or sitting at a desk at CPA HQ. ing at Kinning Park Complex, Cornwall St, Glas- cope with the truth of their actions. The war in “Getting the facts in Iraq is not rocket sci- gow 1pm. For a full list of her Scottish speak- Iraq is indeed a war of media, where they use ence. I am simply doing my job to report the ing tour www.tramping.org.uk/ewa images like weapons to manipulate public opin- Iraqi side of the story. An informed citizenry * There is a major conference being held in Lon- ion. The fact that Bush is facing elections in the forms the basis of a democracy. Not only are don and sponsored by Shell, from 26-28th April US increases the importance of this manipula- U.S. citizens being deprived of access to infor- on the privatisation of Iraq with many corpo- tion. On a televised speech, he asserted that the mation about the true nature of the critical situ- rate representatives looking for a piece of the situation in Iraq was “not a civil war, not a ation in Iraq, they are being outright lied to by pie and representatives from the Governing popular uprising, and that most of Iraq is rela- most of the corporate media outlets.” Council and Occupation Authority (Citizens tively stable.” Old Comical Bush has obviously BYPASS MEDIA-CORP arrest anyone?) attending. Counter demonstra- been watching too much CNN, because as the * Read a moving account of Jo Wilding’s time in tions and actions are being planned by a variety American author Rahul Mahajan explains “In Falluja of different peace, justice and anti-militarisation general, there is no quicker way to get an Iraqi “George Bush says to the troops on Easter groups, plus a special focus on workers rights to laugh, than to talk about how the United Sunday that, “I know what we’re doing in Iraq in occupied Iraq as well as a counter-conference States is bringing freedom or democracy to the is right.” Shooting unarmed men in the back website. An organizing meeting was held on the country.” outside their family home is right. Shooting 15th. For more information see: STATUE OF LIBERTY? grandmothers with white flags is right? Shoot- www.warprofiteers.com, Take Firdos Square where the infamous pull- ing at women and children who are fleeing their www.voices.netuxo.co.uk/library/ ing down of Saddam’s statue was stage man- homes is right? Firing at ambulances is right?” briefing_oct2003.html, or contact Voices in the aged. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail said www.wildfirejo.org.uk Wilderness on 0845 458 2564 / “A few days ago it was closed and blockaded * Read Rahul Mahajan’s report from Fallujah [email protected]. @nti-copyright - information for action - published in Brighton since 1994 SQUAT THIS SPACE BOXED UP * There’s a new squatted social centre in Ox- devastated by greedy developers. Local residents Thousands of NHS hospital patients were of- ford at 220 Cowley Road, where they are organ- associations and council workers are supporting fered TV beside their beds as part of a deal with ising meetings, workshops. Find out more on them. Call Dave - 07986465552 a private company, it was billed as a triumph for Oxford Indymedia or contact them for informa- * The Tufnell Park squat lost their court case the government’s drive towards “patient power”. tion: [email protected], http:// two weeks ago, and are trying to appeal. They The only problem was that the patients couldn’t free.hostdepartment.com/o/oxsocial/ are negotiating to avoid eviction before mayday, turn the sets off.