You Lie!

When I listened to Obama's Nobel Prize war speech and heard him say this

"Yet the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions – not just treaties and declarations – that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: the United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms."

I wanted the blood of the millions of East Timorese, Vietnamese, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Haitians, Chileans and others murdered by the US "strength of arms" to cry out "You Lie!"

Then on Sunday morning I had to hear NPR feature not one, but TWO stories on an assassination carried out under Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile. In spite of discussing the dreadful state of repression under Pinochet, neither story made any mention of the strong role played by the United States in instigating and supporting the Chilean nightmare.

This brought me back to Obama's speech. No wonder he can get away with saying something so blatantly and obscenely false. The news coverage of events that would contradict such propaganda disappears down the memory hole again and again.

Compare and Contrast

NPR is rightly giving a lot of coverage to the continuing horror of genocide and warfare in Darfur. Now imagine if the slaughter in Darfur led by the Sudanese government had been given the go-ahead by a sitting US President, and imagine that the US was continuing to supply the Sudanese and the Janjaweed with the weapons they were using. You'd hope that when that President died, NPR would give significant coverage of such vile behavior.

Today offers a comparable situation. By any comparison, the Indonesian genocide against East Timor was as grievous as the situation in Darfur. At the time, President Gerald Ford was an active participant in launching the genocidal invasion of East Timor by Indonesia in 1975 and his administration continued to arm and support the Indonesians. In addition to that disgrace, Ford contributed to the horrors in Chile, Argentina, and Angola. That is the history, but on NPR's eulogies for President Ford you won't hear one word about it. Here's what was aired this morning:

• "...he successfully led the country through a difficult period." (Renee Montagne)
• "...a man whose calm and straightforward demeanor helped steer the nation through some turbulent times." (Pam Fessler)
• "Every American young and old owes [Ford] a heartfelt thanks." (from the 2000 Republican Convention)
• "Did he in fact help heal the nation?" (Renee Montagne) and John Greene answers "There’s no question that the country believed he helped heal it."

NPR neglected to mention the Ford - East Timor connection last month, and today continues this whitewashed history. Listeners do have other options, especially Democracy Now! which had much fuller coverage this morning of the Ford legacy.

Hope

NPR did a fine thing this morning by interviewing Peter Kornbluh of the Chile Documentation Project of the information-rich National Security Archive. Kornbluh helped set the record straight on the direct ties between the US government and General Pinochet leader of the 1973 coup in Chile.

Tortured History

According to Tom Gjelten here's what happened in Chile in the early 1970s: "[Pres.] Allende was implementing socialist economic policies in Chile, with disastrous results." And because of these disastrous results, "Gen. Pinochet finally agreed with other military officers that they had to stop Allende."

Later in the piece Gjelten does mention that the US supported the coup, and tells us that "having secretly undermined the Allende government, U.S. officials were quick to praise Pinochet when he brought in American economic advisers and instituted radical free-market reforms in Chile." So which was it--the disastrous socialism or the secret undermining of the US? The paper trail clearly shows that the coup was made in the US and supported for years of brutal repression.

Finally, in the mixed-up history of Gjelten-world the Chilean dictatorship ends - not because of the bravery of opponents of Pinochet and human rights activists- but due to efforts of the United States and Elliot Abrams! Yes, Abrams, the pardoned convict of Iran Contra and point man for torture and dictatorships throughout Latin America in the 1980s.

If you get your history of Latin America from NPR, you will have a very strange understanding of events there - one that would, however, square well with the human rights thugs who have found a comfortable home in the current Bush administration.

Help!

Consider for a moment NPR's laudatory coverage of Milton Friedman, the economist who suffered for decades from free market rabies, and died on November 16, 2006. Reporting on Friedman makes sense - his bitemarks are all over the Pinochet's Chile, creepy Reaganism, stagnant wages, sweatshop globalism, and compassionate corporatism- but the excesses of NPR might have even made the old guy himself blush. Except for this bit of pro-market criticism - "…they say he took a sensible argument – markets are good; markets are efficient – to an illogical extreme..." - here's a taste of what NPR had to offer on Friedman:

Weekend Edition, Nov. 18, 2006

• "...the most persuasive advocate for an unfettered freemarket which he believed maximized human liberty...'
• "...he proposed many ideas that have become accepted, including income tax withholding, volunteer army, and school vouchers..."( someone needs to tell Scott Simon that school vouchers have not become accepted.)

ATC Nov. 16, 2006

• "He promoted liberty in all human spheres...."
• "...did the most to promote human freedom around the world during the twentieth century."
• "...displayed the sly humor that disarmed even some of his intellecual foes."
• "...was also a policymaker with his finger in all sorts of pies."
• "He was consistently for freedom."

For those wanting a little antidote to such overkill, be sure to see the following links that were featured on Cursor.org: Wall Street Journal (far more informative than anything on NPR), Greg Palast, CounterPunch, and Znet.