The Washington March: Falsified Numbers
Henk Ruyssenaars | 25.09.2005 11:52 | Anti-militarism | Globalisation | Repression
On our mainstream TV's and radios all over the world a different and false picture was mostly shown and heard, but it is safe to say that there were HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE marching against the US neocon government and the genocidal war in Iraq, yesterday in Washington.
Amsterdam - Sept. 25th - 2005 - Most TV channels and radio stations in the world only received - and to their shame used - the official but false US neocon's newspeak version concerning the anti war rally yesterday in Washington: the international neocon information agencies were as usual falsifying the numbers.
Checking - apart from CNN, BBC etc. - some other European TV channels and radio stations in different languages, I could hear and see nearly all those brainless prompter readers and collaborating nitwit commentators quote the neocon's falsified reports about "the thousands" which marched in Washington; trying to nullify the impact of all these huge groups of american and other people, all disagreeing with the neocon's lawless genocides now going on in Afghanistan and Iraq.
''Bush Lied, Thousands Died'' read one sign correctly.
But, the info-crooks do it every time, and again and again, and that's why one never ever should believe any of 'their' information sewers, be it Associated Press, which is one of the worst info gutters, or CNN, AB-CIA as many call it, the nuclear broadcasting ilk at NBC, or the info rapers from UPI, Reuters, ANP, BBC, and all the other press prostitutes and information distorters. The average prostitute by the way, has more decency in a fingertip than all of these media warmongers together.
They are a shame for our profession as journalists and a blame on mankind: they represent the neocon crimes against humanity, proving every day to be brain dead but walking on two legs. Like they did here; Falsifying figures of the Florence march against the coming wars - Url.:
http://tinyurl.com/ba4q3 According to C-Span TV* in the US yesterday, it was even up to half a million people which took part, marching against the present US managers and their inhumane wars for profit and their problematic, sick neocon ideology. [
http://tinyurl.com/2xz35] Scott Galindez writes in Truthout Org* about what he saw in Washington in an article called "Numbers", and that concerns what they did not want us to see on TV: "Saturday 24 September 2005 - It is safe to say that there were HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE marching against the war in Iraq today.
Police Chief Charles Ramsey's only statement was that the organizers achieved their goal of 100,000. The DC police refused to make any other estimate.
C-SPAN ESTIMATED 500,000, A NUMBER THAT I BELIEVE WAS POSSIBLE FROM MY OBSERVATIONS.
I was on the corner of Pennsylvania and 15th on the steps of Riggs bank when the march began. People were still arriving from all directions. The massive amount of people moving in all directions prevented a front of the march from forming. People just started marching on their own with no marshals anywhere near the front of the march. Thousands of people passed me before any organized contingent.
The first major contingent that passed me were thousands of students with signs that said, "college not enlistment." Thousands of people later I finally saw what was intended to be the lead banner. I saw Congresswomen Lynn Woosley, and Barbara Lee, the Reverend Al Sharpton and other dignitaries carrying that banner.
Thousands of people behind that came the Iraq Veterans Against the War. Joan Baez was marching with them right next to Marine Jeff Key and dozens of other veterans of the Iraq war. Behind them was Gold Star Families for Peace. About half a block later came Veterans for Peace, with Military Families Speak Out a short distance behind them.
At the time I assumed that they were in the middle of the march. I later found out that while they were not near the front they were much further from the rear.
I moved down to Pennsylvania and 13th to catch the front again and noticed for hours that there were still people heading up 15th Street. I headed to the concert at 4:30 pm, 4 hours after the march began and people were still marching past the White House, only 4 blocks from the march's starting point.
To summarize, it took over 4 hours for people clear out of the ellipse area. I have been to several large marches in Washington, DC, since 1989 and this was by far the largest.
[end item] - Truthout - story at Url.:
http://truthout.org/campcaseydc.shtml C-Span - Url.:
http://www.c-span.org/watch/ See how Google maltreats the information about the march in Washington - Url.:
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Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
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FPF@Chello.nl * The latest from Indymedia Washington DC - Url.:
http://dc.indymedia.org/index.php * Never trust them: the BBC and Warmongering - Url.:
http://tinyurl.com/6td3d *Corporate News Media: Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.:
http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe * Brainwashed? Take the free 'Gullibility Factor' test to find out if you're really a mind slave or not - Url.:
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more numbers
26.09.2005 12:04
author: Dave Lindorff e-mail:
The Sept. 24 march on the White House brought a power of message and a unity of purpose to the antiwar movement that it has been missing until now. Bush, Cheney and Rove can try to hide and deny it, but the country is listening.
100,000? (DC police, AP)
250,000? (my unscientific count)
300,000? (organizers)
500,000? (Truthout's William Pitt and CNN).
Really, who cares how many marched and rallied in Washington on Saturday?
The important thing is that huge numbers of people of all ages, races, and walks of life, from all over the country--more people than the right could hope to entire to any event, even if it paid them--converged on the White House to condemn the War on the people of Iraq, and to condemn administration whose domestic policies are destroying the country.
As a conservatively dressed middle-aged woman from Buffalo, NY, riding the Metro back to her hotel, said, explaining why she had trekked all the way down to the nation's capital with a friend to join the protest, "I just got tired of sitting around the house being angry all the time."
If the presidential election last November left a lot of progressives and anti-war Americans in a funk of debilitating doom and gloom, the remarkable phenomenon of Cindy Sheehan's vigil in Crawford, Texas, which culminated in this mass movement to confront the White House over the Iraq War, was the antidote, and a sure sign that people are over their depression and ready to renew the struggle.
Clearly the disaster in New Orleans gives this movement an extra shot in the arm. The most widely heard and popular slogan at the march was a takeoff on an iconic line from the '60s: "Make levees, not war!"
The Saturday march was important in another way, too. It marked an end to the petty bickering between various groups on the left over what stance to take on the war. The two main sponsors of the event, A.N.S.W.E.R. and United for Justice and Peace , have been at odds for the past three years over positions on Israel and Palestine and other touchy topics, with A.N.S.W.E.R. being supportive of the Iraqi resistance, while UJP has limited itself to calling for an end to the U.S. invasion and occupation. For this march, they put their differences aside and liked up around Sheehan's unambiguous call: "Bring the Troops Home Now!"
Even more cautious groups allied with the Democratic Party, notably MoveOn, while timidly declining to sponsor the demonstration and carefully noting their "disagreements" with A.N.S.W.E.R., offered their help in calling for a massive rally. MoveOn gave details about the march and rally schedule on its widely read website and in mass emails, as did Progressive Democrats, who were well-represented on the march.
One big change, readily apparent at this march, was that there was much greater participation by younger people than at earlier anti-Iraq War marches, which had looked more like reunions of veterans of the 1960s marches. Masses of college-age students carried home-made signs saying things like "Campus, not combat!" while others, including high-schoolers, carried signs condemning the lies of army recruiters. There may be no conscription yet, but clearly the young are seeing that this war of choice is being fought by them and their age cohort, who are being lured or forced into the military by an economy that is leaving them with few other choices.
The other big development, spearheaded by Sheehan and Celeste Zappala and their Gold Star Families for Peace organization, and by groups like Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and more recently by Iraq Veterans Against the War, has been the huge role being played by those either in the military or out of it or by their families. While VVAW was an important part of the anti-war effort during the campaign against the Indochina War, soldiers and veterans in that movement were never at the head of the campaign. In today's anti-war movement, they are its heart and soul.
It remains to be seen how the movement will build from this point. The phenomenon of Cindy Sheehan has clearly not run its course. With the war going from bad to disastrous, with the US death toll approaching 2000, with gas and heating oil prices soaring, and with the Bush administration becoming a national laughing stock, the focus will now surely be the off-year Congressional elections that are just over a year away.
For other stories by Lindorff, please go (at no charge) to This Can't Be Happening! .
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