Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Tell Me No Lies

S.Elson via sam | 16.06.2006 04:03 | Analysis | Anti-militarism | Repression | World

Rather it will be discovered by those who put their own reputations and often lives on the line, in order to uncover the real actions and outcomes of those who tell us they rule over us. The challenges that emerge from reading "Tell me no Lies" are to find the strength to continue to root them out and even more importantly, to stand up and challenge them publicly.

Continue to root them out
Continue to root them out


I've been reading recently John Pilger's latest book "Tell me no Lies" in which he presents edited versions of some of the finest reporting on major events of significance since the second world war. Unfortunately it is a catalogue of some the most atrocious scandals and cover-ups that have been facilitated by the governments of the so called "developed" world.

From German atrocities at Dachau to Year Zero to Sabra and Chatila to Iraq, Pilger's book pulls together stories which highlight the complicity the governments of the world have had in allowing each other or their cohorts in other countries to, literally, get away with murder.

Sharing information, withholding information or censoring information is nothing new when it comes to high level government interactions. What stands out in Pilger's book is the way in which the public has been duped by their own government's propaganda campaigns to suppress, distort or discount the evidence of their activities and involvement in the deaths of millions across the globe.

The lies and propaganda campaigns continue. Isn't it strange how just three weeks ago the big headline item in the media was the murder of innocent Iraqi's by US Marines in November last year. Three weeks ago we were hearing how soldiers, who we have been told are only in Iraq to protect the emerging Iraqi "democracy", took revenge on an Iraqi family for the death of one of their pals. We heard how the Marines entered a house and systematically, in cold blood, shot 15 members of the family dead. The Pentagon tried to hide it under wraps but less than five months after the event, the soldiers who had to go in and clean up the mess, writing home to their own families, told of their disgust at what they had seen.

The US government, engaged in a cover up, allowed one of it's officials to try and justify the murders by saying the Marines "suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership, with tragic results" and that they, "over-reacted because of the pressure on them". The Pentagon responded to the atrocity by saying they would update the "ethics" training their soldiers supposedly receive.

Then, just last week, out of the blue, the US is able to track down their chief bogey man in the region, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, and supposedly kill him. According to the mainstream media Al-Zarqawi was the "leader" of the Iraqi insurgency. What they never reported was that it was more than likely he had been dead for two years already. What we will never know is the truth.

However, what this little turn of events did was divert us away from the real news, the fact the US military was not only involved in but tried to hide the cold blooded murders of innocent Iraqis. All of a sudden the papers and the electronic media were full of more "we got him" stories. Howard, Blair and Bush all fell into lockstep and proclaimed this as a milestone event and how much it meant for the "war on terror" to have Al-Zaqwari dead. Strange isn't it how a negative was transformed into a positive.

Rather than hearing about how law and order in the US military is breaking down as more and more soldiers, Marines and reservists realise how futile their efforts in Iraq are, the propaganda machine of the war fires up a story on how great the US military is and what a wonderful job it is doing. Funny how it seems Osama bin Laden is still at large. Funny isn't it how the mainstream media laps up this propaganda and regurgitates it as truth.

What this so called "truth" backed up by so called "facts" can't hide is the fact that Emperor Bush cannot travel freely around the world. His newest colony in the Middle East is still to unstable for him to make a huge public display of the way US plans are restoring "democracy" and "order" there.

Unlike his visits to satraps Howard and Blair, which have been accompanied by fanfares, the setting of huge tables and much media coverage, Bush has to travel in secret to a place he says is "much safer" and he does so under the cover of darkness. He then only spends five hours there before jetting off once more to the safety of Camp David in Maryland.

As the US plans for Iraq unravel in increasingly dangerous and deadly ways the truth of what is really happening there is casually spun into nice stories of how the US is helping its 'friends' rebuild the country. The strange thing is, before they bombed it to pieces, the country didn't really need rebuilding. What it needed was international assistance to get rid of a tyrant and dictator who had been supported by the US and European governments and, in part, funded by Australian wheat growers with the full knowledge of our government.

Pilger's book, while depressing bed time reading does one thing no other book has done in recent times. It causes one to focus intently on what is going on around them as it urges us to ask the question, "do we really know the truth?"

Some time ago in another Middle Eastern country a governor asked a condemned man "What is truth?" In what has become the norm for our media these days, he didn't bother staying around for the answer. Instead he went off to big note himself in front of an audience that had been assembled solely for his edification. It seems, if history is any teacher, the governor was not interested in truth any more than he was in justice.

Pilger's book more than adequately demonstrates that truth and justice will not be found in the accepted institutions or in the accepted 'wisdom' they supposedly dispense. Rather, truth is to be found by not giving up the quest to find and restore justice to those who have suffered at the hands of others. Truth, if we are to take anything from Pilger's book will not be found in government propaganda or the mainstream media's regurgitating of the same.

Rather it will be discovered by those who put their own reputations and often lives on the line, in order to uncover the real actions and outcomes of those who tell us they rule over us. The challenges that emerge from reading "Tell me no Lies" are to find the strength to continue to root them out and even more importantly, to stand up and challenge them publicly.


Alternative Radio (Aust)
PO Box 780
Morwell VIC 3840 Australia
61-3-5134 8556
61-413 597 828
 inquiries@araustralia.org
 http://www.araustralia.org

 http://www.araustralia.org

S.Elson via sam

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech