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The Top Two Stories that MSM Ignored in 2009

January 01st, 2010 | Author: akagaga

It should be no surprise to my regulars that I have no respect for media outlets who identify themselves as purveyors of “news”, while spending the bulk of their time either regurgitating White House press releases or bombarding us with all the intimate details of the latest Hollywood scandal. “Investigative Reporter” is an obsolete term.

So here are my top two stories that should have made headlines last year, but didn’t.

Based on sheer volume of hits, this is the top story for 2009:

Mainstream Media Ignores “Accidental” Bird Flu Contamination of Baxter Vaccine Shipments

Despite reports that Illinois-based pharmaceutical company Baxter International Inc. somehow managed to distribute flu vaccine contaminated with live bird flu virus to Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany

Despite the report that this only came to light when a subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died

Despite the report that Baxter confirmed the contamination, and the World Health Organization is “closely monitoring” the situation

Despite reports that mixing the two viruses would make them extremely potent and contagious

Despite reports from the medical community that the contamination could not possibly have been an accident

Despite speculation in Czech newspapers that the contamination was a deliberate attempt to create a pandemic, for which Baxter would stand ready to profit through their vaccines

Despite all these reports that have been circulating since March 3rd or before … I cannot find even one major news outlet that’s covering this story.

I normally avoid the “conspiracy” word, but …
can you spell c-o-n-s-p-i-r-a-c-y???

Here is my follow-up post.

Based on the story that most tore at my heart, here’s the other top story that MSM refused to report. As of this date, the army still refuses to re-open the investigation. In addition, Midtown Films is producing a documentary titled: Lavena Johnson: The Silent Truth.

Remember Pfc. LaVena Johnson? She’s Just Another Military Cover-Up

Back in August, I posted briefly about LaVena Johnson, quoting from a commentary by Elizabeth Higgs:

“According to the U.S. Department of Defense, Private LaVena Lynn Johnson killed herself on July 19, 2005, eight days before her twentieth birthday. Exactly how did she end her life? She punched herself in the face hard enough to blacken her eyes, break her nose, and knock her front teeth loose. She douched with an acid solution after mutilating her genital area. She poured a combustible liquid on herself and set it afire. She then shot herself in the head. Despite this massive self-inflicted trauma, she somehow managed to drag her then fully clothed body into the tent of a KBR contractor, leaving a trail of blood along the way and set the tent ablaze in a failed attempt to cover up her crimes against herself.

If this story sounds plausible to you, you may have missed your calling as an officer in the U.S. Army, because Army officers, speaking with a straight face, would have you believe that such a thing is not only possible, but actually happened.

In reality, LaVena Johnson was raped, beaten, and murdered by someone on a military base in Balad, Iraq, and the Army doesn’t want you to know about it.”

The Army doesn’t want her parents to know about it, either. Since LaVena died, they have had doubts about the suicide story. They had talked with her every day, and she had said nothing to lead them to believe she was emotionally unstable or even a little upset. And then her body was shipped home.

“In viewing his daughter’s body at the funeral home, Dr. Johnson was concerned about the bruising on her face. He was puzzled by the discrepancy in the autopsy report on the location of the gunshot wound. As a US Army veteran and a 25-year US Army civilian employee who had counseled veterans, he was mystified how the exit wound of an M-16 shot could be so small. The hole in Lavena’s head appeared to be more the size of a pistol shot rather than an M-16 round. He questioned why the exit hole was on the left side of her head, when she was right handed. But the gluing of military uniform white gloves onto Lavena’s hands hiding burns on one of her hands is what deepened Dr. Johnson’s concerns that the Army’s investigation into the death of his daughter was flawed.”

For more than three years, her father, Dr. John Johnson, and her mother Linda have done everything within their power to seek justice for their daughter – and the Army has fought them every step of the way. They have had to resort to FOIL requests to get copies of Army documents related to their daughter. They have had to call on their local congressman to pressure the Army to release these documents.

They have been interviewed by the media countless times. A website has been created in LaVena’s name. There have been multiple petitions signed, demanding a congressional investigation. (The latest is here, if you’d like to sign it.)

And there are many other women in the military who have died under suspicious circumstances. The Department of Defense’s own statistics state that one in three women who join the military will be sexually assaulted or raped.

Despite all this – despite the statistics, despite the efforts of the Johnson’s, despite the obvious attempts to cover up a horrendous crime – nothing has changed. The Army still calls her death a suicide. They have not re-opened the investigation. The Army is still protecting their own.

From the least to the greatest – from the murderer all the way through the chain of command to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and President George W. Bush – they are all guilty. And if we continue to blindly support our military, we are guilty, too.

So the next time you’re waving the red, white and blue for a country that condones and covers-up the rape and murder of one of its own; the next time you’re singing about this land where some are more equal than others; the next time you pledge allegiance to support the United States of America, no matter what they do – you might spare a thought for LaVena Johnson and her parents. You might ask God to move His hand and provide justice for this family – because the military sure as hell won’t.

Justice, and only justice,
you shall pursue,
that you may live and possess the land
which the LORD your God is giving you.
(Deuteronomy 16:20)

Category: Baxter, Big Brother, Christianity, MSM, human rights, media, news, persecution | 2 Comments

Are Hillary’s Priorities Obama’s Priorities?

February 25th, 2009 | Author: akagaga

The Washington Times reports [emphasis added]:

As she began her trip at the beginning of the week, Mrs. Clinton said that human rights are “part of our agenda with the Chinese, as is climate change and clean energy and nuclear nonproliferation and dealing with the North Korean denuclearization challenge.”

But on Friday she told reporters traveling with her that issues of human rights and religious freedom “can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and security crises. We have to have a dialogue that leads to an understanding and cooperation on each of those.”

So there you have it. Money, climate change, and the “war on terror” are the issues.

Maybe this is just an acknowledgment that human rights and religious freedom aren’t that important to the US anymore.

Category: Hillary, Obama, human rights | Leave a Comment

FFQF: The Spirit of the Bill of Rights and Gitmo

February 19th, 2009 | Author: akagaga

This post is part of the Favorite Founders’ Quote Friday meme. Go to Meet the Founding Fathers to see who else has participated today.

My quote this week doesn’t specifically address the Bill of Rights, as it had not yet been adopted when these words were spoken, but it does address the spirit behind our first ten amendments. Here, then, is George Washington in his First Inaugural Address. (1789) [emphasis added]

By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President “to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

Because he has a troubled conscience, Brandon Neely has publicly testified about his time as a guard at Gitmo. Speaking to the Guantanamo Testimonials Project, his 15,000 word account provides details on the following:

the arrival of the detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous shackling, positional torture, interference with religious practices and beliefs, verbal abuse, restriction of recreation, the behavior of mentally ill detainees, possible isolation regime of the first six children in GTMO

In his report on Neely for Harper’s Magazine, Scott Horton added this:

He describes body searches undertaken for no legitimate security purpose, simply to sexually invade and humiliate the prisoners. This was a standardized Bush Administration tactic-the importance of which became apparent to me when I participated in some Capitol Hill negotiations with White House representatives relating to legislation creating criminal law accountability for contractors. The Bush White House vehemently objected to provisions of the law dealing with rape by instrumentality. When House negotiators pressed to know why, they were met first with silence and then an embarrassed acknowledgement that a key part of the Bush program included invasion of the bodies of prisoners in a way that might be deemed rape by instrumentality under existing federal and state criminal statutes. While these techniques have long been known, the role of health care professionals in implementing them is shocking.

It’s hard to reconcile Washington’s words of morality, honesty, and virtue with these accounts of brutality, abuse, and sexual torture. It’s harder still to believe that the God who calls us to love our brother has not obliterated our nation. I believe the only thing that accounts for this is God’s incredible patience and His desire that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. But God will not strive with man forever.

Our Bill of Rights recognizes the God-given rights of the individual. If we the people do not demand justice for our White-House-directed violation of these rights, because Obama has already indicated that he won’t; if we the people do not confess our sins against humanity to Almighty God and plead for the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ, but arrogantly continue to declare that we are the champions of right; then God will judge our nation. He will bring us to our knees until every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Category: Christianity, abuse of power, human rights | 4 Comments

1991 Gulf War Syndrome is Real

November 17th, 2008 | Author: akagaga

From CNN without editorial comment from moi:

An extensive federal report released Monday concludes that roughly one in four of the 697,000 U.S. veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf War suffer from Gulf War illness.

That illness is a condition now identified as the likely consequence of exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas.

“This is a bittersweet victory, [because] this is what Gulf War veterans have been saying all along,” Hardie said at a news conference in Washington. “Years were squandered by the federal government … trying to disprove that anything could be wrong with Gulf War veterans.”

Category: Iraq, human rights | Leave a Comment

Who Is Responsible?

October 28th, 2008 | Author: akagaga

I just came across a site called Project Censored, that takes a well-researched look at the “news that didn’t make the News.” (hat tip to J.D. Tuccille at Disloyal Opposition) Project Censored has a list of the Top 25 Censored Stories and it’s well worth your time to read. In fact, I think we are all obligated to know what the government is doing in our name. As Patrick Henry stated:

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.

I haven’t read through the whole list yet, but here are a few that caught my attention.

#1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation

Based on multiple studies that the government denies and the mainstream media ignores, approximately 1.2 million Iraqis have died, and about 5 million are refugees, as a result of the US invasion and occupation. This is more than died in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Every month that we stay, another 10,000 people are killed.

#5. Seizing War Protesters’ Assets

President Bush has signed two executive orders that would allow the US Treasury Department to seize the property of any person perceived to, directly or indirectly, pose a threat to US operations in the Middle East.

Vaguely worded to allow inclusion of most anybody who disagrees with our wars, the act further authorizes freezing the assets of “a spouse or dependent child” of any person whose property is frozen. The executive order on Lebanon also bans providing food, shelter, medicine, or any humanitarian aid to those whose assets have been seized—including the “dependent children” referred to above.

#6. The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act

In a startling affront to American freedoms of expression, privacy, and association, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (H.R. 1955) passed the House on October 23, 2007, by a vote of 404–6. The Senate is currently considering a companion bill, S. 1959. The act would establish a national commission and a university-based “Center for Excellence” to study and propose legislation to prevent the threat of “radicalization” of Americans.

Author of the bill Jane Harman (D-CA) explains, “We’re studying the phenomenon of people with radical beliefs who turn into people who would use violence.”

“Radical beliefs” like … First Amendment rights, for instance? Joe Liberman is pushing this bill, and demanded that YouTube take down “Islamic propaganda” videos. With a few exceptions, they refused. Return to McCarthyism, anyone?

#25. Bush’s Real Problem wtih Eliot Spitzer

The exposure of New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer’s tryst with a luxury call girl had little to do with the Bush administration’s high moral standards for public servants. Author F. William Engdahl advises that, “in evaluating spectacular scandals around prominent public figures, it is important to ask what and who might want to eliminate that person.” Timing suggests that Spitzer was likely a target of a White House and Wall Street operation to silence one of its most dangerous and vocal critics of their handling of the current financial market crisis.

It seems Spitzer wrote an editorial in the Washington Post that said, in part, “Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.”

* * *

While Bush and all those in Washington will someday have to account for their actions before our Maker, we will someday have to account for our inactions.

O my God,
I am ashamed and embarrassed
to lift up my face to You, my God,
for our iniquities have risen above our heads
and our guilt has grown even to the heavens.
Ezra 9:6

Category: Bill of Rights, abuse of power, human rights | Leave a Comment