Suppressed Truth in the US -
Here are the 25 Top Articles of 2011

If you read my commentaries regularly, you know that I am steadily criticizing the suppression of the truth or the telling of lies. To give you a heads up what is going on in the Media department, here another article from our friends at www.WantToKnow.info, who keep track of the Truth.

Top 25 Stories of 2011 Subjected to Press Censorship

1. More US Soldiers Committed Suicide Than Died in Combat (For full story, click here)
For the second year (2010) in a row, more US soldiers killed themselves (468) than died in combat (462). In 2009, the 381 suicides of active-duty soldiers recorded by the military also exceeded the number of deaths in battle. The Good report, which references the Congressional Quarterly as a source, was published in January 2011, just weeks after military authorities announced that a psychological screening program seemed to be stemming the suicide rate among active-duty soldiers. “This new data, that American soldiers are now more dangerous to themselves than the insurgents, flies right in the face of any suggestion that things are ‘working,’” Good Senior Editor Cord Jefferson wrote.

Sources: Good Report, “More US Soldiers Killed Themselves Than Died in Combat in 2010” Truthdig, “Death and After in Iraq” Alternet, “Can You Face the True Consequences of War?"

2. US Military Manipulates the Social Media (For full story, click here)
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda. Anyone suspicious of “sock puppets” ... would be unnerved by the US military’s “online persona management service,” a little-known program described in The Guardian UK, Raw Story, and Computerworld stories. The U.S. Central Command (Centcom) is developing the program. Using up to 10 false identities, they can counter charged political dialogue with pro-military propaganda. These "personas" can be given detailed, fictionalized backgrounds to make them believable to outside observers, and a sophisticated identity protection service to back them up, preventing suspicious readers from uncovering the real person behind the account.

Sources: Guardian UK, “Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media” Raw Story, "Military’s ‘persona’ software cost millions"; Computerworld, "Army of fake social media friends to promote propaganda"

3. Obama Authorizes International Assassination Campaign (For full story, click here)
The Obama administration has quietly put into practice an ‘incomplete idea’ left over from the G.W. Bush presidency: creating a de facto ‘presidential international assassination program.’ U.S. citizens suspected of encouraging “terror” are being put on “death lists” without any due process of law. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. military have the authority to kill U.S. citizens abroad without a trial and outside war zones if strong evidence exists that they’re involved in terrorist activity, the Washington Post reported in a front page story. A moral, ethical, and legal analysis of the assassinations seems to be significantly lacking inside the corporate media. In December of 2010, Human Rights Watch asked for clarification of the legal rationale behind this practice after a judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the notion.

Source: Human Rights Watch, “Letter to President Obama – Targeted Killings” Inter Press Service, “Judge Declines to Rule on Targeted Killings of U.S. Citizens” Salon, “Obama Authorizes Assassination of U.S. Citizen” Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings

4. Human Caused Food Crisis Expands (For full story, click here)
A new worldwide spike in agricultural commodity and food prices is generating both predictable and extraordinary fallouts. The search for causes once again leads to a conjuncture of flawed policies in trade, environment, finance and agriculture that is likely to produce more dangerous volatility in years to come. David Moberg, offering an in-depth breakdown of the global food crisis in In These Times, places the blame for rising food prices and increasing malnutrition on flawed economic policies. “Hunger is currently a result of poverty and inequality, not lack of food,” he concludes. “Since 2010 began, roughly another 44 million people have quietly crossed the threshold into malnutrition, joining 925 million already suffering from lack of food,” Moberg writes. “If prices continue to rise, this food crisis will push the ranks of the hungry toward a billion people.”

Sources: In These Times, “Diet Hard: With A Vengeance”

5. Private Prison Companies Fund Anti–Immigrant Legislation (For full story, click here)
Over the past four years roughly a million immigrants have been incarcerated in dangerous detention facilities in our taxpayer-financed private prison system. Children were abused, women were raped, and men died from lack of basic medical attention. When Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer ran for reelection in 2010, her greatest out-of-state campaign contributions came from high-ranking executives of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), one of the nation’s largest prison companies. CCA profits directly from building and operating prisons and detention centers. CCA previously employed two of Brewer’s legislative aides as lobbyists. Peter Cervantes-Gautschi spotlights Brewer’s links to CCA and goes deeper still, offering an historic account of how investors in CCA and prison giant Geo Group have for years actively pushed for legislation that would result in the widespread incarceration of undocumented immigrants.

Sources: Social Policy, "Wall Street & Our Campaign to Decriminalize Immigrants"

6. Google Spying? (For full story, click here)
Earlier this year the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigated Internet search engine giant Google for illegally collecting personal data such as passwords, emails, and other online activities from unsecured Wi-Fi networks in homes and businesses across the US and around the world. A flurry of stories aired in the spring of 2010 when it became apparent that Google Street View vehicles, in the process of collecting data for its mapping service, also picked up consumer “payload” data on Wi-Fi networks, including e-mail messages, website data, user names, and passwords. The tech giant publicly apologized for what it characterized as a mistake, saying it had “failed badly.” The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) admonished Google in a letter, but declined to pursue it further. Project Censored authors claim that the FTC abandoned its inquiry because a week earlier, Obama attended a Democratic Party fundraiser at the Palo Alto home of Google executive Marissa Mayer, citing a San Francisco Chronicle article about the $30,000-per person affair.

Sources: United States Federal Trade Communication, Personal Communication of David Vladeck; San Francisco Chronicle, "Google’s Marissa Mayer Hosting Obama At $30,000-A-Head Fundraiser Tonight"

7. U.S. Army and Psychology’s Largest Experiment–Ever (For full story, click here)
In the January 2011 issue of American Psychologist, the American Psychology Association (APA) dedicated 13 articles to detailing and celebrating a 117 million dollar collaboration with the US Army, called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF). It’s being marketed as a resilience training to reduce adverse psychological consequences to soldiers who endure combat. Comprehensive Solider Fitness (CSF) is described as a “holistic approach to warrior training,” emphasizing positive psychology as a means to counter mental health problems arising from horrific combat situations. Yet there are many questions about the wisdom of launching a required, untested psychology program for more than a million soldiers, one that encourages soldiers to think positive even in the face of traumatizing events. This “training” program might better be described as a research project. The core hypothesis of this massive program’s success has yet to be confirmed through further research.

Sources: Truthout, “The Dark Side of Comprehensive Soldier Fitness” Psychology of Well Being, A Holistic Approach to Warrior Training; Truthout, “Army’s 'Spiritual Fitness' Test Comes Under Fire”

8. The Myth of Clean and Safe Nuclear Power (For full story, click here)
The terrifying meltdowns of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors reignited worldwide debate about the wisdom of relying on nuclear energy as an electricity source. While Germany opted to phase out its nuclear facilities by 2022 in the wake of the tragedy, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) came under scrutiny after a Union of Concerned Scientists report analyzed 14 “near misses” at nuclear power plants in 2010, revealing the shortcomings in NRC inspections. Yet mainstream media’s treatment of nuclear power is all too willing to endorse the idea that nuclear power is safe. Major news publications readily go along with the nuclear industry’s branding of the power source as “clean” and “carbon free” when it’s really not. Nuclear power presents a security threat of unprecedented proportions: It’s capable of a catastrophic accident that can kill hundreds of thousands of people, with a byproduct that is toxic for millennia. To call nuclear power “clean” is an affront to science, common sense, and the English language itself.

Sources: Union of Concerned Scientists, “Nuclear Reactor Crisis in Japan FAQs” Nuclear Information and Resource Service, “Nuclear Energy Is Dirty Energy"; U.S. NRC, “Radiation Exposure and Cancer”

9. The Government is Manipulating the Weather (For full story, click here)
Rising global temperatures, increasing population, and degradation of water supplies, have created broad support for the growing field of weather modification. The U.S. government has conducted weather modification experiments for over half a century, and the military-industrial complex stands poised to capitalize on these discoveries. One of the latest programs is HAARP, the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program. This technology can potentially trigger floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. The scientific idea behind HAARP is to “excite” a specific area of the ionosphere and observe the physical processes in that excited area with intention of modifying ecological conditions. HAARP can also be used as a weapon system, capable of selectively destabilizing agricultural and ecological systems of entire regions. At a recent international symposium, scientists asserted that manipulation of climate through modification of cirrus clouds is neither a hoax nor a conspiracy theory and is fully operational.

Sources: Global Research, “Atmospheric Geoengineering: Weather Manipulation, Contrails and Chemtrails” Dr. Coen Vermeeren, Symposium speech; Commonwealth Club, “Man-Made Climate Change in the Skies”
[For highly revealing documentaries on HAARP by Canada's CBC and the History Channel, click here]

10. Real Unemployment: One Out of Five in US (For full story, click here)
The corporate media wants America to feel secure during a time of unemployment crisis, but people deserve to know what is really happening rather than a statistical lie. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) calculates the “official unemployment rate” by counting everyone who had no job, was available for work, and had actively sought work in the last four weeks, according to the BLS website. But alternative BLS statistics incorporate so-called “discouraged workers,” unemployed individuals who’ve given up on the job hunt. In the first four months of 2011, the national unemployment rate officially stood at around 9 percent, while a BLS statistic incorporating discouraged workers and the marginally employed bumped that figure up to 15.9 percent. Yet according to San Francisco-based economist John Williams, who maintains a website called Shadow Government Statistics, the “real” unemployment rate is actually 22.1 percent, or more than one out of five US residents.

Sources: Information Clearing House, “9% Unemployment Rate is a Statistical Lie” Shadow Government Statistics, "Alternate Unemployment Charts"

Thanks to the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Rebecca Bowe for parts of the above summaries.

More of the Top 25 Press Censorship Stories of 2011

11. Trafficking of Iraqi Women Rampant (For full story, click here)
Human trafficking occurs throughout the world, yet has become increasingly more prevalent in Iraq due to the instability produced by the war. Many Iraqi women and girls are widowed or orphaned by wartime casualties. Currently, more than 50,000 Iraqi women have fled to Jordan and Syria and are trapped in sexual servitude with no possibility of escape.

12. Pacific Garbage Dump: Did You Think Your Plastic Was Being Recycled? (Story here)
Many people do not realize that there is a swirling mass of plastic in the middle of the Pacific ocean that qualifies as the planet’s largest garbage dump. Recent research sponsored by the National Science Foundation suggests the affected area may be twice the size of Hawaii. The 5 Gyres Project estimates that there are 315 billion pounds of plastic in the ocean right now.

13. Will a State of Emergency Be Used to Supersede Our Constitution? (Story here)
A program dating back to the Eisenhower era is now converted to bestow secret powers on the president for anything he considers an emergency. Recent “Continuity of Government” planning has quietly removed time-honored constitutional protections and increased the militarization of civilian law enforcement. For the first time in US history, military troops are allowed to do police actions in US cities. Recently the US Army established an active-duty brigade trained to manage civil unrest and crowd control. Historically this has been illegal. There has been a loss of local authority and sustained preparations for the possibility of martial law.

14. Family Pressure on Young Girls for Genitalia Mutilation in Kenya (For full story, click here)
Girls as young as nine years old were threatened with death if they tried to escape the Kamunera location, where they awaited female genitalia mutilation in Kenya. Some are still in hiding, fearing that their parents will disown them for running away to avoid circumcision. Many girls have been forced to cut short their studies and married off at a young age because of parental fear the daughters will be ostracized if too educated.

15. Big Polluters Freed from Environmental Oversight (For full story, click here)
The Obama administration has distributed billions of dollars in stimulus money to some of the nation’s biggest polluters and granted exemptions from basic environmental errors. The administration’s main goal in Energy Secretary Steven Chu words was to “get the money out and spent as quickly as possible”.

16. Sweatshops in China Are Making Your iPods While Workers Suffer (Story here)
Apple’s suppliers routinely violate China’s “Law on the Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases.” Several manufacturers replaced alcohol with n-hexane, which is used to clean parts. It is a chemical that works better than alcohol, but poisons workers. In these factories the workers, often women in their teens or 20s, were forced to work with the poison in unventilated rooms.

17. Superbug Bacteria Spreading Worldwide (For full story, click here)
Lethal superbugs are emerging that do not respond to any known drugs. The World Health Organization states that the New Delhi or NDM-1 superbug was recently found in UK patients and has reached a critical point. These super bugs are resistant to carbapenem antibiotics, which is a major concern to experts because they are used for hard to treat infections that evade other drugs. Already 25,000 people die each year from superbugs in Europe.

18. Monsanto Tries to Benefit from Haiti’s Earthquake (For full story, click here)
In May 2010, five months after an earthquake destroyed Haiti, the American multinational Monsanto donated the country 60 tons of corn and vegetable hybrid seed. USAID took charge of the seed distribution. A month later, on June 4, 2010, around 10,000 Haitian farmers demonstrated against Monsanto’s donation. Haitian farmers denounced Monsanto’s seeds as they can’t be reused each year, which leads to the necessity of buying new seed from the multinational every new sowing season. This dependence could also extend to the fertilizers and herbicides required by the american multinational who also produces them.

19. Oxfam Exposes How Aid Is Used for Political Purposes (For full story, click here)
In a new report, Oxfam has found that billions of dollars in international aid which could have transformed the lives of many people in some of the poorest countries in the world, was spent on unsustainable, expensive and dangerous aid projects which international donor governments used to support their own short-term foreign policy and security objectives. This type of aid often bypasses the poorest people and dangerously distorts the line between civilian and military activity. The politicization and militarization of aid has in some places made it much harder for aid agencies to provide help to those in need.

20. US Agencies Trying to Outlaw GMO Food Labelling (For full story, click here)
There is increasing concern over the health impact of growing and eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The World Health Organization has identified allergenicity, antibiotic resistance, gene transfer, outcrossing, escape of GM genes into the wild population, gene stability, susceptibility of non-target organisms (insects), and loss of biodiversity as potential issues of using GM seeds. Multiple, reliable sources show that you may be eating genetically modified food daily which scientific experiments have repeatedly demonstrated can cause sickness and even death in lab animals. (More here)

21. Lyme Disease: An Emerging Epidemic (For full story, click here)
Lyme disease is one of the most political and controversial epidemics of our time. Lyme originates from a bacteria transmitted through the bite of a tick which can remain hidden for years, with symptoms mimicking other diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, ALS, and ADHD. And it is growing – new cases of Lyme occur each year at a rate ten times higher then that of AIDS and the West Nile Virus combined. Yet doctors risk losing their license if they treat Lyme as the chronic disease it is known to be. (Powerful documentary here)

22. Participatory Budgeting: A Method to Empower Local Citizens, Communities (Story here)
“Participatory Budgeting” (PB) is a process that allows citizens to decide directly how to allocate all or part of a public budget. The process typically involves a series of meetings, work by community “delegates” or representatives, and ultimately a final vote. It was first implemented in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1990, and has since spread.

23. Worldwide Movement To Ban or Charge Fees For Plastic Bags (For full story, click here)
Shoppers worldwide are using 500 billion to one trillion single-use plastic bags per year. These bags pollute our waters, smother wetlands and entangle and kill animals. As larger animals eat smaller plastic-laden creatures, this also affects our health as we end up eating some form of plastic in our sea food. Now 35 countries have already banned the use of plastic bags, nine countries have passed levies and fees on use, and 12 countries are considering bans or fees.

24. South Dakota Takes Extreme Measures to Be the Top Anti-Abortion State (Story here)
South Dakota is taking extreme action against any person who performs an abortion within the states borders. The South Dakota House is taking up a bill to redefine “justifiable homicide” that may “make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions,” Mother Jones reports.

25. Extension of DU to Libya (For full story, click here)
President Obama’s undeclared and Congressionally unauthorized war against Libya may have been compounded by the crime of spreading toxic uranium oxide in populated areas of that country. Concern has been voiced by groups such as the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons, which monitor the military use of so-called depleted-uranium (DU) anti-tank and bunker-penetrating shells.

Important: Top 20 Articles Ever Published Revealing Media Censorship
For concise summaries of the top 20 most revealing articles ever published in the major media with links to the full articles on their media websites, see www.WantToKnow.info/newsarticles. For some of the top stories ever which the press failed to cover, click here. And for an empowering website which specializes in providing fact-filled news articles and concise summaries of major cover-ups which impact our lives and world, see www.WantToKnow.info. All information is provided to inspire us to work together for a brighter future for us all.

Please keep telling and spreading the Truth! Have a wonderful and prosperous year 2012!

Amen
Rev. Dr. Alexander Hast, December 30, 2011

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We Are the 99 Percent

GOD is 100 percent on the side of the 99 percent who are occupying Wall Street and other financial abusive places in our United States. Abusive to the good Americans, the patriots, the veterans who are being beaten, battered and severely injured by just being part of a – so far – peaceful revolution of, or at least for, 99 percent of Americans.  Personally I am surprised how long it took Americans to see that they are being used, abused and enslaved by a filthy rich minority who holds the power, directs the violent forces to enforce their will and interest against everyone in our country whose blood paid to build this wealth. 

It seems like people are catching on to what is going happening, to what the whole world has seen and understood during the past decade. There is nothing that the one percent would not do to keep their wealth and power.  9-11 – do you still believe the official fairytale that the government has constructed? Do you still believe that the people who are having veterans beaten up without any reason, who have killed over and over, who are dancing on your wounded bodies have your best interest in mind? 

And this is not about parties or politicians, who have been bought a long time ago already to deliver your souls to the richest and most unscrupulous in our country, it is about the Trillions that outweigh your personal tragedy by far in their eyes.  The people who tossed you – our whole country – in the worst economic crisis, who laugh while evicting you from the house you have worked your whole life for. Those are the people who claim Jesus for their goals. They do not believe, but they know that you believe and that your – by mountains of false information unfortunately mostly misguided – love for GOD and HIS will keeps you obeying their commands, that they deliver through their also readily bought clergy in the right wing fascist churches all over our country.

If anyone tells your anything else than “GOD is Love”, “You shall NOT kill” and “Love your neighbor like yourself” and includes EVERYONE in the neighborhood they are talking about – including all religions and all skin colors – run as fast as you can.  This person belongs to the financed brigades that are supposed to keep you quiet and in hate of Muslims, people of other color, people of other cultures. And they do a good job at keeping you busy not thinking about what is really going on.

Jesus and his message have always been on the side of the poor, abused and enslaved.  And we are at a point in our country, where one percent abuses 99 percent. GOD and Jesus are with us and with the people who are fighting for GOD's real message. A special thanks to the protesters all over our country who are fighting for our rights. GOD bless you!

And meanwhile the one percent held our healthcare hostage, boycotted any job plans and improvements our government might have made on our behalf. Including restoring civil rights to the US which have been taken away by the so called patriot act under the Cheney dictatorship.  For any parallels in history, please feel free to browse this site and you will find ample information about the blueprints that led to similar situations in other countries as they appear in ours since 2001.

Familiar are also the ways in which the peaceful protests are met by the ones in power.  Police is beating up peaceful protesters and undercover personnel is trying to stir violence among the peaceful, or committing crimes and violence themselves in the name and under the banner of the peaceful.  Videos and Pictures on TV remind me of the early stages of the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany and the subsequent fall of the USSR, Eastern Europe, of student protests in China and of the Vietnam protests.

A very good and close friend of mine told me about his struggle during the civil rights movement in the 60’s, when African-Americans were treated worse than the protesters now. He said: “Martin Luther King marched peacefully, turned the other cheek and did everything peaceful.  But don’t forget: The establishment began to move when we started burning their houses down.”

Let’s hope that it will not come this far. GOD loves HIS people. And no, HE does not love the rich because they are rich, HE loves them in spite of it and only if they respect and love their neighbors. Us, the 99 Percent.

Amen
Rev. Dr. Alexander Hast, November 15, 2011

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Stealing from the poorest
and starving your family!

It is amazing to me that America can sit still while these “deficit reduction” talks are going on.  What about all these Christian bible thumpers who claim Jesus as their savior?  Jesus Christ, who was the champion of the poorest of the poor and despised the rich, would have taken you on already.  But you are barely fans, not followers, as comedian Bill Maher put it so wisely.  If you do the opposite of what Jesus Christ wants you to do and did himself, you are definitely not a follower. You just collect money and spread lies in His name.

Now the Republicans and too many Democrats are sold on stopping to feed their sick mothers and starving children, and instead order the fifth Rolls Royce and the newest Bentley.  They watch the poor and the medium wealthy lose their houses and everything that they have worked for all their lives.  And now they take the social security away – a program in which the recipients have PAID FOR all their working lives, and to cut Medicare, another program that the recipients have PAID for all their working lives.  This is not cutting spending.  This is stealing from 98 percent of the Americans to further the insane amount of wealth of two percent of America.  And that is exactly what this ideological reform is about.  America is starving and instead of feeding America and creating jobs for America, the richest two percent of Americans are ordering their new cars while watching the poorest of the poor fading away in agony. 

One more word to the Republicans that are bringing down our country: Jesus was NOT blond and blue eyed. Jesus was a Mediterranean Jew.  So how can all you so called Christians hate the President for the color of his skin?  His skin color is closer to the one of Jesus than yours.  Racism is only in the Bible as long as you are not Jewish.  So, all you non-Jews please be aware that you are not part of the blessings of the Bible except for Paul’s part of the New Testament. Everything else belongs to the Jews. They are the chosen people. Not you. So you better try to get in GOD’s good graces. And you will NOT do that in making the rich richer but in helping the poor, feeding your old mother and your hungry children. If you go for ordering the new Bentley, be advised, you will end up where Jesus told you that you would. And I heard that it is supposed to be warm. Very warm.

Amen
Rev. Dr. Alexander Hast, July 15, 2011

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Jesus is on His own in the US

The Democrat's donation machine is back in full swing. Today they asked me to donate because the Republicans pulled off their - admittedly scary - pre-want-to-be-Presidential debate. Since it is really hard for me to believe that my fellow Americans would really commit this kind of political suicide, I am not really worried about anything that was said there. America is smarter than that.

Since I had hoped for some Christian support from the Democrats - Jesus was a real liberal - I am deeply disappointed that they only support the corporate agenda and not the American people. Here my brief answer to their donation request.

"Since Obama has promised everything and kept nothing I will not donate for now. Let me tell you that I am deeply disappointed that the Democrats fulfill the Republican agenda (who in turn moved to the right to leave some space for you). Civil Rights have not been reinstated, a possible single payer system for healthcare was taken off the table, because Democrats are just as bought and bribed as the Republicans by the big Corporations, BP is off the hook for the whole mess - it is sad to see. Since you already get paid by the big corporations that destroy our country please do not expect me to add funding to this endeavor. I will contribute again when promises are kept, Change is imminent (for the good, not this one) and our country is being lead on the right path again. Thanks."

And in addition to this situation Anthony Weiner, who was on the correct side of things politically succumbed to the temptations of the modern technology and took himself out the equation by "Sexting". And the Democrats sacrificed him readily and happily because he was a thorn in their flesh as well. He tried to get something positive done for the American people and this is currently not on any of the political agendas in our country.

Unfortunately Jesus has not real lobby in the US anymore. His teachings are distorted and misinterpreted for the sake of corporate gains and to gain and maintain power over the people who should and could know better if they would read the Bible. All they do is listen to right-wing operatives in the Media, corporately paid, controlled and misguided preachers and to Televangelists who sell the message that they are paid to advertise.  Jesus is on his own, only supported by a few charitable Organizations that do the Government's job, while the funds that should rebuild America are routed to richest of the rich for their pleasure. America deserves something - a lot - better.

Amen
Rev. Dr. Alexander Hast, June 14, 2011

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Suppressed Truth in the US -
Here are the 25 Top Articles of 2010

If you read my commentaries regularly, you know that I am steadily criticizing the suppression of the truth or the telling of lies. To give you a heads up what is going on in the Media department, here another article from our friends at www.WantToKnow.info, who keep track of the Truth.

Project Censored specializes in covering the top stories which were subjected to censorship either by being ignored or downplayed by the mainstream media each year. The Project Censored research team is composed of over 200 university faculty, students, and community experts drawn from an international network of 30 colleges and universities. This capable team annually reviews up to 1,000 news story submissions for content, reliability of sources, and significance. The top 25 stories selected are submitted to a distinguished panel of judges who rank them in order of importance. The results are published each year in an excellent book available for purchase at their website, amazon.com, and major book stores.

A summary of the top 10 media censorship stories of 2010 provided below proves quite revealing and most informative. Each summary has a link for those who want to read the entire article. For whatever reason the mainstream media won't report these stories. Yet thanks to the Internet and wonderful, committed groups like Project Censored, the news is getting out to those who want to know. By revealing these examples of media censorship, we can stop the excessive secrecy and work together for a brighter future. And don't miss the section on little-known inspiring stories, too. Please help to spread the word, and take care.

Note: Major parts of these summaries were taken from an article by Rebecca Bowe at the SF Bay Guardian.

Top 10 Stories of 2010 Subjected to Media Censorship

1. Global Plans to Replace the Dollar (For full story, click here)

Since the financial meltdown of 2008 sent a jarring ripple effect throughout the global economy, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has been talking up the idea of an international market that doesn't use the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency. The dollar now holds the status of the predominant anchor currency held in foreign exchange reserves, securing the United States' strategic economic position. In July of 2009 at the Group of Eight Summit in Italy, President Medvedev underscored his call for a newly conceived "united future world currency" when he pulled a sample coin from his pocket and showed it off to heads of state, the Bloomberg news service reported. And the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development suggested in a report that the present system of using the dollar as the world's reserve currency should be subject to a wholesale reconsideration, according to an article in the U.K.'s Telegraph.

Sources: Christian Science Monitor, “Iran and Russia Nip at US Global Dominance” Truthdig, “The American Empire Is Bankrupt” Bloomberg, “Medvedev Shows Off Sample Coin of New ‘World Currency’ at G-8” Telegraph (UK), “UN Wants New Global Currency to Replace Dollar”.

2. US Department of Defense is the Worst Polluter on the Planet (Full story here)

The U.S. military burns through 320,000 barrels of oil a day. Yet that tally doesn't factor in fuel consumed by contractors, or the energy and resources used to produce bombs, grenades, missiles or other weapons of the Department of Defense. By every measure, the Pentagon is the largest institutional user of petroleum products – yet it has a blanket exemption in commitments made by the United States to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Despite its status as top polluter, the Department of Defense received little attention during talks at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Meanwhile, human health is threatened by the long-term environmental impacts of military operations throughout the globe. And depleted uranium contamination from the Iraq conflict has been linked to widespread health problems. "The greatest single assault on the environment comes from one agency," author Barry Sanders wrote in The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism, "the Armed Forces of the United States."

Sources: International Action Center, “Add Climate Havoc to War Crimes: Pentagon’s Role in Global Catastrophe” Planet Green, “Can You Identify the Worst Polluter on the Planet? Hint: Shock and Awe” New America Media, “Cancer: The Deadly Legacy of the Invasion of Iraq” Ottawa Citizen, “U.S. Plots Arctic Push”.

3. Internet Privacy and Personal Access at Risk (For full story, click here)

The Cybersecurity Act was proposed in June of 2009, giving the president the power to "declare a cyber security emergency" and do whatever is necessary to diffuse a cyber attack. The Senate Homeland Security Committee approved a comprehensive cybersecurity bill this past June, which has drawn sharp criticism for the inclusion of a provision that would allow the president to shut down networks in the event of an emergency. Reporting in Wired, Noah Schachtman broke the story that the Central Intelligence Agency was investing in Visible Technologies, a software firm that can collect, rank and analyze millions of posts on blogs, online forums, Flickr, Youtube, Twitter and other social media sites. Wired also reported that the Obama administration had followed the lead of George W. Bush by urging a federal judge to set aside a ruling in a spy case weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.

Sources: CNET News, “Bill Would Give President Emergency Control of Internet” Wired, “U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm that Monitors Blogs, Twitter” Wired, “Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case”.

4. ICE Operates Secret Detention and Courts (For full story, click here)

The federal office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is confining people in 186 unlisted and unmarked subfield offices, many in suburban office parks or commercial spaces that reveal no information about their ICE tenants. Reporting in The Nation, Jacqueline Stevens describes ICE's jail network and the agency's penchant for secrecy when it comes to withholding public information about the facilities. "The absence of a real-time database tracking people in ICE custody means ICE has created a network of secret jails," Stevens wrote. "Subfield offices enter the time and date of custody after the fact, a situation ripe for errors ... as well as cover-ups." As a result, detainees can literally be "lost" by attorneys or family members for days or weeks at a time after being transferred.

Source: The Nation, “America’s Secret Ice Castles” Human Rights Watch, “Locked Up Far Away, The Transfer of Immigrants to Remote Detention Centers in the US” The Nation, “ICE Agents’ Ruse Operations”: The Nation, “Secret Courts Exploit Immigrants”.

5. Blackwater (Xe): The Secret US War in Pakistan (For full story, click here)

The notorious private military contractor Blackwater has changed its name to Xe Services, but it hasn't escaped scrutiny. According to a story that ran in The Nation in December 2009, the contractor is at the center of a covert program in Pakistan run by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command in the city of Karachi. Blackwater (Xe) is involved in planning targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida operatives and helps direct a U.S. military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the U.S. military. The Pentagon has disputed the claim, stating, "There are no U.S. military strike operations being conducted in Pakistan." More recently, The New York Times reported that Blackwater had created a web of more than 30 shell companies to win defense contracts, and specifically mentioned that the company employees had loaded bombs and missiles onto predator drones in Pakistan.

Sources: New York Times, "30 False Fronts Won Contracts For Blackwater" The Nation, “The Secret US War in Pakistan” Antiwar.com, “Blackwater Wants to Surge Its Armed Force in Afghanistan” Raw Story, “Ex-employees Claim Blackwater Pimped Out Young Iraqi Girls”.

6. Health Care Restrictions Cost Thousands of Lives in US (For full story, click here)

As the health-care debate raged on and Americans heard over and over again about supposed "death panels" and the government's infringement on personal freedom, one important study was largely drowned out. Research led by the Johns Hopkins Children's Center revealed that lack of health insurance may have figured into 17,000 childhood deaths among hospitalized children in the U.S. in the span of less than two decades. The results of a study published in the Journal of Public Health compared more than 23 million hospital records from 37 states between 1988 and 2005, and found that uninsured children in the study were 60 percent more likely to die in the hospital than those with insurance. "Can we say with absolute certainty that 17,000 children would have been saved if they had health insurance? Of course not," notes a co-investigator. "From a scientific perspective, we are confident in our finding that thousands of children likely died because they lacked insurance or because of factors directly related to a lack of insurance."

Source: Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, “Lack of Insurance May Have Figured in Nearly 17,000 Childhood Deaths” Physicians for a NHP, “Over 2,200 Veterans Died in 2008 Due to Lack of Health Insurance” Democracy Now!, “Mother Speaks Out on CIGNA’s Denial of Healthcare to Cancer-Stricken Twin Daughters”.

7. External Market Forces Wreak Havoc in Africa (For full story, click here)

Vast tracts of land are being purchased by wealthy nations from mostly poor, developing countries in order to produce crops for export. Throughout the African continent, an estimated 50 million hectares (200,000 square miles) of land have been acquired or are in the process of being negotiated for purchase over the last several years, with international agribusinesses, investment banks, hedge funds, and commodity traders leading the rush for cheap, undeveloped, arable land. Ethiopia has approved at least 815 foreign-financed agriculture projects since 2007, but the food that is produced there will be exported rather than used to feed the 13 million people in need of food aid in that country. Food shortages and riots in 28 countries in 2008, declining water supplies, climate change and huge population growth together have made land attractive. Africa has the most land and, compared with other continents, it is cheap.

Sources: New York Times, “Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism?” Christian Science Monitor, “Africa: From Famine to World’s Next Breadbasket?” Oakland Institute, “Great Land Grab: Rush for World’s Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor” Inter Press Service, “Land Grabs for Food Production Under Fire”.

8. Massacre in Peruvian Amazon over US Free Trade Agreement (Full story here)

While this story highlighted a "massacre in the Amazon," a later installment appeared in the Huffington Post titled "Victory in the Amazon." On June 5, 2009, 50 or more Peruvian Amazon Indians were massacred after a 57-day protest against the implementation of decrees under the Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. These decrees would have opened vast swaths of indigenous land in the Peruvian Amazon to private investment by gas, mining, and oil companies. This prompted Amazon peoples to block highways and gas and oil pipelines. But the conflict escalated when armed Peruvian government agents attacked the protesters with rifles and, according to eye witnesses, burned bodies and threw them into a river. In the aftermath Peru's Congress voted 82 to 12 to repeal two of the decrees that the indigenous groups had been standing against. Daysi Zapata, a representative of the association of indigenous groups, celebrated the triumph: "Today is an historic day. We are thankful because the will of the indigenous peoples has been taken into account."

Sources: Center for International Policy, “Massacre in the Amazon: The US-Peru Free Trade Agreement Sparks a Battle over Land and Resources” Inter Press Service, “‘Police Are Throwing Bodies in the River,’ Say Native Protesters” Huffington Post, "Victory in the Amazon".

9. Human Rights Abuses Continue in Palestine (For full story, click here)

While there is a great deal of coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Project Censored highlights little-discussed human rights abuses. An Amnesty International report charges that Israel is denying Palestinians the right to access adequate water by maintaining total control over the shared water resources and pursuing discriminatory policies. Other articles detail how Israel had begun barring movement between Israel and the West Bank for those holding a foreign passport, including humanitarian aid workers and thousands of Palestinian residents. After a 15-month study conducted by an international team of scholars, the Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa concluded that Israel is, from the perspective of international law, an occupying power in Palestinian territories which implements a system of apartheid. Rare mainstream media glimpses of Israel's apartheid system, like the CBS 60 Minutes segment 'Is Peace Out of Reach?' in January 2009, air and then fade away after drawing vitriolic, selectively focused criticism.

Sources: Amnesty International, “Israel Rations Palestinians to Trickle of Water” Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, “Occupation, Colonialism, Apartheid” Electronic Intifada, “Israel Brings Gaza Entry Restrictions to West Bank” CBS 60 Minutes, "Is Peace Out of Reach?".

10. US Funds and Supports the Taliban (For full story, click here)

While this story appeared on the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post, they omitted some key facts. The Nation broke the story, and at the time Project Censored was researching it, there was nary a mention in the mainstream media of how American tax dollars wind up in the hands of the Taliban. In some cases, money goes to Afghan companies run by former Taliban members like President Hamid Karzai's cousin, Ahmad Rateb Popal, who was charged in the 1980s with conspiring to import heroin into the United States. U.S. military contractors in Afghanistan also pay suspected insurgents to protect supply routes. "It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the U.S. government funds the very forces American troops are fighting," according to the Nation story.

Sources: The Nation, “How the US Funds the Taliban” New York Times, ”U.S. Said to Fund Afghan Warlords to Protect Convoys"; Washington Post, "Mismanaged U.S. contractor money aids enemy in Afghanistan".

Other Media Censorship Stories in the Top 25

11. H1N1 Swine Flu Pandemic: Manipulating Data to Enrich Drug Companies (Full story here)

The H1N1 virus spawned widespread panic and fear throughout the world. However, upon closer examination, many of the claims made by the World Health Organization (WHO) seem to be based on weak and incomplete data. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created and used data to grossly exaggerate the need for an expensive and unnecessary vaccine aimed at creating profits for the pharmaceutical industry—not protecting Americans. For summaries of dozens of major media articles exposing clear manipulation and profiteering on the fear generated around the swine flu, click here.

12. Cuba Provided the Greatest Medical Aid to Haiti after the Earthquake (Full story here)

Cuba was the first to come into Haiti with medical aid when the January 12, 2010, earthquake struck. Among the many donor nations, Cuba and its medical teams played a major role in treating Haiti’s earthquake victims. Public health experts say the Cubans were the first to set up medical facilities among the debris and to revamp hospitals immediately after the earthquake struck. Their pivotal work in the health sector has, however, received scant media coverage. It is striking that there was virtually no mention in the media of the fact that Cuba had several hundred health personnel on the ground before any other country.

13. Obama Cuts Domestic Spending, Increases Military Corporate Welfare (Full story here)

President Obama’s decision to increase military spending this year and in the future will result in the greatest administrative military spending since World War II. This decision is being made in spite of continued evidence of extreme waste, fraud, abuse, and corporate welfare in the military budget. At the same time, spending on “non-security” domestic programs such as education, nutrition, energy, and transportation will be frozen, resulting in inflationary cuts to essential services for the US public over the upcoming years. For an excellent article by a top U.S. general revealing how politics is beholden to the military/industrial complex, click here.

14. Increased Tensions with Unresolved 9/11 Issues (For full story, click here)

Several contentious issues still plague the US government and their version of the events of 9/11. How did WTC Building 7 fall? Where is Osama bin Laden? How could US air defense fail so completely? Mountains of evidence that suggest that American citizens were told little about the truth of the biggest single-day attack on their homeland in history. Are the hundreds of politicians and professors and over 1,000 architects and engineers who have raised serious questions about the official story dangerous conspiracy theorists? For an abundance of reliable, verifiable information suggesting a major cover-up around 9/11, click here.

15. Bhopal Water Still Toxic Twenty-five Years After Deadly Gas Leak (For full story, click here)

Around midnight on December 2, 1984, the citizens of Bhopal, India, a city of over 500,000 people in central India, were poisoned by approximately forty tons of toxic gases pouring into the night air from a largely abandoned chemical insecticide plant owned by the US-owned Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). The long-predicted gas leak at UCC was, and remains today, the worst industrial disaster in history.

16. US Presidents Charged with Crimes Against Humanity as Universal Jurisdiction Dies in Spain (For full story, click here)

In October 2009, under great pressure from the US, the government of Spain limited its own jurisdiction in cases of genocide and crimes against humanity, thus closing one of the last windows of accountability for the most serious crimes committed by the most powerful nations on Earth. Under international law, such crimes fall under the universal jurisdiction of any nation, whether one’s own citizens are victims or not. The logic is that crimes against humanity are offenses against every member of the human species—a crime against all.

17. Nanotech Particles Pose Serious DNA Risks to Humans, Environment (Full story here)

Personal products you may use daily and think are harmless—cosmetics, suntan lotion, socks, and sports clothes—may all contain atom-sized nanotech particles, some of which have been shown to sicken and kill workers in plants using nanotechnology. Known human health risks include severe and permanent lung damage. Cell studies indicate genetic DNA damage. Extremely toxic to aquatic wildlife, nanoparticles pose clear risks to many species and threaten the global food chain.

18. The True Cost of Chevron (For full story, click here)

Chevron’s 2008 annual report to its shareholders is a glossy celebration heralding the company’s most profitable year in its history. Profits of $24 billion catapulted Chevron past General Electric to become the second most profitable corporation in the United States. The oil company’s 2007 revenues were larger than the gross domestic product (GDP) of 150 nations. So who benefited from the record high gas prices of 2008?

19. Obama Administration Assures World Bank and International Monetary Fund a Free Reign of Abuse (For full story, click here)

In April 2009, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner hosted meetings with finance ministers from the world’s top economies to discuss increased oversight of the global financial system in the wake of the meltdown. The meetings preceded semi-annual gatherings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington, DC. The April G20 meeting in London secured a lot of positive media attention after world leaders announced a global package of $1.1 trillion for economic recovery and reform, mostly for the IMF. The plan, however, did not include specific information about the much needed operational reforms to the IMF and the World Bank.

20. Obama’s Charter School Policies Spread Segregation and Undermine Unions (For full story, click here)

Charter schools continue to stratify students by race, class, and sometimes language, and are more racially isolated than traditional public schools in virtually every state and large metropolitan area in the country. Charter schools are often marketed as incubators of educational innovation, and they form a key feature of the Obama administration’s school reform agenda. But in some urban communities, they may be fueling de facto school segregation and undermining public education.

21. Western Lifestyle Continues Environmental Footprint (For full story, click here)

Rajendra Pachauri, the United Nation’s leading climate scientist, warned that Western society must enact radical changes and reform measures if it is to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told the Observer that Western society urgently needs to develop a new value system of “sustainable consumption.” The Nobel Prize winner stated, “Today we have reached the point where consumption and people’s desire to consume has grown out of proportion.”

22. 1.2 Billion People in India to be Given Biometric ID Cards (For full story, click here)

India’s 1.2 billion citizens are to be issued biometric identification cards. The cards will hold the person’s name, age, and birth date, as well as fingerprints or iris scans, though no caste or religious identification. Within the next five years a giant computer will hold the personal details of at least 600 million citizens, making this new information technology system the largest in the world. The project will cost an estimated $3.5 billion. The 600 million Indians will receive a 16-digit identity number by 2014.

23. Afghan War: Largest Military Coalition in History (For full story, click here)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has become history’s first global army. Never before have soldiers from so many states served in the same war theater, much less the same country. At the eighth anniversary of the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan, the world is witness to a twenty-first-century armed conflict waged by the largest military coalition in history.

24. War Crimes of General Stanley McChrystal (For full story, click here)

McChrystal is a man accused of committing war crime atrocities as head of the Pentagon's infamous Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC). Established in 1980, JSOC is a special black operations commando unit of the Navy Seals and Delta Force so clandestine that the Pentagon for years refused to acknowledge its existence. Its special ops teams were a virtual executive office assassination wing engaged in extrajudicial killings, systemic torture, and bombing of civilian communities. Most of what McChrystal has done over a 33-year career, including service between 2003 and 2008 as commander of the JSOC, remains classified.

25. Prisoners Still Brutalized at Gitmo (For full story, click here)

In Guantánamo, the notorious but seldom-discussed thug squad, officially known as the Immediate Reaction Force (IRF), deployed by the US military remains very much active. IRF is an extrajudicial terror squad, the existence of which has been documented since the early days of Guantánamo. IRF has rarely been mentioned in the United States media or in congressional inquiries into torture.

Please keep telling and spreading the Truth! Have a wonderful and prosperous year 2011!

Amen
Rev. Dr. Alexander Hast, December 30, 2010

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Burning the Quran –
from one Extremist to another

There is no difference between so-called Christian or Muslim extremists. Both want the same: Violence against others in the name of the same GOD.  And they either have a political agenda or are plain stupid. Burning the Quran requires a lot of both.

The Rev. Terry Jones, the "religious leader" of a church of 50.  Yes, fifty.  This would not be so bad, if there was intelligence or any kind of knowledge about the subject behind this action of burning something.  Burning a book is in itself already an action of highest stupidity. If he would burn all the books he did not understand, he should start with the Bible.  Christians do not burn books – or flags for that matter.  Jones has proclaimed Islam as devil's religion – without ever having read it, has called on the people to burn a Quran on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States – which were very likely carried out by Christians for the benefit of VP Cheney’s Corporation. Jones says that he does not personally know any Muslims, he is a man who does not know where the Sharia law came from, and has apparently learned the little, if any, that he knows about Islam by watching YouTube videos.

The German poet Heinrich Heine already wrote in 1821: "Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people". He was right at that time, he was right – long after his death - about the Nazis who first burned the books and later the people. And we are at this starting point of violence against humanity again. This time in our own country.

Adding to this equation is that there is only one GOD. And one GOD means that there is only ONE.  The Quran derives in large parts from Christian and Judean Writings. From the Torah and the Bible which have influenced Mohammad all his life and also during the creation of the Quran.  Considering the fact that GOD is not a flawed individual but GOD, he is not jealous, or violent – (If you believe in Jesus Christ, how could you ever consider violence, lies or deception as an option in the first place?  If you do, you are NOT a Christian – you are not Muslim either, because the Quran is actually a book of peace and Islam is a religion of peace!) he sent Jesus Christ to bring us this message of Non-violence.  Christ as in Christian – you call yourself Christian, you subscribe to the message of Love, Peace and Understanding. Turning the other cheek is one of your duties being a Christian.

But back to the morons in Florida. Now there is one crazy person with a following of 50 probably equally disturbed and ignorant bystanders who wants to burn a book he does not even know to help reignite the hated of Muslim extremists who are just as stupid as his own flock, while the silent majority of peaceful Christians and Muslims is standing by in awe.  How can this moron get so much attention?  If you burn a book you don’t even know, you cannot set a signal. You just show that you are an idiot.

Talking about idiots, please allow me one more observation that is really stunning. Only in America Christians will follow a Mormon to crucify another Christian. I am talking about Glen Beck's crusade against the Christian Barack Obama.  Please be aware that Glen Beck is a racist by design. Mormons think that Black people are black because GOD punished them for being bad. Mormon Glen Beck is using American Christians - admittedly not bright ones - to help his Mormon agenda to fight the Black guy.  And everyone should be aware of the fact that Barack Obama is a Christian, not a Muslim.

Amen
Rev. Dr. Alexander Hast, September 8, 2010

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GOD's signs ignored by
so called 'Pro-lifers'...

Pro lifers are really insane. This is a statement I can absolutely support. One of my favorite email spammers is a religious nut who somehow got the idea that he would have to save unborn life. Besides the point that he also got me on the spamming list of the Teabaggers (!), he began collecting money, because his life was falling apart. His son had serious health challenges and his money to kill mothers and protect the fetus was running out. So he began begging for money in his emails. I had the audacity to write the following email to help him re-evaluate his situation - because those are usually signs that someone is straying off GOD's intended way:

Dear Randall,

Did you ever consider that GOD keeps sending you those signs because he does not want you to continue on your way? Sometimes “pro life” means death for another person or a life in torture when a child is really not wanted. Maybe GOD is trying to ask you to reconsider your position.

Our prayers are with you and your family.

Blessings,
Rev. Dr. Alexander Hast

And the answer came fast from an email address that is called 'StopObamaNotredame@gmail.com' which gives me the idea that his agenda might be very political indeed. The good thing is that the spamming has stopped - at least for now he has unsubscribed me from the never solicited hatemail-list of his money-begging email account. So, here his answer:

Honestly, are you demon possessed? Think through the logic of what you just said. Are you demon possessed? Would you know if you were?

Isn't it amazing how little people think about GOD's will and signs. If Jesus Christ would appear today - and maybe he has - the so called Christians would lynch him because of his 'socialist agenda'. And people like Mr. Teabag himself never consider GOD or even look into the Bible to see if their insanity is in any way supported by the word of GOD... They think that they turned into GOD, kill Doctors that actually save lives or applaud the murderers of those who actually save lives instead of living in a bubble of satanic ignorance and insanity.

Please understand that I am very much for Life, I love children and I am not for abortion as a means of replacing a condom. But when the life of the mother is at stake, or if the child would be born into a situation where he or she would suffer all her life because of being an unwanted child, then there should be the option to save their lives. I will never understand that people who want to kill mothers call themselves pro-life.  Sanity is from GOD.

Let's pray for them.

Amen
Rev. Dr. Alexander Hast, May 30, 2010