R. Richard
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2003
- Posts
- 10,382
The following is a story you have almost certainly not read.
I picked it up from international news sites while looking for something else. What bothers me is that a story with major US interest is not being properly covered by the US media. To summarize, three Algerians were arrested after plotting attacks in both Italy and the US. How were the plots detected? WIRE TAPS! Why was the story not covered by the US media? Could it be that the story would have, in large measure, justified the wire taps that President Bush is using to try to prevent the same kinds of attacks?
It doesn’t matter if you agree with the tactic of wire tapping or not [and I know that a lot of Literotica people don’t]. The story is news and data that is needed to really evaluate a reasoned position on wire tapping. The suppression of such news is shameful!
Comment?
From: http://thezeropoint.blogspot.com/
Thursday, January 12, 2006
The U.S. Media Blackout Continues
Ever see this headline? "Plans to 'top' 9/11 strikes"
Rome - Three Algerians arrested in an anti-terrorist operation in southern Italy are suspected of being linked to a planned new series of attacks in the United States, interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Friday.
The attacks would have targeted ships, stadiums or railway stations in a bid to outdo the September 11 2001 strikes by al-Qaeda in New York and Washington which killed about 2 700 people, Pisanu said.
The Algerians, suspected of belonging to a cell established by an al-Qaeda-linked Algerian extremist organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), were named as Achour Rabah, Tartaq Sami and Yasmine Bouhrama.
Strange that the U.S. media hasn't reported it yet. You have to go to the international press to get any follow-up reporting. But of course, it's what the foreign press is reporting that might have the U.S. media reluctant to break their silence.
The three in custody are also alleged to have procured false papers and funds to finance the GSPC, a hardline fundamentalist movement that rejects the Algerian government's attempt to draw a line under years of Islamist rebellion.
Pisanu said Friday's swoop was part of a wider operation involving other countries.
Links were uncovered between the GSPC's Italian activities and groups in Britain, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.
Interesting. And how were the links uncovered?
Italian authorities stepped up their internal surveillance programs after July's terrorist bombings in London. Their domestic wiretaps picked up phone conversations by Algerian Yasmine Bouhrama that discussed terrorist attacks in Italy and abroad.
Italian authorities arrested Bouhrama on November 15 and he remains in prison. Authorities later arrested two other men, Achour Rabah and Tartaq Sami, who are believed to be Bouhrama's chief aides in planning the attacks.
The arrests were a major coup for Italian anti-terror forces, and the story was carried in most major newspapers from Europe to China.
Well would you look at that - wiretapping! Who would have thought? Gosh it's too bad the U.S. media won't report on that, because that would actually go a long way in helping the American public understand that whole NSA thing that was leaked to the New York Times.
"My impression is that the major media want to use the NSA story to try and impeach the president," says Cliff Kincaid, editor of the Accuracy in Media Report published by the grassroots Accuracy in Media organization.
"If you remind people that terrorists actually are planning to kill us, that tends to support the case made by President Bush. They will ignore any issue that shows that this kind of [wiretapping] tactic can work in the war on terror."
"The mainstream media have framed the story as one of the nefarious President Bush 'spying on U.S. citizens,' where the average American is a victim not a beneficiary," commented Brent Baker, vice president of the Media Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to encouraging balanced news coverage, "so journalists have little interest in any evidence that the program has helped save lives by uncovering terrorist plans."
The Associated Press version of the story did not disclose that the men planned to target the U.S. Nor did it report that the evidence against the suspects was gathered via a wiretapping surveillance operation.
As I've said before, this is the war on terror, protecting the homeland. This is not Iraq. This is not even Afghanistan. And there is no amount of classified program leaking, article writing, media scaremongering, media blackout-ing, Cindy Sheehan wailing, Senate hearing, poll skewing, scandal swearing that will turn the public against a program that is demonstrably keeping this country safe. Whatever the public feels about wiretapping or their rights, they understand that they'll have no rights (except maybe last rights) if they're dead.
But the media dares not report on this, because such stories would support the President. And so they will dig themselves even deeper by keeping something like this quiet.
Pretty despicable if you ask me.
I picked it up from international news sites while looking for something else. What bothers me is that a story with major US interest is not being properly covered by the US media. To summarize, three Algerians were arrested after plotting attacks in both Italy and the US. How were the plots detected? WIRE TAPS! Why was the story not covered by the US media? Could it be that the story would have, in large measure, justified the wire taps that President Bush is using to try to prevent the same kinds of attacks?
It doesn’t matter if you agree with the tactic of wire tapping or not [and I know that a lot of Literotica people don’t]. The story is news and data that is needed to really evaluate a reasoned position on wire tapping. The suppression of such news is shameful!
Comment?
From: http://thezeropoint.blogspot.com/
Thursday, January 12, 2006
The U.S. Media Blackout Continues
Ever see this headline? "Plans to 'top' 9/11 strikes"
Rome - Three Algerians arrested in an anti-terrorist operation in southern Italy are suspected of being linked to a planned new series of attacks in the United States, interior minister Giuseppe Pisanu said Friday.
The attacks would have targeted ships, stadiums or railway stations in a bid to outdo the September 11 2001 strikes by al-Qaeda in New York and Washington which killed about 2 700 people, Pisanu said.
The Algerians, suspected of belonging to a cell established by an al-Qaeda-linked Algerian extremist organisation, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), were named as Achour Rabah, Tartaq Sami and Yasmine Bouhrama.
Strange that the U.S. media hasn't reported it yet. You have to go to the international press to get any follow-up reporting. But of course, it's what the foreign press is reporting that might have the U.S. media reluctant to break their silence.
The three in custody are also alleged to have procured false papers and funds to finance the GSPC, a hardline fundamentalist movement that rejects the Algerian government's attempt to draw a line under years of Islamist rebellion.
Pisanu said Friday's swoop was part of a wider operation involving other countries.
Links were uncovered between the GSPC's Italian activities and groups in Britain, the Italian news agency Ansa reported.
Interesting. And how were the links uncovered?
Italian authorities stepped up their internal surveillance programs after July's terrorist bombings in London. Their domestic wiretaps picked up phone conversations by Algerian Yasmine Bouhrama that discussed terrorist attacks in Italy and abroad.
Italian authorities arrested Bouhrama on November 15 and he remains in prison. Authorities later arrested two other men, Achour Rabah and Tartaq Sami, who are believed to be Bouhrama's chief aides in planning the attacks.
The arrests were a major coup for Italian anti-terror forces, and the story was carried in most major newspapers from Europe to China.
Well would you look at that - wiretapping! Who would have thought? Gosh it's too bad the U.S. media won't report on that, because that would actually go a long way in helping the American public understand that whole NSA thing that was leaked to the New York Times.
"My impression is that the major media want to use the NSA story to try and impeach the president," says Cliff Kincaid, editor of the Accuracy in Media Report published by the grassroots Accuracy in Media organization.
"If you remind people that terrorists actually are planning to kill us, that tends to support the case made by President Bush. They will ignore any issue that shows that this kind of [wiretapping] tactic can work in the war on terror."
"The mainstream media have framed the story as one of the nefarious President Bush 'spying on U.S. citizens,' where the average American is a victim not a beneficiary," commented Brent Baker, vice president of the Media Research Center, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to encouraging balanced news coverage, "so journalists have little interest in any evidence that the program has helped save lives by uncovering terrorist plans."
The Associated Press version of the story did not disclose that the men planned to target the U.S. Nor did it report that the evidence against the suspects was gathered via a wiretapping surveillance operation.
As I've said before, this is the war on terror, protecting the homeland. This is not Iraq. This is not even Afghanistan. And there is no amount of classified program leaking, article writing, media scaremongering, media blackout-ing, Cindy Sheehan wailing, Senate hearing, poll skewing, scandal swearing that will turn the public against a program that is demonstrably keeping this country safe. Whatever the public feels about wiretapping or their rights, they understand that they'll have no rights (except maybe last rights) if they're dead.
But the media dares not report on this, because such stories would support the President. And so they will dig themselves even deeper by keeping something like this quiet.
Pretty despicable if you ask me.
