Bush George Walker - Information war: American propaganda, free speech and opinion control since 9/11

DICTATORSHIPS PERSUADE with truncheons and dungeons. Propaganda, Noam Chomsky tells us, is the mark of a democracy, necessary when those more direct means are unavailable. By that measure, the United States may be the most democratic among nationswith few political prisoners, but home to the largest, longest, deepest river of burbling B.S. known to manhome of the brave and of double talk, nonsense, half-truths, Tom Brokaw, disinformation, baloney, CNN, white lies, black lies, and Katie Couric. And here, the President is waving to us from his helicopter!

When all I want is some truth. Problem is, we need a decoder ring to sort the truth from the trash. And thats what this book is, your translation manual, your instructions for deconstructing the machinery of mendacity.

Professor Snow is our Toto like Dorothys little dog in The Wizard of Oz, she goes behind the curtain to expose the awful little man projecting that big fake image on the giant screen. Snow rips back the curtain on the agencies, programs and methods of our nations official propagandists, both the ones youve heard of, like the USIA, and the ones you havent, like the Office of Strategic Influence. If the name of that little pustule on our governments organizational chart doesnt give you the willies, Snows portrait of it and the propaganda czar, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Charlotte Beers, certainly will. Ms. Beers, whom George W. Bush put in charge of convincing the worlds religion-and-resentment-stuffed billions NOT TO KILL US, came to her post fresh from running ad campaigns for Uncle Bens Rice. Lord help us.

Its just such combinations of pinheaded arrogance and boobery that characterizes the Bush administrations intellectual weaponry for the War on Terror. Thats what Snow tells us in horrifying detail; and as a former apparatchik in Americas ministry of propaganda, the USIA, she can speak from her experience in the belly of the clown.

A couple of years ago, a mischievous U.S. State Department consul convinced USAID to send me to Brazil. I followed, city to city, in the footsteps of Mack McLarty, Henry Kissingers business partner, formerly Bill Clintons chief of staff. McLarty was prancing about, trying to sell Brazil on the wonders of selling off their water and power systems (preferably cheaply, to his clients). Weirdly, the United States government paid me a packet to explain that, in America, we tend to run such snake-oil salesmen out of town. McLarty failed to mention that, in the United States, privatization and deregulation are on the run. I explained that almost all water systems are publicly owned in America, the result of a huge public uprising (the Populist movement), ninety years ago, against the water and power barons. It surprised my audiences to learn that well-organized anti-corporate mass movements have made the United States the only nation outside of Canada and Guyana with open forums (public-service commissions, the nuclear regulatory commission, and more) which democratically control the investments and even the prices of private corporations.

This story of America the Democratic was a winning advertisement for our nationbut one that conflicted with the mission of our official propagandists: to justify the projection of United States military and commercial power, to put gloves on the claws of Kissinger-McLarty Associates. What the Bushmen of Washington DONT want is the propagation of seditious ideasfreedom of speech, of press, of religion, freedom from wantthat Americas best propagandists (Tom Paine, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt) deployed to inspire the planet.

Now, instead of Rushmore-worthy giants like Jefferson, we have the sales force from Lilliput: Americas world image is left to Uncle Bens jingle writer who announced that the brand she is selling is George W. Bush.

Im not laughing. These people are SCARY. Think about it: our minister of propaganda is supposed to be explaining to the Arab street why American citizens shouldnt be sliced, diced, and bombed; and what does Ms. Beers dangle in front of their faces? A smirking rich white kid, Brand Wwhich flopped even in the USA (after all, Americans voted against that guy by a substantial margin). And if the wretched of the earth dont warm to Dubya, we beam them images of war profiteer Dick Cheney skulking in his hideaway, Shoot em First Don Mad Dog Rumsfeld, the offensive secretary of defense, and John Poindexter who was convicted of aiding terrorists in the 1980s, appointed to head up Bushs office of Total Information Awareness, which has since been shut down in response to public outrage. Even Henry the K was unlocked from his political crypt by our president to join the team. Our plea to the world is spoken by armed and dangerous refugees from corporate boards shrieking, Youre with us or youre against us.

Im afraid. And after you read all the dirty details in this book, you may be too.

Greg Palast, New York and London

If those in charge of our societypoliticians, corporate executives, and owners of press and televisioncan dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.

HOWARD ZINN

GROWING UP IN THE UNITED STATES , I was taught that the most beautiful word in the American lexicon was freedom. My country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty. Although my citizenship was an accident of birth, I felt part of a chosen lucky few who were born into the greatest country in the world. I was also taught that, unlike the citizens of Communist countries who were born under a dark cloud of tyranny and ruthless dictators, we were a free people, blessed by God with an abundance of government-protected libertiesfree press, free speech, free expression. In grade school, I pledged allegiance to these freedoms and genuflected to a set of sacred documents known as the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. To me, the First Amendment read like a favorite Psalm: