No Distractions - No Deceptions

No Diversions - No Delusions

Read the stories that TV news networks forget to report!

DERELICTION of DUTY
THE EXODUS OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM
A TVNL CHALLENGE
24-Feb-2004

In another time, there would have been questions.  In another time, there might have been answers. But then again, in another time there were independent journalists.

In another time, there would have been outrage. In another time, there would have been headlines. But then again, in another time, there were relentless reporters.

But in our time, in the media, there are very few questions. In our time, in the media, there are even fewer answers.  There is no outrage, and there are no blaring headlines.  In our time, the government has a free hand to act with impunity and without accountability.  But then again, in our time, George Bush and his PNAC cohorts are in power.

In our time, the public remains shamefully uninformed. In our time, the distractions, diversions, deceptions and delusions permeate the media. In our time, not asking is patriotic, and not knowing is the norm.  If that continues, we will run out of time, in our time.

In our time, someone has to pick up the gauntlet.  In that hope, TvNewsLies will review some of the questions that demand answers. We challenge the corporate media to openly and vigorously publicize the secrecy and stonewalling that have surrounded each of them. We challenge the media to pursue the answers to any or all of these questions, so that we may know the truth before the next presidential election.  We also challenge the media to explain why we will not know the answers, at least not in our time.

THE QUESTIONS:

WHO:

• Attended the secret energy meetings held by Vice President Cheney in early 2000?
• In the White House leaked the name of CIA operative, Valeria Plume, to Bob Novak and other columnists?
• In the government distorted intelligence information in order to garner the support of the American public for a war against Iraq?
• In the Bush administration are members of the Project for a New American Century, the organization that has promoted a war against Iraq since the mid 1990’s?
• Selected Ahmed Chalabi, a wanted felon who had not lived in Iraq since the 1950’s to lead the Governing Council in occupied Iraq?
• In the present administration is connected to Halliburton, Bechtel, the Carlyle Group and other corporations making billions from the war against Iraq?
• Orchestrated and staged the toppling of the statue of Saddam Hussein?
• Are the member nations in the “coalition of the willing,” and what is each nation’s contribution to the Iraq war in personnel and funding?
• Really captured and turned over Saddam Hussein?

WHAT:

• Was the exact nature of intelligence presented to the President regarding the WMD’s and the “imminent threat” Saddam Hussein presented to the US?
• Warnings were given to the President prior to 9/11 about the possible use of airplanes as weapons that could be crashed into important US buildings?
• Is the actual number of civilian casualties, dead and wounded, in Iraq and Afghanistan?
• Is the actual number of American and coalition military deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, including suicides, accidents, ‘non-hostile gunshot’ deaths, and deaths among wounded evacuated to hospitals?
• Is the actual number of American and coalition wounded, and the actual nature of the wounds inflicted during combat?
• Evidence exists of a connection between the ‘war on terror’ and the invasion and occupation of Iraq?
• Was the exact nature of the relationship between Kenneth Lay of Enron and George W. Bush
• Was George H. Bush, Sr.’s connection to the Carlyle Group, and what was the group’s connection to the Bin Laden Family?
• Influence do the members of PNAC have on deciding American foreign policy?

WHEN:

• Did this administration make its first plans to invade Iraq?
• Was the Bush administration in negotiations with the Taliban for oil pipelines?
• Did PNAC first write to the Congress and a US President bout the need to invade Iraq?
• Did Richard Perle suggest that a catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor would be needed in order to justify a preemptive attack on Iraq?
• Was the Second Patriot Act quietly passed through Congress?
• Was any other President of the US ever kept a safe distance from the public when traveling abroad?
• Did the US spy on member nations of the UN Security Council?
• Were memos belonging to Democratic members of Congress stolen and distributed by Republicans in Congress?
• Did the Bush administration start infiltrating protest groups?
• Will we know what the President knew about 9/11 and when he knew it?
• Will we know who leaked the name of Valeria Plume?
• Will we know who lied about the reasons for attacking Iraq?

WHERE:

• Were there maps of the Iraqi oilfields and pipelines at the Cheney energy meetings in 2000?
• Is Kenneth (Kenny Boy) Lay, friend of the President and former CEO of Enron, now?
• Are the video tapes and actual numbers of American protesters who mobilized for almost a full year to voice their outrage against the war on Iraq?
• Are the detainees picked up in the US after 9/11, who have no right to counsel, and who have not been charged with any crimes?
• Was George Bush’s concern about the outing of CIA agent for the first 12 weeks after   the Wilson/Plume story broke?
• Was George Bush in 1973 when he was supposed to report for regular NG duty?
• Are the flowers and cheers that were supposed to greet our troops in Iraq?
• Is the armored protection that our soldiers need so desperately in Iraq?
• Is the exit strategy for the war against Iraq?
• Are photographs of the flag draped coffins of our military dead?
• Are representatives from the Bush administration when military funerals are held?

WHY:

• Why are Americans only being protected from certain terrorists while much greater threats to their lives are permitted and encouraged?
• Did we continue our march to war after it was discovered that some of the key evidence we used as a reason to invade Iraq was exposed a forgery?
• Have we been told about the reasons why terrorists want to hurt us by members of the Bush/PNAC administration but never hear the reasons from the actual terrorists or their representatives?
• Did George Bush try to prevent the establishment of an independent commission to investigate 9/11 for six months following the attack?
• Was the 9/11 Commission limited in its funding and in the time in would have to investigate the worst terrorist attack on US soil?
• Were pages described by several Senators as “not classified” blacked out by the President?
• Is the White House still withholding vital information requested by the 9/11 Commission?
• Are undemocratic, fundamentalist dictatorships like Saudi Arabia befriended as allies?
• Did the US supply Saddam Hussein with chemical and biological weapons?
• Are some government officials, such as Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney being allowed to testify before the Commission in secret and without being under oath?
• Was the Ministry of Health in Iraq told to stop counting civilian deaths, and told not to reveal the numbers already counted?
• Is there no discussion of impeachment or censure of the President when grounds for both clearly exist?
• Did George W. Bush fly dozens of members of the bin Laden family out of the country, without being vetted by the FBI, on 9/12, when all commercial flight were grounded?
• Did George W. Bush claim to have ‘seen’ the first plane hit the WTC on 9/11, before any films of the crash into Tower One were available?

THE ANSWERS:
(We’re still waiting...)
 

• History
• The Problem