CONFORMTOTHENARRATIVE CONFORMTOTHENARRATIVE CONFORMTOTHENARRATIVE

Sunday, April 21, 2013
Boston bomber and Syria

Notice that U.S. media are not reporting that the Boston bomber was an enthusiastic supporter of your Syrian “revolution”. He posted videos about it on his Youtube page.

Posted by As’ad AbuKhalil at 7:41 AM

Yup, let the self-censorship begin. Since April 20 (based on my Google search), the mainstream media has not mentioned the Tsarnaev brothers’ fundamentalist Syrian rebel sympathies. This even though there have been multiple mainstream articles in recent days on relations between Russia and the U.S. which mention the Syria rebellion. So, for example, in a USA Today column by Louise Branson we get this:

We’re fighting the same fight, has been [Putin's] refrain to U.S. presidents and officials. President Assad makes the same case in Syria. The Boston Marathon explosions have helped tip Putin’s argument. … Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the captured Boston marathon bomber will, over time, give answers about the brothers’ aims and ties.

Hey columnist Branson, haven’t you noticed that he’s already given ‘answers’ (that don’t fit the U.S. imperialist narrative)? … Take a look at his Youtube page.

Other very similar columns are in the Seattle Times and the Washington Post. Both discuss the bombings’ effect on Russia-U.S. relations, and they focus on Syria as a key conflict, but both also fail to mention the Tsarnaev brothers’ fundamentalist rebel sympathies. I understand the brothers’ sympathies are not the central focus of any of the three articles I’ve noted, but not mentioning those sympathies when you’re discussing Syria seems like self-censorship.

By the way, I was a little surprised by the negative reaction here at MyFDL to my Saturday article on the Tsarnaev brothers’ sympathies. (I thought it was obvious but) I hope the following comment I made there will help to clarify what the hell I’m about:

The mainstream media [back on April 19] says the Tsarnaev brothers were supporters of the Sunni fundamentalist side of the Syrian rebellion. Without apology I use those ‘facts’. If you’re opposed to U.S./EU/Saudi/Qatari imperialism in Syria, you post a post like mine.

Do you think the ‘conspiratorial’ theorizing about what ‘really’ happened will have any traction in the real world? We KNOW the majority of Americans, if they knew, would strongly oppose the U.S. de facto alliance with Al Qaeda and similar in Syria. You see that sentiment all the time on Yahoo discussion boards, for example. So I use the current newsworthy ‘facts’ to publicize (in tiny places like MyFDL) the realities that the imperialists want to keep quiet.

Nothing fancy or nuanced, I’m just one of those folks opposed to corporate globalist imperialism. And, I see a meme here that already resonates with regular America so I turn up the volume with these posts. Unfortunately I can’t turn it up much on tiny blogs, but every little bit helps. Frankly, as I’ve said before, the information war is in the mainstream media’s comment sections. Sadly it is not here at MyFDL.

P.S. — For the record, here are the two sources, the first mainstream (on the 19th), the second alternative (on the 20th), that noted the Tsarnaev brothers’ Syria sympathies:

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev … expresses sympathy for rebel fighters in Syria and elsewhere. One video bears the Russian title “For those who have a heart,” showing people being brutalized by uniformed men in a country the video identifies as Syria. “They are killing your brothers and sisters without any reason,” the Russian subtitles of the video read. “Simply because they say our Lord is Allah.”

There are signs that the brothers showed interest in the conflict in Syria, which has drawn al Qaida fighters and other militants from across the Muslim world and Europe, according to a U.S. counterterror official. …

The brothers had viewed videos about the plight of Syrian Muslims, the official said. Syria is the latest hotspot on the world map of jihad. Holy warriors a decade ago were inspired by videos about brutal combat between jihadis and Russian troops in the brothers’ family homeland …

P.S.2 — By the way 2, here is the U.S. and EU backed rebellion in action (hip tat to Angry Arab):

Islamist rebels are clashing with tribesmen in eastern Syria as struggles over the region’s oil facilities break out in the power vacuum left by civil war, activists said on Saturday. One dispute over a stolen oil truck in the town of Masrib in the province of Deir al-Zor, which borders Iraq, set off a battle between tribesmen and fighters from the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda linked rebel group, which left 37 killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. … Masrib tribesmen called for help from Assad’s forces against Nusra, according to the Observatory and a fighter with the Islamist group. Nusra responded by blowing up 30 houses after the battle, in which 17 rebels were killed, at least four of them foreigners, the fighter said on Skype.

How can such a headline be happening:

EDITORIAL: Officers are the real heroes in Dorner saga

The officers who are heroes are the same trigger-happy incompetents who attempted to kill two women delivering newspapers a couple days ago? The ones who attempted to kill a surfer driving to the coast for some morning waves? Or the ones who are recorded planning to burn up Dorner and his cabin and then recorded hooping and hollering “Burn the f**ker down”?

The editorial is in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, a key local newspaper and one of the vast majority of mass media who put their pencils and mikes down when the police ‘asked’ them to, when the police incendiaries’ flames were engulfing Dorner (emphasis added to this excellent article: How Law Enforcement and Media Covered Up the Plan to Burn Christopher Dorner Alive):

Just after 7 PM (4 PM PT), right when the orders were given to deploy the “burners,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Cindy Bachman hastily gathered reporters for an impromptu press conference. Claiming to know nothing new, she told reporters that she had no idea why the cabin was on fire, or who started the fire. …

Around the same time, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department requested that all reporters and media organizations stop tweeting about the ongoing standoff with Dorner, claiming their journalism was “hindering officer safety.” As the cabin sheltering Dorner burned, the local CBS affiliate was reportedly told by law enforcement to zoom its helicopter camera out to avoid showing the actions of sheriff’s deputies. By all accounts, the media acceded to police pressure for self-censorship.

On Twitter, the Riverside Press Enterprise, a leading local newspaper, announced on Twitter, “Law enforcement asked media to stop tweeting about the#Dorner case, fearing officer safety. We are complying.” The paper’s editors added, “We are going to tweet broad, non-tactical details, as per the San Bernardino DA’s request.”

The PE editorial writes:

The public focus should not be on Dorner, however, but on those who stopped him.

Yes, focus not on Dorner but on potential police misconduct (that’s not what you mean??), but also on yourselves, the mass media. Why are you still protecting the cops? Why are you still pretending the police did not deliberately set fire to Dorner’s cabin? Yeah, of course some of the cops probably were heroes, but why now the sweeping hero worship when so many were apparent incompetents and criminals in the tragic and tragi-comic pursuit of Dorner?

The PE goes on:

Whatever the faults of police or “the system,” there is no justification for vigilante bloodshed.

But the fault of the police is exactly that, vigilantism. Dorner, who was a veteran police officer, became a vigilante, and so did the police who apparently decided to kill him. But the PE editorial ignores that completely — its entire description of how Dorner died is “Dorner met a violent end in Big Bear on Tuesday …” What, no protagonist? It’s the Fourth Estate’s function to tell the public how he died and who caused it.

Oh hell, Dave says it better, in the PE editorial’s comment section:

Dave Hoover · Top Commenter

Where’s the EDITORIAL on the blatant cover up regarding the ‘burn plan’ huh? What about telling the truth, and how it is the duty of JOURNALISTS to investigate and REPORT what they find when they find it? No columns on that huh? No polls or commentaries other than that which helps tear down what is left of our civil rights! ‘But civil society cannot forgive the settling of slights by the lawless — regardless of whether the killer had any legitimate grievances.’ – this HOLDS TRUE FOR THE POLICE AS WELL!!

We have a widespread and serious problem, and it is violent, vigilante, out of control police. This could not be put any more glaringly on display than during the pursuit of Dorner. Why is the mass media covering its eyes and taping its mouths shut?