The Censorship of Al Jazeera
By : John Mackesy


The suppression of the Al Jazeera news office in Baghdad shows that the American military has given Iraq a new dictatorship with a free hand to violate rights guaranteed to citizens in the US Constitution. I read many articles from Al Jazeera on the Yahoo internet news page. Al Jazeera offered realistic reporting and assessments from a war zone not just optimistic military propaganda. All people who believe in Freedom of the Press should denounce this blatant attempt to control thought with force.
The Iraq war is a reaction to the dreadful event known as 9/11. The root cause of 9/11 was the American Government weapons profiteering and distributing weapons that empowered dictators like the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein, the Emir of Kuwait and King of Saudi Arabia. Human Rights watch ranks Saudi Arabia at the bottom of the list, Amnesty International reports a secret police as notorious in the use of torture as Stalin's. Yet the American Government sells the Saudi leaders billions of dollars of weapons to intimidate their countrymen into submission. Most news stories report that 9/11 was caused by Saudi Arabians. Yet Bush and his propagandist Powell linked 9/11 to Iraq and launched a hideous and grotesque war that has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and the maiming and crippling of many innocent people. The Iraq war is a flagrant violation of International Law. Just the act of plotting it was a war crime. Nuremberg Principles Articles VI and VII make it a Crime Against Peace and a Crime Against Humanity to "Conspire to Engage In, Wage or Be Complicit in the Waging of a War of Aggression."

The Iraq war was plotted and hatched with lies and deceptions, so it is evil in nature. This war is an attempt to break a foreign people and make them bow to the will of the US President and the Penagon's supremely efficient human slaughtering military machine.
If you heard a man say "I enjoy killing people. I just feel rage, hate when I go outside" you would probably think "Here is a serial killer who should be removed from society" In an article on the Yahoo news page from the I.A. Times entitled "Enemy contact, kill em, kill em" a United States soldier is quoted saying "I enjoy killing Iraqis. I just feel rage, hate out there." Do all the American soldiers in Iraq think like that, have their minds been poisoned by fighting a war that is evil in nature?
The "Out there" referred to is beyond the military fortresses. If the America and British occupying soldiers are doing anything good, ask yourself "'What would happen if all the soldiers and the new government leaders left their fortresses and weapons to take a stroll to meet the people they are supposed to be helping?" It is likely that the Iraq people furious at the suffering inflicted upon them would attack and beat all the soldiers to death and have a big parade cheering "Iraq is the cemetery of Americans" and "God is greatest." Should not the Iraqi people be angry at the horrendous suffering and carnage inflicted on them in the name of "Freedom and Democracy?" How hollow those words are in light of the censorship of Al Jazeera. Iraqis are denied a free press as a foreign army occupies their land and war profiteers grow rich supplying weapons to kill their countrymen and international oil companies steal their resources. News reports indicate many billions of dollars of oil revenue has just disappeared. The money is being funneled to the associates of the new power brokers and their appointees who sign the papers put before them by their occupying puppet masters.
The leader of the Iraq governing council has assumed full powers of a tyrant. He can declare martial law, have political dissidents arrested at will, and houses bombed by the foreigners who empower him. By authorizing American warplanes to bomb houses in civilian areas that killed women and children, he has sealed a pact of blood with the occupiers of his own country. Yesterday's news quoted a Marine Captain triumphantly stating that the US military had killed 300 "Enemies of the Iraqi people" in the last two days. He should have said they killed 300 Iraqis people who were "Enemies of a occupying foreign army."
The coalition installed governing leaders know that if the foreign occupiers soldiers leave, the Iraq people will swarm the Green Zone fortress and hang them from the nearest lamp posts. The only way the collaborators can live in their own country now is behind tanks and heavily armed troops, fortress walls and barbed wire. The leaders can dictate laws and give lucrative contracts and public funds to their friends and families by collaborating with the occupiers. What will come of this but more carnage and suffering, resistance and harsh repression, the fragmentation of a nation and destruction of the human spirit with the Iraq atrocity of the day? This will lead to more terrorist acts and excuses to drain hundreds of billions of dollars to the military industrial corporations that are looting the treasuries of the United States and Iraq. Many people suffer greatly so war profiteers can gain wealth and power in their illegal war with it's evil foundation of lies and fabrications.

In America now, people are looking back over their shoulders nervously like something is gnawing at them. They know or sense that it is all wrong and are fearful of a payback. The media have the people in a state of fear awaiting a "Major terrorist event." Just one big explosion or bad computer day is all it would take to throw the American people into confusion and panic and allow the war plotters to escape war crime justice by declaring a state of Emergency. If anyone doubts what Bush is capable of doing or Powell justifying, go on the internet and search Iraqi Civilian Casualty photos. Look at the pictures of children with faces and limbs blown off,mothers weeping in agony and piles of corpses and think how all this carnage and misery is the product of lies. Here is the news Al Jazeera reports that is not shown on American media.
I work as a tour guide in the Napa Valley in California and talk with people from all over the world. Americans are becoming the most hated people in the world since Germans followed Hitler to war. Last week the Chief of Staff of the US military announced they will keep at least 145,000 soldiers in Iraq for at least five years. His pronouncement makes it seem as though Congress doesn't exist and that who is President or the opinion of the American people doesn't matter. A retired General said "For the coming war American democracy will have to be replaced by a military government." The Republic seems to be in it's last days, one bad day from Bush signing a State of Emergency Declaration taking total power and escaping with murder. The American people are sleepwalking into a military dictatorship by financing and going along with this War of Deceptions. Think of curfews, resistance and repression in America, and the excuse to establish a draft and conscript millions of young men to kill people for oil power in the Middle East and patrol the streets of America with automatic weapons

The American military installed a government in Iraq by force. The ceremonies were held in a fortress on a military base with troops on full security alert with helicopter gunships circling and snipers on the battlements ready to blow apart any person who resisted. How can this be called anything but a puppet government? Bush says God appointed him and that the interesting thing about being President is that he can do whatever he wants and doesn't have to answer to anyone. This apparently includes using lies and exaggerations to sell a war and ordering bombings that have killed at least 10,000 civilians and lead to the deaths of tens of thousands more.

The debacle will only worse from here. American military field commanders say routinely "There is no room for failure." This means '"We will kill as many people as necessary to achieve the goals." The suffering will increase in proportion to the billions of dollars looted from the US. treasury for the Generals and military industrial corporations. The fruits of the inflicted misery will be political campaign television and radio ads and mass mailings about winning the War on Terrorism. Here is the world's greatest scam brought to you by the most dangerous people since Hitler and his cadre used false propaganda to wage Wars of Aggression.
The Democrat Party opponent to Bush, Mr. Kerry's solution is to give the military more equipment and continue the tragedy. If he is so blind morally to refuse to say 'We were lied to, this war is evil, I will order all American occupying soldiers home the day I take office" he doesn't deserve the job. Kerry appears too weak to do what a President must do, stand up to the Generals who helped plot and wage a war in violation of International Law and say "Back down."
Here is a way out for Americans with two admissions and two actions. Americans must admit that the Iraq War is illegal and that it was plotted and hatched with lies and deceptions, so it is evil in nature. Nuremberg Principles Articles VI and VII make it a Crime Against Peace and a Crime Against Humanity to "Conspire to engage in, wage or be complicit in the waging of a War of Aggression " Admit that American taxpayers are individually and collectively responsible for financing the carnage and suffering caused by this illegal war.
On the Internet, search and print the Nuremberg Principles. Search Iraq war civilian casualty photos on sites like Victims of War, www.albasrah.net or www.robertfisk.com. See the pictures that are making Americans despised around the world. From the thousands of heartbreaking images, select and print 10 that touch you deeply. Concerned Americans should show the Nuremberg Principles and pictures to 10 people. Say "Here is something you need to see and act against. We are responsible for this." The sight of what high explosive bombs they pay for are doing to innocent children should reach people. Tell people to follow their consciences, download the Nuremberg Principles and 10 photos, show them to 10 people and pass it on and on.

Then American citizens must take a stand with good people and go to their Congress person's local office with the Nuremberg Principles and pictures and say with all their might. "THIS IS EVIL. WE DEMAND AN END TO THIS." The only hope is for American citizens to Insist that Congress remove the war plotters before a "Major terrorist event" gives them cover to escape war crimes justice by declaring a State of Emergency and replacing Government by the People with Government by Decree.
The American military must be made by Congress to remove all occupying soldiers from Iraq and not use the aftermath of an illegal war as the excuse to divide and conquer a nation. The US must offer asylum to the governing council members and other prominent collaborators for their own protection.
Then the American people must make peace with the world by swallowing their pride and admitting that the root cause of 9/11 was Americans allowing their government to distribute hundreds of billions of dollars of weapons around the world and looking away from the suffering their weapons profiteering caused. To go from being the most hated people in the world and restore their honor the United States should impose an absolute embargo on the export of weapons from America. Have big parades for the returning soldiers to celebrate the triumph and victory of Peace and truth over a War of Deceptions. All Congress Members should stand on the steps of the Capitol and tell the world "I stand for the Nuremberg Principles." Then shout it out to the world, America. "WE STAND FOR THE NUREMBERG PRINCIPLES"

John Mackesy P O Box 55 Middletown, California 95461 USA 707-987-2921

John Mackesy
P O Box 55
Middletown California USA 95461
707-987-2921
Brief Bio- John Mackesy- 58 years old, married, parent, Harvard College graduate '67, History major. Former mailman, businessman, teacher and coach. Currently Napa Valley California tour guide. My father and his family in Ireland were brutalized by foreign occupying soldiers [British thugs, he called them} who broke down the door in the night. So I am averse to paying taxes that finance such behavior in a distant land. My college roommate was a brilliant young man who died of "Multiple fragmentation wounds" in Vietnam. So I am opposed to wars that are sold with lies and exaggerations to the profit of military industrial corporations and political campaign financial war chests. I work night and day, to exhaustion for peace in the world.