Wednesday, August 10, 2011

BBC Duplicity Strikes Again

Thailand hit piece exposes mainstream media's complete bankruptcy.

by Tony Cartalucci



Bangkok, Thailand August 10, 2011 - Whether it is selling and promoting the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, or promoting the Libyan thugs now literally slitting each others throats after murdering their own leader and committing wholesale war crimes across rebel held territory, BBC has been a shameless promoter of misleading the public at the cost of both human lives and national sovereignty for a very long time and on a very grand scale.



During the US-backed Egyptian protests, BBC's Jon Leyne covered the "March of Millions" in Egypt and told viewers it seemed as if "all of Egypt" had turned out in Tahrir Square. Best estimates of the crowd range from 50,000 to no more than 100,000 (0.1% of Egypt's population.) This didn't stop BBC from committing another classic misrepresentation in order to promote the global corporate-financier agenda of which they serve.



Their most recent act of duplicity is a breathtaking two-hour hit piece aimed at Thailand, its traditional institutions, which exist independently outside the realm of Western financed NGOs, and the Thai Army. The hit is made in tandem with paid globalist lawyer Robert Amsterdam and his army of hired writers like former Reuters journalist Andrew Marshall who is busy replaying the tired ploy of using Wikileaks to fuel Thailand's opposition. It should be noted that Marshall began writing suspiciously sycophantic, 40 paged, 10,000 word pieces bolstering Amsterdam's lobbying work while still at Reuters as far back as July 2010. It should also be noted that the BBC, Amsterdam & Peroff, and Reuters are all major corporate members of the elitist corporate-fascist think-tank, the Chatham House.



The Hit Piece



BBC's hit piece is made on behalf of not particularly Thaksin Shinawatra, the current globalist puppet-of-choice, but rather on behalf of the London-Wall Street oligarchs who would like to see Thailand reduced to a petty, divided, infighting state easily manipulated and exploited financially, economically, and geopolitically, part of an admittedly larger gambit to contain China. The global oligarchy's main threat comes from the Thai Army, who like in Egypt, Turkey, or Iran, represents a large, well-funded, well-organized, well-informed obstacle in the way of Western corporate-financier ambitions. The Thai Army in turn does indeed maintain a high level of legitimacy granted by their role in acting as protectors of Thailand's traditional institutions. Clearly, in the BBC hit piece, low-blows are taken at both in a desperate, concerted, and persistent attempt to undermine their legitimacy.



BBC's documentary titled, "This World: Thailand - Justice Under Fire" focuses on the bloody protests of April and May of 2010. The BBC does eventually get around to admitting the protesters were armed and in fact drew first blood on April 10, 2010, and continued maiming, killing and committing arson until the very last day when the Thai Army restored order. Despite this admission, BBC propagandist Fergal Keane attempts to foist upon his viewership a narrative where the military has "murdered with impunity," never once stopping to consider whether the Thai Army would have fired a single shot if the protesters hadn't resorted to violence in the first place.



Several high profile deaths during the protest are "examined" by BBC, complete with a weepy soundtrack playing in the background, where in each case the fact that no forensic evidence exists is omitted - nor is the fact that answers most likely will never be found. Bangkok was literally a battlefield in April and May where combatants on both sides used similar weapons almost impossible to differentiate. In fact, the only attacks that are possible to confirm are those using AK-47's not fielded by the Thai Army as well as the antiquated but still deadly M79 grenade launcher used exclusively by pro-Thaksin militants. BBC, like Thaksin Shinawatra's hired lobbyist Robert Amsterdam, cites anonymous "sources" within the Thai government that are admittedly "Red" or pro-Thaksin in an attempt to keep the suspicion and blame aimed at the Thai military.



One specific case involving Reuters journalist Hiro Muramoto was the subject of an independent investigation commissioned by Reuters itself. The report stated explicitly that it "was not able to sight an official autopsy report or any forensics carried out on his body." BBC never mentions this in their disingenuous, perpetually spinning report. The conclusion of the Reuters report was instead drawn from an interview which claimed the bullet most likely was a 5.56mm round. BBC, Robert Amsterdam, and Andrew Marshall of Reuters have all used this tenuous "evidence" to continue their agenda-driven attack on the Thai military, insinuating that the military for some inexplicable reason, was purposefully massacring journalists, nurses, and bystanders even while admitting very real, armed, and rampaging militants were busy devastating the city.



In fact, a recently "leaked" Thai military report, initially seized upon and cherry picked by Thailand's opposition but quickly dropped and buried, seems to depict a Thai military confronted with a heavily armed contingent of militants operating within the protesters, armed with a wide array of weapons to which a robust response was needed. Within the report, methods of mitigating collateral damage was discussed as were measures to ensure soldiers did not use excessive force. This is a report conveniently absent from BBC's portrayal of a government "turning guns on its own people" and a military "murdering with impunity."



BBC then predictably begins reciting the dubious word of US diplomats as told by the unverified, baseless "Wikileaks" cables, of which Andrew Marshall of Reuters has been so instrumental in leveraging against the Thai establishment. The cables themselves represent merely the opinions or analysis of the equally duplicitous US State Department, who is openly destabilizing nations around the world and shamelessly maintaining an extensive propaganda network of their own, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. In fact, BBC's use of the very tenuous "Wikileaks" cables only confirms that a concerted effort is being made to attack Thailand's establishment, including the Thai military and other traditional institutions outside of the Soros-bankrolled NGO networks infesting the world. Nothing of substance has been obtained from Wikileaks - only an attempt at giving rumors, hearsay, and spin whatever "legitimacy" a US ambassador could lend - which admittedly isn't much.



But perhaps the most absurd claim made by the BBC hit piece was the opening line, "a charismatic leader swept to power by the people's will, to the world Thailand is the latest country to experience a democratic awakening." This is in reference to globalist-stooge Thaksin Shinawatra's own sister, leading Thailand's opposition party as his appointed proxy, who was just recently voted in by a mere 35% of eligible voters. Suspiciously, this victory by a proxy party openly run by a US-backed convicted criminal hiding in Dubai to evade a two-year jail sentence, who failed to garner even half of the popular vote, is being widely hailed by not just BBC as Thailand's "return to democracy," but also by Thaksin's own paid lobbyist Robert Amsterdam, the Council on Foreign Relations, US government NED-funded Prachatai of Thailand, and a myriad of BBC-esque mainstream media, Western corporate-serving propaganda outlets.



To see just how deeply backed Thaksin and his opposition party are, it would be instructive to look into the US Senate's lobbying disclosure records to see how some of the largest lobbying firms, most influential politicians, and most powerful corporate interests on earth are standing behind him. Since the 2006 military coup that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra from power, he has been represented by US corporate-financier elites via their lobbying firms including, Kenneth Adelman of the Edelman PR firm (Freedom House, International Crisis Group, PNAC), James Baker of Baker Botts (CFR), Robert Blackwill of Barbour Griffith & Rogers (CFR), Kobre & Kim, and currently Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam & Peroff (Chatham House). Meanwhile, his street mobs dubbed the "red shirts" have received rhetorical support by US-funded NGOs like Prachatai which received 1.5 million baht from the Neo-Con lined National Endowment for Democracy along with money from Soros, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Sigrid Trust.



Thaksin himself was a former Carlyle Group adviser, and was literally standing in front of the Council on Foreign Relations on the eve of the coup that removed him from power. All of these are convenient facts that the BBC seems to gloss over - most likely because it would become apparent that the BBC has become the latest member of the corporate-financier elite to lend Thaksin, and more specifically the movement aimed at dividing and destroying Thai society, its support.



Conclusion



While propagandists like the BBC, Andrew Marshall of Reuters, and paid liars like Robert Amsterdam increasingly struggle against a real awakening - an awakening to the global corporate-financiers and their well funded, disingenuous propaganda networks masquerading as the champions of "human rights" and "democracy," it appears that they, despite being caught promoting one lie after another, believe the best solution to the problem is to tell more lies.



Even as it is a confirmed fact that Libya's rebels are Al Qaeda thugs, many of which have just returned from killing Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, the corporate-owned media, including the BBC shamelessly continue promoting both the rebels and the US-UK agenda to support them. Similarly in Thailand, the BBC openly admits that the pro-Thaksin, globalist-backed protesters in the streets of Bangkok were violent, heavily armed, murderous, and committing widespread arson, but still claims Thaksin's victory at the polls via his own sister appointed to hold his place represents a "democratic awakening" and insists that despite the mayhem committed in Thaksin's name to reinstall him into power, the army is still the crux of the problem.



We must first recognize that large profit-driven media outlets like BBC will always put forth the narrative of the highest bidder. Second, we must recognize that those incessantly citing, praising, and supporting propaganda networks like BBC are equally disingenuous, including the likes of Reuters journalist Andrew Marshall whose tireless promotion of BBC's latest atrocity to truth first alerted Land Destroyer to the piece. Finally, we must commit ourselves to pursuing the truth and doing the research ourselves, deferring the responsibility "to know" to no one but ourselves.