Madsen's latest: Bush "Ministry of Truth"

[harris8]

... aka Todd Leventhal. Too much to summarize here, here are a couple teasers:

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Another one of Leventhal's government-funded attack pieces flays ex-U.S. soldier Nadim Abou Rabeh, an Iraqi war veteran who had taken part in Saddam Hussein's capture. Leventhal pillories Rabeh for suggesting Saddam's capture in a "spider hole" was faked. Leventhal also calls fanciful reports that the United States used mustard gas in the siege of Fallujah, contends that the use of depleted uranium weapons by U.S. forces in Iraq is safe, and derides it as a "conspiracy theory" that the United States helped create Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda via its support of the Afghan mujaheddin through Saudi and Pakistani facilitators.

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Leventhal's small propaganda operation at the State Department is remarkably similar to an aggressive media operation that scans newspapers, television, and radio for stories critical of Israel. CAMERA, or the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, identifies and targets Israeli, American, and other journalists who question or provide alternatives to Israeli government propaganda.

In what is frightening and amusing at the same time, Leventhal makes an offer to those who have questions about the news stories they are reading: "If you wish, ask us. We can't respond to all requests for information, but if a request is reasonable and we have the time, we will do our best to provide accurate, authoritative information." The State Department's website provides Leventhal's phone number for those who wish to have him interpret the news for them: 202-203-7492. Just another friendly service from your taxpayer-funded Ministry of Truth!

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At: http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/041805Madsen/041805madsen.html

(this and other Madsen articles on DU Demopedia at: http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Wayne_Madsen)

[realFedUp]

1. Leventhal

(Madsen always has the good stuff)

snip

Having never heard of Mr. Leventhal, I decided to do a bit of checking on him as only a "self described investigative journalist" can do.

First, there is Leventhal's association with apartheid South Africa's infamous "Project Babushka." According to a July 16, 1995 story in Newsday, during the 1980s, South Africa's military established a dummy front called the International Freedom Foundation (IFF). The IFF was an influence-peddling organization used to counter critics of the apartheid regime and buy off right-wing American politicians to campaign against economic and military sanctions against the apartheid regime.

According to former South African top spy Craig Williamson, IFF and Project Babushka enrolled such right-wing Republicans as North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, Henry Kissinger, California Republican Representative Robert Dornan, Indiana Republican Representative Dan Burton, Illinois Republican Representative Phil Crane, and right-wing GOP kook Alan Keyes. Helms even served as chairman of the editorial advisory board for the IFF's publication branch—a group that pumped out all sorts of propaganda claiming that the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela were Communists.

Helping to run the IFF's Washington, DC, office at 200 G Street, SE (and next door to the right-wing Free Congress Foundation) was none other than Jack Abramoff, who is now embroiled in a series of kickback and payola allegations involving House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

[Al-CIAda]

4. kick

[harris8]

2. "Todd Leventhal, Chief of the Counter-Misinformation Team"

... here he is, on the State Department FPC (Foreign Press Center) page: http://fpc.state.gov/fpc/

and the corresponding transcript for the April 6, 2005 briefing titled "Accuracy in the Media: Misinformation, Mistakes, and Misleading in American and Other Media": http://fpc.state.gov/fpc/44433.htm

Leventhal's opening comments:

"Regarding disinformation, I went and looked on the web quickly this morning to look it up, and you get a lot of different definitions for it from the ones you would expect to hear, but the most interesting one was the definition off a website that is, basically, a disinformation website. It's one of these alien watching websites, and in its view, disinformation is the U.S. Government's attempts to discredit our site and others who understand how the aliens have taken over the United States.
(Laughter.)"

har har har

[harris8]

3. kick - n/t

[Al-CIAda]

5. .