BBC Rides with Al Qaeda in Aleppo, Syria.

By Tony Cartalucci, Contributor  Activist Post 25th July 2012.   Find Full Article Here:-

BBC Covers Up War Crimes – Misleads Over Syrian Security Operations.

 

Update: Indeed BBC did not see “MIGs” bombing Aleppo, though it appears they weren’t even anti-tank SU-25′s but rather training aircraft. Aero L-39 Albatros are also not even “Russian-made” as the BBC claimed. The article below has been amended to reflect this information.

When big lies must be told, BBC is there. From Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya and now Syria, BBC has paved the way for Western disinformation meant to mange public perception around a war the public would otherwise never support or tolerate.

The BBC, caught on record producing entire “documentaries” on behalf of corporate-financier interests, has already been caught in immense lies regarding the NATO-fueled destabilization of Syria. This includes the disingenuous use of photos from Iraq, to depict a so-called “massacre” in the village of Houla, Syria.

Now, as NATO’s Al Qaeda mercenaries operating under the banner of the so-called “Free Syrian Army” flow over the Turkish-Syrian border in an attempt to overrun the city of Aleppo, BBC is there, attempting to manipulate the public’s perception as the conflict unfolds.

BBC’s Ian Pannell admits he rode with a convoy of militant fighters into Aleppo at night. He claims many are desperate for the FSA to succeed, “clamoring for freedom denied by their president,” but concedes many others fear an “Islamic takeover” and sectarian “division and bloodshed.” The latter of course, is self-evident, while the former is the repeated, unfounded mantra of the Western media used to cover up the latter.

Pannell poses amongst staged settings, claiming a single burning tire equates to a barricade set up by the militants (see more on the use of burning tires as propaganda here and here). He concedes that militants are taking to the rooftops with sniper rifles in the districts they claim they control – begging one to wonder where else terrorist snipers have been, and how many “sniper” deaths have been mistakenly blamed on the government.

BBC silent over ‘disturbing’ riots documentary banning order.

Published: 18th July, 2012.  Find Article Here:-

See also – The making of The Riots: In Their Own Words By Nicola Cutcher   13th July 2012.  Here:-

The BBC is considering making an appeal against a court order which stopped it from broadcasting a dramatized film on last year’s riots in London.
The film, which features actors portraying anonymous rioters sharing their experience of the events, was due to be broadcast on Monday evening, but was banned by a court order hours before hitting the airwaves
Its script was written by award-winning playwright Alecky Blythe and is based on interviews from some 270 people conducted by the Guardian and London School of Economics as part of a study into the massive public disorder.
The first installment of The Riots: In their own Words focuses on rioters, while the second film of the two-part series shares the impressions of police officers on duty at the time.
Both were banned from being broadcast by a court ruling, which BBC lawyers now plan to appeal against, reports the Guardian. The newspaper says for legal reasons it cannot report the name of the judge who made the controversial ruling, the court in which it was done or the case he was presiding over.
Little detail was disclosed on the content of the ruling itself. The British newspaper cites it as saying: “It is ordered that the BBC programme ‘The Riots: In their Own Words’ due for broadcast on BBC 2 tonight is not broadcast by any media by any means until further order.”
The ruling also ordered the BBC to remove a clip promoting the film from its website, which the broadcaster did. The clip, previously available on a blog posted last Friday, featured a BBC producer saying that the “important and illuminating” interviews in the drama would provide insight into “why and how the riots had happened”.
After the court ruling arrived the BBC said it would put the program out at a later date. The film was part of the company’s package prepared for the coverage of the one year anniversary of the August 2011 riots in Britain.
What started as peaceful protest in Tottenham erupted into five nights of violence, looting and a subsequent police crackdown. Five people were killed and more than 2,500 shops and businesses damaged. Over a thousand people received jail for their part in the disorder.

Jeremy Hunt accused of throwing special adviser to the wolves.

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 25th April 2012 by Helen Pidd           Find Full Article Here:-

Labour say Hunt’s aide Adam Smith has been sacrificed to deflect attention from his own close relationship with News Corp.

Jeremy Hunt now faces scrutiny over how far he was aware of or sanctioned Adam Smith’s activities.

Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

He was, said Jeremy Hunt, a man of “integrity and decency” and his departure was a matter of “huge” personal regret. The Conservative culture secretary nonetheless swiftly accepted the resignation of his special adviser Adam Smith on Wednesday, prompting the Labour benches to accuse him of using his aide as a “human shield” who was “thrown to the wolves” to deflect attention away from his own close relationship with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Smith announced his decision to quit after conceding on Wednesday morning that his “activities at times went too far”.

The young policy adviser, described by one of his contacts in the sporting world as “Jeremy Hunt’s mini-me”, fell on his sword after correspondence between himself and the News Corporation lobbyist Frédéric Michel was aired at the Leveson inquiry.

His departure appeared to undermine the government’s defence of Hunt. This centres on the charge that Michel had exaggerated, even outright distorted, accounts of his contact with Hunt and his team.

The Labour MP Dennis Skinner asked Hunt: “Now your adviser has lost his job, doesn’t it prove the theory that when posh boys are in trouble, they sack the servants?”

Everything Is a Remix.

This is well worth a watch.  It’s in four parts and has already had a great deal of Internet interest.

Everything is a Remix is produced by, Kirby Ferguson, a New York-based filmmaker. This site is a companion piece to the four-part video series. The first three episodes of the series have been published and part four was released in late November 2011.

http://www.everythingisaremix.info/everything-is-a-remix-part-1/

Oil’d – a video about the facts of the 2011 BP Gulf oil spill.

by Chris Harmon  May 2011.   Watch Video Here:-

In April 2010 a massive oil spill began in the Gulf. The entire country was glued to the news until the well was capped, and then we forgot about it.

As the year anniversary was approaching I became curious, just how much oil was that exactly? Where would it have gone? What I found was shocking.

So in an effort to further our discussion on oil dependency I created this short animation to help illustrate just how dependent we truly are on oil.

Designed, animated and written by Chris Harmon   http://vimeo.com/22655744

Voice Talent: Kim Estes

Music: Billy Perez & Todd Stambaugh

Special Thanks to Daye Rogers and Christy Kurtz

Sources:

Environmental Protection Agency
epa.gov/

U.S. Energy Information Administration
eia.doe.gov/

bts.gov/publications/national_transportation_statistics/html/table_04_23.html

Rubber Manufacturers Association
rma.org/about_rma/rubber_faqs/

carbonify.com/carbon-calculator.htm

.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/facts/2010_fotw617.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDPE

wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_one_gallon_of_crude_oil_weigh

icis.com/v2/chemicals/9076455/propylene/uses.html

volunteerguide.org/volunteer/fewhours/used-tires.htm

earth911.com/recycling/plastic/plastic-bottle-recycling-facts/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population

 

Sex fixer to the stars lifts lid on scandal in Hollywood’s golden age.

• Joanna Walters
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 1st February 2012.  Find Full Article Here:-

Scotty Bowers has kept quiet for 60 years but now, at 88, he’s talking about bedding the biggest screen icons of the day.

Scotty Bowers’ book Full Service: lurid disclosures, unflinchingly detailed

Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn had just one thing in common – apart from being movie superstars.

But that one thing wasn’t the fairytale romance that Hollywood falsely spun for the public to keep their images clean, apparently.

They both used a handsome young gas station attendant for sex – in Tracy’s case personally, and in Hepburn’s case to procure her lesbian lovers, up to 150 of them over a lifetime.

This is just one revelation in a controversial memoir to be published later this month by an old man called Scotty Bowers, who was that gas station attendant, but also a gigolo and sex fixer to the stars during Hollywood’s golden age.

He has kept his mouth shut for 60 years but now, at 88, he’s talking. And how.

The result is a list as long as it is glittering of the screen icons he says he bedded and liaisons he arranged – both gay and straight – for the movie business elite in Los Angeles.

Bowers’s book unveils secrets involving Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant, Cole Porter, Rock Hudson and Bob Hope for starters, followed by Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, Cecil Beaton, Tennessee Williams, Somerset Maugham and, more obscurely, Edith Piaf and Brian Epstein.

His book is calculated to shock. Some of the sensationalist tales seem incredible, while the many lurid disclosures are unflinchingly detailed.

Rumours of his work as a gigolo and a pansexual, post-war version of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss have done the rounds for years and been exchanged faithfully in industry gossip circles.

And though such scandal might have been ignored by the establishment, Bowers has been lent credibility by the New York Times and Gore Vidal. After years of turning down media requests, Bowers finally sat down with the newspaper to talk about his book Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars.

Government under fire over alleged BBC licence fee talks with News Corp.

• John Plunkett
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 26th October 2011.  Find Article Here:-

John McDonnell MP calls for more details about ministerial meetings with News Corporation before licence fee settlement.

Labour MP John McDonnell has challenged the government to disclose details about alleged meetings with the Murdochs to discuss the BBC licence fee freeze. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA

The government has been urged to look again at the BBC‘s funding and reveal the extent to which it was discussed with News Corporation before last year’s shotgun licence fee settlement.

John McDonnell MP claimed there were “undue influences from the Murdoch empire” in the hastily agreed settlement that saw the licence fee frozen for six years and the corporation take on a greater financial burden, including the BBC World Service.

Asked to provide evidence to back up his claims, McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington in west London, said: “That’s one of the issues we have been raising with ministers.

“It would be helpful if ministers could publish the information about the number of times that they met with the Murdoch empire to discuss the licence fee itself.

“Up until now we have not received any detailed information from them about the times that they met with Murdoch and the times they discussed the licence fee settlement.”

McDonnell said James Murdoch, the under-fire deputy chief operating officer at News Corporation, had made it “quite clear” that he wanted a reduced licence fee so that News Corporation could “exploit and develop their own empire at the expense of the BBC”.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey, responding to McDonnell in a Westminster Hall debate about the future of BBC local radio on Wednesday, said: “I have never discussed the licence fee with Rupert Murdoch or the Murdoch empire.

“Funnily enough the most influential discussion I had was with the Guardian Media Group [publisher of MediaGuardian.co.uk] who complained about the size of the BBC website.”

McDonnell responded: “To be frank I think those discussions around the BBC licence fee that took place with News International were above the honourable member’s pay grade.”

Shadow culture minister Helen Goodman said she hoped Vaizey would not “wash his hands” of the £700m programme of cuts being driven through at the BBC, with the loss of 2,000 jobs, as a result of last year’s funding agreement.

She said the growth in inflation since the deal was struck in October last year meant the licence fee was being eroded even faster than anticipated.

“Since the chancellor of the exchequer has not kept inflation under control we can all work out the cuts are going to be much larger. Does he not see there is a case for readdressing the size of the licence fee?”

But Vaizey described the settlement as a “good deal” for the BBC. “There is not a single other media group in the country that has certainty of funding going to 20116/17. That is an enormous luxury.”

MPs accused him of being “lighthearted” about their concerns for local radio – Vaizey used one reply to come up with a jingle for BBC Radio Oxford – and former Labour culture minister Ben Bradshaw said he was acting like a cheerleader for the corporation.

“With due respect to the minister his speech could have been written by BBC management,” said Bradshaw.

“My job is to be a candid friend of the BBC, I don’t apologise for supporting it,” said Vaizey.

“It is certainly not my job to tell the BBC what to do, it would be quite wrong for a minister to tell the BBC to close down a particular service or save a particular service. That is a job for BBC management.”

‘Into Eternity’ a documentary by Michael Madsen about the Onkalo Nuclear Repository.

By Neil  August 25th 2011.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_Eternity_%28film%29

Today I watched a very interesting film about “Onkalo”  (“cave” or “cavity”)  the Finnish Nuclear Waste Storage Facility, on Olkiluoto Island, which is on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia in the municipality of Eurajoki in western Finland.

The Finnish Nuclear Energy Act  was amended in 1994 to specify that all nuclear waste produced in Finland must be disposed of in Finland and Olkiluoto was selected in 2000 as the site for a (very) long-term underground storage facility for Finland’s spent nuclear fuel. The facility is being built in the granite bedrock a few miles from the Olkiluoto power plants. The municipality of Eurajoki issued a building permit for the facility in August 2003 and excavation began in 2004.

The film asks some very relevant questions regarding safety and the 100,000 years that this Nuclear Waste needs to remain away from all life.  Scientists and Technicians give their thoughts and opinions and consider the future Ice Age that might occur within the next 60,000 years.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olkiluoto_Nuclear_Power_Plant

I feel a little sorry for the Finns.  The world has an estimated 250 to 300,000 tons of Nuclear waste and the Finns are Global forerunners, in building a safe site for their dangerous by-product.  They have gone to so much trouble to keep their own waste to themselves whilst other countries including  Japan, are blatantly wreckless in their attitudes to world safety, having contaminated the Earth’s air, land and sea for everyone.

Onkalo is only half finished.  It’s construction is scheduled to end sometime after 2012, when the excavation reaches a final depth of 520 metres (1,710 ft).  It will be operational from around 2020 and is expected to be large enough to accept canisters of spent fuel for around one hundred years, i.e. until around 2120.

Watch the Film online here,  http://www.watchthisfree.com/movies/2010/into-eternity/watch/   it’s well worth a look.

I Didn’t F*ck It Up – Katie Goodman of Broad Comedy

“They, whoever they are, they f*cked it up.” Written by Katie Goodman and Soren Kisiel.

Filmed by Ryan Stumpe and AVERingenuity.

Watch Here on YouTube:-

Israeli peace activist Juliano Mer Khamis shot dead in Jenin

Witnesses say actor – who ran a drama project in a Palestinian refugee camp – was shot five times by masked men.

Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem          Article Here:-

guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 April 2011

Mer Khamis had received death threats for his work in Jenin.

Photograph: Saif Dahlah/AFP/Getty Images.

An Israeli actor and peace activist who ran a drama project in a Palestinian refugee camp has been shot dead by masked men, metres from the theatre he founded.

Juliano Mer Khamis, 52, had received threats for his work in Jenin in the northern West Bank but continued to divide his time between Jenin and Haifa in the north of Israel. Witnesses said he was shot five times.

Mer Khamis appeared in a number of Israeli films after his first film role in the 1984 production of the John Le Carre novel The Little Drummer Girl, about Mossad’s hunt for a PLO bomber.

He was born to a Jewish mother and an Arab Christian father. His mother, Arna, was renowned for setting up a theatre group in Jenin during the first Intifada which started in 1987. Mer Khamis directed the film Arna’s Children, which celebrated her work, which he continued after her death in 1994. His wife, Jenny, a Finn, is pregnant with twins. She heard of his death from Israeli radio.

Mer Khamis’s body was transported to an Israeli checkpoint, from where it was taken to Tel Aviv for a postmortem examination.

While his work was widely appreciated by Palestinians, his bringing together of young men and women angered conservative Muslim elements in Jenin. In addition to threats, fire bombs were thrown at the theatre. However the project was supported by local militants. Zakaria Zubeidi, a leader of the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, frequented the theatre as a child.

Kadura Musa, governor of Jenin, said: “He was a Palestinian citizen of Israeli origin. An actor and an artist but most of all a true human being. We don’t know why this happened, but all the people of the camp condemn the death of this son of ours whose mother also did so much for the people of Jenin.”

Alaa Eddin Saadi lives next to the theatre, and said that Mer Khamis was shot while in a car also carrying his one-year old son and his nanny, who was wounded in the hand. “I don’t think he was killed because he was Jewish. Some people were angry with the liberal values he was promoting at the theatre, but to me he was a very nice guy who worked hard for the people here.”