The Piper

 

	.American Free Press
	...Vol VI..#38/39 Sept 18&25, 2006.americanfreepress.net

 

P. 11, AMERICAN FREE PRESS * September 18 & 25, 2006 The Perdana Global Peace Conference

U.S. Mass Media Is Promoting `Institutional Disinformation'

HANS-CHRISTOF VON SPONECK, a native of Germany, served 26 years with the United Nations. He resigned from the UN in protest of the U.S.-sponsored sanctions on Iraq.

. . .In the July 31 edition, American Free Press published the first in a series of reports from AFP correspondent Michael Collins Piper detailing the fascinating and important speeches delivered June 22 during the public forum in Malaysia sponsored by the Perdana Global Peace Organization. What follows is Piper’s on-the-scene report of the talk given by Hans-Christof Von Sponeck, a native of Germany, who served some 26 years with the United Nations in a variety of posts.

By Michael Collins Piper

...Referring to the ongoing discussion of a U.S. attack on Iran, former United Nations Assistant Secretary General Hans-Christof Von Sponeck said that “The global blood pressure is up . . . but [the world] is aware of the dangers and there is not an awareness of the possibility of a ‘collective stroke’ for the world at large,” inherent in the possibility of the consequences from a war against Iran.
. . .He noted with particular concern that in the present day, there are not serious efforts to stop nuclear proliferation but, instead, there is actually new research on a new generation of nuclear weapons.
. . .Von Sponeck pointed to the hypocrisy on the part of the Bush administration, which recently went to India to discuss nuclear deals but has condemned Iran for its nuclear ambitions. The former UN official assailed what he called “an incredible double standard in the UN Security Council” that surrounds the controversy over Iranian nuclear development.
n. ..Referring to the hotly controversial and revealing expose by John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hitman,* which detailed Perkins’s career in exploiting Third World nations on behalf of international financial interests, von Sponeck wryly noted that the tactics used by Western financial interests are truly “third world,” in the negative sense of the term. “The Third World,” von Sponeck said, “is not in Malaysia, it’s across the Atlantic,” referring to the United States. He condemned what he called “market Darwinism” which, he said, “is in sharp contrast to the desire for human rights and justice.”
. . .The German diplomat commented that, with the Iraq war, one nation — the United States — “decided to leave the community of nations to undertake a policy of unilateralism.” To point this out, he said, “is not being anti-American.” Instead, he noted, “This is saying that we are looking at the facts of a very dangerous time in our history.” Now the United States has, in his words, “artificially created” the crisis in Iran, one which bears many similarities to the earlier campaign against Iraq.
. . .However, based upon his own observations, von Sponeck hopes that there is a turning point coming: “There are still some people in Washington who recognize limitations on U.S. power,” and who agree that “it’s an insane idea to attack Iran with nuclear weapons,”— something that has actually been proposed in military planning circles inside the Bush administration. In addition, he said, there are new alliances developing worldwide, economically and politically, that stand as a challenge to the efforts by those running U.S. policy in the direction of a global imperium. “The days of the U.S. as a superpower are counted.” Although the US does not want a peaceful solution, von Sponeck believes that there will be worldwide pressure to stop the impending attack on Iran from happening.
. . .Von Sponeck noted that the 20th century saw the end of colonialism and that he hopes the 21st century will be a period of “intellectual independence,” in which people in the United States (in particular) but also worldwide will be able to reject what he called “the avalanche of useless information” and “the danger of planted deliberate disinformation and misinformation” in the mass media that is “all nonsense,” particularly in regard to Iraq and Iran. Von Sponeck says that this is period of challenge for independent “truth seeking media” to correct the lies and deceptions in the major media, what he referred to as “institutionalized disinformation.” 

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. . .*Confessions of an Economic Hitman (hardcover, 250 pages, #1185, $27.95) is available from FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS, 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100, Washington, D.C. 20003. Call 1-888-699-6397 toll free to order with Visa or MasterCard.

 

. . ..A journalist specializing in media critique, Michael Collins Piper is the author of Final Judgment, the controversial “underground bestseller” documenting the collaboration of Israeli intelligence in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He is also the author of The High Priests of War, The New Jerusalem, The Judas Goats, and Dirty Secrets, all available from FIRST AMENDMENT BOOKS and America First Books. He has lectured on suppressed topics in places as diverse as Malaysia, Japan, Canada, Russia and Abu Dhabi.

(Issue #38 & 39, September 18 & 25, 2006, AMERICAN FREE PRESS)