In the recent off-topic thread, b real flagged a New York Times piece: In Somalia, Those Who Feed Off Anarchy Fuel It.
"You know, these are some bad people down there" – says the NYT on its front page.
Omar Hussein Ahmed, an olive oil exporter in Mogadishu, the capital, said he and a group of fellow traders recently bought missiles to shoot at government soldiers.
“Taxes are annoying,” he explained.
The writer paints a picture of greedy thugs like Mr. Ahmed, who doesn’t even want to pay taxes, fighting the loyal U.S.-supported, Democracy promissing government. Only some twenty paragraphs later (and not on the front page), we learn that Mr. Ahmed might have some very good reasons to fight:
For many Abgal, an influential subclan of the Hawiye, the last straw came in mid-March when the government raised port taxes by 300 percent. Mr. Ahmed, the olive oil exporter and an Abgal, said that after that, there was a mass Abgal defection to the insurgency. “The government is trying to destroy business as we know it,” he said.
The warlords in the U.S. supported government are trying to squeeze the people who supported the former Islamic court administration out of business.
There are several misleading items like the above in the article. In total it is a shill piece for the thugs and warlords pushed into government with U.S. dollars and military help (directly and by Ethiopian proxies) in a regime change right out of Cheney’s oil mafia handbook.
Where twisted facts and selected sound-bytes are not sufficient, the author falsifies history:
The Islamists seemed to be the perfect solution for the businessmen. They delivered stability, which was good for most business, but they did not confiscate property or levy heavy taxes. They called themselves an administration, not a government.
“Our best days were under them,” said Abdi Ali Jama, who owns an electrical supply shop in Mogadishu.
But then a radical wing took over, and the Islamists declared war on Ethiopia, which commands one of the mightiest armies in Africa.
From the BBC timeline on Somalia we learn how the events really unfolded:
20 July – A column of Ethiopian trucks, more than 100-strong and
including armoured cars, are seen crossing into Somalia. Ethiopia only
admits to having military trainers in the country helping the interim
government.21 July – The Islamic court leadership orders a "holy war" against Ethiopians in Somalia.
The NYT readers are given no chance to understand that the war declaration came after Ethiopia invaded Somalia. They get the impression that these were just stupid radical Islamists, that did declare war on a superior enemy because they were – well – stupid radical Islamists.
Not by accident, there is also something else missing in the picture the piece is painting – and it is not the U.S. thirst for olive oil.
This is the third regime-change for oil the Bush administration has launched under the false flag of fighting "Islamic terrorism." All three of these had bi-partisan support and support from the New York Times and other major media companies. All three of these were launched with outright false information spread by the independent media to the U.S. people.
All three of these will end in endless quagmires and most probably with solutions unfavorable for the U.S. people. All three of these are outrageous senseless slaughters. But you’ll not learn that reading those papers.
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Update: See also Chris Floyd in a parallel post:
The Lies of the Times: NYT Pushes Bush Line on Somalia