During the last few days I have been watching events unfold on the Al Jazeera front, and I must say, despite the exposé coming out way too late, I am delighted to see this propaganda machine exposed. The headlines read: Key staffs from Al Jazeera’s Beirut Bureau have resigned citing “bias� in the channel’s stance on the conflict in Syria.

Here are a few excerpts from decent coverage at RT:

Bureau Managing Director Hassan Shaaban reportedly quit last week, after his correspondent and producer had walked out in protest.

A source told the Lebanese paper Al Akhbar that Al Jazeera’s Beirut correspondent Ali Hashem had quit over the channel’s stance on covering events in Syria. “… his position [which] changed after the station refused to show photos he had taken of armed fighters clashing with the Syrian Army in Wadi Khaled. Instead [Al Jazeera] lambasted him as a shabeeh [implying a regime loyalist],â€� a source told Lebanese press.

Ali Hashem was also infuriated by Al Jazeera’s refusal to cover a crackdown by the King of Bahrain while twisting its Syria angle. “[In Bahrain], we were seeing pictures of a people being butchered by the ‘Gulf’s oppression machine’, and for Al Jazeera, silence was the name of the game,â€� he said.

The Beirut bureau’s producer also quit claiming Al Jazeera had totally ignored Syria’s constitutional reform referendum, which saw a 57% turnout with 90% voting for change. Read more È

The Only Way to Remain Corporate-Free & Nonpartisan

Every time I read lines pertaining to this ludicrous and completely illogical expectation that everything on the Internet should be free I am tempted to sit down and write a lengthy analysis of the illogical and ludicrousness of this unfortunately prevailing mentality among the new ignorant internet-dependent generation. However, each time I restrain myself and move on since the limited amount of time I have could instead be spent on far more critical and needed projects. This time I will slightly change my routine, take a few minutes of my limited time, and write a few words on this topic as it directly relates to our website and our efforts to keep it alive, running, and effective.

The other day I came across a well-written and argued commentary on this outrageously ridiculous and uninformed “everything free on the Internet� mentality:

“We created this culture. We’re the ones who have been giving stuff away for free for the past decade, not collecting anyone’s credit card information. We’ve conditioned users that everything should be free, always. This gives advertisers the upper hand in any negotiation, because they know that their way is the only way that most sites can make money. Why is this such a big deal? Relevant, contextual advertising isn’t bad, right? Not in moderation, no (see The Deck). But when ads become the only way out and advertisers are the ones calling the shots, users suffer. Also, as a matter of principle I firmly believe that it’s better to pay the makers of things directly than through some convoluted ad system.�

There is nothing that is free-on the Internet or anywhere in life. Period. There has never been, and will never be. Period. In almost all cases, when it comes to the Internet, “Free� has one meaning: someone or someones is paying for what is being offered. The only logical question then becomes: Why. If advertisers are paying- why would they? If corporate foundations and the sugar-daddies behind them are dishing out the money- why are they? If political parties and persons are chipping in- why do they? If a group motivated by a certain goal or agenda is shouldering the cost: Why is it?

This is why it is extremely hard to find information and news sources that can be considered truly independent. This is the reason it is a rarity to see those that are 100% nonpartisan. This is the explanation for way too many agenda-driven propaganda channels on the Internet posing as alternatives. And this is exactly why we at Boiling Frogs Post solely, completely, 100%, only, depend on our readers’ contributions and support.

You see, the question we face at BFP is not whether we should offer our diligently prepared podcast shows, time-consuming video productions, and in depth analyses and articles for free, or, not. The real question we face is: whether we continue this website and all that we provide, or, go out and work full-time and cease operation all together. There are no in-between points here.

You see, I first reduced my part-time contract work hours to start this project. I then reduced it again by half. And after that, last September, I quit it all together. If you have a chance please take a look at my qualifications under ‘About Us.’ For my ex-contract analyst-specialist contract work which also needed my linguistic skills I made $125 per hour. This is money my family no longer has. And there is no way I could manage full-time motherhood, part-time contract work, household work, and a full-time website. No one could. For me it boils down to: shut down BFP, obtain another 25-hrs per week contract, or, make far less, live on far less, have your modest support, and continue and expand this great news-information project.

One of our partners-producers had to quit his full-time academic job in order to provide greater and far more needed public good: investigative reports-production. He too has a family. He too has to sustain his family. He too must choose between living on far less, continuing this needed work by depending on your modest contributions, or, go back to a full-time teaching job and consider doing this an impossibility.

Another one of our partners-producers lost his primary part-time job (thanks to the corporate media!). This is a critical period for him to see whether he can make it through a couple of public-supported information sites, or, go out and enroll full-time with semi-mainstream operated channels out there. That decision too depends on you.

Yet another partner-producer-author is in the position of juggling a full-time student load, a part-time job, and our project here at Boiling Frogs Post. Neither I nor anyone else with common sense could expect him to choose getting evicted from his house or quitting his academic pursuits as the price for working for a far greater public good.

The other day I got an e-mail accusing us of being elitists and offering our work only to those who pay for a subscription. This is nonsense. It is uninformed and frankly, very ignorant. We have gone out of our way to find the right balance in being able to afford to run this project and yet offer all our services and news to everyone. That is why we are making all our archived podcasts and video reports open and free to all. And you know what? Without our supporters doing their share, contributing, however modest, we won’t be able to continue doing that. Again, this is why we call the maintenance and continuation of this project a collective responsibility.

This is Week 2 of our Quarterly Subscription-Donation drive.  The existence of this project is solely dependent on you. Our truly independent, nonpartisan, corporate-advertisement-free and corporation-foundation-free website can only be sustained through collective support; your support. We are doing our share. We are asking you to do yours. Please do your share and help us continue this truly independent news and views venue. Please subscribe or donate to Boiling Frogs Post.

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They Say it all Starts with ‘Informing’ …

Those of you who’ve been listening to our podcast series know how impatient I sometimes get when the question boils down to ‘what do we do? Where do we go from here?’ Look, I understand and agree with the general consensus out there among the intellectuals and activists: We must educate the people- We must inform. After all, isn’t it what we’ve been doing with our podcast series, investigative video reports, hard-hitting editorials, bold and eye-opening editorial cartoons, and propaganda-free real news? Right. But that doesn’t make me any less impatient and restless. I simply can’t stand the idea of spending decades to just  keep informing, meanwhile have no idea or even a certain degree of consensus on the next two important steps: organize & action.

If you’ve listened to our last podcast, our first episode on the making of a police state, you know exactly what I mean. I frankly admit to being very naïve once-upon a time when I wasted time and energy organizing whistleblowers, went around collecting petition signatures, held rallies in the congressional corridors here in our own little Red Light-District …Yah, all that jazz; futile jazz. So yes, one side of me understands and sympathizes with those who are engaged in all that waste of time and energy, yet, another side of me gets impatient and exasperated. It ain’t gonna happen with sending thousands or millions of petitions to the sold-out Congress, which happens to be one of  the main players-actors responsible for the terrible state we are in. Why do you think the corporate moguls-Soros, Rockefellers, Ford …put so much money into NGO operatives who have been re-channeling people’s restlessness-dissatisfaction-anger into writing and signing petitions to Congress-President and the rest of the enemy cabal, or lobbying to pass more ridiculous legislation? Look, last year alone, those red light  district porkies drafted and passed 40,000+ new laws-legislation. With each legislation-law adding further links to the chains that have turned us into slaves. Read more È

How We Differ from the Rest & Why We Need ‘You’

If a few years ago someone had told me that I was going to start a blog, gather a team of like-minded irate partners, expand, and turn the site into an alternative news and information site with daily news, top-notch editorials, independent analyses, weekly podcast programs and investigative video reports, commentaries, political cartoons and more, I’d say ‘are you nuts?!’ Don’t get me wrong. I was one of the major advocates for truly alternative news and information sites to challenge the illegitimate, stinky, completely dependent and sold-out, meek, weak, government propaganda machine, corporate pet-boys mainstream media. However, as a very private recluse foreign to the blogging-forum sphere with zero technical knowledge or abilities, I never saw ‘me’ in that scenario. You know, I was one of those a bit lazy ‘they’ should do this, ‘they’ should start that, ‘they’ must challenge it … cases. See, I admit. Read more È

Antiwar.com – Your Best Source for Antiwar News?

Launched in 1995, Antiwar.com describes itself as a site “devoted to the cause of non-interventionism� whose “initial project was to fight against intervention in the Balkans under the Clinton presidency.� Explaining their “key role� in the battle for public opinion during that seminal “humanitarian intervention,� the editors write:

Our goal was not only to inform but also to mobilize informed citizens in concerted action to stop the war. The war at home was an information war: an attempt by the government to both limit and shape the information that Americans had. It was, above all, a propaganda war, one in which the American government and its allies in the media were bombing and strafing their own people with hi-tech lies.

Read more È

Hall of Fame & Hall of Shame on Syria Reporting

Have you noticed how it’s been all quiet on the Western MSM War Propaganda front? As more and more alternative news outlets are increasing their reporting on the real situation in Syria, as even the puppet Arab League is issuing observations contradicting previously reported ‘un-sourced and undocumented’ atrocities and a made-up huge death-toll caused by Assad’s regime, the mainstream media and corporate-funded NGO news fronts have been decreasing their Syria coverage. It is almost as if they’ve gotten ‘a black-eye’ and gone in hiding. Rest assured, there won’t be any retraction on previously publicized, that is, intensely, un-sourced, un-confirmed, un-documented, fictional death toll numbers and imaginary scenarios.

Let’s take a look at a few recent reports starting with an excellent piece at Asia Times today [All Emphasis Mine]: Read more È

MSM News, 6 Months Late: “Obama Secretly Preparing for Syria Intervention�

This morning I woke up to the following news headlines. Let me correct myself: This morning I found the US media and their quasi extension reporting on stale, at least 6-month old US operations on Syria. Now, that’s much better. I think it is safe to assume that the media has been given a ‘green light’ by the White House and Pentagon to report on long-ongoing war preparations, aka ‘intervention’ plans, on Syria while making it sound as fresh-new-recent. Let’s read together:

Obama Administration Secretly Preparing Options for Aiding the Syrian Opposition

As the violence in Syria spirals out of control, top officials in President Barack Obama‘s administration are quietly preparing options for how to assist the Syrian opposition, including gaming out the unlikely option of setting up a no-fly zone in Syria and preparing for another major diplomatic initiative.

…

And here is the almost comical egregious part:

After several weeks of having no top-level administration meetings to discuss the Syria crisis, the National Security Council (NSC) has begun an informal, quiet interagency process to create and collect options for aiding the Syrian opposition, two administration officials confirmed to The Cable.

…

Right! According to these ‘reporters’, up until now our imperialistic hawks have been sitting on their butts and doing absolutely nothing on Syria’s months-long prewar crisis! Just read the following by MSM’s favorite source WINEP, and please try not to laugh: Read more È

It is the Genocide Season-Bring on the Invasion!

I’ve been waiting; waiting for the ‘G’ word on Syria, and here it is, arriving right on time, as expected:

Arab League Observer: Assad Committing Genocide in Syria

A member of the Arab League observer team in Damascus told Al Arabiya broadcaster Monday that “what’s happening in Syria is genocide.”"This is a regime is taking revenge on its people,” Mostashar Mahgoub told the channel by telephone.

…

It is impossible not to recall the US media-marketed and sold false reports of invading Iraqi troops throwing babies out of incubators in Kuwait in August 1990 — reports that were used to build public support and urgency for the 1991 Gulf War. These claims were part of an elaborate propaganda effort by the Washington PR consultancy Hill & Knowlton hired by the Kuwaiti government. Let’s watch the stellar performance choreographed by our government producers-directors: Read more È

Peter B. Collins Podcast Show Interview

Cutting through the disinformation and spin, Sibel Edmonds and Pepe Escobar reveal back stories about the conflict in Syria that are not reported in the mainstream media.

Edmonds has deep sources in Turkey, Iran, Syria, and the US policy community, and has broken a number of recent developments at Boiling Frogs Post.  Pepe Escobar has also done great enterprise reporting and analysis at Asia Times.  Together, they add a great deal of information about the players who are fighting the Assad regime, the increasingly shrill calls for Assad’s removal from Washington and Paris, and recent reports of likely NATO-aligned fighters assembling near the Jordan-Syria border. 

Escobar sees this as a proxy battle between US/NATO/Israel and a growing alliance between Russia and China, with all eyes on the oil and gas reserves of the Caspian basin.  We discuss Turkey’s role in some depth, and its desire to crush the Kurds of northern Iraq and southern Turkey; we talk about Iran’s intentions toward Syria and Iraq after the US withdrawal, and Iran’s own “Kurdish problem�.  Escobar predicts that 2012 will be a year of “creative destruction�, and sees a return to pre-9/11 dynamics in the region.  He also describes the House of Saud as the international center of the counter-revolution in response to the “Arab Spring�. 

Edmonds, who lived in Iran at the start of the Islamic revolution, talks about Iran’s interests and Jordan’s billions of dollars in US military aid since 2007.  It’s best to look at a map of the region as you listen, so you can appreciate the geographical and resource ties of the various neighbors.

Listen to the interview here @ the Peter B. Collins Show: Click Here

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I am looking at a fully-packed schedule for today. Peter and I will be interviewing Pepe Escobar on Syria-Turkey-Jordan. I am scheduled for an interview-analysis session with Russia Today. I have several phone calls scheduled with my sources on the latest developments in Syria. And there are tons of topics/issues/cases I want to cover and talk about that have to wait until things calm down a bit … which almost never happens.

Let’s start with Jordan. Last week we broke the story on reported US-NATO troops and operations in Jordan- on the Jordanian-Syrian border. Follow-ups to our report were carried out by only a few select international news organizations. Pepe Escobar had an excellent article on that (see here).

Today I received this report on the generous financial aid granted to Jordan by the United States.

US to Provide Jordan with $660 Million in Aid in 2012

AMMAN, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) — The United States will provide Jordan with 660 million U.S. dollars in 2012 as economic and military assistance, Jordan’s ministry of planning and international cooperation said Tuesday…The U.S. assistance to Jordan from 2007 to 2011 reached 2.4 billion, according to the ministry.
…

You see, Jordan is fairly dependent on US generosity, aka military-financial aid. And as expected, that dependency tends to ‘color’ a lot of things. Come to think of it, almost every member of the so-called Arab League appears to have similar dependencies: US financial-military aid and support to maintain and sustain their regimes’ existence. Hello, you remember our atrocious Bahrain regime, no? Oh well, they too are part of this ‘Arab League.’ So basically, these dependent puppet dictator regimes are now in charge of determining Syria’s level of dictatorship and soon–to-come final destiny. Ironic, no? Okay, I’ll have more on this when I reach the ‘calm’ period…

Next, I want you to monitor the Antiwar.Com website for a while. This once-upon-a-time excellent website has been going through tremendous not so pretty changes. Coincidentally, these changes coincide with recent mysterious appearances of their donor angels. What I want you to look for and keep tabs on: Read more È