February 4, 2017

Symbolic Seduction: Women’s Rights, Partisan Politics, Ethnocentrism and “American Narcissism”

In 1929, Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, U.S./CIA war and coup propagandist, and the founder of public relations, conducted a successful mind-manipulation experiment for the tobacco industry.  In those days there was a taboo against women smoking in public, and Bernays was hired to change that.  He consulted a psychiatrist, A. A. Brill, who told him that cigarettes represented the...
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February 4, 2017

U.S. Blaming Iran for Attack on American Navy That Never Actually Happened

At a press briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer asserted that Iran had attacked a U.S. naval vessel. This statement was taken as part and parcel of his argument defending the Trump administration’s decision to put Iran “on notice.” However, as the Intercept confirmed directly with Pentagon spokesperson Christopher Sherwood, the attack in question actually took place on a...
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February 4, 2017

Pentagon’s Video from Yemen Raid Turned Out to be 10 Years Old, Already Widely Circulated

The Pentagon’s website no longer shows an “important intelligence” video obtained in a fatal Yemeni raid, since officials realized the footage has been available online for a decade. On Friday, the Pentagon posted a video to the Defense Video Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS) website they said justified the operation in Yemen which cost the life of one US Navy SEAL...
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