Students Revolt at the School of Authentic Journalism

I am not a journalist. But I was the first to write an expose about Markos Moulitsas as a person who applied to the CIA and the first and only person to discover that during his involvement with the CIA he was operating Daily Kos. I also wrote about the impossibility of his claims as a child to have witnessed communist guerillas killing students and professors in El Salvador.

I have recently written to students and others connected to Narco News and the School of Authentic Journalism both publicly and privately about the strong amicable associations and connections between the ICNC and right wing extremists like Michael Ledeen who has been justifiably accused as being the author of the Niger Forgeries, as he has been exposed as a forger using the same methodology in the past.

Today I read that there was an upheaval at the The School of Authentic Journalism about all the subjects that I wrote about just prior to the school opening in February.

http://narconews.com/lab/node/33

There is no mention of the upheaval in the Narco News bulletin. There is only positive news in the Narco News Bulletin about the school. Instead it’s printed in some obscure website that is associated with the School.

I sent information about the queer associations publicly and privately. The only people that I know of who have written about these subjects are Eva Golinger a author and Venezuelan journalist who mentions the ICNC briefly as being anti-Chavez and Stephen Gowans. I discovered the connections independently and then read that Stephan Gowans had made the same discovery. His analysis is superior.

In any case, the Students attending the School of Authentic Journalism especially those from Venezuela's Telesur, wanted to know why one of the "professors" there, a Jack Duvall, had been part of an organization that attempted to overthrow the regime of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

Apparently the Telesur students wanted an explanation as to why Jack Duvall was teaching there along with 3 other professors from the ICNC and demanded he be banned from the school.

This caused Al Giordano to ban the students from participating in the school in the future. He also banned anyone from Telesur from perhaps…ever coming to the School for Authentic Journalism ever. If they were to be accepted, they would have to sign an agreement to behave in a manner that Al Giordano would approve of.

Al Giordano:

"I do not plan, at present, to invite any TeleSur employees or correspondents to future schools, not as professors or as students, unless and until they either resign or are fired from TeleSur, or unless and until TeleSur takes affirmative steps to correct the sabotaging behavior of its correspondents at the 2010 School of Authentic Journalism."

The students from Venezuela were protesting that 4 of the professors teaching them were part of an organization, the ICNC, which had trained people to overthrow their government through strikes, mass civil disobedience, seeking high-ranking defectors from the armed forces and through journalism.

Al Giordano’s response to this is that it’s all about Money.

“Among those who received their air travel, room, board and other costs fully subsidized were three current correspondents of the media organization TeleSur, the international TV network that is funded by the governments of Venezuela and other left-leaning countries in the region. A total of $2,300 dollars was spent on air travel for the three of them, funding which they happily accepted to attend the school knowing full well that it in part came from ICNC. A TeleSur intern from Washington DC also attended the school as a student, at the urging of that news organization’s Washington correspondent Reed Lindsay (who himself was unable to attend the school as he is reporting from post-earthquake Haiti).”

What Al Giordano is saying is you accepted the Money from the ICNC so you should do what other people who accept money do. Keep your mouth shut. The money is in effect then a bribe. It’s used to influence behavior. I suspect the students knew nothing about the ICNC and it’s connections to right wing organizations that seek the overthrow of democratically elected governments like the one in Venezuela until they read about it just before coming to the school.

Al Giordano then states that he believes that the Telesur students came to the school for the purpose of disrupting the school intentionally.

One thing that we have always taught at this School – it was the late Gary Webb who first said so at the 2003 School of Authentic Journalism – is that an Authentic Journalist must always be willing to be fired from his or her job (or internship) to do this work well. My own conclusion is that the TeleSur employees at the School behaved as if they had received a sudden pressure from their news organization to disrupt the School’s work, and acted out of fear and panic. Whether or not TeleSur’s chain of command was involved in creating that impression, I do not know. But the fact remains that they behaved that way and admitted as much to me and to others that they felt they had to proceed as they did in order to protect their careers at TeleSur.

In the above paragraph by Al Giordano we see that he is clearly Anti Chavez. He’s attacking the Venezuelan state run media, Telesur. This is in complete compliance with the objectives of the ICNC, who seek to overthrow Chavez as admitted by Jack Duvall who some believe is connected to the CIA and who has served with neo con James Woolsey, former head of the CIA in a truly bizarre organization called “The Arlington Institute”.

In any case, 22 people signed a letter of protest and only one of the signers is from Venezuela.

I am a little surprised that they did not pay attention to the connection between Michael Ledeen and Peter Ackerman. It’s Ackerman’s money that actually funds the School for Authentic Journalism in part. Ackerman and Ledeen are friends and write articles together. It’s much more explosive than any connection between Jack Duvall and James Woolsey, who it is claimed don’t know each other.
One of the particpants at the school, a Jesse Freeston had the following comment:

I’ve never lived under a government that I felt a strong desire to defend from internal threats. I’ve also never been to Venezuela, so won’t comment on the Chavez gov’t. But unlike me, the people organizing that meeting clearly felt like the Chavez government is worth defending. So I am incapable of knowing what it must feel like to be in a room with someone who just admitted to providing help (however indirectly it might have been) to groups trying to overthrow that government. I’m not sure how I would respond, but I imagine I would be motivated to do something, something quick, something rash. Especially when the group in front of me (in this case ICNC) wasn’t exactly forthcoming about the details of their participation, nor very understanding of my concerns (I am referring to the first plenary where the information came up, I was much more satisfied with their detailed responses during the 6-hour marathon meeting).

Maybe if they are looking for investigative journalists they should give me a call. I am looking for a new kind of employment and would be open to any offers. I have a lot of leads, too.

Depression and the American Smile: One Nation Under Sedation

Why are so many members of congress quitting?
Why did America sell weapons to Taiwan?
Why are the Chinese not buying anymore US Treasuries?
Why are other nations not buying US Treasuries?
Why is the US sending ships and missles to the mideast?
Why is Amenijihad declaring Israel is considering an attack on Iran by Spring or Summer?

Is it due to the possibility that the United States is about to enter an economic free fall? And that once U.S. securities are no longer being purchased, the possibility of paying off the debt becomes impossible and the only specific solution to that is to inflate the dollar. Once the dollar is inflated and made worthless, it can be used to pay off debt in a very phoney way. It's the way it's been done for a long time.

Congressman can see that anyone who is in office now will be hated by a public that is furious that the government has given all it's money to the banks and financial gamblers of the "financial industry". And that those "clever" congressman realize that if they ever wanted to reenter politics it would have to be by someone who quit the system.

I think that's Sarah Palin's strategy and Bayh's strategy. They want to come in from the Outside as presidential candidates. It's probably going to be the strategy of more congress people and it's going to make it look like the people who stay in congress are bad and the one's that quit are the good guys. That's a phony dichotomy.

Another aspect of this is that when you have so many "independents" running for president, it makes the incumbent arguably stronger.

The government of the United States has largely dissolved. It's been privatized and the senators and congressman have been privatized. They respond to private, not public interests and that will be the argument these people like Palin and Bayh will use when running for president. It's a phoney argument coming from them.

People lose jobs and the dollar becomes worthless at the same time. Not only is the value of property diminished, but the dolllar used to buy the property is diminished. This situation is a situation in which "outsiders" nuture and grow. But most of the "outsiders" will be fake in the coming election. But fake things are the things Americans are most attracted to. Real things are rejected. Americans don't understand anything or anybody who is "real".

Today people who express emotion are sometimes regarded as "bi-polar" or some other pharmaceutically induced diagnostic term. A person whose expression changes depending on their emotional state is regarded as unstable. They might be in a bad mood one day or for a period of time and then the mood changes and they are smiling. Looking sad, angry, frustrated, later calm, jovial and relaxed is seen as a disturbance.

What is interpreted as being normal or real is the unreal expression of the American Smile. The smile that you get on the face of a Nancy Pelosi and many other smiling Americans who think they always need to look "happy". Nancy has face that has been manicured like a front lawn so much it no longer appears to reflect in any way the disposition of the being whose skull it is pasted over. She always looks bright eyed, agreeable and open. She has no choice

How can a smiling nation that is really in a deep state of depression be controlled?

Depression from a psychological viewpoint has as a key element, unexpressed anger. Unexpressed anger at oneself for the things the self is doing that go against it's values or....the inability to remove oneself from a situation, a feeling of being "trapped".

Anger that is expressed, relieves the immediate depression and it is the escape from depression, whether expressed against oneself or against others. The expression of anger changes the situation immediately. A nation in depression is a nation that is potentially violent against itself or others.

What is depressing an always smiling America? A select, tiny minority of people who insatiable, indulgent, ravenous addiction to wealth is starving the rest. Just like an individual addict, who starves the rest of his or her body for an insatiable momentary period of gratification, the United States has become so addicted to wealth that it is starving itself to the point of self destruction. Addiction and Greed.

How will America deal with Depression?

Through war and drugs. Not a war ON drugs.

China has decided to ally itself with Iran. The United States has decided to send missles to Taiwan. China has decided to stop buying U.S. securities. A battle line potentially destructive to both parties is being developed.

Has the United States decided to back Israel on an attack on Iran? That would be too much for China. It would not accept this very easily. As any nation might wonder, what's next? First Iraq, the Afghanistan now Iran (Among many other smaller nations)

Something very distrubing seems to be going on.

The School of Authentic Journalism

The School of Authentic Journalism is actually the School of the America's for unwitting naive journalists who are seduced into providing information about the activities of events worldwide to Peter Ackerman, Freedom House and a host of right wing organizations and individuals with whom Ackerman is closely asssociated.

The School of Authentic Journalism is supported by Matching Grants from Peter Ackerman’s International Center for Non-Violent “Conflict”. Jack Duvall who will be teaching “students” at the School is a member of the ICNC.

Peter Ackerman is a close associate of Neo-Con Michael Ledeen. They write articles together.

Peter Ackerman is a promoter of "freedom" in the Ukraine and the Orange Revolution. The Orange Revolution was reversed this week.

Ackerman's support in 2004 for Conflict in the Ukraine based on the idea that the 2004 elections were fraudulent helped result in the installation of a capitalist, free market president Viktor Yushchenko. This week voters voted again for Viktor Yanukovych who Peter Ackerman seems to believe stole the election the first time. Did he steal the election the first time?

Jack Duvall who hob-nobs with the likes of CIA directors, neo cons and other people of the far right is a teacher there at the school, promoting and teaching the value of Conflict.

Duvall, who along with Peter Ackerman who has supported the training of Anti Chavez Venezuelans in the “art” of “Non-Violent Conflict” will be teaching young and old journalists on how to create CONFLICT in nations that Freedom House, Narco News and the ICNC feels need more freedom. Nations like the Ukraine. Nations that more often than not have an alliance with perceived antagonists of the United States. Nations like Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.

Iran recently held elections, which the ICNC claims were fraudulent. They claimed the elections in the Ukraine were fraudulent too in 2004 and supported street protests demanding they be nullified. They succeeded. This week the result of their efforts was reversed.

This from the Financial Times of London:

Mr. Ackerman, who is very wealthy from an earlier career as a financier, says he does not accept government money. Questioned by the FT, Freedom House confirmed it had received funding from the State Department for activities in Iran. It declined to give details but said it was not involved in Mr Ackerman’s work in Dubai.
Freedom House also disclosed that it received $100,000 from Mr Ackerman last year and a further $100,000 from his organization.
In a research study, with Mr Ackerman acting as chief adviser, Freedom House sets out its conclusions: “Far more often than is generally understood, the change agent is broad-based, non-violent civic resistance – which employs tactics such as boycotts, mass protests, blockades, strikes and civil disobedience to de-legitimate authoritarian rulers and erode their sources of support, including the loyalty of their armed defenders.”

One typical maneuver of these organizations whether they be NGO’s or “think tanks” is that are now used by the Central Intelligence Agency as fronts and they claim that whenever an election in a foreign country results in a socialist or anti capitalist victor, that the election was fraudulent. They then help organize and support mass protests by the losing minority groups who supported the losing candidate.

So the School of Authentic Journalism is filled with students who are unaware of the associations of it's funders and their intent. Students at The School of Authentic Journalism attend on a scholarship funded by Peter Ackerman. Students like Ansel Herz who writes critically at times about U.S. involvement but in the last entry on his blog states that the Haitian people are putting their hopes in the U.S. military. The U.S. military is receiving 33% of all aid sent to Haiti. So it’s not the taxpayers who are footing the bill, it’s the donors for the presence of some 10,000 troops. And Ansel Herz supports U.S. troops in Haiti by stating that Haitians like the presence of U.S troops, they can trust no one else.

www.mediahacker.org

Students are taught the value of supporting U.S. troops in Haiti and revolutions in nations outside the U.S. They are encouraged to offer support to groups within these nations who oppose their leaders whether democratically elected (as in Iran, Venezuela and the Ukraine) or not.

From an interview with award winning author and journalist Eva Golinger www.greenleft.org.au/2007/716/37169

On top of that, some of the same groups or individuals have participated since 2004 in training sessions with other US entities such as the Albert Einstein Institute and the International Centre on Non-Violent Conflict. These are the entities that were responsible for helping to promote, fund and advise the “coloured” revolutions in Eastern Europe [in the] Ukraine, Serbia, Yugoslavia, Georgia. They failed in Belarus and they began working here (Venezuela) in April 2003, first with traditional opposition leaders and then, as in those movements in Eastern Europe, they used young people — students.,

There are articles critical of U.S policy in Venezuela and somewhat supportive of Hugo Chavez in Narco News. But one has to ask why is The School of Authentic Journalism being funded in part by the ICNC which according to Eva Golinger, supports opposition to Chavez.

The answer is that The School of Authentic Journalism is not quite "authentic".

Narco News for example had little to no criticism of Barak Obama position on Honduras. And Narco News had no understanding of how events would play out after the overthrow.

Narco News purports to report on the “drug war in the America’s” but really doesn’t touch on the subject of the various cartels and the headlines that are made in Mexico and Columbia.

Almost all the headlines of the most recent Narco News website are about it’s Peter Ackerman funded school.

If you are looking for information on events in the Americas produced from the School of Authentic Journalism, you are most likely going to find a website and Journalists who are funded and trained by a potpourri of teachers, some of whom like Jack Duvall are believed to be working for intelligence agencies of the United States.

Source watch makes the following claim regarding Jack Duvall, instructor at the School for Authentic Journalism

“Jack DuVall is the president of International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC), an organization that has produced what can only be termed propaganda films shown on PBS and on university campuses around the US. Note that ICNC is also a project of Peter Ackerman, a right-wing operator. DuVall and James Woolsey, the former head of the CIA, founded the The Arlington Institute.”