{"id":17755,"date":"2011-01-13T06:54:40","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T06:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=17755"},"modified":"2021-03-26T18:34:59","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T18:34:59","slug":"the-guardians-political-censorship-of-wikileaks-cables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=17755","title":{"rendered":"The Guardians Political Censorship of Wikileaks Cables"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Israel Shamir \u2013 January 11, 2011<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Although the net tightens around Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, the contents of the US embassy cables have been doled out to us in spoonfuls. Worse, The Guardian<\/em> edits and distorts the cables in order to protect their readers from unflattering remarks about how their corporations behave overseas. This is not a conjecture but a fact: The Guardian<\/em> has deliberately excised portions of published cables to hide evidence of corruption.<\/span><\/p>\n

A year ago, on the 25th of January, 2010, the US Embassy in Astana, Kazakhstan sent out the secret cable ASTANA 000072, entitled KAZAKHSTAN: MONEY AND POWER<\/em>. The cable chronicled the US Ambassador\u2019s private dinner with a senior Kazakh government official named Maksat Idenov. At the time, Idenov headed the Kazakh state oil and gas company and represented the state in its dealings with foreign oil companies, including British Gas and ENI. A redacted version of the cable has been <\/span>published<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>, and so we have been given the rare privilege of viewing The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s editing process in action. It looks like nothing so much as political self-censorship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is the relevant portion of the Astana cable; the words removed by The Guardian<\/em> are printed in bold<\/strong>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 market economy means capitalism, which means big money, which means large bribes for the best connected.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It does seem like someone at The Guardian<\/em> wants to save us from becoming disillusioned about free markets. The Guardian<\/em> is not shy about revealing to their readers that capitalism means \u201cbig money\u201d, but a discussion of what big money can do to a foreign government is strictly verboten<\/em>. Idenov is not some discontented outsider; he is a power player in the heart of the machine. He knows of which he speaks. The readers of The Guardian<\/em> may never get to hear it, but the \u201cbig money\u201d of capitalism does in reality result in \u201clarge bribes for the best connected\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just before dinner, Idenov was overheard \u201cbarking into his cell phone\u201d at British Gas (BG) Country Director Mark Rawlings \u201cwho is \u2018still playing games with Mercator’s James Giffin,\u2019 the notorious AmCit fixer indicted for large-scale bribery on oil deals in the 1990s, whose case drags on in the Southern District Court of New York. <\/strong>Idenov tells him: \u2018Mark, stop being an idiot! Stop tempting fate! Stop communicating with an indicted criminal!\u2019 \u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Again, the bold<\/strong> and very relevant information of the Astana cable has been removed from publication so that British taxpayers might not learn that the regional director of a prominent British company insists on dealing with an indicted grafter. The readers of The Guardian<\/em> may never know that the case of American citizen (\u201cAmCit\u201d) James Giffen (spelled incorrectly in the cable) was dismissed by US District Judge because the bribes he gave to the Kazakh officials were authorized by the CIA<\/strong>. The judge publicly <\/span>lauded<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> the \u201cnotorious fixer\u201d as a Cold War warrior who helped the Jewish cause (always an exonerating feature within the US justice system) and stated for the record that \u201chis business dealings were CIA-authorized operations\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Giffen was a significant source of information for the U.S. government and a conduit for secret communications to the Soviet Union and its leadership during the Cold War,\u201d the judge said. In Kazakhstan, Giffen was advancing US interests, including corporate interests. \u201cHe acted as a conduit for communications on issues vital to America\u2019s national interest in the region,\u201d the judge said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOil industry middleman James H. Giffen, once <\/span>accused <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>of funneling $84 million in bribes to the president of Kazakhstan and other officials\u201d walked away a free and rich man. Perhaps our man Rawlings knew a little more about Giffen\u2019s CIA connections than did the Ambassador and Mr. Idenov.<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/em> Guardian<\/em>\u2019s final cut takes the proverbial cake. Idenov goes on to say that both BG and Italy’s ENI are corrupt<\/strong>, and that <\/strong>bribe-hungry Kazakh\u00a0officials are itching to work with them. This portion of the cable was excised.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only portion of the cable that The Guardian<\/em> felt worthy of highlight was that the currently favoured presidential son-in-law was \u201con the Forbes 500 list of billionaires (as is his wife separately)\u201d. Furthermore, the redacted cable was dropped onto the pages of The Guardian<\/em> without any background information or further comment. Kazakhstan is not next-door, and Guardian<\/em> readers deserve better. Here is what they left out of the story: Idenov left the state\u2019s service in May 2010 and in July he <\/span>re-emerged<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> as \u2013surprise, surprise – the Senior Vice President for Strategic Planning of ENI. Yes, none other than that selfsame \u201ccorrupt\u201d ENI he dealt with from his ministerial desk.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0The Astana cable is a microcosm of the robbery of the ex-Soviet space by Western corporations. From it we learn that bribes are authorized by the CIA and that the grafters are exonerated by the US courts. We learn that Harvard-trained lawyers like Mr. Idenov take full advantage of the revolving door between positions of state and the Western corporations that rob it. In short, we learn that \u201ccapitalism means large bribes for the best connected.\u201d<\/strong> The readers of The Guardian,<\/em> of course, missed out on all this.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Idenov concludes his talk with the rationalizations of his fellow sell-outs: \u201cAlmost everyone at the top is confused by the corrupt excesses of capitalism. \u2018If Goldman Sachs executives can make $50 million a year and then run America’s economy in Washington, what’s so different about what we do?\u2019 they ask.\u201d Indeed, probably nothing. If the American people are helpless before the rapacity of Goldman Sachs executives, how can we expect the Kazakh people to defend themselves from transnational corporations assisted by the CIA? The full, unedited cable makes it too clear that their only choice is which<\/em> bribe to take.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the agreement between Wikileaks and The<\/em> Guardian<\/em> permits the newspaper to block out the names of innocent people who might suffer upon disclosure, the Astana cable was clearly redacted for political reasons, in order to protect the image of the kind of predatory capitalism they preach in the East.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps we might review other Guardian<\/em> news stories for this kind of heavy-handed doctoring of newly available documents. Consider the secret cable TASHKENT 000902, sent May 5\u00adth, 2005. <\/span>Here<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> is The Guardian<\/em>\u2019s presentation of the cable. It is censored almost completely; only two irrelevant sentences survived the self-serving butchery of Guardian<\/em> editors. With editors like these, the sword hanging over Private Manning and the noose around the neck of Julian Assange become superfluous.<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>original Tashkent cable<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> describes the dealings of Uzbekistani \u201ccrime boss\u201d and \u201ctop mobster\u201d Salim Abduvaliyev (more frequent spelling: Abduvaliev) who, according to the American embassy, controls government jobs and awards government contracts through his connection with Gulnara, the \u201cFirst Daughter of President Karimov\u201d. The primary message-carrier between the arch-criminal and Gulnara is a British citizen of Iranian origin. Why did The Guardian<\/em> choose to excise the vast majority of the cable? To protect the British go-between? To protect the connection with Chernoy, a prominent Israeli businessman? Is there an Uzbekistani criminal pulling the strings at The Guardian<\/em>?<\/span><\/p>\n

Another Secret cable, <\/span>TASHKENT 000465<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>, describes the mobster\u2019s family wedding. It is not all that different from the famous description of the Dagestan wedding in <\/span>another cable<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>, MOSCOW 009533, yet The Guardian<\/em> decided not to publish this one at all. Isn\u2019t it considerate of The Guardian<\/em> to protect the people of Uzbekistan from learning about the ties of corruption between the Karimov family and leading gangsters? Could it be explained by drift of Karimov\u2019s regime away from Moscow and into close cooperation with the Americans as it is indicated in the yet unpublished cable MOSCOW 000337? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This sort of political self-censorship explains why The Guardian<\/em> chose to attack Israel Shamir, an independent journalist working with Wikileaks. In the pages of The Guardian<\/em>, Nick Cohen <\/span>claimed<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> that Israel Shamir “may have handed confidential information to Lukashenko”, as if Shamir were some sort of secret agent with a bullet-proof briefcase. Shamir also \u201cmay have\u201d flown to the moon and back, for that matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am still amazed by the sheer naivet\u00e9 of this baseless claim. Hasn\u2019t Nick Cohen heard of email? Even The Guardian<\/em> publishes confidential information (if not the whole story). Wikileaks provides confidential information to everybody without discrimination and without the need of secret agents. All the secret Belarus-related US embassy cables are about to be published on the biggest independent Belarusian <\/span>site<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> for everybody to see, including both Lukashenko and Cohen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nick Cohen starts from where his predecessor, \u201c<\/span>resident moron<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a>\u201d Andrew Brown ended. Brown, in his Guardian <\/span>attack<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/a> on Shamir, said that his connection to the Wikileaks \u201chas worrying implications for the security of anyone named in the cables. This is not because the cables themselves are inaccurate, but because they are not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Surprisingly, Brown is right, despite his clumsy triple negation. The people named in the cables \u2013 usually veterans of the revolving door between transnational corporations and government service \u2013 rest at ease knowing that the embedded mainstream media like The Guardian<\/em> and The New York Times<\/em> will sever all connection between their actions and their responsibilities. The very existence of independent journalists and free, independent, web-based media \u201chas worrying implications for their security\u201d. Let them worry. While errand-boys have no need to fear, the rich and powerful may trust in us to hold them accountable for their misdeeds. Does The Guardian<\/em> even understand why they have been given these secret and confidential cables? Wikileaks is trying to shed a little light upon the dark and dirty underworld of international intrigue, and The Guardian<\/em> is doing everything it can to blot it out again. The battle for truth is just beginning.<\/span><\/p>\n

Edited by Paul Bennett<\/strong><\/p>\n

Read on the topic: Shamir\u2019s response to Andrew Brown of the Guardian<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is not a conjecture but a fact, writes Israel Shamir, The Guardian edits and distorts the cables! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,42,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17755"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230290,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17755\/revisions\/230290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}