We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

A revealing exposé of the US assets leading the Syrian opposition

Click here to access article by Chris Marsden from World Socialist Web Site. 

It is laudable whenever a prominent liberal media site offers accurate information to counter the lies of mainstream news reporting. Marsden recognizes the Guardian piece by Charlie Skelton as such an example. Exposés such as Skelton's rarely make it through the filters of editorial rooms of major media; but, occasionally they do. It's interesting to note that a major editor of The Guardian followed this piece the next day with a denunciation.
It is this that accounts for the scathing denunciation of Skelton in the next day’s edition of the Guardian by diplomatic editor Julian Borger
“US manipulation of news from Syria is a red herring,” the headline declares, “The big picture is clear.”
Accusing Skelton of “innuendo,” a heavy use of quotation marks to denote skepticism, “banal prose” and other literary crimes, Borger defends the various intelligence assets identified by Skelton as “people who have devoted a substantial share of their working life studying Syrian society and politics.”