AP uses Fed propaganda to bias future jury in so-called JFK bomb plot case
AP helps Bush Administration's foreign policy rhetoric against Iran

PETER'S NEW YORK, August 7, 2007---We all know (at least those of us who read PETER'S NEW YORK) that the so-called plot to bomb a fuel pipeline supplying the JFK airport and supposedly uncovered by the Feds earlier this year, was merely a STING operation, and that there was never any real plot except the one invented by the FEDS. They used entrapment to get others involved, and then accused those poor suckers of concocting a plot. (Read more)

Now, Associated Press, the Bush administration's propaganda arm that poses as a news agency, reports that a judge ordered three fellows extradited from Trinidad to the United States to face charges related to the phony bomb plot. A fourth is in custody in New York. What is interesting is that the government made AP privy to a "confidential" report that says the three were going to seek help from Iran to bomb the fuel pipeline.

The purpose of this information is merely to throw another accusation at Iran, very likely in an effort to build up charges against that country in advance of an invasion or other belligerent action by the Bush Administration. Here's an example of how domestic court cases are interconnected with foreign policy. Remember, as a sting operation, the government virtually invents and guides the entire unfolding of the plot.

Unquestioningly, the AP reporter runs with this Iranian connection like a little dog, happy to be thrown a bone and scampering about in playful fashion. Perhaps the reporter thought the bone was a scoop. I mean, that's how he earns his bread and butter. But in actuality he was merely being used as a pawn of the Bush Administration to put out more inflammatory rhetoric against Iran.

It is infuriating that the Administration would plant this kind of information, labeling it confidential, and equally so, that AP would not unmask it as the shill it is. Two infuriations in one. Let's go to the article.

Here's the lead written by "Champion of the Free Press" Andrew O. Selksy of AP:

"PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - A judge Monday ordered three men extradited to the U.S. to face charges in an alleged plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and a confidential U.S. document said they planned to seek help from Iran."

It cant' be very confidential if this reporter got details of this report, and particularly if it is being released to a so-called news agency that will spread its version to newspapers around the world in seconds. These newspapers often don't even bother to touch the AP story, just running it "as is."

 So what's with the "confidential"?

Here's some more of Selsky's work:

"Taped conversations between the alleged conspirators show they planned to seek Tehran's help in a strike intended to dwarf the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to a 28-page document signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall C. Miller and delivered to lawyers here."

Folks, it will be very hard to "dwarf" September 11. Lawyers? What lawyers? Help us out, Andrew. I assume that the report was intended for the judge making the decision on the extradition. He needs to see whether or not there is a real reason for the three gentlemen in question to be extradited, and if these charges warrant extradition.

Andrew now quotes an alleged passage from a transcript of a tape of one of the suspects:

"'We can try to send someone to Iran to get the movement, the revolutionary movement, and they can discuss that plan there,' Trinidadian suspect Kareem Ibrahim, an Islamic cleric, was quoted as saying in the confidential report, which was shown to The Associated Press."

Hey, nice doggy bone, Selsky. Now scamper about in your glory.

A confidential report! O Boy! So the administration tries to link this phony plot with Iran. But there's another purpose for this revelation. As I have said before, prosecutors are looking for a conviction, and try to position public opinion so that it is favorably disposed toward that result. Prosecutors use the media to accomplish this goal. By putting this material in their lead and in the first few paragraphs, AP plays into the hands of prosecutors, or is actively cooperating with them, perhaps out of fear that the government will stop handing them fake phony "confidential" reports for their stories.

I guess they are too lazy to find real scoops.This inevitably happens because reporters are not rewarded for real journalism by their editors and publishers. No, on the contrary, they are penalized. That's why AP turns out this kind of article. It starts with a bad editor, and a complicit lackey reporter.

Often, the editors completely change around the story of a reporter, so one must exercise caution before accusing Selsky. But then again, reporters usually have the right to challenge editors if their material is changed in a way they don't like, or they may opt to have their byline taken off the story. Certainly Selsky did not exercise the second option, as his  byline clearly appears in online versions.

Remember how New York Times reporter, whatever her name was, worked with the Administration to create articles in favor of the invasion and occupation of Iraq that were published in the New York Times? And do you remember how the United States paid media pundits to write articles favorable to the war effort? The media constantly allows itself to be used. It is often a paid hand of government abuse.

So here we have the double whammy -- one against Iran and another against the fair trial of individuals who are mostly likely not guilty of anything other than  participating in a government-invented plot, resulting it the expenditure of taxpayer money and  tying up justice department resources that could be better applied elsewhere than just bolstering the fake case to help the Administration in its nefarious and illegal international schemes.

Now it is true, and a very fortunate development, that Selsky actually gives us some information on the opinion of the attorneys for those accused of this bogus crime.

Richard Clarke-Wills, attorney for  Abdel Nur, one of the accused, "insisted that a confidential U.S. government informant entrapped the men into plotting to attack the New York airport," according to Selsky's AP report. Selsky writes further:

"'If it were not for the intervention of this source you would not have these three men before the courts,' Clarke-Wills said before the ruling. 'They had no terrorist aspirations or ideals ... I have no doubt whatsoever this is a clear case of entrapment.'"

A report in the on line version of the New York Times indicated that Attorney Rajiv Persad, who represents Ibrahim and Kadir, will fight against extradition pf his clients by appealing the judge's decision.

We hope Clarke-Wills is successful in getting justice for his client, and this is something PETER'S NEW YORK will work toward and support. This is why we are AMERICAN. We take pride in seeing justice done, and the truth being revealed by a free press and by an aware public. Citizens of democracy are generally antagonistic to their governments, which, after descending into a cesspool of corruption like the current administration, often waste public funds in pursuing unstated and surreptitious policy goals

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We would like to add that Andrew's story, in spite of its faults, represents a MARKED improvement in AP reporting, since its general custom is to ignore statements from the accused or their attorneys. It still, however, falls below an acceptable standard of journalism in many respects and into the murky polluted waters of the government shill-masters.

The best way to change Associated Press's quality of reporting is to complain to your local newspaper when they run the AP story. Tell the paper the facts of the case, and point out the AP bias. Ask your local paper if it is worth the money they pay AP to run such worthless government propaganda. This will have an effect, because some editors, who think they are still running a newspaper, will get the point and either alter AP stories, use them with greater discretion, or turn to other news services for their news reports. Here, for example, is a letter that I sent to a newspaper: Letter to The Philippine Star

Since the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, there have been virtually no cases for terrorist acts other than those created by the Justice Department in sting operations. Read this!

To see AP's original story, go to http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070806/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/trinidad_us_terror_plot

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