Sarah Whalen, Arab News

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana, 5 June 2004 — News reports suggest US troops will deploy to Saudi Arabia to “save” Saudi oil fields from “Al-Qaeda” attacks. And because “Al-Qaeda” militants killed an American there last Saturday.

Others died, too. Arabs, Indians, Italians, Filipinos, South Africans, Sri Lankans, Swedes, Egyptians, British....

But don’t forget that American. His presence in Saudi Arabia makes whatever happened there an attack on America, on democracy, on goodness, on...freedom.

And so we don’t forget. We can’t.

We have news.

America’s news is so self-obsessed that if nuclear holocaust struck the Middle East today, America’s headlines would proclaim: “Nuclear Holocaust Strikes Middle East: American Killed.”

What follows? Endless eyewitness testimony about the dead American’s last hours, final words; interviews with his family, friends, employers and past employers, high school teachers and chums and sweethearts, his church’s minister, his town’s mayor. Yellow ribbons, prayer vigils and street shrines, heads bowed in a nationwide moment of silence. Watch solemnly as the Bush administration arranges a posthumous Purple Heart and Silver Star and burial at Arlington Cemetery in a flag-draped coffin. The slain American was not a soldier, but as every other “soldier” in the military is actually a private contractor, does it really matter?

Then, one news entertainer would ask another, “Well, Debbie, was anyone else killed in that Middle East nuclear holocaust?”

And Debbie would reply, “Well, Bob, millions of Arabs also died.”

Cut to a film clip of smoldering carnage.

For two seconds.

Then come commercials and the weekend entertainment lineup.

As cinematographer Michael Moore might say, “Hey Dude, where’s my news?”

And Debbie and Bob would reply, “Hey Dude, it’s all Neocon News now.”

Neocon News differs from professional, truth-based news reporting, last seen moments after the first plane struck the World Trade Center. Real news was not 9/11’s first casualty. But real news did die, somewhere between Afghanistan and Iraq.

Neocon News produces dramatic stories that strongly influence popular opinions and emotions.

Neocon news “dramas” last for days, even years. Only after the powerful emotions such “news stories” stir become firmly entrenched in our minds, and the thoughts they create become an unchangeable part of our being, do we discover the truth.

Truth.

That rotting carcass of information nobody feels good about knowing, buried somewhere between Kabul and Baghdad.

Does Neocon news expect us to believe the US Senate did not know Princess Haifa innocently gave her money to what she thought was charity? The Saudis immediately proved the charges false, but senators publicized them nonetheless.

Are we to believe the US Army didn’t know the truth about Jessica Lynch’s injuries? Iraqi medical workers who saved Lynch’s life claim they tried repeatedly to surrender her to the US government, but were rebuffed.

Are we to believe the US Army just now, after weeks of witness interviews and study of NFL player Pat Tillman’s autopsy, concluded that Tillman was killed by “friendly fire?” Are we to believe the highly trained soldier who pulled his trigger did not instantly know that he’d killed “the famous guy?”

Are we to believe the CIA, Pentagon, and White House never knew Chalabi was tight with Iran and lied about weapons of mass destruction? Nobody knew Chalabi better, or longer, than Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz.

We can’t believe Neocon News.

If it only happened once, it would be accidental, understandable. A mistake we could accept. But this constant news invention and reinvention suggests a political conspiracy.

Conspiracy? Dare we say the word?

Yes, we dare.

Because Princess Haifa never funded terrorists. She gave money to a woman who claimed to be desperately ill and needed to feed her children.

Because Lynch did not fight off her “captors.” Nor did she brave enemy fire and fire her weapon to defend her unit, but sustained her injuries by automobile accident, and was so incompetent that her gun “fell apart,” likely because she’d never cleaned or fired it.

Because Tillman did not die from an enemy’s bullet defending his comrades under enemy fire, but was killed by a fellow American soldier.

Because Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl was killed not because he was American, but because he was an Israeli suspected of being a Mossad spy using his journalism credentials as a cover in Pakistan.

Because Chaplain James Yee did not steal classified documents or plan an Al-Qaeda outbreak from Guantanamo Prison.

Because Attorney Brandon Mayfield did not plant Madrid train bombs.

Because there were no Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, no portable rolling biological weapons labs disguised as trucks.

Because Abu Ghraib records sat on Pentagon desks for months before anything was done.

Because Chalabi is now an Iranian spy? This “news” is so self-serving to neocon interests that the jury must remain sequestered for now.

What will Neocon News tell us next?

That people in the Gulf can’t defend their own oil fields, people, democracy, or freedom, and so Americans had better mobilize troops to the Gulf to bring security, better jobs, better schools for girls, and secularized courts.

Just like Iraq.

And don’t forget to fight evil while you’re there.

Next report at eleven.

— Sarah Whalen is an expert in Islamic law and taught law at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana.