The Iron Curtain -

     Was reading a good book today by Noam Chomsky - "Necessary illusions: thought control in democratic societies" - a book that brings to light the nature of how we are lied to by our media.. even in a Democratic society.   I'm sure you are already aware of this fact...but this particular passage about the military action in Nicaragua back during the Reagan era was particularly interesting and I thought I would break it down in easy to digest pieces.  This is just going to be the bit about how the United Nations operates and how most of the things that happen in this agency are not reported to the U.S. faithfully.

     I will save you the larger background narrative - I would like only to focus on the media and the nature of the U.N..  

     In 1986 there was a pending World Court decision, the decision was to condemn the United States support of the Contras and illegal economic warfare and to order us to desist from our violations of international law and valid treaties, as well as to pay reparations.

     It is pointed out that of the 171 news articles dealing with Nicaragua that were released prior to the World Court decision.. it was not mentioned once.  After the decision it was reported but dismissed as a minor annoyance, the contents of the decision were suppressed and falsified and the World Court themselves were portrayed as the criminal.. not the U.S..

Nicaragua seeking peace brought the matter to the U.N. Security council.

    ~ The U.S. Vetoed a resolution calling for all nations to observe international law- with a vote of 11 to 1 (The U.S.) and 3 abstentions.  
    ~ Nicaragua then turned to the General Assembly which passed a resolution 94 to 3 calling for compliance to the World Court decision.  The 3 voting against were the United States, Israel and El Salvador (two U.S. client states)  This was all virtually unreported by our media.. The Times instead on that day chose to report on high U.N. salaries.  
    ~ A year later the General Assembly called on the U.S. again to abide by the World Court decision.  The vote this time was 95 to 2 with only the U.S. and Israel voting against. (also unreported in U.S.)
    ~ During the same U.N. session a resolution opposing the buildup of weapons in outer space (Reagan's Star Wars initiative) was voted on - the results were 154 to 1... obviously with only the United States against.
    ~ Yet another vote that day - a resolution banning the further development of weapons of mass destruction was voted 135 to 1.
    ~ A comprehensive test ban treaty was voted on - This time France joined with the U.S. voting against - resulting in a vote of 143 to 2.
    ~ Another resolution - banning nuclear test explosions - passed 137 to 3 with the United States, France and Britain being against.  
    ~ A resolution by the U.N was voted on two days later that was reported by the New York Times.  The resolution "Reaffirmed the United Nations strong condemnation of international terrorism", what the Times did not report, however, was that the United States abstained from the vote.  The headline read "Syria isolated at U.N., Drops Terrorism Plan".
    ~ 5 days later - a resolution condemning "Terrorism Wherever and Whoever Committed" was voted on.. the vote was 153 to 2 with the United States and Israel opposed. This was also unreported.

This to me illustrates the point quite well and people in our country are quite unaware of these facts... as they would be considering no U.S. media reported them, we are assuredly behind the Iron Curtain.  The media willingly projects the ideological stance supported by the government, even when what they are supporting is U.S. terrorism.