Edward Bernays has been cited as the inventor of the consumerist culture that was
designed primarily to target people's self-image (or lack thereof) in order to turn a want into a need. This was
initially envisioned for products such as cigarettes, for example. However, Bernays also noted in his 1928 book,
Propaganda, that propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government. This can be seen most clearly in the
modern police state and the growing citizen snitch culture, wrapped up in the pseudo-patriotic War on Terror. The
increasing consolidation of media has enabled the entire corporate structure to merge with government, which now
utilizes the concept of propaganda placement. Media; print, movies, television, and cable news can now work
seamlessly to integrate an overall message which seems to have the ring of truth because it comes from so many
sources, simultaneously. When one becomes attuned to identifying the main message, one will see this imprinting
everywhere.
Alan Watt
**Please Give Page Time To Load**
ENTICING YOUTH INTO SERVICE FOR THE
BANKERS
As the U.S. economy remains on a consistent downward
spiral, one thing the U.S. Government is never shy to invest endless cash in is the Pentagon. Which - on its end --
is pumping millions of dollars into luring in the young population of America into enrolling into the military.
RT's Anastasia Churkina looks at some of those mesmerizing techniques, and what kind of effect they have had on
those fit to serve.
While it may rate up there with the best in gaming, America's Army is not an exercise in
largesse towards the gaming community. It's essentially a propaganda tool funded to the tune of more than $US10
million ($A11.1 million) of US taxpayers' money designed to attract young people to military life.
The US Army spends an estimated $US1.5 million annually to support the game, a drop in the $US583 million
ocean of the army's recruitment advertising budget last year. But the modest expense is reaping big dividends with
28 per cent of players clicking through to the US Army's recruitment site and about 40 per cent of new US Army
recruits in 2005 having played the game before signing up.
Shoot to thrill
Fran Molloy looks at the disturbing link between gaming and
the military in its efforts to lure Generation Y.
Fran Molloy
November 22, 2007
Various commentators have accused Generation Y, those
born after 1981, of being disrespectful, constantly distracted, unable to live without a mobile phone,
contemptuous of authority, cynical and precocious. A more unlikely batch of soldiers just couldn't be
imagined.
But this much-maligned generation is precisely the target that the US and Australian defence forces are
homing in on in their efforts to keep the "war on terror" well manned. And their key recruitment strategy? The
humble video game.
More than 3800 US soldiers have been killed in action since the war in Iraq began more than five years ago.
And as the conflict drags on with no end in sight, the US military is running desperately short of the 80,000
new recruits it needs each year.
As the horrific reality of the bloody conflict deters potential recruits back home, it seems that the US
Army is pinning its hopes on a video game to solve one of George Bush's biggest headaches.
America's Army (www.americasarmy.com) is a key component of a
drive by US forces to sell military careers to an increasingly cynical young demographic who ignore billboards
and TV advertisements and who, by being plugged into the internet, fly firmly under the radar of traditional
marketing.
Military recruitment has huge support from the US Government.
Controversial legislation passed in 2001 compels high schools to release contact numbers of graduating
students to recruiters.
But with an estimated 73 per cent of US teenagers surfing the web at least weekly, nowhere is youth more
readily accessible than in the gaming space. And with more than 8.6 million users registering to play since
2002, America's Army is successfully hitting its mark.
The game is a realistic and immersive tactical first-person shooter, a free download with online multiplayer
capabilities and extensive input from some of the world's top game developers.
Reviewers have raved about the high production values, with sound effects and visual detail among the best
in its genre.
The game requires a relatively significant commitment of time.
Experienced gamers estimate that it takes at least two hours to go through the training modules before you
can log on to play the game.
The realism of the game is no surprise given its source.
Earlier versions were based on the experiences of
soldiers in the Gulf War and later versions incorporate more recent combat data and experiences.
And the game is having an impact: America's Army has consistently been rated by GameSpy (http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/) in the global top 20 most popular online games with thousands of
players logged on around the clock.
In the online gaming world dominated by products such as Quake and Half-Life, America's Army rates as a
strong contender with 24 updates to the PC version released. There are also Xbox, mobile phone and coin-arcade
versions of the game now available.
While it may rate up there with the best in gaming, America's Army is not an exercise in largesse towards
the gaming community. It's essentially a propaganda tool funded to the tune of more than $US10 million ($A11.1
million) of US taxpayers' money designed to attract young people to military life.
The US Army spends an estimated $US1.5 million annually to support the game, a drop in the $US583 million
ocean of the army's recruitment advertising budget last year. But the modest expense is reaping big dividends
with 28 per cent of players clicking through to the US Army's recruitment site and about 40 per cent of new US
Army recruits in 2005 having played the game before signing up.
Authors Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby, whose 2005 book Smartbomb (www.smartbomb.us) traces the origins of the video game industry, say that they
were surprised by how much the military was investing in entertainment.
And unlike the movie industry, Ruby adds, most people in the video game industry welcomed the involvement of
the military. Smartbomb describes game developers wearing CIA-branded jackets with pride while military
officers feature as headline speakers at the prestigious E3 electronics industry expo held in Las Vegas each
year.
The line between military propaganda and high-tech entertainment has always been lightly drawn. War gaming
and simulation are now part of the curriculum of every US military training unit and the US Army War College in
Pennsylvania has been investigating video games since they bought a commercial game called Mech War in the late
1970s.
Pong, a table tennis simulation game widely credited as the first viable home video game, was developed in
1972 by an engineer who worked as a US defence contractor. In 1975 it became Atari's first product.
Military game experts are heavy hitters at the Serious
Games Summit conference each year where developers and industry experts discuss the application of game
development and education.
From recruitment to training and simulation to active combat, computer gaming has a more sinister role in
military applications than mere entertainment.
Many observers regard the military's involvement in gaming as insidious, even dangerous. Smart Bomb authors
Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby argue that the military's influence in gaming and the reverence in which they
are held by game developers will have serious consequences, contributing to a growing militarisation of
society.
On his website (www.tomdispatch.com), Tom Engelhardt, a US author
and academic at the University of California, in Berkeley, quotes a decorated US Army sergeant, Kevin
Benderman, who was jailed after refusing a second mission to fight in Iraq.
"I was in charge of a group of soldiers that were in their late teens through their early 20s and I had to
constantly tell them to keep their heads down because they thought that the war was like the video games that
they played back at the barracks," Benderman is quoted as saying.
"War is not like that at all and until you have the misfortune to engage in it for yourself you cannot begin
to understand how insane it all is. There are no restart buttons on reality . . . there is no honour in killing
as many as you can as quickly as you can."
Australian artist and filmmaker George Gittoes agrees. His acclaimed 2004 documentary, Soundtrack to War,
(www.soundtracktowar.com.au) followed US soldiers in Iraq and
looked at the music they used to relax and the music they used in combat.
The documentary, made with his wife Gabrielle Dalton, was shown across the US on free-to-air music channel
VH1 and scenes from the film featured in Michael Moore's 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.
One soldier interviewed in Soundtrack to War says: "We pretty well shot everything that moved when we came
to Baghdad." Gittoes says that many soldiers there were later regretful.
The film shows tanks fitted with high-end sound systems. When soldiers are heading out to battle, Gittoes
says many play heavy metal soundtracks that help psyche them into a state where they can shoot without emotion
- soundtracks that are often duplicated in immersive shooter games.
"This is a digital war on a personal level, not just
on a laser-guided bomb level," Gittoes says.
The artist is no stranger to war. For decades Gittoes has documented scenes and people in combat zones
around the world from Nicaragua and Cambodia to Rawanda and East Timor.
Although he has been appointed by the Australian Army to cover various peacekeeping operations and was
embedded with a US military unit in Iraq in 2003, Gittoes has never made the list of official war artists
commissioned by the Australian Government since World War I (www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/war_artists/artists.htm),
possibly due to his critical approach to war.
The artist, whose work encompasses drawing and painting as well as photography and film, says that while
soldiers may have been trained with simulators to operate planes, tanks and weapons, the real thing is very
different.
"Most of them find that war is extremely different to the game," he says. "It began in 1993 in Somalia when
the soldiers were wearing night-vision goggles so they weren't seeing their enemies through their own eyes.
They were seeing them through the eyes of Terminator.
"They all said it's like a video game, but the consequences are far more serious and that's what they find
so hard to deal with."
Gittoes went to Somalia in 1993 as an unpaid artist/observer with the Australian Army's peacekeeping force,
which allowed him access to restricted regions but did not impose restraints on his art.
He recounts a story told by a US soldier about his time in Iraq when he was ordered to give a warning shot
to someone approaching him. "He put a bullet in the guy's head because he was absolutely, totally reflexed into
hitting the target from playing too many video games."
While video game culture has its fans, most of the "computer nerds" in Iraq are more likely to be in a
supply company, Gittoes says. "While some people play games to unwind, it's often the last thing soldiers want
to unwind doing."
Gittoes says video games cannot equip people for the reality of war. "There's a whole generation of young
people who have spent their lives indoor playing games and they're actually not good at physical stuff and war
is physical. War is putting a new tread on a tank when it comes off and carting loads of shells into a tank and
dealing with unbearable heat," he says.
Gittoes says he can look at a group of soldiers and pick the ones who are into games. "Gaming has not
obsessed every soldier. It just works on certain types," he says.
US artist and anti-war activist Joseph DeLappe
(www.delappe.net) works with sculpture, interactive installation and
digital media as well as being an associate professor of art at the University of Nevada.
DeLappe is engaged in his own mission on America's Army. He regularly logs into the game under the name of
"Dead-in-Iraq", drops his virtual weapon and waits to be killed.
Once he is "dead", DeLappe types in the name, age, service branch and date of death of every US soldier
killed in Iraq since the conflict began - that's more than 3800 names.
DeLappe says that although other players often abuse him, the impact has been profound and has generated
extensive dialogue on blogs and discussion spaces associated with the game.
"As an act of online remembrance and civil disobedience, the work truly raises the general ire of those
participating in this game environment," he says.
Closer to home, late last month the Australian Defence Force launched the latest addition to its online
gaming site called Advanced Urban Ops, making a total of seven free online games now available (www.games.defencejobs.gov.au)
Advanced Urban Ops puts a player in charge of six soldiers, allowing them to customise their equipment from
a huge array of weapons to do battle in an urban environment.
Other games include Extreme Battleships, Supreme Air Combat and Operation Tiger, all of which allow players
to compete for a listing on the Top 10 online score chart.
Advanced Urban Ops is relatively low-budget, developed for about $100,000 by Melbourne-based interactive ad
agency Visual Jazz, which has been developing the ADF recruitment site for the past five years.
There's little similarity to America's Army, a behemoth that demands a long-term commitment from players who
undergo a series of training sessions before playing.
"This is really designed to appeal to the casual gamer. It's a 15-minute experience online rather than a big
time commitment," says Konrad Spilva, general manager of Visual Jazz.
The ADF games are "advergames" - short, arcade-style games specifically built to promote products. But in
this case, the product is signing away three to seven years - or more - of your life. Despite their purpose,
the advergames are still very popular. In the first fortnight after Advanced Urban Ops was launched, there were
35,000 new game players.
Mr Spilva says that Visual Jazz has created similar
games for companies such as Holden and for gung-ho youth-targeting sellers keen to get their products in front
of the eyeballs of the elusive Gen Y demographic.
Stealth marketing? Maybe. Propaganda? Perhaps. But there is no doubt that military organisations, the
masters of propaganda, have joined in on a massive scale.
Yes, gaming can be addictive and many gamers joke that they would sell their soul to reach the top score on
their favourite game. But there's just one catch: if you're in the target audience of these games, the
developers don't just want your soul - they want your body too.
Last century saw the two bloodiest world wars in human history. In Australia, national conscription was
finally abolished in 1972 after our controversial involvement in the Vietnam War.
That's more than a lifetime ago for the average Australian gamer who is now 28 years old, according to the
Interactive Australia 2007 report.
Since then, armed conflict has been increasingly sanitised. We watched the 1991 Gulf War on TV and the
latest conflict in Iraq was brought to you by safely "embedded" journalists who were carefully escorted to get
the best 10-second grab of the day's activities with plenty of time to make the evening news.
Like military forces across the Western world, the ADF now faces an intractable challenge: a rapidly
dwindling pool of eager young recruits as the population ages and young people become increasingly
disinterested in giving their lives to defend their country, let alone committing to an employment contract
that extends further than a year.
Gen Y now inhabits the prime military recruitment demographic and, if you believe the hype, these are the
same Gen Y kids who are just emerging from the most coddled and fawned-over childhood in the world's
history.
But the ADF needs 8500 new recruits every year, so this is no time to be fussy. Last year, the military put
together a recruitment advisory taskforce that included Australian author, motivational speaker and Gen Y
consultant Peter Sheahan.
Sheahan has a captive clientele of large organisations that are desperate to retain staff. He tells them
they can attract Gen Y employees with excitement, fun and short-term rewards.
Sheahan quotes a Gen Y graduate and gamer working in a leading law firm who says: "I command an army in my
spare time and they want me to photocopy."
The era of video games has brought army command within the reach of millions of casual gamers letting people
experience all the power and strategy with none of the years of hard effort that real soldiers have to go
through.
While the ADF has commissioned its own online games as a recruitment tool there is nothing sinister about
them, says the force's Andrew Coffey.
"Our games are a marketing tool developed locally to attract people to our site and provide a fun experience
along the way," he says. "They are quick, they are mobile - we can run them on little game pods - and they are
specifically term-based strategy games so you are not engaging directly with other players."
The ADF has so far avoided the "serious games" intensity of America's Army with all its accompanying
controversy but as recruit numbers continue to drop, there are signs that the ADF is thinking about going down
that path.
"We are talking to the Air Force about potentially developing a flight-simulator-style combat game," Visual
Jazz's Mr Spilva says.
It remains to be seen whether gamers like "Bronco Man" and "War Pig", who have made it to the ADF's top 10
online gamers list, will ever sign up to fight a real war.
[A-MUST-SEE]
Call of Duty: Modern
Warfare - White Helmets, “Bana al-Abed” And Killing “Evil
Russians” -
South Front
Published on Jun 11, 2019
If you’re able, and if you like our content and approach, please support the project. Our work
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Editor of TomDispatch, Tom Engelhardt, interviews Nick Turse, TD contributor and
author of the new book "The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives."
A mind-boggling investigation of the allpervasive, constantly morphing presence of
the Pentagon in daily life--a real-world Matrix come alive. Here is the new, hip, high-tech
military-industrial complex--an omnipresent, hidden-in-plain-sight system of systems that
penetrates all our lives. From iPods to Starbucks to Oakley sunglasses, historian Nick Turse
explores the Pentagon's little-noticed contacts (and contracts) with the products and companies
that now form the fabric of America. Turse investigates the remarkable range of military incursions
into the civilian world: the Pentagon's collaborations with Hollywood filmmakers; its outlandish
schemes to weaponize the wild kingdom; its joint ventures with the World Wrestling Federation and
NASCAR. He shows the inventive ways the military, desperate for new recruits, now targets children
and young adults, tapping into the "culture of cool" by making "friends" on MySpace.
A striking vision of this brave new world of remote-controlled rats and super-soldiers who need no
sleep, The Complex will change our understanding of the militarization of America. We are a long
way from Eisenhower's military-industrial complex: this is the essential book for understanding its
twenty-first-century progeny.
Black Ops 2 Militainment
"Documentary" Promotion Tied To Real War Killing, Exploits Tragedy As Fun
disposable culture
Published on Aug 23, 2012
Reversals and the Drone War
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is slated to come out in November. A not-so-futuristic story about drone
warfare frames the game. In this world, the principle concern is that "the enemy" will hack into
the
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In his exhaustively researched first book concerning the extent to which the
"military industrial complex" has infiltrated the life of the average American, journalist Turse
starts off by documenting how many times supposedly innocent consumer choices support major
Pentagon contractors then covers similar ground in greater detail. Turse has up-to-date information
on a previously well-covered subject and casts a wide net, including the movie industry, video
gaming and military recruitment tactics in his analysis. Many of Turse's facts are purely economic,
but some of them are astonishing. Who knew, for example, that in 2005, the Department of Defense
spent $1.2 million on donuts in Kuwait? Or that Harvard received over $300 million in DoD funds in
2002, after being pressured, despite concerns about discrimination, to allow military recruiters
access to its law school students? Though Turse offers plenty of interesting information,
ultimately this book would have been more convincing if, instead of simply amassing and condensing
such information, he had built a stronger argument about what it all means.
“This is a deeply disturbing audit of the Pentagon’s influence on American life,
especially its subtle conscription of popular imagination and entertainment technology. If Nick
Turse is right, the ‘Matrix’ may be just around the corner.”—Mike Davis, author of Buda's Wagon: A
Brief History of the Car Bomb
“When President Eisenhower warned of the dangers to democracy posed by the
military-industrial complex, he had no idea how far it would penetrate into every aspect of our
everyday lives. In impressive detail, Nick Turse shows how the military is now tied to everything
from your morning cup of Starbucks to the video games your kids play before turning in for the
night. It's not just political anymore—it’s personal. Turse sounds the alarm bell about the
militarization of everyday life. Now it’s up to us to do something about it.”—Bill Hartung, author
of How Much Are You Making on the War Daddy?
“Nick Turse’s searing, investigative journalism reveals just how deeply embedded in
our lives the war-making system is and why we should be viscerally alarmed. He exposes how, with a
growing contingent of
corporate/entertainment/academic/media collaborators, the Pentagon has not only garrisoned the
globe, but come home to dominate the United States. For anyone interested in understanding the
crisis this country is in, The Complex is indispensable reading.”—Dahr Jamail, author of Beyond the
Green Zone
“Americans who still think they can free themselves from the clutches of
the military-industrial complex need to read
this book. For example, the gimmicks the Pentagon uses to deceive, entrap, and sign up gullible
18 to 24 year-olds are anything but voluntary. Nick Turse has produced a brilliant exposé of the
Pentagon’s pervasive influence in our lives.”—Chalmers Johnson, author of Nemesis: The Last Days
of the American Republic
The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday, Author Nick Turse On
Antiwar Radio
disposable culture
Published on Jul 26, 2012
http://antiwar.com/radio/
Nick Turse is an award-winning journalist, historian, essayist, and the associate editor of the
Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com., author of The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday
Lives, discusses how today's military-industrial complex far exceeds the one Eisenhower warned of,
the Pentagon's influence in Hollywood that often includes vetting rights on movie scripts in
exchange for access to taxpayer funded weapons of war, the early-and-often bombardment of young
people with military propaganda, why far too many businesses and workers are reliant on Pentagon
spending and the five jaw-dropping and under-reported WikiLeaks stories.
Luke 3:14
And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do
violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages.
2 John 1:
10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him God speed:
11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
Psalm 12:8
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
Militainment, Inc.
Militarism & Video Games
disposable culture
Published on Mar 17, 2011
[Extensive Notes and Links. Please click on YouTube button to access]
***BACKGROUND INFORMATION***
Propaganda Defined:
1. I nformation, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person,
group, movement, institution, nation, etc.
2. The deliberate spreading of such information, rumors, etc.
3. The particular doctrines or principles propagated by an organization or movement.
4. Roman Catholic Church .
a. A committee of cardinals, established in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, having supervision over foreign missions and
the training of priests for these missions.
b. A school (College of Propaganda) established by Pope Urban VIII for the education of priests for foreign
missions.
5. Archaic. an organization or movement for the spreading of propaganda.
You’ve heard of his uncle Sigmund, so how come you’ve never heard of him? In this classic episode
from The Corbett Report archives James dishes the dirt on Edward Bernays, Freud’s American nephew. Learn how to
break societal taboos, get the public to demand poison in the water, and prep the way for an overthrow of a foreign
government from the man who literally wrote the book on propaganda!
Propaganda's Founding Father: Edward
BernaysEXPOSED!
Propaganda's Founding Father: Edward
BernaysEXPOSED!
In Propaganda
(1928), Bernays argued that the manipulation of public opinion was a necessary part of democracy: The conscious
and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in
democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government
which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our
ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our
democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live
together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of
politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small
number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull
the wires which control the public mind.
In the 1920s, working for the American Tobacco Company, he sent a group of young
models to march in the New York City parade. He then told the press that a group of women's rights marchers would
light "Torches of Freedom". On his signal, the models lit Lucky Strike cigarettes in front of the eager
photographers. The New York Times (1 April 1929) printed: "Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of
'Freedom'". This helped to break the taboo against women smoking in public.
Bernays helped the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) and other special interest
groups to convince the American public that water fluoridation was safe and beneficial to human health. This was
achieved by using the American Dental Association in a highly successful media campaign.
Edward Bernays has been cited as the inventor of the consumerist culture that was
designed primarily to target people's self-image (or lack thereof) in order to turn a want into a need. This was
initially envisioned for products such as cigarettes, for example. However, Bernays also noted in his 1928 book,
Propaganda, that propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government. This can be seen most clearly in the
modern police state and the growing citizen snitch culture, wrapped up in the pseudo-patriotic War on Terror. The
increasing consolidation of media has enabled the entire corporate structure to merge with government, which now
utilizes the concept of propaganda placement. Media; print, movies, television, and cable news can now work
seamlessly to integrate an overall message which seems to have the ring of truth because it comes from so many
sources, simultaneously. When one becomes attuned to identifying the main message, one will see this imprinting
everywhere.
Video Games now gross $82 Billion more than Hollywood
movies
With the considerable jumps in improvement in the
areas of realism by improved graphics and interactivity by integrating peripherals into the gaming systems such
as motion sensing cameras and controllers in recent years, the video game industry is steadily pulling away
from all other forms of digital media in terms of gross profits. The past couple of years have marked a time
for the video game industry in which the single video game industry has surpassed the total gross profits from
cinema, recorded music and DVD sales combined.
With a total year gross profit expected of $10 billion dollars for the Hollywood movie industry, they can no
longer compete in terms of making profit with video games as the video game industry is expected to gross $100
billion dollars this year. Making the total gross profit of the video game industry 10 times more profitable
than the Hollywood movie industry. A major shifting of the cards in the multimedia industry that has been a
long time coming. However, going forward I would suggest to the reader of this article that TV and movies will
eventually catch up when every person has an “interactive television” in their homes. This will happen but it
will be up to the private industries as to when it will happen depending on how efficiently they can make and
provide the technology to make it feasible not just for corporate CEO’s but for every person in their homes. We
could then have interactive TV shows, news, movies, etc, and then Movies and TV will have that “interactive”
factor which will level the playing fields. But the TV and movie industry currently has no interactive
infrastructure in place and will therefore suffer in the meantime as we see from sales how people respond to
the ability to be interactive and have a say in the way their multimedia entertainment or learning plays
out.
An example of interactivity in the future for a movie made like a video game could have multiple different
scenarios that play out in multiple different ways just like they are currently programmed into some video
games where two different players can play the same video game with completely different outcomes. In the
future we could have an audience in the movie theater that could provide interactive feedback in one way or
another (possibly even by reading brainwaves in the theater as there is brainwave reading toys that you can fly toy helicopters with and play PC video games, or read your own brainwaves EEG style with the NeuroSky headset that are currently available rather cheaply) and then based on
that input decide which segments of the pre-recorded movie to play in real time as its programming would
instruct in the exact same way video games are programmed today. It would also translate to the DVD / home
release but you would have full control of where the story goes as opposed to a vote in the theater. In this
way two different people could watch the same movie or go to see the same movie on different nights and get
different endings and outcomes of the story. Exactly the same way video games are programmed today.
Video Game Casts Tea Party and Patriot
Groups as Enemy Terrorists
Magazine article literally asks, “Do
you have what it takes to pull the trigger on a fellow citizen?”
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
June 13, 2013
The latest installment of the popular Rainbow Six video
game franchise casts Americans fed up with government corruption and banker domination as domestic terrorists
intent on carrying out killings and bombings, yet another startling indication of how media is influencing the
public to accept protesters and people generally upset with the way their government is being run as the new
terrorist threat.
“In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, Team Rainbow faces a new and very real threat called the ‘True Patriots,’ a
highly-trained, well-organized revolutionary group that claim the American government is irrevocably corrupted by
greedy politicians and corporate special interests. The True Patriots will do whatever it takes to reclaim their
country,” Ubisoft’s description of the game states.
The description goes on to label members of the fictitious movement as the “new breed of terrorists,” stating,
“…players will face critical scenarios that will require them to make tough ethical decisions in order to stop this
new breed of terrorists.”
Game Informer Magazine, national retail video game chain Game Stop’s exclusive magazine, claimed a tumultuous
political atmosphere was the motivation for Ubisoft to pit American citizens against federal agents.
From the December 2011 issue of Game Informer:
“Americans are angry and why shouldn’t they be? With an exponentially expanding national debt, crippling
foreclosures, corporate bailouts, degrading infrastructure, dwindling job market and widening income gap
between the haves and have-nots, it’s getting harder to believe politicians when they speak of American
exceptionalism as if it were a fundamental truth.
“In response to gradual erosion of our beloved nation, resentful citizens of all kinds of political
backgrounds are rising up in the form of new political movements like the Tea Party and Occupy Wall
Street.”
Reading further in the magazine’s short intro for the game, we find the real motivation behind the game’s
inception.
“In 2009, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported a massive resurgence in anti-government paramilitary
groups, which have jumped from 43 militias in 2007 to nearly 300 in 2010. The sudden surge has captured the
attention of the Department of Homeland Security, NSA, CIA, and FBI, who all view these groups as a real threat
to the stability of the nation. Moreover, many of these disenfranchised groups frequently put their members
through intense military training exercises – for what, no one knows.”
In their final introductory paragraph, the Game Informer writers ask, “Do you have what it takes to pull the
trigger on a fellow citizen?”
Rainbow 6: Patriots was announced in 2011, but its actual release has been held back. When GameStop pulled
pre-sales from its database without explanation, some speculated the game had been shelved entirely.
However, in a June 2013 interview with IGN, Ubisoft senior vice president of sales and marketing Tony Key confirmed that Rainbow 6:
Patriots would likely be held over for next-gen systems like Playstation 4 and Xbox One.
A look at the game’s trailers shows players that play as members of the Rainbow Six squadron will have no choice
but to shoot innocent people (and even police officers) in certain situations. According to Game Informer, players
will also have the opportunity to play as the terrorists.
This is just the latest example of an ongoing media campaign to demonize Constitutionalists and those seeking to
uphold the principles of the Founding Fathers of the nation, as terrorists.
Earlier this year, we reported on how the cable TV network AMC was producing a show titled, “We Hate Paul Revere,” following two brothers that hate the famous patriot activist who
became a hero during the American Revolutionary War when he went on his “midnight ride” to warn patriots and
patriot militias that the British were coming.
In March, we also discussed how the Fox TV series “The Following” attempted to portray Constitutionalists and militia members as serial
killers and terrorists.
Add these “coincidences” to a July 2012 report we wrote covering a DHS study that characterized Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal
authority,” and “reverent of individual liberty” as “extreme right-wing” terrorists, and you begin to see a
pattern.
Recently, the Internal Revenue Service was also forced to apologize for targeting patriot and Tea Party groups with extra scrutiny and audits
when they applied for tax exempt status.
As the federal government further embroils itself in scandal after scandal, and as it takes huge strides to
implement a hellish vision of a free society, using an unchecked police state as its muscle – now police in New
York can arrest you for merely annoying them, and recently the Supreme Court ruled that police can take DNA swabs from citizens as a “legitimate police booking procedure” – the desperation to
stifle opposition has become readily apparent.
Watch the propaganda slickly disguised
as a video game in the preview below:
Watch the Infowars Nightly News report on Rainbow Six:
Patriots:
This article was posted: Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 2:24 pm
[Rainbow Six video game] ...In
their final introductory paragraph, the Game Informer writers ask, “Do you have what it takes to pull the trigger
on a fellow citizen?”
SEAL Veteran: Military Leaders Being
Asked if They Will Disarm Americans
A fictional future scenario in
whichAmerica has been economically devastated and
occupied by a foreign power. You must choose whether to submit to
military forces, take the fight to the enemy or even throw your lot in with the
invaders.
THIS IS NOT A GAME
The Economy Isn’t Going To Recover, U.S. Government Preparing for Collapse
(And Not In A Nice Way) Government knows and is getting ready, but in ways that are
very disturbing.
Rainbow 6: Patriots, a Ubisoft game, portrays those concerned about their personal liberty as terrorists.
More than that it begs the question "Do you have what it takes to pull the trigger on a fellow citizen?"
TERRORISM HITS HOME IN TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW 6® PATRIOTS VIDEO GAME FROM UBISOFT®
Best-Selling Shooter Franchise Returns with
Gripping New Storyline, Missions and Multiplayer Experience
SAN
FRANCISCO – November 3, 2011 – Today, Ubisoft announced the development of the latest edition of its
best-selling Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 franchise, Rainbow 6 Patriots. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal with the
support of Ubisoft Toronto and Red Storm, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots revolves around a dynamic
single-player storyline that captures the reality of modern-day terrorism and allows players to
experience it from multiple characters’ perspectives. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots is due for release
on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment
system and Windows PC in 2013.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 franchise has sold more than 25 million copies
worldwide and has been hailed as one of the best first-person shooter series of all time. The games are
known for depicting high-tech counter-terrorist operations set within the Tom Clancy’s game world. With
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, Ubisoft is building upon the success of the franchise while also taking it in a
bold new direction.
“Terrorism has evolved,
and so has Rainbow 6. In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, all the team play, tactics, and realism that fans of
the series love have been coupled with an exciting new narrative direction,” said David Sears, creative director
at Ubisoft. “This adds an unprecedented level of humanity that will make Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots an
extremely tense and immersive experience.”
In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow
6 Patriots, Team Rainbow faces a new and very real threat called the “True Patriots,” a highly-trained,
well-organized revolutionary group that claim the American government is irrevocably corrupted by greedy
politicians and corporate special interests. The True Patriots will do whatever it takes to reclaim their
country. Playing as Team Rainbow, players will face critical scenarios that will require them to make
tough ethical decisions in order to stop this new breed of terrorists.
In addition to the
immersive single-player storyline, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots will introduce a huge variety of new
innovative co-op and multi-player experiences. Players will be rewarded for working as a team and mastering the
game’s new features that enhance communication and tactical execution between teammates. Success will come from
a mix of split-second decision making and working to coordinate attacks against the enemy.
Additional details on
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots can be found in an exclusive cover story in the December 2011 issue of Game
Informer Magazine, available this month.
Conditioning? Xbox Poll Shows Overwhelming Gamer Support
for “More” Drone Strikes
Melissa Melton Infowars.com October 24, 2012
Throughout Monday night’s
final debate between President Obama and hopeful Mitt Romney, viewers watching it on their Xbox 360 consoles were
allowed to participate in a live poll. When asked, “Do you support more use of drone aircraft to attack suspected
terrorists?,” 72 percent of respondents replied, “Yes.”
Notice the question asks, “Do you supportmore use,” in regards to sending unmanned
aerial vehicles equipped with missiles to bomb suspected terrorists in other countries, not just continuing
business as usual killing people at the current pace.
Following the debate, the
screen capture above was posted on popular video game blog Kotaku.com under the headline, “Xbox 360 Owners Sure Do Love Drone
Strikes.” Of those polled, 20 percent answered “No” and another
eight percent were “Not sure.”
The last time a group came forward to claim America
needsmore drones, it
wasthe CIA.
Xbox Live polling is performed in conjunction with a company called YouGov to
provide “cutting-edge interactive television and polling techniques that…will be instrumental in both entertainment
and information gathering in the future,” wroteDavid Rothschild, XBOX
head pollster and member of Microsoft Research NYC.
These are not small polls, either. According to Rothschild, an average of 20,000
unique respondents are answering questions over their Xbox consoles per day; over 30,000 Xbox Live users
participated in a similar poll during the vice presidential debate on October 11, 2012. Considering this was the
last presidential debate before the election, the total polled this time was likely higher.
So how does the Xbox Live polling on America’s drone attacks stack up to other
polls?
According to thePew Research Center,
Americans support drone strikes more than citizens in 20 other major countries. Of 1,011 Americans the center
polled via landline and cell phone, 62 percent favored Obama’s unmanned drone campaign — the most all other
similar samples polled throughout the rest of the world.
However, the Xbox Live poll, which showed greater support for these strikes, had a
much larger sample.
Note that the word “militant” is nothing but propaganda considering Obama
redefined it to mean “all military-age males in a strike zone.” These people are blanket classified as “militants” even though our government officials may
literally know nothing more about them than age and gender.
Also note the phrase “suspected terrorists” is tossed out by our government and
mainstream media all the time in addition to it having been used in the Xbox poll. According to the Merriam-Webster
Dictionary, to be “suspected” of something means one is to be “regarded or deserving to be regarded with
suspicion.” Nowhere in that definition does it say “is proven guilty” or “is deserving of being bombed to
death.”
The U.S. is currently running regular drone campaigns in Afghanistan, Pakistan and
Yemen. What’s considered regular? At one point in summer 2011 it was declared that at leastone U.S. drone strike hit Yemen per day. According to Pakistani government estimates, 336 drone strikes in Waziristan alone have
killed an estimated 2,300 people (figures for the entire nation are even
higher). Using Interior Minister Malik’s math would mean 1,840 innocent
people have died in Waziristan at the hands of the U.S. government. Other estimates show
that176 children have been killed by U.S. drones in Pakistan since 2004. Only 41 people were ever confirmed as terrorist
targets.
There was a time when killing innocent people was considered “murder”; now it’s
simply chalked up to “collateral damage” without a second thought. There are no checks and balances. No one is
punished for innocent lives lost.
Some of the details ofObama’s so-called “kill list” — the file he uses to determine who deserves drone assassination — were released by The
New York Times earlier this year. The article outlined how several Americans were included on the list, as were
two teenagers, one of whom is female. It also mentioned that Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama nominated himself to
helm the “top secret” process of designating who gets added to the list and who will ultimately receive a drone
visit.
It is concerning that Xbox 360 users would be more inclined to support drone
strikes, especially since the U.S. military has a history of recruiting gamers to become drone pilots.
One19-year-old high school dropout became a drone pilot
instructor based solely on his video gaming skills. Not only that,
but many video games today are laced with military propaganda including a burgeoning proliferation of drones, as
revealed in this Infowars report Jakari Jackson filed below on Call of Duty: Black Ops II:
Have video games desensitized some players to the very real and consequential
aspects of murder and death? Is all of the military propaganda and conditioning really that effective?
The results of the Xbox Live poll would certainly suggest they have and they
are.
As disconcerting as (if not more so than) the overwhelming support
formore morally
bankrupt drone strikes expressed in that poll is the responses to Kotaku.com’s posting of the poll screen
capture.
While many of the site’s members left disapproving comments emanating a complete
distaste for Obama’s murderous, unaccountable drone policies, others came to its defense:
Blasé attitudes and sarcasm
aside, it is believed that thousands of innocent people — including women and children — have perished in America’s
morally reprehensible drone strike campaign. These people were all killed by somebody sitting at a control panel
thousands of miles away, staring at images on a screen. Just as the drone pilot above was quoted as saying, it is
in many ways exactly like a video game; the only difference is, when these people die, they don’t
respawn.
This is reality. These drone killings are not constitutional acts; they are war
crimes even though Congress has never officially declared war in these countries. In fact, two separate court cases
involving drone strike deaths fought by Shahzad Akbar of Pakistan’s Foundation for Fundamental
Rightsmay now trigger a formal murder investigation and the issuance of
international arrest warrants for two high-ranking CIA
officials.
At the last presidential debate, the topic of drones came up briefly, which may
have triggered the Xbox Live poll question; unfortunately, it was made abundantly clear
that,no matter who wins the election, America’s ruthless drone strike rampage will continue.
If the court does rule in Akbar’s favor, hopefully it will start a trend to help
stop this grave injustice.
Nothing about this is justifiable. Nothing.
THIS IS NOT A
GAME
Activists to Obama: Stop the proliferation of
drones
Anti-drone activists from across the country poured into Washington D.C. this weekend for a
three day call to action, starting with a march from the White House to the headquarters of drone manufacturer,
General Atomics. What followed was two-day summit that took an in-depth look at the US' controversial drone warfare
program -- one, activists, say stands in direct violation of international law. RT's Ameera David reports.
A Drone Warrior's Torment: Ex-Air Force Pilot Brandon
Bryant
on His Trauma From Remote Killing
http://www.democracynow.org - We look at how the United States uses drones in war, and
their impact, through the eyes of one of the first U.S. drone operators to speak out. Former U.S. Air Force
pilot Brandon Bryant served as a sensor operator for the Predator program from 2007 to 2011, manning the camera
on the unmanned aerial vehicles that carried out attacks overseas. After he left the active duty in the Air
Force, he was presented with a certificate that credited his squadron for 1,626 kills. In total, Bryant says he
was involved in seven missions in which his Predator fired a missile at a human target, and about 13 people died
in those strikes -- actions he says left him traumatized. "The clinical definition of PTSD is an anxiety
disorder associated with witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event," Bryant says. "Think how you would feel
if you were part of something that you felt violated the Constitution."
Obama Orders Children
Murdered!!
Scahill, a national security correspondent for The Nation
magazine and producer of the 2013 documentary Dirty Wars, has been on the ground and experienced first hand the
devastation wrought by U.S. drones upon innocent civilians in places like Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen where he
says the Obama administration is killing people indiscriminately in covert, undeclared wars.
“We’re doing night raids, drone strikes, cruise missile attacks. We’re killing a
tremendous number of innocent civilians and we’re killing people whose identities we don’t even know,” Scahill told
Colbert talking about a secret war being conducted in Afghanistan being concealed by a larger, more public
war.
[The] major world powers, new and old, also face a novel reality: while the lethality
of their military might is greater than ever, their capacity to impose control over the politically awakened masses
of the world is at a historic low. To put it bluntly: in earlier times, it was easier to control one million people
than to physically kill one million people; today, it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to
control one million people.
Zbigniew Brzezinski - Barack Obama's Foreign Policy Advisor, Author of The Grand
Chessboard
Part 5: Drone Nation
After President Obama signed the 2011 NDAA, the US government is allowed to kidnap and detain its
own citizens without any warning or notification. A simple accusation of "terrorism" is all that is
needed to murder innocents with drones from command centers thousands of miles away. Whatever your
opinion of Anwar al Awlaki, his 2011 murder by drone strike, and subsequent lack of outrage, sets a
dangerous precedent for Americans' liberty and security from its own government.
"Unmanned" investigates the impact of U.S. drone strikes at home and abroad,
observing their effect on the War on Terror, the lives of individuals, and U.S. foreign policy.
I CONFRONTED A DRONE PILOT
I wasn't going to, but then I saw the CNN anchor pretend to cry...
This moving video footage from Syria is haunting. All patriotic Americans must know what our
government is doing in the Middle East. PLEASE SHARE! Crowd funding keeps this channel alive!
Please support my work:
Killing For Peace? More Civilian Deaths Now Than Under
Obama
RonPaulLibertyReport
Streamed live 5 hours ago
Changing rules of engagement, increased bombing runs, and granting field officers
more authority to call in drone strikes has resulted in far more civilian casualties in the ongoing
US wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Will this acceleration lead to quicker victory? Or is
it planting the seeds for yet more expansion of the war?
President Trump To Unleash The CIA
Drones
According to recent media reports, President Trump is planning to lift the
restrictions on the CIA's use of drones worldwide. Will this new "counterterrorism" strategy
create more terrorists than it kills?
https://airwars.org/
Monitoring and assessing civilian casualties from international airstrikes in Iraq, Syria and
Libya. Seeking transparency and accountability from belligerents, and advocating on behalf of
affected civilians. Archiving open-source reports, and military claims by nations.
The US Gov’t Killed More Civilians This Month Than All
Terrorist Attacks in Europe Over the Last 12 Years
In the last 12 years, terrorist attacks in Europe have killed
459 civilians. The U.S. killed at least 472 civilians in Syria, just in the last month.
September 17, 2008
New Book Lets Winter Soldiers Be Heard
by Dahr Jamail
Aside from the Iraqi people, nobody knows
what the U.S. military is doing in Iraq better than the soldiers themselves. A new book gives readers vivid and
detailed accounts of the devastation the U.S. occupation has brought to Iraq, in the soldiers' own words.
Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupation, published by Haymarket
Books Tuesday, is a gut-wrenching, historic chronicle of what the U.S. military has done to Iraq, and its own
soldiers.
Authored by Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and journalist Aaron Glantz, the book is a reader
for hearings that took place in Silver Spring, Md., between Mar. 13-16, 2008, at the National Labor College.
"I remember one woman walking by," said Jason Washburn, a corporal in the U.S. Marines who served
three tours in Iraq. "She was carrying a huge bag, and she looked like she was heading toward us, so we lit her up
with the Mark 19, which is an automatic grenade launcher, and when the dust settled, we realized that the bag was
full of groceries. She had been trying to bring us food, and we blew her to pieces."
Washburn testified on a panel that discussed the rules of engagement in Iraq, and how lax they
were, even to the point of being virtually nonexistent.
"During the course of my three tours, the rules of engagement changed a lot," Washburn's testimony
continues. "The higher the threat the more viciously we were permitted and expected to respond."
His emotionally charged testimony, like all of those in the book that covered panels addressing
dehumanization, civilian testimony, sexism in the military, veterans' health care, and the breakdown of the
military, raised issues that were repeated again and again by other veterans.
"Something else we were encouraged to do, almost with a wink and nudge, was to carry 'drop
weapons,' or by my third tour, 'drop shovels.' We would carry these weapons or shovels with us because if we
accidentally shot a civilian, we could just toss the weapon on the body, and make them look like an insurgent,"
Washburn said.
Four days of searing testimony, witnessed by this writer, is consolidated into the book, which
makes for a difficult read. One page after another is filled with devastating stories from the soldiers about what
is being done in Iraq.
Everything from the taking of "trophy" photos of the dead to the torture and slaughter of civilians
is included.
"We're trying to build a historical record of what continues to happen in this war and what the war
is really about," Glantz told IPS.
Hart Viges, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division of the Army who served one year in Iraq, tells
of taking orders over the radio.
"One time they said to fire on all taxicabs because the enemy was using them for transportation. …
One of the snipers replied back, 'Excuse me? Did I hear that right? Fire on all taxicabs?' The lieutenant colonel
responded, 'You heard me, trooper, fire on all taxicabs.' After that, the town lit up, with all the units firing on
cars. This was my first experience with war, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the deployment."
Vincent Emanuele, a Marine rifleman who spent a year in the al-Qaim area of Iraq near the Syrian
border, told of emptying magazines of bullets into the city without identifying targets, running over corpses with
Humvees, and stopping to take "trophy" photos of bodies. "An act that took place quite often in Iraq was taking pot
shots at cars that drove by," he said. "This was not an isolated incident, and it took place for most of our
eight-month deployment."
Kelly Dougherty, the executive director of IVAW, blames the behavior of soldiers in Iraq on the
policies of the U.S. government. "The abuses committed in the occupations, far from being the result of a 'few bad
apples' misbehaving, are the result of our government's Middle East policy, which is crafted in the highest spheres
of U.S. power," she said.
Knowing this, however, does little to soften the emotional and moral devastation of the
accounts.
"You see an individual with a white flag, and he does anything but approach you slowly and obey
commands, assume it's a trick and kill him," Michael Leduc, a corporal in the Marines who was part of the U.S.
attack of Fallujah in November 2004, said were the orders from his battalion JAG officer he received before
entering the city.
This is an important book for the public of the United States, in particular, because the Winter
Soldier testimonies were not covered by any of the larger media outlets, aside from the Washington Post, which ran
a single piece on the event and buried it in the Metro section.
The New York Times, CNN, and network news channels ABC, NBC, and CBS ignored it completely.
This is particularly important in light of the fact that, as former Marine Jon Turner stated,
"Anytime we did have embedded reporters with us, our actions changed drastically. We never acted the same. We were
always on key with everything, did everything by the book."
"To me it's about giving a picture of what war is like," Glantz added, "because here in the U.S. we
have this very sanitized version of what war is. But war is when we have a large group of armed people killing
large numbers of other people. And that is the picture that people will get from reading veterans testimony … the
true face of war."
Dehumanization of the soldiers themselves is covered in the book, as it includes testimony of
sexism, racism, and the plight of veterans upon their return home as they struggle to obtain care from the Veterans
Administration.
There is much testimony on the dehumanization of the Iraqi people as well. Brian Casler, a corporal
in the Marines, spoke to some of this that he witnessed during the invasion of Iraq.
"But on these convoys, I saw Marines defecate into MRE bags or urinate in bottles and throw them at
children on the side of the road," he stated.
Numerous accounts from soldiers include the prevalence of degrading terms for Iraqis, such as
"hajis," "towel-heads," and "sand-n*ggers."
Scott Ewing, who served in Iraq from 2005-2006, admitted on one panel that units intentionally gave
candy to Iraqi children for reasons other than "winning hearts and minds."
"There was also another motive," Ewing said. "If the kids were around our vehicles, the bad guys
wouldn't attack. We used the kids as human shields."
Glantz admits that it would be difficult for the average U.S. citizen to read the book, and he
believes it is important to keep in mind while doing so what it took for the veterans to give this historic
testimony.
"They could have been heroes, but what they are doing here is even more heroic – which is telling
the truth," Glantz told IPS. "They didn't have to come forward. They chose to come forward."
For three days in 1971, former US soldiers who were in Vietnam testify in Detroit about
their war experiences. Nearly 30 speak, describing atrocities personally committed or witnessed, telling of
inaccurate body counts, and recounting the process of destroying a village. The atrocities are casual, seem
routine, and are sanctioned or committed by officers. Images from the war illustrate the testimony; there's a side
discussion among veterans about racism and a couple of interviews about the soldiers' self-realization. The
testimony appears in the US Congressional Record on April 6 and 7, 1971. A "winter soldier" contrasts with Paine's
"summer soldier and sunshine patriot."
THE KILL TEAM goes behind closed doors to tell the riveting story of Specialist Adam
Winfield, a 21-year-old infantryman in Afghanistan who attempted with the help of his father to alert the military
to heinous war crimes his platoon was committing. Tragically, his father's pleas for help went unheeded. Once
Adam's fellow soldiers got wind of what he'd done, they threatened to silence him -- permanently. Forced to choose
between his conscience and his own survival, Adam found himself drawn into a moral abyss, faced with a split-second
decision that would change his life forever.
With extraordinary access to the key individuals involved in the case – including Adam,
his passionately supportive parents, and his startlingly candid compatriots — THE KILL TEAM is an intimate look at
the personal stories so often lost inside the larger coverage of the longest war in US history.
‘The Kill Team’
examines moral dilemmas facing young soldiers at war
By Holly Bailey
April 22, 2013 11:54 AM
The Lookout
Three years ago, the U.S. was stunned by a
horrific story that emerged from the front lines of the war in Afghanistan: Several members of an Army platoon had
killed at least three unarmed Afghan civilians, apparently for sport. The soldiers referred to themselves as ‘the
Kill Team”—a nickname that seemed tailor-made for television news, which devoted hours of coverage to the case.
Dan Krauss, a San Francisco-based filmmaker who was nominated for an Academy Award for his debut
documentary, “The Death of Kevin Carter,” was captivated by the case and, in particular, one of the soldiers under
arrest: Adam Winfield, who was described by the Army as both a whistle-blower and a murderer.
“I wondered how he could be both of those things,” Krauss recalled in an interview with Yahoo News.
His quest to answer that question is the basis of his latest film, “The Kill Team,” which is playing at Tribeca
Film Festival in New York this week and premieres at the San Francisco Film Festival on Friday.
Winfield, an Army specialist who was just 20 at the time of the crimes, had tried to warn the
military about the killing spree by telling his father, Chris, a retired Marine, who then tried to alert
authorities. But Army officials told Chris Winfield they could do something only if Adam were to report the crimes
to a superior in the field.
The only problem: Winfield’s squad leader was the ringleader of the murders. When fellow soldiers
in the platoon began to sense that Winfield was about to rat them out, they threatened to kill him, too.
Scared, Winfield was pressured to run with the crowd, and in May 2010, he was implicated in the
murder of an unarmed Afghan man. The killings were discovered after another soldier complained about drug use in
the unit, and in June 2010, Winfield and four other soldiers were back at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Wash.—imprisoned
and charged with heinous war crimes.
Krauss wanted to get access to Winfield and the other accused soldiers, but since they were in
confinement, he knew he was unlikely to get to them “through conventional media channels” with the military, he
said. So he approached Eric Montalvo, Winfield’s attorney, who told Krauss he needed someone to help film a
10-minute video of Winfield and his family for the military court.
Krauss volunteered—with the condition that he would have editorial control over the footage and, if
the family agreed, he could continue filming for an eventual movie.
The result is an unprecedented inside look at the military justice system and the soldiers caught
up in the case—many of whom speak about the killings for the first time on camera.
Much of the film takes place inside a tiny conference room at Fort Lewis where Winfield worked with
his parents on his defense—and where Montalvo, at one point in the film, warns them against speaking outside of
“this zone” about the case because they are potential enemies to Winfield's quest to be cleared.
“You don’t talk to anybody,” the attorney warns.
But Krauss is right there, filming Winfield and his parents in their most vulnerable moments—from
the soldier’s psychiatric evaluation to the family’s debates over whether he should take a plea deal in the case,
even though they believe, in their words, that he’s being used as “a pawn” by Army officials who want to resolve
the case quickly.
“I would have never in a million years imagined that I’d be going to jail,” Winfield says in the
opening moments of the film. His parents openly worry their son will commit suicide.
Krauss also interviews some of the other soldiers involved, who not only corroborate Winfield’s
claim that they threatened to kill him but openly discuss the murders they committed, speaking about them in such a
casual way that it’s likely to be disturbing and depressing to some viewers.
Discussing how he and another officer killed an unarmed 15-year-old Afghan boy, Andrew Holmes, a
private first class who was 19 at the time of the killings, says, “Man, we straight up murdered that dude.”
Another soldier, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock, who was 21 at the time, matter-of-factly admits why he and
others decided to “get some kills,” as he puts it: They were bored.
After months of training for heavy combat, platoon members were dropped into an area of rural
Afghanistan where they saw little fighting and instead were instructed to help local Afghans drill wells, construct
schools and perform other nation-building efforts that many had not been trained to do. War, Morlock says at one
point in the film, “was nothing like people hyped it to be.”
Krauss told Yahoo News that many of the soldiers expressed a sense of betrayal.
"They had been promised an experience, they had been trained in the application of force, and the
training, the culture, did not match with the experience. ... It was about hearts and minds, and they were there to
kick ass and defend America and defeat terrorism. And that's what they had grown up thinking the military was
about, and that was the culture they had trained for and wanted."
The turning point for the platoon came when the sergeant in charge was severely wounded in a
roadside bomb attack—only worsening the low morale, especially among the younger soldiers.
His replacement was Calvin Gibbs, a 25-year-old staff sergeant, who allegedly began bragging about
murders he had gotten away during an earlier stint in Iraq. According to Winfield and others, Gibbs said he shot
people and then planted weapons like grenades that he had obtained “off the books” on his victims.
Gibbs then took fingers as trophies—with the ultimate goal of making a “bone necklace.” (Gibbs, who
declined Krauss’s interview requests, has maintained his innocence, insisting he shot only when he was fired upon.
He is serving a life sentence for his role in the murders.)
Eventually, Morlock and others joined Gibbs on a killing spree. In the film, Morlock says he felt
little guilt, telling the camera that he “buried it, just ... powered through it" before killing again.
Now in prison, he explains how he views his role in the killings: "It’s not that you’re a murderer.
It’s that you were convicted of murder."
But Winfield was horrified by what he was seeing, telling his father at the time that he was
mystified at why no one else thought this was wrong. Krauss’s film centers around that moral dilemma Winfield
faced—especially in May 2010, when the soldiers decided to kill an Afghan man in Winfield’s presence.
As Winfield says in the film, his choice was, “Should I do the right thing and put myself in
danger, or should I just shut up and deal with it?”
He chose the latter—which ultimately earned him a sentence of three years in prison and a bad
conduct discharge. He was released from prison in August 2012.
In an interview, Krauss says the film is meant to cast a light on how young people are sent into
war with little preparation for the emotional choices they will have to make.
“Some of these kids were literally teenagers,” Krauss said. “I wanted to examine the idea that we
are sending very young people into situations where they have to make decisions, sometimes instantly, about
incredibly complex situations where you face moral questions that would be difficult for anyone, much less for
someone who is 18, 19 or 20."
In spite of the subject matter, Krauss’s film does not have an explicit anti-war sentiment—and in
fact, he says, he left footage on the cutting room floor in order to keep the movie from coming across as overtly
political. But he acknowledged it will be hard for some to watch without coming away with a sense of alarm about
the horrors of war, especially as one soldier says that killings like this happen all the time, “We’re just the
ones that got caught.”
“You’re training us from the day we join to the day you’re out to kill. Your job is to kill. … Your
job is to kill everything that’s in your way,” Justin Stoner, the soldier whose initial complaint about drug use
within the platoon exposed the murders, says in the film. “Well, then why the hell are you pissed off when we do
it?”
In the film, Stoner, who was not charged with any crimes, says he never wants to be referred to as
a “whistle-blower” in the case.
“It’s worse than what they are being accused of,” says Stoner, who is now a member of the Army
Reserve. “If I could go back, I wouldn’t have said anything.”
Krauss’s film doesn’t cast Winfield as a hero or a saint, but does convey his anguish over doing
nothing to protect the Afghan man he saw murdered, or the other victims of "the Kill Team."
Krauss said his goal was to give the soldiers involved a chance to tell their side of the story
"without political or moral judgment."
"This is a film about morality in the context of war," Krauss said. "I am hoping that people who
watch the film come away with a deeper understanding of what the young men and women we send to war are confronted
with."
The enduring impact of Iraq Veterans Against the
War
Published on Jan 24, 2015
While running errands yesterday, this guy recognized me from a very old video
and wanted to share how it changed his life.
Published on Apr 22, 2015
After the CIA recruits a 15 year old girl to lie to congress about baby killers from
Iraq, celebrities across the U.S. rally for war. Meanwhile CNN launches a collection of fake news broadcasts and
Whitney Houston wows the nation with her Super Bowl performance of the National Anthem.
Globalist Wars Killed Over 2 Million
People in Last Decade Propaganda has hidden toll from the American people
by Kurt Nimmo | Infowars.com | March 26, 2015
U.S. wars initiated at the behest of a global
financial elite killed more than 2,000,000 people, according to a report published by Physicians for Social
Responsibility.
This investigation comes to the conclusion that the war has, directly or indirectly, killed around 1 million
people in Iraq, 220,000 in Afghanistan and 80,000 in Pakistan, i.e. a total of around 1.3 million. Not included
in this figure are further war zones such as Yemen. The figure is approximately 10 times greater than that of
which the public, experts and decision makers are aware of and propagated by the media and major NGOs. And this
is only a conservative estimate. The total number of deaths in the three countries named above could also be in
excess of 2 million, whereas a figure below 1 million is extremely unlikely.
The average American, the report notes, is a victim of a
massive propaganda campaign designed to propagate lies about these undeclared an illegal wars.
“A poll carried out by the Associated Press (AP) two years ago found that, on average, US citizens believe that
only 9,900 Iraqis were killed during the occupation,” the reports reads.
Physicians for Social Responsibility places the blame for this on the corporate media. The NGO, however, does
not indicate why the government and the establishment media deliberately downplay the death and destruction
inflicted by the Bush and Obama administrations, although they say the current “state of affairs could be very
different if the public were made aware that the actual number is likely to be more than a hundred times higher”
than the numbers reported by The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox, et al.
“The report is sure to fuel outrage over one of the most controversial wars in US history, one in which ‘the
original pretexts for going to war quickly turned out to be spurious, and from then on only the ‘liberation of the
country from a violent dictatorship’ and the “democratization” and “stabilization” of Iraq remained as
justification for the war and occupation,’” reports Sputnik, a news agency owned by the Russian government.
It may fuel outrage in Europe and Russia, where the media covers studies indicting the U.S. government and its
foreign policy, but is unlikely to do likewise in the United States.
Growing Support in U.S. For Unlimited War
In February the Pew Research Center reported growing support for the ISIS war. “The public has grown
more supportive of the U.S. fight against ISIS, as about twice as many approve (63%) as disapprove (30%) of the
military campaign against the Islamic militant group in Iraq and Syria. Last October, 57% approved and 33%
disapproved,” Pew reported.
Earlier this month a Quinnipiac poll showed American voters strongly in support of sending ground troops to
battle ISIS by more than a 2-to-1 margin.
In February a proposed a new Authorization for the Use of Military Force was left deliberately undefined
“because we believe it’s important that there aren’t overly burdensome constraints that are placed on the commander
in chief,” White House spokesman Josh
Earnest said.
Critics interpret this to mean the executive branch of the government wants to expand the reach of the imperial
presidency and allow it to wage war against ill-defined enemies anywhere in the world.
Additionally, the administration believes the deliberately ambiguous AUMF will bring lawmakers together in a
bipartisan coalition calling for a war against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq without restraint, including the
use of ground troops.
Only 6 corporations control what most of you see, hear and read every single day.
Darrin McBreen looks at the history of the CIA propaganda machine and the latest release from WikiLeaks that
reveals the Obama Administrations' cozy relationship with Sony Pictures. Are you being manipulated by the
mainstream?
Help us spread the word about the liberty movement, we're reaching millions help us reach millions more. we all
want liberty. Find the free live feed at http://www.infowars.com/watch-alex-jo...
My own reasons behind why you should NOT join the military.
My Views do not represent any group and are solely my own from experience and understanding of
world events. I no longer serve the Military and I am no longer loyal to my government. I am not a "Pacifist" I
merely believe our Young people should not be involved in wars that only benefit a few filthy rotten
individuals.
If you like, like - if you dislike, dislike - if you want to see more or have any questions let
me know,
if this gets any views i may do more videos.
Most of all thanks for watching and always remember; PEACE IS PATRIOTIC
"Let's look at the track records, what kind of news source in the U.S. let's say in the past
fifteen years, twenty years, has the highest level of disseminating fake news? I'm talking about factual grounds,
I'm not talking about sensationalism or embellishment okay. What were the sources for the WMD (Weapons of Mass
Destruction) stories that were sold to the public, marketed on hourly basis, not even hourly on minutely basis to
the public?...Mainstream Media: NBC, NPR, CNN, all these sources. And now that we all know it has been established
that for example that WMD stories were all fake, they were lies, they were false...can you recall any of these
publications Mainstream Media publications: NBC, CNN, NPR, PBS, ever coming and issuing an official formal
retraction? Have you heard any of these channels coming and actually apologizing, and saying we disseminated fake
news. And we basically got us into the war by manufacturing consent from the public and that caused tens of
billions of dollars if not trillions of dollars in terms of dollar costs, and all these lives, you know...People in
Iraq and also American Soldiers died. So you're looking at criminal lie in this case, but what kind of consequences
those Mainstream Media channels have faced?"
The US Military’s Totally Cool Mobile Enlistment
Exhibits
By Hannah K. Gold, November 17, 2014
For decades, the US military has been using souped-up
mobile exhibits to recruit prospective soldiers. In July of this year, the military deployed the latest
addition to a fleet that roves the country hoping to win the hearts and minds of American youth. The new
vehicle, known as the Extreme Truck, is equipped with two 32-inch gaming stations, a 60-inch flat-screen
television, several smaller TVs, and pull-up and push-up platforms. It has its own Facebook page, which, at
press time, has been liked 111 times.
According to Mobile Exhibit Company commander Captain Korneliya Waters, who recently talked to Recruiter
Journal, the Extreme Truck is "a symbol of independence and power." Her description reminded me of the
jacket Nicolas Cage wears in Wild at Heart, which, for him, "represents a symbol of my individuality
and my belief in personal freedom." Except the Extreme Truck is funded by tax dollars and designed to assist in
contractually binding young people to America's wars.
Recruiting vehicles have been around in some form or another since 1936, when the government established the US
Army Accessions Support Brigade, the only department of the Army dedicated exclusively to marketing (the MEC falls
under its purview). Three years later, the secretary of the Army sent a team of soldiers to operate a high-profile
mobile exhibit at the New York World's Fair.
The military expanded its marketing efforts dramatically in the 1970s, when it lost unfettered access to new
recruits after the draft was repealed. In 1973, the year the all-volunteer force was instituted, the Army launched
its first successful campaign-"Join the People Who've Joined the Army"-with the help of advertising agency N. W.
Ayer & Son. In 1991, Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced plans to expand the
Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps-a program that instructs high school students in basic training skills-to
3,500 units in five years' time. Thanks to anti-recruitment activism, the plan slowed significantly. Today, JROTC
units, which are filled with MEC vehicles and exhibits, are about to reach that goal. And as Sam Diener, a visiting
professor of peace studies at Clark University, notes, "Both the ROTC and the military recruiting trucks are ways
in which youth in the United States are militarized."
By 2013, MEC vehicles drove a collective 600,000 miles to more than 48 states. USAASB operations stopped at more
than 1,200 high schools in 2011. "The people who advise the armed forces on marketing are the top advertisers in
the profession. And the audience they are seeking are millennials," says Rick Jahnkow, an anti-recruitment
activist.
The Extreme Truck, a 15,700-pound mobile recruitment vehicle that roams the country
dazzling prospective soldiers. Photo courtesy of the US Army
Another mobile unit, the STEM experience truck, is
plastered with pictures of young people dressed as astronauts and staring intently into microscopes, and is pitched
to aspiring engineers and scientists. Once inside, the visitor encounters a depressing scenario: The year is 2032,
and there's been an attack on a chemical plant in Eastern Europe. An officer then leads the visitor to a screen,
where he or she can choose from a range of tactical counterinsurgency options, including the use of drones.
Speaking of which, the MEC currently operates three trucks that contain aerial simulators-the most recent being a
UAV, or drone, simulator.
"The STEM truck in particular is used to gain access instead of recruiting a certain kind of student. They try
to get cooperation from science teachers and math teachers," Jahnkow told me.
In June 2006, the first of 50 new H3 Hummers hit the road to increase interest in recruiting events. At the
time, Sergeant First Class Anthony J. Colarusso told Recruiter Journal, "The H3 is a real 'icebreaker' in
itself, so it should allow recruiters the ability to attract bigger crowds, which will allow us to work our magic."
In the same issue, United States Recruiting Command director Donald Bartholomew referred to the Hummers as "just
another tool in our kit-admittedly a really big one-that will turn heads and get feet moving toward the sound and
excitement." That would be the sound of a $9,000 entertainment system that blasts waves of rap and death metal at
potential recruits. (Article Continued Below)
DISNEYLAND OF WAR
The U.S. government is manipulating children to think that war and violence is fun and glorious.
Director Chris Smiley and Producer Mike Hanes, an Iraq War combat veteran, challenge the
glorification of war and violence in our culture while exposing the propaganda of the Miramar military air show.
This air show is one of many outlets where war and violence is given a warm, inviting, and exciting aura. The utter
horror and brutality is never understood by so many. Promoting a positive image of war and violence to people,
especially children, is extremely dangerous. There is absolutely nothing cool, exciting, or heroic about ripping
limbs, burning flesh, or shredding the organs of another human being. We need the public to understand the horrific
nature of war and violence to be able to stand firm and vigorously question calls for war.
Please share this video and consider a donation here:https://igg.me/at/gb4-4tJIiWo
We made this film with no funds and need some help to be able to cover fees at film festivals and
public events to be able to share this message.
Originally Published Dec 6, 2016
(Article Continued)
The MEC also offers things called "Immersa-Domes," weapons
simulators, and various other interactive semis, including one that has the capacity to switch from "game mode" to
"classroom mode" so students can watch videos about anti-bullying campaigns and basic training in the same
sitting.
Late adolescence is an impressionable age, but the military is after kids who are even younger. If you meet GI
Johnny, an inflatable goofy-grinned doll dressed in Army fatigues, and you're young enough to believe you've met a
real person, then you are too young to start thinking about enlisting. But that's exactly the age group the Army
has gone after lately. Sergeant Laddie Matula, who helped operate GI Johnny at a rodeo in an undisclosed American
town, recounted the experience positively to the Recruiter Journal back in 2007, saying, "Parents
love to bring up their little kids to meet with Johnny... Teachers take pictures while their kids shake my hand.
The kids love it. The little kids are very comfortable with Johnny." Just this past spring, GI Johnny started
tweeting-to little fanfare.
The military is not at all coy about its intentions to make as many impressions as possible on the emerging
generation of recruits. While the media knocks itself out trying to make sense of what a millennial is, the
military already has its sights set on what they call "Generation Edge." In the September/October 2013 issue of
Recruiter Journal, Steve Lambert contributed a short op-ed titled "Advertising Update: Know Your Audience:
Generation Edge," in which he argues that although millennials are "digital disciples and highly sociable," new
recruiting tactics need to be developed now to attract the next generation of cadets. Generation Edge (those born
since 1995) are, in his estimation, drawn to messaging that promotes the "three R's": "resilient," "resourceful,"
"realistic."
Screens in the STEM experience truck display fictional news coverage of a chemical
attack in the year 2032. Photo courtesy of the US Army
Some will argue that these marketing schemes pale in
comparison to the kinds of career opportunities the armed forces can provide. To demolish this argument you only
need to consider the ripe age at which many recruits agree to the life-altering commitment of enlisting, the fact
that war is hell, and the high rates of homelessness, unemployment, mental illness, and substance abuse among
veterans.
But in the case of the MEC's efforts, another question emerges: one of privacy, consent, and equitable access.
Diener says that the idea of giving equal access to the military and anti-recruiting efforts "goes back to the
1980s, when we noticed that the military recruiters were having essentially free access to high schools across the
country, so students were getting a very one-sided view of the military."
But the purpose of these vehicles, as stated by the military in its own publications, is to give the military a
distinctly unequal edge, by parking at high schools they might not usually have access to, collecting data from
students, making impressions, and, ultimately, producing leads on future recruits. USAREC Regulation 601-93, which
went into effect in July 1996, outlines the uses of the support unit. The regulation explicitly states that USAREC
should "schedule in the primary market whenever possible (i.e., HS and colleges). Priority should go to the
hard-to-penetrate schools."
In 2011, USAASB had more than 230,000 visitors, producing approximately 88,000 leads. The leads are gathered and
sorted using a system perhaps not ironically named I-ELMO, which stands for Interactive Electronic Leads Management
Options. According to Jahnkow, it is commonplace for recruiters to require all students to fill out personal
information before participating in the interactive war games. This information is then transmitted into I-ELMO and
comes out the other end as thousands of targeted campaigns to potential recruits.
In other words, it would seem that these trucks aren't symbols of independence or power, or any other beliefs.
They're well-funded marketing tools that project fantasies custom-made for teens and steer young people onto the
warpath, leaving so many unexplored roads in the dust.
Games Are Most Effective
Army Recruitment Tool
By Alex Wawro, GAMEPRO
Not only are games like Modern Warfare 2
bringing more new recruits to the Army than any other marketing strategy, they may be training players to thrive in
the fast-paced protean environment of modern conflict.
A political column in this morning's Washington Examiner claims video games like America's Army are
the most effective recruitment tools of the U.S. Army.
"30 percent of all Americans age 16 to 24 had a more positive impression of the Army because of [America's Army]
and, even more amazingly, the game had more impact on recruits than all other forms of Army advertising
combined."
Taking advantage of the massive media blitz surrounding the recent Modern Warfare 2 release,
military professional and regular contributor to the D.C. Examiner Peter Singer wrote at length about the
connection between video games and modern combat. Citing Congressional testimony by U.S. Army personnel claiming
that video games are their most effective recruiting tool, Singer also quotes a 2008 MIT study as finding "30
percent of all Americans age 16 to 24 had a more positive impression of the Army because of [America's Army] and,
even more amazingly, the game had more impact on recruits than all other forms of Army advertising combined."
Most gamers recognize the hallmarks of a blatant marketing tool in the trappings of America's Army
(mandatory registration with an Army website, glorified profiles of current personnel and free recruitment videos)
but what's more disturbing is Singer's suggestion that video games are training players to be better warriors.
Singer recalls meeting an Air Force Colonel and Predator squadron commander who was continually impressed by the
ease new recruits demonstrated in adapting to "the fast-moving, multitasking nature of modern warfare."
Still, the familiar concerns abound about the desensitizing effect of virtual violence. Singer
recalls the same commander claiming that "the video game generation is worse at distorting the reality of [war]
from the virtual nature. They don't have that sense of what really going on," recalling the cold precision of the
AC-130 gunship level "Death from Above" in Call of Duty 4 that may teach gamers how to "compartmentalize" the
emotional trauma of combat.
Call of Duty increases risk of Alzheimer's
disease
University of Montreal study finds video game players
navigate the screen using a key area of the brain
By Agency
6:52PM BST 19 May 2015
Millions of boys could be at increased
risk of Alzheimer's disease and other mental illnesses in later life through playing action video games such as
Call of Dutyor Assassin's Creed, according to new research.
Scientists say players navigate the screen using a key area of the brain called the caudate nucleus, which
leads to loss of grey matter in the hippocampus.
Previous studies have shown reduced volume in the hippocampus, which controls memory, learning and emotion,
is associated with neurological and psychological disorders including dementia and depression.
The Canadian team said if action gamers have less grey matter, as people who rely on the caudate nucleus
normally do, then they may be more prone to mental illness.
In the study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, they tested 26 players and 33 non players who
wore skull caps recording their brainwaves and eye movements as they negotiated a virtual maze decorated with
trees and mountains from which they had to retrieve objects.
It found the players were twice as likely to use their caudate nucleus (80.76%) during navigation rather
than the non-gamers (42.42%) who tended to rely on the brain's spatial memory system, the hippocampus.
The caudate nucleus is the brain's reward system and has also been linked with drug and alcohol
addiction.
Dr Gregory West, of the University of Montreal, said: "For more than a decade now, research has demonstrated
action video game players display more efficient visual attention abilities. Our current study again confirms
this notion.
"We, however, also found action video game players use
navigation strategies that rely on the caudate nucleus to a much greater degree than non video game
players.
"Past research has shown people who rely on caudate nucleus dependent strategies have lower grey matter and
functional brain activity in the hippocampus.
"This means people who play a lot of action video games could have reduced hippocampal integrity, which is
associated with increased risk for neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease."
The researchers said people across the world now spend three billion hours a week playing video games, and
it is estimated the average young person will now have clocked up almost 10,000 hours by the time they are 21.
But the effect of intense gaming on the brain are just beginning to emerge.
As past research has promoted video games as having positive effects on attention, it is important for
future research to confirm gaming does not harm the hippocampus.
The researchers said brain scans will be required to further underline the findings and should investigate
the direct effects of specific action video games on the caudate nucleus and the hippocampus.
Previous research has also shown brains of people who regularly play computer games differ from those of
infrequent gamers.
A study in teenagers showed the "reward hub", which is involved in addiction, was larger in regular
players.
Brain scans showed a larger ventral striatum, which is the hub of the brain's reward system, in regular
gamers. Playing computer games has been linked to a range of effects from addiction to improved reasoning.
The controversial mission that I am sure all of you have heard about in the media - the airport
mission. We are back with Allen who is acting as an under-cover agent to try and get intelligence on a Russian
named Makerov, by attacking a Russian Airport
A sick online ‘game’ allows players to slaughter
children with an AR-15 in a recreation of the Sandy Hook school shooting of December 2012, before preaching pro gun
control messages at them.
Entitled The Slaying of Sandy Hook, the crude and disgusting creation simulates killer Adam Lanza’s
actions at the Elementary School, where he murdered 20 children and six teachers last year. It also depicts Lanza
killing his own mother at home, and finally committing suicide after his shooting spree.
During the game play, the sound of gunfire and bullets hitting bodies rings out as stick figure children attempt
to run away from the shooter, or fall to the ground in fear. The user is supposed to kill as many as he or she
can.
A timer ticks down to zero, representing the arrival of police at the school. The game is then over as the Lanza
figure shoots himself.
Players are then shown a kill ratio screen detailing how many people were murdered and wounded, and how many
managed to survive by either hiding or playing dead. The numbers are then compared to the actual body count at
Sandy Hook.
Next, users are encouraged to play the game in “gun control mode”, and challenged to kill as many as they can
using a sword instead of a gun.
Several sarcastic messages appear as the mode depicts a locked gun safe (which many responsible gun owners have
anyway) meaning that the Lanza character cannot access the firearms.
As the credits role at the end of the game, there are several links to pro gun control websites and to elected
representatives’ contact details. The creator of the nauseating piece, an Australian named Ryan Jake Lambourn, has
stated via his twitter account that the purpose is to cause outrage and spread a pro gun
control message.
A relative of a teacher who died protecting children from gunfire at Sandy Hook is outraged at the sick
creation.
“It’s absolutely disgusting that somebody thinks this is funny,” Donna Soto told Hearst Connecticut Newspapers Tuesday.
“We’re all suffering. All the families are suffering. We’re coming up on December. My daughter’s birthday just
passed.” added Soto, whose daughter received a posthumous Presidential Citizens Medal for shielding students from
Lanza.
It just adds insult to the suffering that we’re dealing with. It’s just incomprehensible that someone would
think this kind of thing is wanted.” she added.
Meanwhile, Lambourn seems to be proud of the game and the fact that he has managed to appall everyone:
Following media coverage, some websites have taken down the ‘game’, yet it is still to be found on other online
gaming sites.
—————————————————————-
Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of
Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from
Nottingham Trent University.
This article was posted: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 at 11:59 am
Syrian Girl lifts the lid on the scandal that has rocked the gaming world - how the video
games industry - the biggest entertainment media on the planet - is being infiltrated and subverted to re-educate
the next generation.
Propagandizing Through Books, Magazines, Movies, Technology, and
TV.
Captain America and The Police State
-- Harriet Tubman --
"I freed a thousand slaves; I
could have freed a thousand more,
if only they knew they were slaves."
Only the vigilant can maintain their liberties, and only those who
are constantly and intelligently
on the spot can hope to govern themselves effectively by democratic procedures.
"A society, most of whose members spend a great part of their time,
not on the spot, not here and now and in their calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other
worlds of sport and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard to resist the
encroachments of those who would manipulate and control it.”
