John Pilger

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John Pilger  link Keywiki Sourcewatch Twitter Unwelcome Guests Website Wikiquote (Journalist)
Born	John Richard Pilger 9 October 1939 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	30 December 2023 London, United Kingdom
Nationality	Australian
Children	Sam Pilger, Zoe Pilger
Interests	War on Terror
John Pilger, an Australian crusading journalist, who achieved fame in spite of a refusal to kowtow to the establishment by avoiding controversial issues.

John Pilger, an Australian crusading journalist, achieved fame in spite of a refusal to kowtow to the establishment by avoiding controversial issues. At the forefront of these issues, Pilger championed the rights of whistleblower Julian Assange.

Appreciation

File:RIP John Pilger.jpg

RIP John Pilger (died 30 December 2023)

John Pilger twice won the UK's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries received academy awards in Britain and the US. Noam Chomsky said of Pilger:

"John Pilger's work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over and over again, and his courage and insight a constant inspiration."

In Breaking the Silence: The Television Reporting of John Pilger, his appraisal of the journalist's documentaries, Anthony Hayward wrote,

"For more than a generation, he has been an ever stronger voice for those without a voice and a thorn in the side of authority and the Establishment. His work, particularly his television documentaries, has also made him rare in being a journalist who is universally known, a champion of those for whom he fights and the scourge of politicians and others whose actions he exposes."

"War on Terror"

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"Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the 'War on Terror'"

"Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the 'War on Terror'" is a 2003 Carlton Television documentary written and directed by John Pilger, produced by Christopher Martin and co-directed by Steve Connelly, in which Pilger describes how the United States created Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Six months after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and two years after the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, John Pilger’s documentary "Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror" highlighted the hypocrisy and double standards of the American and British adventures of 2001-3, which led to the deaths of more than a million people.

The film opens with a series of haunting war photographs. Over the carnage, George W Bush says, ‘The United States will bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies, and freedom.’ His voice dissolves into the high-pitch of his co-conspirator, Tony Blair, who exalts his actions as ‘a fight for freedom’ and ‘a fight for justice’.

Pilger asked "What are the real aims of this war and who are the most threatening terrorists?" In a remote village in Afghanistan, he interviews Orifa, who lost eight members of her family, including six children, when an American plane dropped a 500-pound bomb on her mud-brick home. This is juxtaposed with Bush telling US Congress that the United States is "a friend to the Afghan people". Few countries have been helped less by the United States – less than 3% of all aid to Afghanistan is for reconstruction from war damage.

Kabul, the capital, is a maze of destruction, with cluster bombs not cleared from the city centre and families living in abandoned buildings. "I’ve spent much of my life in places of upheaval, but I’ve rarely seen such a ruined city as Kabul," said Pilger. Most of the damage was inflicted not by the "official enemy", the Taliban, but by warlords backed, trained and funded by the US, who restored the poppy harvests and opium trade, which the Taliban had banned.

Recalling the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Pilger reveals that President Jimmy Carter signed a secret presidential decree authorising the bank-rolling of the warlords, known as the mujahedin, to fight the Red Army. Among them, the CIA and Britain's MI6 trained Islamic extremists, including Osama bin Laden, as part of what was called Operation Cyclone. From this, says Pilger, ‘came the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and [the attacks of] September 11th’.

The Taliban were also the United States's secret friends. Shortly after they took power in Afghanistan, they were offered a bribe by the administration of President Bill Clinton if they backed a plan for an oil pipeline from central Asia through Afghanistan. However, when George W Bush became President, the connection between Al-Qaeda and the Taliban was an embarrassment, and the tie was cut.

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For "War on Terror", read "War OF Terror"

Pilger's interviews with administration officials – described by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern as ‘the crazies’ – are perhaps the highlight of a film made when 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq were raw. He interviews Under Secretary of State John Bolton, who is today Donald Trump's National Security Adviser. Bolton tells Pilger that the United States has done more ‘to create conditions in which individuals can be free around the world than any other country’. When Pilger points to the US record of bombing countries into submission, Bolton says, ‘Are you a Labour Party member… or a Communist Party member?’ When Pilger replies that Tony Blair's Labour Party are his allies, he says, ‘Oh, really?’

Of all Pilger's films about American foreign policy, "Breaking the Silence" achieved something of a ‘cult’ status as counter-history and was shown across the United States – thanks in part to Ray McGovern, who took the film on a tour of campuses and small towns. ‘We warn people,’ he said, ‘about the crazies.’ Nothing, he might add today, has changed.

"War OF Terror"

Concluding an interview for the Media Workers Against the War Conference "The First Casualty? War, Truth & the Media Today", at the London School of Economics on 17 November 2007, John Pilger said:

Yes, a lot of journalists put "Terrorism" and "War on Terror" in inverted commas but after a while they weary of that. It's as if there really is a "War on Terror". And there isn't a "War on Terror". There is a "War OF Terror".

"The War You Don't See"

In his 2010 film "The War You Don't See", John Pilger returns to the subject of war reporting and its critical role in the making of wars. This ‘drum beat’ was the theme of Pilger's 1983 documentary "Frontline: The Search for Truth in Wartime", a history of war journalism from the Crimea in the 19th century (‘the last British war without censorship’) to Margaret Thatcher's Falklands War in 1982.

"The War You Don’t See" analyses propaganda as a weapon in Iraq and Afghanistan. The title refers to censorship by omission – ‘the most virulent form of censorship,’ said Pilger – and the collusion of journalists in nominally free societies such as Britain and the United States.

The film begins with shocking footage from Iraq in 2007. An American Apache gunship opens fire on a Baghdad street, killing in cold blood two Reuters journalists, along with Iraqi civilians. There is no provocation – the victims are unarmed. One of the Apache crew comments ‘Nice’ as he murders people at a safe distance. Titled ‘Collateral Murder’, the video was leaked to WikiLeaks by soldier Bradley (later Chelsea) Manning.

Previously unscreened footage shows a 2004 attack on the Iraqi city of Fallujah by American and British forces that left thousands dead. An independent American journalist’s report and photographs of mass graves never appeared in corporate media. In occupied Palestine, reports Pilger, the intimidation and killing of non-Western journalists by the Israelis are seldom reported.

"The War You Don't See" marks the rise of WikiLeaks, whose founder and editor-in-chief, Julian Assange, tells Pilger that his organisation gives ‘conscientious objectors’ within ‘power systems’ a means of informing the public directly, a landmark in journalism:

"The lives of countless men, women and children depend on the truth," concludes Pilger, "or their blood is on those of us who are meant to keep the record straight."

Avoiding some third rail topics

Pilger's writings avoided touching on several third rail topics. He never 9/11 treated as a potential [[false flag]; Pilger focused instead on the Saudi involvement. While at times protesting long lockdowns, at other times supporting them, he stayed with the official narrative during Covid. Noticeably, he did not protest against coerced jabs.