Stephen Lendman

Measuring 7.1 (one or more other reports said 7.4), rocked northeast Japan, causing more damage and disruption to a devastated area. It cut electricity to four million homes, disrupted power at two nuclear facilities, and according to Kyodo News:

"Radioactive water spilled from pools holding spent nuclear fuel rods at the Onagawa power plant in Miyagi Prefecture," according to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA).

For up to 80 minutes, power was lost at Onagawa and the Higashidori nuclear facility. "A small amount of contaminated water spilled on the floor (inside) all three (Onagawa) reactors....In all, water spilled or leaked at eight sections of the plant," also run by Tokyo Electric (TEPCO). In addition, blowout panels designed to control pressure were damaged in reactor number three's turbine building, TEPCO saying a complete damage assessment was ongoing.

Moreover, a Rokkasho village (Aomori Prefecture) spent nuclear fuel disposal facility also lost power temporarily. The extent of nuclear facility damage is unknown, except for sketchy and unreliable official reports.

As always, they say damage, new or earlier, poses no dangers. Already, in fact, Fukushima caused potentially apocalyptic ones, covered up to conceal their gravity, extending far beyond Japan and the Pacific rim.

Other reports also downplay them, including from The New York Times and Al Jazeera, often indistinguishable from and as unreliable as BBC, headlining (on April 8) "Japan quake causes radioactive spill," saying:

"A powerful earthquake in northeast Japan rocked a nuclear plant, causing a small amount of radioactive water to spill, but the operator said there was no immediate danger," [case closed.]

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William Bowles
Strategic Culture Foundation

'The BBC's Tim Willcox takes a look at a tank destroyed in recent air
strikes near the Libyan town of Ajdabiya.' - 'VIDEO: How air strikes
destroy Libyan tanks', BBC Website, 4 April 2011

"This is pure hypocrisy and demagogy, they are already giving weapons to the rebels, and not only that: they are interfering in the struggle of the Libyan people," he said, adding that “this action is against international law and the United Nations Charter.”-- Miguel D'Escoto

One thing should surely be clear and that is the pivotal role played by the corporate/state media in selling the Libyan 'no-fly zone' and the subsequent invasion by the Empire, albeit by first 'softening up the enemy' and then as illegal arms supplier. Thus the 'rebels', about whom absolutely nothing is known, become the West's 'democratic' torch-bearers and all pretence at it being some kind of 'humanitarian intervention', is dropped.

But in spite of the all-embracing media barrage it didn't take long for the real story behind the 'rebels' to emerge.

“Today as Colonel Haftar finally returns to the battlefields of North Africa with the objective of toppling Gaddafi, his former co-conspirator from Libya’s 1969 coup, he may stand as the best liaison for the United States and allied NATO forces in dealing with Libya’s unruly rebels.”-- 'Rebel army chief is veteran Gaddafi foe-think-tank', Reuters news service, 1 April, 2011

What's so incredible about the power of the media to transform reality for us is best illustrated by the fact that the political elite knew what the 'no-fly zone' really meant, that it was an act of war, the media just omitted this particular detail from its coverage, or rather it relegated it to a footnote, just as it did with the way it presented the illegal invasion of Iraq to the public. Crimes become 'omissions' and 'errors' and finally 'historical' footnotes.

“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that the Obama administration knew that the Libyan opposition was eager to be seen “as doing this by themselves on behalf of the Libyan people — that there not be outside intervention by any external force.”— ‘Libyan Rebels Said to Debate Seeking U.N. Airstrikes‘, New York Times, 2 March, 2011.

Gaddafi of course, is just one of a whole slew of stereotypes that can be conveniently pulled out of storage as and when necessary and used to dehumanize and transform into the 'other' without missing a beat (no images in the MSM of Gaddafi hugging Blair or hanging out with Berlusconi). Reality gets literally 'boilerplated' by an all-embracing electronic media where rumour /disinformation becomes reality as it is wrapped around the planet 24/7.

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