Fallujah.

The past two weeks have seen a remarkable effort on the part of the US government and numerous media outlets to directly contradict reality. The single most remarkable instance of the contradiction came from US military spokesman Mark Kimmitt, who said:

The stations that are showing Americans intentionally killing women and children are not legitimate news sources. That is propaganda, and that is lies.

The astoundingly frank exhortation to shun plainly evident reality in favour of official spin came amid US claims that 95% of the 600 killed and thousands wounded during the military siege of Fallujah were "fighters". An estimated 60,000 people were displaced.

The corporate media in Canada and the US, meanwhile, has made a obfuscating and distracting from the siege of Fallujah and the resulting human disaster. I know of no systematic study, but there has been a distinct emphasis on "kidnapped" foreigners while war crimes, massacres, murder, and the continuing illegality of the occupation ignored or heavily marginalized.

In situations where disinformation reaches its absolute fever pitch, it becomes crucial to focus on the reality of the situation, and to take note of the gap between that reality and the manipulated images that corporate media ask us to accept in its place.

Fallujah is one place, but understanding what went on there and understanding the aforementioned gap can provide us with a healthy skepticism and a set of questions that can be applied to almost all other news coverage.

* * *

Report from Fallujah -- Destroying a Town in Order to Save it, by Rahul Mahajan

We were in Fallujah during the "ceasefire." This is what we saw and heard. When the assault on Fallujah started, the power plant was bombed. Electricity is provided by generators and usually reserved for places with important functions. There are four hospitals currently running in Fallujah. This includes the one where we were, which was actually just a minor emergency clinic; another one of them is a car repair garage.

Americans Slaughtering Civilians in Falluja, by Dahr Jamail, The New Standard

As we neared Falluja, there were groups of children on the sides of the road handing out water and bread to people coming into Falluja. They began literally throwing stacks of flat bread into the bus. The fellowship and community spirit was unbelievable. Everyone was yelling for us, cheering us on, groups speckled along the road. As we neared Falluja a huge mushroom caused by a large U.S. bomb rose from the city. So much for the cease-fire.

"Easter in Fallujah," by Jo Wilding

We stop, turn off the siren, keep the blue light flashing, wait, eyes on the silhouettes of men in US Marine uniforms on the corners of the buildings. Several shots come. We duck, get as low as possible and I can see tiny red lights whipping past the window, past my head. Some, it's hard to tell, are hitting the ambulance. I start singing. What else do you do when someone's shooting at you? A tire bursts with an enormous noise and a jerk of the vehicle.

I'm outraged. We're trying to get to a woman who's giving birth without any medical attention, without electricity, in a city under siege, in a clearly marked ambulance, and you're shooting at us. How dare you?

Flight from a town where sports fields are graveyards, Paul McGeough, Sydney Morning Herald

There is not much dispute about the death toll at Falluja, which remains a no-go zone for foreign reporters. But while townspeople say they were mostly children, women and old men, US spokesmen insist that 95 per cent of the dead were fighters who had met the precision shooting of the US marines.

"Baghdad Burning" Weblog

The hostage situations are a mess. I watch television and it feels like I'm watching another country. All I can think is, "We've become one of *those* countries..." You know- the ones where hostages are taken on a daily basis and governments warn their civilians of visiting or entering the country. It's especially sad because even during those long years during the blockade and in between wars and bombings, there were never any attacks on foreigners. Iraqis are hospitable, friendly people who always used to treat foreigners with care... now, everyone is treated like a potential enemy.

Democracy Now interviews Aaron Glantz

More than 60,000 women and children fled the city during a brief ceasefire on Friday but the US blocked any men of military age from leaving. Dozens of bodies have been buried in the city's soccer stadium after US forces blocked roads heading toward the cemetery.

Mail and Guardian (South Africa)

But when asked about the victims, US marine Lieutenant Colonel Brennan Byrne said: 'What I think you will find is 95% of those were military-age males that were killed in the fighting. The marines are trained to be precise in their firepower ... The fact that there are 600 goes back to the fact that the marines are very good at what they do.'

What Triggered the Shia Insurrection?, by Michael Schwartz

The insurrection in Shia areas of Iraq was not a sudden explosion, nor was it primarily inspired by the events in Falluja. It was, instead, the result of a long series of actions and reactions between the Coalition's armed forces and increasingly organized and anti-American Shia militias.

Fallujah Stories, by Wendell Steavenson

'We are going to Fallujah.'
'To Fallujah? For jihad?'
'No, we are going to help people there.'
'Do you need weapons? Do you need someone to show you the way in?'

'Do we look like fighters?' ask Fallujah families with their disabled, their old and their children, by Patrick Cockburn

We were taken to the families in the shelter by Dr Abed al-Illah, a specialist in internal medicine who is also a representative of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which is part of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. He had just visited Fallujah hospital. He said: 'About 350 out of the 600 dead were women and children. One was only eight months old. Many died from simple wounds and could have been saved if they had medical attention.'"