Thomas Wictor

As I get older, I become less able to put up with organized dishonesty. I loathe groups that work together to spread lies. The Orwellian reporting on Yemen signifies that western culture is nearing a point of no return. The rot runs so deep that we may not recover.

George Orwell’s novel 1984 is truly one of the most frightening books ever written. It’s the ultimate dystopia, a world in which everything is horrible. One of the ways that the English Socialist Party (INGSOC) government of Oceania oppresses the population is by the use of “doublethink,” described as “the act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts.” INGSOC keeps the population in a state of perpetual confusion by hammering it with doublethink slogans that are repeated constantly.

This passage from 1984 explains how the oppressed society is controlled.

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. “Reality control,” they called it: in Newspeak, “doublethink.”

The press is demanding that I engage in reality control and achieve victory over my own memory.

No. I refuse.

This is from today, September 13, 2015.

The death toll has reached 4,500 in six months.

This is from June 9, 2015, three months ago.

The airstrikes have so far claimed the lives of more than 4,500 civilians, mostly women and children.

So the press wants me to believe that the Saudi-led Coalition is killing thousands of civilians, yet the press also reports that the death toll hasn’t changed in three months. The Coalition is averaging 82 bombing missions a day. There have been at least 2500 air strikes in the last three months.

Why would the press report both that the Coalition is waging indiscriminate war and not killing anybody over the past three months? Because the casualty figure of 4500 is a lie. Journalists insist that I forget that they gave me this number three months ago. All the records today tell the same story, so the lie is supposed to become truth. The past has been altered.

“There were always 4500 Yemenis killed by Saudi air strikes.”

Yesterday the New York Times published a terrifying example of Orwellian doublethink.

“Neighborhoods [in Saada] have been so heavily bombed that locals joke grimly that the coalition has run out of buildings to hit.”

And then they show us a street in which only two buildings were the targets of precision munitions—maybe. I can’t tell you for sure if the buildings were even bombed. The only thing I know is that there were arms caches inside those buildings, or else they wouldn’t be damaged the way they are. But that’s not a heavily bombed neighborhood.

More.

“The aftermath of the airstrike in Sana that killed Mr. Mohammed, the barber, and Tayseer.”

“Near the scene of the strike in Sana that killed Mr. Mohammed and Tayseer. The strike sliced through several stories of a building of shops and apartments.”

Well, the red arrows show that it’s the same building. Did the air strike hit that structure or near it? That’s not a multi-storied building. What’s the truth about those two images? Does anyone at the New York Times know?

And the last one.

“Warplanes circle the city daily, attacking the same security buildings with a bewildering and terrible frequency.”

Sure. That’s why armed Houthis are stumbling around in the open—drunk, high on khat, and playing video games on their cell phones.

The New York Times photos are self-debunking.

My brother Tim tells me that the press is in the final stages of a terminal disease, so journalists are all hysterical. Today on Twitter, a Yemeni asked a British journalist if he had been lobbied by any interest groups to slant his reporting. His reaction is interesting.

She didn’t accuse him of taking bribes; she asked if he’d been lobbied. Why did he bring up bribes? A mystery!

Here’s all you need to know about reporting about Houthis.

Reporters flee Sanaa amid Houthi ‘siege on journalism’

SANAA - Since the Houthis took control of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, on 21 September, they have stormed the offices of many of the media outlets that oppose their policies in a bid to silence their opponents…

[A] woman in her 20s, Amal al-Yarisi, who works as a reporter for German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur was happy to talk about what she described as the “siege on journalism”.

“Every day we read threats from Houthis against journalists, and we hear also about journalists arrested by Houthis.”

She said that Houthis allow the journalists who are loyal to them to work because they want the world to know what they want…

The bodies of two journalists were found on Monday in Dhamar’s Harran area, after they were killed by Saudi-led airstrikes.

The two journalists, Abdullah Qabel, 25, who used to work as a reporter with Yemen Shabab TV channel, and Yousef al-Aizari, 26, who used to work as a reporter for Suhail TV channel, were arrested on 19 May by Houthis in Dhamar province.

The journalist syndicate said that the Houthis kept the two journalists in an illegal prison that is used as a weapons arsenal. An air raid later targeted the place where they were held, causing their deaths. There have been allegations that Houthis use journalists as human shields.

Why won’t the world press report on this? Because of the journalistic doublethink that has corrupted their souls.

When I began defending Israel, I was accused flat-out of being in the pay of the Israeli Mossad. Now that I’m defending the Coalition in Yemen, I’m accused of being in the pay of the House of Saud. To both accusations, I always say this: “I WISH!”

Accusations don’t make me angry. The Houthi groupies have discovered the lie that I see ghost cats. Can I help it if people can’t read and are so desperate to defend the indefensible that they break all standards of ethics? Think about this: Michael Shaw is a clinical psychologist who knows exactly what post-traumatic stress disorder is, but he put aside his obligation to do no harm and painted me as a raving lunatic simply because he wanted to discredit the squishy, mushy, silly David Frum.

Shaw said that I hallucinate, and he said that I accused the New York Times of doctoring photos. Both are lies. It would be easy for me to back out of all this, since the supporters of Hamas and the Houthis will stop at nothing to protect their beloved degenerates. Here’s a message from another clinical psychologist.

You know why I don’t stop?

Because I can see that the world is getting better. I’ve studied the Middle East for forty years. When I was twenty, if you’d told me that in 2015 the Saudi Arabians would be some of the most skilled and humane warriors on earth, I simply wouldn’t have believed you. It’s not a criticism of Saudi Arabia; I wouldn’t have believed you because creating one of the most skilled and humane armed forces on earth was not something the Saudis expressed any interest in doing.

Here are some FACTS.

The figure of 4500 dead Yemenis is fraudulent, but let’s accept it as real for the sake of argument. That’s 4500 dead over six months.

Officially, Israel killed 2100 over five weeks in Operation Protective Edge.

Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve killed 7000 over three days in Syria.

The Coalition of the Willing killed about 7000 Iraqis in three weeks.

Due entirely to their own personal integrity, the Saudis have far surpassed the ability of the finest western armed forces to prevent civilian casualties. No amount of Orwellian propaganda can hide that. And that’s why I’m optimistic, and it’s why I’m glad to be alive at this point in history, watching the sweeping changes that are ridding the world of the old, destructive ways of doing things.

Update

The Chinese think it’s news that a major ground offensive has begun in Yemen. Can’t find it in any American, British, Canadian, or Australian news outlet.