Press Action ::: Press Action Hero of the Week: KURT NIMMO

Friday, February 14, 2003

Press Action Hero of the Week: KURT NIMMO

One of the largest U.S. peace demonstrations since the Vietnam War is scheduled to take place in New York City this weekend. A U.S. presidential administration and the major American media are senselessly and perilously advocating a war against Iraq. Millions of Americans are rebelling against the madness. What should the governing elite do?

They can issue an urgent warning that New York City and Washington, D.C., are at risk of being attacked. They can advise all residents to take precautions, including stocking up on water, duct tape and plastic and developing an escape plan for their families and pets.

The reality is that the warning would be part of a strategy to deflect attention away from the scheduled demonstration of peace in New York City. By scaring the masses, the Bush administration and corporate media would be seeking to rally them around an extremely dangerous excursion into terrible violence.

Kurt Nimmo put this week’s terror warnings and war plans into perspective in a Feb. 13 CounterPunch article. He presented a masterful analysis of the true intentions of the Bush junta and the potential evil that lurks behind the means to their goals.

“Is it crazy to think Bush and his Masters of Death and Destruction at the Pentagon would pull off a bio attack and blame it on Saddam or the now mythical (or apparently invisible) Osama bin Laden?” Nimmo asks. “Nope.”

Bush and his cronies try too hard to gain, retain and exert power. His team got down and dirty to “win” the presidency and now they are going to do whatever it takes to get the American people behind an attack on Iraq.

“Of course, since the Bush administration thinks Americans are so gullible (and, unfortunately, too many of them are), they keep throwing out flimsy and transparent pretenses in a desperate attempt to pin terrorism on Saddam,” Nimmo wrote.

In his CounterPunch article, Nimmo says he’s not afraid to call “a spade a spade.” If the Bush administration wants to nuke Baghdad or take a jackhammer to our freedoms here in the United States, then there’s not a whole lot we can do about it in the short-term, Nimmo says.

But if the massive antiwar demonstrations continue and if the major media miraculously discovers a sense of fairness and objectivity that it’s never had, then “maybe one day soon we can put a stop to all this madness and send Bush packing back to his ranch in Crawford, Texas,” Nimmo writes. “Or send him signed, sealed, and delivered to International Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity.”

When I contacted Nimmo to let him know that I planned to name him Press Action Hero of the Week, I asked why so many Americans buy into the us-against-them propaganda that has come into full bloom with Bush in the White House. “Americans, for all their intelligence, are ignorant. I hate to say that, but it is the simple and horrible truth,” Nimmo responded. “They believe the crap they are fed via TV, they seem to think if it’s said on CNN or Fox News it is the gospel truth. Unfortunately, they are too lazy or uninterested to find the truth on their own, or even seek out differing opinions. In short, they are brainwashed.”

Nimmo, 50, is a photographer and multimedia artist who lives in Las Cruces, N.M. He helps to train staff and faculty at the University of New Mexico at Las Cruces on graphic and photographic techniques using computer software programs such as Adobe Photoshop. As a result of amazing advances in computer technology, Nimmo no longer uses traditional dark room and photo labs for his own photography. Instead, he produces his work on PCs and Macs using Photoshop and other programs.

While Nimmo’s photography may give the viewer room to interpret, his political writing is as lucid as you will find anywhere on the web. Nimmo has his own website, Another Day in the Empire, that he tries to update on a regular basis. “I don’t write for Empire every day, but have so more recently as events intensify,” Nimmo says. “I usually write after reading news and editorials online.”

In the political realm, Nimmo has found inspiration from “various and sundry” writers through the years. He cites Gabriel Kolko, Michael Parenti, John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, Jeffrey St. Clair, Alexander Cockburn, John Kaminski, Robert Fisk as some who have influenced his political outlook.

Nimmo explains that it’s no coincidence that the major media has championed the Bush administration. “Media corporations are monopolized business; they are owned by conservative rich people who share the same philosophy as Bush and his cronies,” he says. “Many of them sit on the same boards of directors, many of them own controlling stock in Lockheed Martin, Boeing, GE, Raytheon, the large oil corporations, etc., and other multinational corporations that profit directly from war and global corporatism.”

Nimmo’s articles in CounterPunch and his posts on Another Day in the Empire have a way of telling it like it is. When the Bush administration talks of dirty bomb or bio-weapons attacks, we should know that it’s the U.S. government that has the easiest access to these types of weapons and that it’s the Bush administration that’s looking dangerously desperate these days in its flailing attempts to justify its proposed large-scale terrorism against Iraq—not a good combination. “I’m more afraid of the CIA and the Department of Defense than Saddam Hussein,” Nimmo writes in CounterPunch. “Why? Because they actually have an extensive track record of using biological, chemical, and nuclear agents on unsuspecting Americans.” Read his article if you want the evidence of what the U.S. government has done to its own people.

When I started naming Heroes of the Week in early January, I promised to “recognize a person who has written, edited, compiled or articulated a work that has advanced the cause of peace, freedom, fun and understanding.” Using those standards, I would be perfectly justified in designating Nimmo as Press Action Hero every week in recognition of his inspirational articles that run regularly in CounterPunch. But that would be the easy way out. Next week, I’ll need to begin searching for a new Press Action hero. And while I’m searching, it would be best if I avoid any new articles penned by Nimmo because, after reading one, I may be compelled to make him the first repeat Press Action hero.

-- Mark Hand

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