S Brian Willson: Election Meddling, Covert-Ops, and Propaganda
Channel: Ed Mays
Date: 2022-01-20

The US government and the lap dog corporate media squeal like stuck pigs about real or imagined foreign meddling in our elections.  But a 2016 study by Dov H. Levin found that the U.S. intervened in 81 foreign elections between 1946 and 2000 [Source: Foreign electoral intervention – Wikipedia; See also: Noam Chomsky On The Long History Of US Meddling In Foreign Elections – Truthout 7/19/17]. 

As good an example as any are the most recent attempts by the US government to overthrow the popular elected government of Nicaragua and install a neoliberal puppet regime. First was the violent coup attempt in 2018 followed by another planned coup in June of 2021 leading up to outright election meddling in the national election of November 7th, all of this exposed in leaked State Department documents.

This involved a brazen campaign of funding and creating right wing opposition parties and candidates, coup plotters, and foreign based NGOs, culminating in an elaborate multi-media propaganda operation including western corporate media, which painted the election as fraudulent. The Biden administration then used the canard that they manufactured to impose further crippling sanctions. -Another bald-faced intervention in Nicaraguan democracy and sovereignty.

The media complicity goes far beyond normal garden variety propaganda, as the leaked State Dept. documents openly called for a campaign of “fake news” and social media psyops.  As we will easily demonstrate, all the accusations made by the NY Times and echoed by western corporate media outlets concerning the Nicaraguan elections were patently false.  It turns out, Nicaragua’s elections are far more open and democratic than US elections.

I am constantly astonished at how US corporate media can get away with this.  It seems in order to get a glimpse of the reality of US foreign policy, especially in Central and Latin America, you would have to go there.  This is exactly what we do in this episode of Pirate TV.  Renowned anti-war and social justice activist S. Brian Willson, a frequent guest over the past decades, joins us from his home in Nicaragua where he has been living for the past 5 years.  Unbeknownst to people who get their information from corporate media in the US, there were 232 accredited foreign electoral observers or ‘accompaniers’, 67 as journalists on the ground to observe the election.  They were from 27 countries.  We are going to hear from several of them also.

Thanks to Alliance For Global Justice for election observer testimony
and Paul Baker for footage of the 2018 coup attempt.
Recorded 12/29/21

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Pirate TV is a 58 minute weekly TV show that provides the book talk and lecture content for Free Speech TV.  Pirate TV challenges the Media Blockade, bringing you independent voices, information and programming unavailable on the Corporate Sponsor-Ship. These posts are for YouTube and are could be longer than the broadcast versions.  You will notice that I don't monetize my videos.  I'm irritated by constant interruptions as I'm sure are you, and I would like to have a say over sponsorship.  Up until this year Pirate TV was partially funded by a very small grant from a local activist trust fund.  We have lost this funding.  If you would like to pitch in to support this work, consider a donation:  http://www.edmaysproductions.net/piratetvsubdirectories/support.html or PayPal: piratetvseattle@gmail.com