I think it was Covert Action Quarterly that first covered how National Geographic is a conduit for CIA propaganda. Here’s some tenative analysis. drew hempel, M.A.
Counter PunchI have a brain and free will, and am not anyone’s stooge, nor do I want anyone... As for National Geographic, I’m sure they have all sorts of covert ties, ...www.oilempire.us/counterpunch.html –
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1206_021204_StoehrAtlas.html
More than 250 people contributed to this book over this past a year. The acknowledgements includes organizations such as the CIA, World Wildlife Fund and the United Nations. The Family Reference Atlas includes a full range of physical and political maps of the world, and its continents, as well as detailed regional maps. There is also a large section devoted to our oceans and space.
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/printed-books/national-geographic/1001386/
VOICE OF THE CIA
Review from Aang about National Geographic, 02.11.04Author’s product rating
Advantages Occasional mildly interesting articleDisadvantages CIA propaganda. Little real geography.
Summary:
Full review Voice of the CIA
Pics of naked people used to make it interesting. But in today’s fascist, fundamentalist USA, naked pics are no longer allowed in the National Geographic.
The National Geographic appears to have become the mouthpiece of the CIA.
Just before 9 11, the National geographic was preparing maps and an article on Afghanistan.If you want to know which countries the Pentagon is about to invade, look at the National Geographic.
The latest edition of the magazine, dated November 2004, has an article on the Geography of Terror. The article, written by Walter Laqueur who recently retired from the Kissinger Chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, seems full of obvious disinformation.
The article refers to a number of countries:
Ireland – the article fails to mention US financing of terror groups, and the allegation that most of the worst incidents were the work of the UK security services.
Europe – the article fails to mention the CIA links to the terror which hit Italy in the 1980s. Remember the bombs in railway stations that ‘were the work of fascist groups with CIA connections’.
Indonesia – the article fails to mention (1) the CIA terror used to topple President Sukarno and then President Suharto (2) the US training of the generals who have been associated with terror in East Timor, the Spice Islands and elsewhere (3) the links between the US trained Indonesian military and ‘Moslem’ terror groups such as Laskar Jihad (4) the alleged involvement of the Indonesian military in the Bali bomb.
Palestine – the article does not make it clear that (1) the Palestinians were driven from their land by Jewish terrorist groups (2) the Israelis initially aided Hamas in order to weaken Arafat (3) the USA supports Israel in its occupation of Palestinian land and defiance of UN resolutions and in its possession of weapons of mass destruction.
Iraq – the article fails to mention the body of evidence that Saddam was a CIA agent and was put into power by the USA.
Al Qaeda – the article promotes the myth of al Qaeda. It fails to mention (1) the bin Laden links to the Bush family (2) bin Laden’s Jewish mother (3) bin Laden’s death in December 2001 (4) the controlled explosions that brought down the Twin Towers on 9 11 (5) the training of the alleged hijackers at US military bases.
The National Geographic is supposed to be about geography. But what do we get? We get endless stuff about:
Archaeology – particularly in the Mayan world.
History.
Biology – particularly fish and apes.
Astronomy
The articles are written in a strange style. The authors like to sound clever and literary but often they simply obscure the meaning of what they are trying to say.
The layout of text and photos also tries to be clever, but ends up being clumsy, like an american automobile.
Who advertises in the National Geographic? We get adverts for the sort of posh watches and posh cars which I could never afford.
Is the National Geographic worth buying? Just occasionally there is a mildly interesting article.
Explorers House: National Geographic and the World It Made
Exec Poole’s Nat. Geo. book:
Hardcover: 357 pages Publisher: Penguin Press (October 21, 2004) Language: English ISBN: 1594200327 Bob Poole’s book limns that whole idiosyncratic lineup with wry insight. Fondness for the institution (which he served as executive editor) aside, however, Poole doesn’t flinch from telling the tale warts and all – the Geographic’s prewar ambivalence toward Hitler’s Germany, its embrace in pre-Civil Rights America of the larger society’s racial prejudices, or its Cold War fling in aiding CIA efforts against the Russians.
