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Gold has dropped sharply from its peak, but it is actually up 5% for the quarter so far. I am not sure why gold has dropped so far recently. A correction was to be expected but this is a sharp correction. Maybe it dropped due to a perceived lessening in the likelihood of a U.S./Israeli/Neocon attack on Iran - or because the prospect of higher interest rates increases the value of currencies, thereby reducing the value of precious metals and commodities. Putting both things together - the rise in interest rates and the supposed lessening of the likelihood of war in Iran - we can see some reasons for the U.S. dollar's sharp rise against the euro last week.

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The coming recession will be more severe than most people expect because it will come after two huge historical bubbles, i.e. the 2000 technology stock market bubble and the 2005 real estate bubble. These two speculative bubbles are interrelated, since the second bubble developed because the Greenspan Fed attempted to stop the stock market decline in 2002 and avoid a recession after 9/11, by driving short term interest rates down to 1 percent over a two-year period. This was accompanied by a decline in mortgage rates and other long-term interest rates, which stimulated investments in real estate through long-term borrowing.

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Propaganda is when the Western corporate media tries to influence public opinion in favor of the Iraq War by consistently tampering with truth and distorting reality. It is to be expected. And it is to be recognized for what it is. On occasions when the media does its job responsibly and reports events like the November 19, 2005, Haditha Massacre, it must also be willing and able to anticipate and counter propaganda campaigns that will inevitably follow. It is to be expected that the responsible members of the media fraternity will stick to their guns and not join the propagandists.

This piece is a summary of five most commonly deployed crisis management propaganda tactics which the State and Media combine that we can expect to see in relation to the Haditha Massacre. Listed in a loose chronological order of their deployment, the tactics are: Delay, Distract, Discredit, Spotlight and Scapegoat. Each of the five public relations campaigns will here be discussed in the context of the Haditha Massacre.

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