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Friday, April 21, 2006

The latest Bush crime family outrage: selling our nation's history to the highest bidder.

***Wayne Madsen Report***

April 20, 2006 -- In another assault by the Bush administration on freedom of information, the Smithsonian Institution has cut a deal with Showtime that requires all filmmakers and documentary producers to offer their work to Showtime's Smithsonian On Demand cable network. Producers, researchers, and filmmakers who refuse to deal with Showtime will find their access to Smithsonian film archives and subject matter experts sharply curtailed. More than 214 researchers, documentary filmmakers, and historians, including Michael Moore and Ken Burns, sent a petition to Smithsonian secretary Lawrence Small calling the move anti-competitive. Essentially, the Smithsonian has sold America's film archives and history to a corporation. The Smithsonian has refused to provide the group of independent filmmakers and historians with a copy of the Smithsonian's contract with Showtime. Showtime Networks Inc. is owned by CBS. The CBS board includes "neocon lite" insider, former Defense Secretary and Maine Republican Senator William S. Cohen. Showtime's Chairman and CEO is Matthew Blank. Showtime has a partnership deal with Paramount Pictures.
The latest Bush crime family outrage: selling our nation's history to the highest bidder. Smithsonian Institution signs secretive deal with Showtime for exclusive use of film archives. Meanwhile, the National Archives comes under CIA and Air Force control as the FBI intimidates Jack Anderson's family for access to his papers.

On April 18, the New York Times reported that the head of the National Archives Allan Weinstein announced that the Archives penned a secret agreement with the CIA in 2001 that permitted the agency to withdrawal from public access previously declassified documents. In 2002, the Archives concluded a similar agreement with the Air Force. Over 50,000 pages, some dating back to the 1950s, have been reclassified and withdrawn from public access. The Archives revelations came at the same time the FBI was revealed to have tried to intimidate the family of the late investigative journalist Jack Anderson to turn over his 200 boxes of files of papers to the FBI for censorship, reclassification, and potential theft. It is clear that the actions of the Smithsonian, National Archives, CIA, Air Force, and FBI are clear attempts to censor American history. Not until the Bush crime family is driven out of office and into prison will the threat to our very birthright as a nation loom large on the horizon.


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