Narrative of mainstream US media, anti-Muslim: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Dr. Wilmer Leon, a columnist and political scientist, in Washington, to discuss the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What did you think about the president’s statements and do you think they gave enough assurance to American people that they are protected and their safety is guaranteed?

Leon: Well, I think the president said about as much as he could say based upon the fact that US intelligence sources still don’t know the answer to the fundamental question, which is ‘why was this done?’ So I think the president was being about as responsible as he could be.

What I think is very important for people to understand here is that the intelligence entities don’t know and what I see them doing with the California shooting is very similar to what they have been trying to do with the Paris shootings, which is cover their backsides, cover their behinds, because they have not been able to prevent... they weren’t able to prevent Paris; they weren’t able to prevent California; but they are still trying to lead people to believe that actually the tactics and things that they are engaging in are keeping people safe.

Press TV: Why do you think this case is being treated as a terror attack whilst, earlier in the weekend, we had the Planned Parenthood shooting and that was not a terror attack?

Leon: Well, I think that goes to one of the big problems with the narratives that are being created and the interests that are being served by those narratives. The Planned Parenthood attack was carried out by a white American, and... so the mainstream media in this country does not want to start assigning terrorist tags and terrorist motivations to white Americans. They are reserving that narrative for Muslims because that fits the narrative that mainstream media wants to promote in this country.

So, it is very easy for them to label Muslims as terrorists; but they do not want to label Timothy McVeigh as a terrorist. They do not want to label any of the other white individuals that are engaging in mass murder in this country as terrorist because that does not fit the narrative that they are trying to portray.

Press TV: So, ...a report that Tashfeen Malik had pledged allegiance to ISIS (Daesh) before or while she was conducting the attack... an issue that is not being addressed any longer is who is funding ISIS terror?

Leon: I am sorry I did not quite understand your question.

Press TV: An issue that is being neglected by the media right now is who is actually funding ISIL terrorists?

Leon: Well, that is a very good question. I have read some reports that there are people in Iraq who believe that the United States has been contributing to the funding for ISIS, that really what they are trying to do is just to continue the chaos in the region because that is where the most [of the] money is made. It is incredibly irresponsible, I believe, the way that these narratives are being created and the way that these narratives are being put forth.

For example, with the Paris bombing, you have former CIA director Woolsey trying to blame Edward Snowden for what happened in Paris. You had CIA director Brennan, I believe, talking about it was encryption and that the United States’ government needed backdoor access to software companies, software programs; and what we found out was no encryption was used, so there are a lot of false flag operations and a lot of Trojan horses that are being put out here because the government has other objectives, other motivations, besides just so-called protecting the American citizens. That is not what this is all about.  

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