ANDERSON, Mark: "Flagship news publications in the United States mainstream media have been forced to admit that over the years they quietly forged partnerships with the federal government in order to withhold from American taxpayers vital information on such topics as the government’s drone-assassination program, torture, secret prisons and warrantless snooping"

Mark Anderson (US journalist): “Mainstream media admits censoring news at behest of U.S. federal government.

Flagship news publications in the United States mainstream media have been forced to admit that over the years they quietly forged partnerships with the federal government in order to withhold from Americantaxpayers vital information on such topics as the government’s drone-assassination program, torture, secret prisons and warrantless snooping.

Some of the worst cases of collusion and suppression go back 10 years to the early days of the modern “war on terror.” The existence of a secret U.S. drone base in Saudi Arabia which The Washington Post and The New York Times admittedly kept hidden for two years is the latest in a string of coverups. Others include: The Times obeying Bush Administration demands in mid-2004 to cover up warrantless wiretapping of Americans’ communications for 18 months and the Post concealing which nations served as secret, unlawful Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) torture prison locations.

This is all coming out as John O. Brennan, the current nominee to head the CIA, is being identified as the agency’s architect of a secret base in Saudi Arabia out of which remote-controlled drones are flown. From that base, the U.S. in 2011 executed perhaps the most chilling and game-changing action in recent history—the planned killing of American citizen Anwar Awlaki, an alleged terrorist recruiter. His American son, Abdulrahman, only 16, also was assassinated by a drone strike from the same base. There were no arrests, no trials and no presumption of innocence” (Mark Anderson, “Mainstream media censorship exposed”, Amercian DFree Press, 20 Febraurt 2013: http://americanfreepress.net/mainstream-media-censorship-exposed/ ).