Bogus News 11-30-2006

30, November 2006               Bogus News

The Center for Media and Democracy exposed another major threat to our democracy. a damning report of 46 stations in 22 states using bogus new clips disguised as news reports. These Video News Releases, or VNR’s, are carefully crafted to confuse the public in believing the prepackaged views of ‘experts’ beamed into our living rooms is delivered real time. Although the number of VNR’s is down from a high of 77 stations last April, this practice shows no signs of letting up. The clips appear on the 6 ’clock news to promote commercial products or political messages.

Large media conglomerates, such as Disney, News Corp. and the Tribune have been identified and are funded by the country’s largest corporations such as, Allstate Insurance, General Motors and GlaxoSmithKline. Public Relations firms, the hired guns, of this insidious practice, have sunk to new lows in promoting these corporate agendas. Sadly, corporate profits always seem to take precedence over the greater good. For example, the PR firm Medialink Worldwide, contracted a VNR production with “TCS Daily Science Roundtable” to challenge the ‘uncomfortable truth’ of global warming. It is outrageous that these attempts to influence public opinion by “fake reporters” are often paid by our tax dollars, I ask concerned readers to contact lawmakers and demand the Federal Communications Commission call an immediate halt to this gross abuse of the public airways.

DAFUR 11-28-2006

28, November 2006 DAFUR        

Nicholas Kristoff of the NYT and Jonathan Gurwitz of the San Antonio Express-News, deserve considerable credit for their relentless efforts in focusing the spotlight on the appalling genocide in Darfur. The deafening silence by a largely uncaring international community exposes the racism and callous unconcern for the sanctity of human life, especially when the victims are black Africans. The lessons of the Rwandan genocide are all but forgotten. The tragedy of Darfur is also a damning indictment of an international community which unhesitatingly dances with the ‘devil’ but remains unconcerned with the genocidal killings by its trading partner. Russia and China are Sudan’s principal weapons suppliers and are therefore complicit in the ensuing genocide. 

It is tragic that nation’s self-interests invariably trump human rights considerations. Arab nations especially deserve public scorn for their failure to reign in the genocidal savagery. It is shameful that the United Nations has failed to issue a no-fly’ zone and impose a tight weapons embargo to protect the black Sudanese from their Arab serial killers. This would also be a wonderful opportunity for the US to shore up its tattered image by flexing its military muscles for purely humanitarian reasons. After all, it did not hesitate to impose a tight embargo on Iraq and launch an unprovoked attack on a sovereign state. 

Neocons try to deflect criticism 11-26-2006

26, November 2006 Neocons try to deflect criticism
Hardly had the results of the midterm elections been announced, when the neocons – the architects of ‘America’s greatest blunder’ tried to distance themselves from their former leader to assuage their own guilt. Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum began finger pointing and claimed their grand Iraq prewar plans, had been undermined by the incompetence of the Bush administration. 

It is shameful that Richard Perle, who once occupied the lofty position of the  Pentagon's Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee had relied on Ahmad Chalabi’s, fictional account of Iraq’s WMD’s, to buttress the case for the Iraq war, is now heaping his scorn and disdain at his former ‘stay the course’ task master. In order to deflect mounting criticism and as a face saving measure, Perle still insists that Saddam Hussein had WMD’s. David Frum, the former White House speechwriter, also blamed his former boss. Kenneth Adelman, a diehard neocon who served on the Defense Policy Board until 2005, is also having difficulty justifying his earlier February 2003 op-ed article in the Washington Post in which he stated, "I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk."
He has also jumped on the bandwagon blaming Bush and his close advisors for being ‘deadly dysfunctional.’ These self-serving neocons deserve public scorn for their role in railroading our great nation into a disastrous Middle East conflict which has drained our national Treasury and aborted of the lives of thousands of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians.

AIPAC 11-21-2006

21, November 2006                AIPAC
The recent results of the mid-term election have resulted in a stunning repudiation of Bush’s foreign policy and turned the spotlight on the activities of lobbyists such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC. AIPAC boasts of being one of the nation’s most influential lobbies. Consider some of its more egregious activities:

1. Played a key role persuading the Bush administration and US lawmakers to wage the preemptive war on Iraq. 
2. Continues to exert enormous pressure on US lawmakers to continue the $3 billion a year funding of Israel’s apartheid policies. 
3. Pressuring US lawmakers to support future military strikes on Iran.
4. Lobbied US lawmakers to fund the apartheid wall which cuts into large acres of land belonging to the Palestinians. 
5. Silences all political opposition to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, targeted assassinations, home demolitions and theft of Palestinian taxes. 

However, it is encouraging to hear more and more courageous Americans expressing their opposition to AIPAC’s undue influence.

Two eminent scholars, Professor Stephen Walt of Harvard University, and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, published a highly acclaimed paper arguing that AIPAC has adversely influenced U.S. foreign policy compromising our security in order to advance the interest of Israel. I urge readers to contact their local representatives and demand that we call a halt to unconditional support to Israel whose policies have in large measure contributed to the chaos and instability in the Middle East and enormous oppression of the Palestinians.

Iraq 11-20-2006

20, November 2006           Iraq

I call upon all South Asians to vigorously oppose the insane and immoral Iraq war. Every reason advanced by the godless neocons has proved to be utterly false. No weapons of mass destruction (formerly sold to Iraq by the US, Europeans, China and Russia – who now express moral outrage – such hypocrisy!), no role in 9/11 (the Bush mantra notwithstanding), no al-Qaeda connection; and no jalebees and gulab jaman greeted the invaders! It is incumbent for us to remember the dark days of the British Raj when our nation was forced to endure the indignities of British imperialism. We need to identify ourselves with nations yearning to be free from the horrors of undue US influence. The entire infrastructure of Iraq has been crippled by the grotesque ‘shock and awe’ invasion. US corporations swooped down and plundered the wealth of Iraq, uncaring and oblivious to the appalling suffering of the Iraqis. Heavy censorship prevented the horrors of the killings from being beamed into our living rooms. Over 650,000 Iraqis have died and many times that number seriously injured. Over 1,000,000 Iraqis have been displaced. Hundreds of intellectuals have been killed and others have fled leaving Iraq weak and fragile. The old strategy of ‘divide and rule’ has turned Iraq into a bloodbath of sectarian violence. The sinister influence of Israel in promoting the invasion and serving as military advisors, have been well documented by Robert Fisk (London Independent) and other reputable reporters. Medieval torture has been used to exact ‘confessions’ from hapless detainees making a complete mockery of our claim to be a law abiding nation. 

Cheap labor from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, is being exploited by private contractors to service the occupation forces. Earning a small percentage of their white colonial masters (about $300 per month) they work under extremely dangerous and hazardless conditions. 
Meanwhile, on the home front, our civil liberties have been severely curtailed and hate crimes have escalated. I urge Indo-Americans of all stripes to voice their opposition to the anti-democratic, imperial designs of our misguided administration. We need to hold the new crops of Democrats ‘feet to the fire’ and ensure they root out corruption and malfeasance and demand that the war profiteers return their ill-gotten gains to the US Treasury. Our elected officials must chart a new foreign policy based on peace and justice and not on advancing US corporate needs to the detriment of the poor and disenfranchised people of the world. 

Response to Sheree Roth RE: Israel 11-14-2006

14, November 2006         Response to Sheree Roth RE: Israel, Daily Nov. 14  

It is a pity Sheree Roth (Daily Nov 14), continues her diatribe against Hamas but deftly, tip toes around the egregious actions of the Israeli war machine (aided and abetted with our tax dollars). I wonder how Roth would react if she received a knock on her front door at 5 am demanding she vacate her home because an occupying power had earmarked her home for demolition. Replicating, Israel’s form of colonial domination, 20 minutes later, Roth’s home, contents and any remaining occupants would be crushed by a (US made Caterpillar) bulldozer.

There would, of course, be no compensation for such violations of international law and moral decency! How would Roth react if she had a medical emergency but was denied permission to travel by soldiers at military checkpoints? How would Roth react if her sole source of livelihood, olive and orange groves were razed to the ground to provide an occupying power with land for illegal settlements? How would Roth feel if her water supply was cut off and her children were severely malnourished by crippling economic sanctions and theft of tax dues withheld by an occupying power? If Roth resisted such actions, in the current rules of engagement which is the reality of the Middle East conflict, she would be branded a terrorist for denying the right of the occupying master power to impose its will unconditionally on its disenfranchised slave occupants. 

Susan Nathan’s book ‘Other Side of Israel’ 11-12-2006

12, November 2006 Susan Nathan’s book ‘Other Side of Israel’
Susan Nathan, an Israeli Jew was in Stanford University last week to discuss her widely acclaimed book, ‘Other Side of Israel’. After experiencing the sting of racism in England, Susan moved to Israel in the late 1990’s only to find enormous discrimination and persecution of Israeli Arabs living in Israel. Susan was the only Israeli Jew in the village of Israeli Arabs and what she experienced prompted her to launch a crusade to expose the ‘dark side’ of life for the disenfranchised Arabs. Susan drew a comparison of life for the privileged Israeli Jews living in the low density highlands with the high density overcrowded Arabs living in the lowlands in comparative filth and squalor. 

Sadly, all dark skinned Jews such as the Ethiopians suffer similar discrimination (even their blood was rejected as ‘tainted’). Susan gave many examples of blatant discrimination in education, housing and job opportunities. Susan speculated that this national policy was implemented to ‘encourage’ Arabs to leave Israel thereby mitigating the demographic time bomb when Israeli Jews may one day become a minority. Susan also confirmed the horrors of arbitrary home demolitions when bulldozers arrive at 5 am and the inhabitants are given 20 minutes to remove their all their possessions. Former IDF soldiers are now breaking the silence and voicing their opposition to the apartheid polices of their government (see www.breakingthesilence.org). 

More on the Cuban Five 11-7-2006

 7, November 2006                More on the Cuban Five
I am most troubled by the double standard applied by successive US administrations regarding the ‘war on terror’. Specifically, I am referring to the Cuban Five - Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzáles, and René Gonzáles - who were arrested in Miami, Florida on September 1998. They have been charged and on counts ranging from using false identification to espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. In June 2001, they were convicted of all 26 counts by a U.S. federal court in Miami and in December and sentenced to varying terms in maximum-security prison: two consecutive life terms for Hernández, life for Guerrero and Labañino, 19 years for Fernando Gonzáles, and 15 years for René Gonzáles. 

The group was closely monitoring the activities of anti-Castro exile groups CORU, Alpha 66, Omega 7 and Brothers to the Rescue. The anti-CASTRO group were allowed to of operate with complete immunity. The UN catalogued a staggering 3,478 deaths that were directly attributable to these groups. These acts include plane bombing and other acts of terrorism. Amnesty International noted a large number of irregularities during the trial which have yet to be addressed by an appeals court. 

Petitions filed by the defense team to move the trial out of Miami were denied. Cuban-Americans were excluded from the jury.  The Cuban Five languished in jail for three years pending commencement of the trial. The jury buckled under intense pressure and passed a guilty verdict.

On August 9, 2005, a three-judge appellate panel of the 11th circuit court of appeals in Atlanta reversed a decision of the lower court arguing that pre-trial publicity was prejudicial to the defendants and ordered a new trial. In November 2005 this ruling was reversed by the full panel of 11th circuit court [5] and the original convictions were reinstated. A rehearing is pending in the 11th United States circuit court of appeals. The courts actions generated world-wide outrage. Amnesty International criticized the US treatment of the Cuban Five as human rights violations,

Nobel Prize winners have written and sent a document to the U.S. Attorney General calling for freedom for the Cuban Five, signed by Zhores Alferov (Nobel Prize for Physics, 2000), Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize, 1984), Nadine Gordimer (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1991), Rigoberta Menchú (Nobel Peace Prize, 1992), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (Nobel Peace Prize, 1980), Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986), José Saramago (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1996), Günter Grass (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1999). [9]
Six British MPs wrote a letter to Tony Blair calling on the government to apply pressure on the US to act against terrorists in Florida and to immediately release the Five.

The incarceration of the Cuban Five is a travesty. I ask that you demand an independent investigation of the circumstances accompanying the arrest and trail of these men, permit family visitation rights, and demand that new trial free from jury tampering. I also ask that the shadowy group suspected of the most heinous crimes - the CORU, Alpha 66, Omega 7 and Brothers to the Rescue be thoroughly investigated. 

Saddam Hussein 11-6-2006

                                                                                                          

6, November 2006                             Saddam Hussein

It seems we are very selective in denouncing tyrants. Flash back to 1982 when our very own Donald Rumsfeld warmly greeted Saddam Hussein and promised to normalize relations after a five-judge court found Hussein guilty of executing 148 Shia men and boys from the town of Dujail. None-the-less, the trial of Saddam Hussein has mercifully come to an end. However, the fairness and legitimacy of the trial has received widespread criticism. Malcolm Smart, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, of Amnesty International (AI) was highly critical of the verdict, declaring, “We don't consider it was a fair process. The court was not impartial.

There were not adequate steps taken to protect the security of defense lawyers and witnesses...." AI’s concerns were certainly validated by the facts. Three defense lawyers were assassinated and a sympathetic judge replaced. Predictably, the Bush administration has shamelessly exploited the trial to deflect criticism of its failed Iraq policy and insisted that the verdict be declared a day before the midterm elections. This long trial has consumed $138 million of our tax money. It is doubtful that many Iraqis still believe the invasion of their country was to remove the Ba’athist tyrant after their country has been decimated and its precious oil and gas resources expropriated.  Let us hope the mid-term election will result in a victory for the democrats so that the trial of our very own ‘dear leader’ can commence.

A grave miscarriage of justice. 11-6-2006

Nov 6, 2006.                            A grave miscarriage of justice.
Sent the following to Anna Eshoo, Senators Diane Feinstein and Boxer, and Amnesty International.

I am most concerned that a grave miscarriage of justice has occurred by the incarceration and death sentence of an Iraqi American, Mohammad Munaf. It appears that Munaf, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is being punished for working as a photojournalist. Munaf was arrested by US forces along with three Romanian journalists and subsequently released. He was then abruptly re-arrested. According to Scott Horton, Chair of the International Law Committee at the New York Bar Association, the presiding judge stated he would dismiss the case in the absence of corroborating evidence.

Subsequently, Munaf was hauled into court by two American officers who claimed that they had evidence from the Romanian government proving Munaf’s guilt. The Iraqi judge capitulated under American pressure and sentenced Munaf to death. The Romanian government denied any involvement. The claim appears to be patently false because the Romanian government does not even endorse the death penalty. I ask that you demand an immediate investigation into the arrest and imprisonment of Mohammad Munaf. 

I also ask that you demand an investigation into the seven month detention of Bilal Hussein, a Pulitzer Prize winner of the Associated Press reporter. No charges have been filed against him. The U.S. claims they are under no obligation to file charges and can hold him indefinitely. The presidents of the Associated Press Managing Editors, APME, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, ASNE, the Associated Press Photo Managers, have sent a joint letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, asking for the release of Bilal Hussein, saying, “the members of our three organizations stand united in our outrage at the imprisonment of our colleague.” 

Finally, I ask that you conduct an investigation into the shooting and subsequent arrest of Abdul Ameer Younis Hussein, a CBS photojournalist. Fortunately, Hussein was acquitted after the judge declared that his arrest and incarceration were highly improper. It is extremely disturbing that our government and military is becoming increasingly tyrannical and is abusing the draconian security powers granted by Congress. These cases are a travesty of injustice. Our image, already at an all-time low as a law abiding nation, will be further tarnished if we do not challenge the blatant bullying tactics and false charges of the US military.         

Israel 11-5-2006

5, November 2006     Response to Lisa Cohen (PA Daily) RE: Israel

In response to Lisa Cohen’s letter (November 3), I would respectfully suggest that she read President Carter, latest book, in which he described the current policies of Israel as “a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant .  .  .depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights. Israel’s continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement . . “Israel continues to impose economic terror by withholding Palestinian tax revenues exacerbating the unemployment situation and fueling more anger and suffering. In a renewed effort to halt foreign based Palestinian entrepreneurs, Israel is denying them Palestinian residency. According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, the official Israeli policy since 1983, is to drastically reduce family reunification requests. There has been a concerted effort to split families and maintain the imprisoned population in a permanent state of abject poverty. Contrast this appalling injustice, with rights accorded to Jews from anywhere in the world who are granted immediate Israeli citizenship.

The disparity between Israel and its oppressed minority is vividly depicted in the award winning documentary ‘Occupation 101’. I urge Lisa and other interested readers to view the trailer at  www.occupation101.com. Finally, I would suggest that Lisa go to www.breakingthesilence.org.il and read the searing testimonies of a group of Israeli discharged soldiers exposing the appalling abuse heaped on the Palestinians on a daily basis.  

John Kerry 11-3-2006

3, November 2006                 John Kerry

There is little doubt that Kerry committed a faux pas which his detractors have seized with much relish. It is a pity Bush escaped the same media attention from his many misstatements. Kerry’s poor attempt at humor pales when compared to Bush’s monumental domestic and foreign policy blunders. Bush’s failed polices have resulted in human carnage of epic proportions in Iraq and Afghanistan while rewarding US war profiteers billions in no bid contracts.

Bush should apologize to our fighting men and women for sending them on suicide missions with no hope for a positive outcome. Bush has dishonored the memories of our fallen heroes whose coffins and injured remain hidden from the American people to avoid embarrassing our policy makers and muting public opposition to the war. Sadly, the media has jumped on the ‘kill Kerry’ bandwagon while remaining silent in the run up to the Iraq war allowing Bush and his advisors to railroad the American people with a blizzard of spin and outright lies. It took the perceptive John Stewart on Comedy Central to remind the American people of Bush’s pathetic efforts at humor when he made light of those ‘missing pesky WMD’s’, - accompanied by loud laughter from the compliant White House press corps. In his failed blinkered vision, ‘to stay the course’, Bush praised Cheney and Rumsfeld as doing a ‘heck of a job’! God bless America, we are certainly in great need of your help.