30, April 2007 George Tenet
George Tenet appearance on “60 Minutes” to promote his book, “At the Center of the Storm”, was a disingenuous effort to prop up his burnished image. It would have been far better for Tenet to have resigned with honor than to have been used as a ‘disposable diaper’ by the Bush Administration. Tenet was an eager and willing participant in the massive effort to deceive the American people with bogus claims of Iraq’s WMD’s and as such must share responsibility for the Iraq debacle with his former duplicitous bosses, Vice-President Cheney and President Bush.
He ignored solid CIA Intelligence reports in September 2002, which rejected the presence of WMD’s, and replaced them with a fraudulent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to please his bosses. Tenet further buttressed the case for war by falsely testifying an Al Qaeda link before Congress in February 2003. He allowed CIA analysts to be bullied and intimidated by Vice-President Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and then added the CIA stamp of approval to Colin Powell’s speech at the United Nations savaging CIA’s honor and credibility. It would be a befitting gesture of remorse if George Tenet returned the Medal of Freedom which was given to buy his silence and donated the royalties from his book to U.S. soldiers and their families who have paid the ultimate price for his lack of courage and leadership.
23, April 2007 Virginia Tech
It is a sad indictment of our society that regardless of the human tragedy that aborts our young and most vulnerable members, we stubbornly refuse to pass stringent laws banning hand guns. The blood of those that perished in the mass murder at Virginia Tech had barely dried when the NRA launched its offensive to demand that we turn our schools into shooting galleries by arming our teachers. Mindful of its loosening grip on a society disgusted and losing patience on the violence of our disaffected youth, the NRA repeats its tired mantra of the citizens ’right to bare arms’ – an obscene anachronism which needs to be vigorously challenged in the courts.
Every community has armed militias – we call them law enforcement agencies. We have rightly become the laughing stock of the world with our gun obsession. Do we need military style weapons for hunting and killing God’s animals to fulfill some grotesque Rambo fantasies? The underlying statistics regarding gun violence delivers an unmistakable and troubling message – far more deaths occur from suicides and offensive actions than lives saved by defensive measures using guns. The NRA’s twisted, circular, logic is to persuade us to buy more guns to protect ourselves from the guns that have already been sold. The Virginia Tech tragedy should be a wake-up call for stricter laws regarding gun ownership. We need our politicians to respond to our concerns not to the deep pockets of gun lobbyists.
20, April 2007 Double Standard on War on Terror
It would appear our government and courts do not follow a uniform standard of administering justice. Take the case of ex-CIA agent, Luis Posada Carriles. In 1976 Carriles planned the midair bombing of a civilian passenger plane killing 73 people and thereafter directed the bombing of tourist hotels in 1997. He escaped from prison in Venezuela and then entered the U.S. illegally. The U.S. department of Justice ignored his horrific terror crimes and decided to charge him for minor infractions of immigration laws and fraud.
The refusal of the U.S. government to try Posada smacks of a double standard on our alleged ‘war on terror’. The Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Civilian Aviation, ratified in 1971, mandates he be extradited or tried in the country where he is living. Judge Kathleen Cardone, of the El Paso Federal Court last Friday, granted Luis Posada Carriles freedom on bail. Posada’s favored treatment is in sharp contrast to the cruel conditions of René González, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, and Antonio Guerrero. These five Cubans, charged with monitoring private organizations inside the U.S. planning terror attacks against Cuba, are enduring harsh double life sentences in maximum security prisons. This makes a complete mockery of our claims to be a bastion of peace and justice. I urge readers to write to their representatives in Washington and demand that Posada be tried for terror crimes and the ‘Cuba Five’ be released immediately and unconditionally. Their continual incarceration is a travesty of justice.
17, April 2007 Bill Moyer’s Iraq video (April 25)
Bill Moyers, has assembled a 90 minutes video summarizing the lies told by the Bush administration to sell the Iraq war to the American people. It will be aired on PBS from 9 to 10.30 on April 25. Moyer’s, clips shows many media reporters to be willing accomplices. Among the guilty are the Weekly Standard, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, William Safire and Judith Miller of the New York Times and George Will of Newsweek.
Even Oprah does not escape criticism. Video clips show her silencing a caller who challenges some of the pro-war assertions of her guests. Moyer’s reserves special criticism of Murdoch’s Fox News, who offered the most toxic soup of propaganda to deceive the American people. Dan Rather, who expressed excitement of large scale bombing (‘shock and awe’) of Baghdad during the onset of the war, Peter Beinart and the then Chairman and CEO of CNN, Walter Isaacson all get a resounding failing grade. Conversely, Bob Simon of “60 Minutes” and Landsay of Knight Ridder both receive passing grades. Tim Russet of ‘Meet the Press’ also gets a failing grade for not challenging the Administration’s outrageous assertions.
Video clips of Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are both shown to be enthusiastic supporters of Bush’s war of deception. Conversely, Moyers replays clips of speeches made by Senators Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy who attempted to pierce the administration’s web of deception but were unfortunately drowned out by the war hawks
16, April 2007 Iraqgate
In the continuing saga of Iraqgate, two prominent authors have recently published explosive new books which offer conclusive evidence of the high crimes of the Bush Administration in selling the Iraq war to the American people.
Carlo Bonini is the Italian reporter who broke the infamous ‘yellow cake uranium’ Niger story. His latest book is called “Collusion: International Espionage and the War on Terror.” Peter Eisner is a senior foreign correspondent and is currently an editor at the Washington Post. His latest book is “The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the Case for War in Iraq.” Both authors offer convincing evidence that the false claims by the Bush Administration accusing Saddam Hussein of importing weapon grade material from Niger, was deliberately fabricated and included in the 2003 State of the Union Speech under vigorous opposition by the CIA and British Intelligence. Bonini and Eisner unravel the mystery behind the forged document which was seized by the Bush White House to launch a ‘war of terror’ on the hapless Iraqis. The authors trace the forged document to a former officer of Italian Intelligence with an extremely shady past. It is time for the Democrats to issue subpoenas to White House officials to unmask the murky details of this sordid chapter in our national politics.
10, April 2007 The Israeli Lobby
Desmond Tuck’s letter to the ‘Daily’ (April 6) contains a number of misleading statements. He claims that the Israeli lobby doesn’t exist. Nothing could be further from the truth. Its influence is both profound and insidious. Witness its aggressive and relentless attacks on former Jimmy Carter and its more recent efforts to deny tenure to Norman Finkelstein, a Professor of Political Science at DePaul University.
I would urge Tuck to read Paul Findley’s latest book, "They Dare to Speak Out" and "Silent No More." Findley, a former senior Republican represented Illinois in the U.S. House for 22 years, paid the ultimate price for speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights and criticizing the construction of Jewish-only settlements on confiscated Palestinian land. Findley was narrowly defeated by his opponent who received large amounts of money from the deep pockets of the pro-Israeli lobby. His book describes the tactics used by pro-Israeli groups to silence critics of Israel’s war of aggression. Other human rights stalwarts, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UN Envoy John Dugard, compare Israeli policies to former white South African apartheid. Surprisingly, even Israeli politicians such as former Education Minister, Shulamit Aloni, acknowledge that an apartheid system exists in Israel. Prof. John J. Mearsheimer and Prof. Stephen Walt, who warned of the undue influence of the pro-Israel lobby, were excoriated, mocked and largely silenced into obscurity.
10, April 2007 Captured British soldiers
The capture of 15 British sailors and subsequent confessions aired on Iranian television, demonstrates the complete fallacy and danger in our own policy of condoning torture and allowing confessions obtained during torture. The Guantanamo detainees recently tried under the Military Commission Act, have all recanted, claiming they were tortured or coerced into making confessions. The British government and our own Administration are hardly in a position to criticize Iran when the Iranians can claim they were merely adopting the ‘American way’ of extracting confessions. As it turns out, the Iranian guards treated the captured Brits with a great deal of civility, allowing them to watch soccer games, play ping pong, chess and card games. They even gave them nice tailored suits on their release. The Brits readily admitted that they were spying and could have obtained much harsher treatment as ‘enemy combatants’ or spies. It is therefore the height of hypocrisy for the U.S. Administration and their British cousins, the Blair government, to accuse the Iranians of ‘inappropriate behavior’ when so many of their own detainees have been tortured and are rotting inside medieval dungeons around the world.
All forms of torture must be abolished. The Military Commission Act, which allows the President to decide what interrogations techniques constitute torture, must also be abolished. For example, President Bush has refused to outlaw “water boarding”, an extremely cruel method of torture that produces an overwhelming sense of drowning. The U.S. sentenced a Japanese officer to 15 years of hard labor for water boarding American servicemen during World War 11. If Congress fails to act, our government will continue sending prisoners to countries that practice torture. Torture produces lasting physical, psychic and emotional scars on the victim, perpetrators and society at large. Human Rights Watch has conducted considerable research on the victims of torture and conclusively states that torture does not yield a shred of useful information. It is totally ineffective and violates all norms of civilized conduct. I urge readers to call their representatives and demand an immediate repeal of the Military Commission Act and all forms of torture.
9, April 2007 U.S. AID to Israel
Contrary to the opinion of many letter writers to the Daily News, the staggering US aid given to Israel is a major impediment to bringing about a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians. According to Thomas Stauffer (see full report by staff writer David Francis of the Christian Science Monitor), a consulting economist in Washington, Israel has drained a staggering $1.6 trillion from the U.S. Treasury since 1973.
At a White House meeting last month, Israeli officials are now demanding $4 billion in additional military aid and $8 billion in loan guarantees to prop up the recession-bound economy. This money is being diverted from critically needed U.S. programs such as education and health care. U.S. aid money has always been paid to Israel without pre-conditions. There is little doubt that the funds have been used to construct roads and settlements for the exclusive use of Jews giving rise to an apartheid system of government. A growing number of former Israeli Defense Forces soldiers (see IDF ‘breaking the silence’) have chosen to speak out and have vigorously denounced the constant harassment and intimidation of Palestinians by IDF soldiers. It is time for U.S. taxpayers to break the silence and demand an immediate halt to unconditional military and economic support to Israel.
6, April 2007 Exploitation of Indian laborers
Thousands of Punjabi immigrants, many in their 50’s and 60’s, came to Canada to be close to their loved ones who sponsored them. What they encountered was a mixture of disappointment and disillusionment. Many work back breaking 12 hour days picking berries in Canada’s Frazer Valley. Some even work seven day work weeks for below minimum wages - without overtime compensatory pay and holidays. Any laborers who dare to complain are immediately fired by their contractors. These ‘sweat farms’ operate under the radar of public scrutiny. Stiff necks, sore knees and backs are common. Many are compelled to travel long distances by buses or vans leaving virtually no time for rest and recuperation from their hard labors. Vans and buses are often overcrowded lacking seat belts and other safety standards. Local governments are supposed to protect these types of abuses but are woefully understaffed or unwilling to offer much help.
Under public pressure, the government of British Columbia hired Punjabi speaking officials to town halls, agricultural fairs and farms to advise these poor workers of their basic rights. Websites have been established with relevant information in Punjabi and Hindi but it is somewhat doubtful whether these day laborers have the time or possess the computer skills to take advantage of these facilities. Three inspectors, some with Punjabi and Hindi skills, visit farms on a random basis, handing out brochures and investigating egregious complaints of violations of labor laws. Labor contractors found guilty of such violations have been issued warnings or compelled to pay small fines. It is doubtful that such fines serve as an effective deterrent. Most government officials are loath to interfere with a system that has been largely un-policed for the past 20 years. Farmers are a strong political constituency and therefore carry clout which discourages interference with their labor practices.
Indo-Canadian laborers have replaced Japanese laborers who preceded them and were also subjected to abuse and exploitation. Sikh temples, who have the resources to offer help and guidance to these senior Punjabis, have largely failed. Instead, they may be unwitting accomplices by promoting the service of unscrupulous Indo-Canadian labor contractors, many who have been found guilty of tax fraud, insurance scams and withholding wages. Working conditions are abysmal. Port-a-potties and running water are scarce forcing workers to urinate or defecate in the fields and then continue to pick berries with unwashed hands. Berries are weighed ‘Indian style’ with crude scales that invariably favor the labor bosses. The laborers are often fully aware of these abuses but are afraid to speak out lest they be blacklisted or deported. This is yet another example, of man’s exploitation of his fellow man driven by the siren song of wealth and power.
