Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid 12-3-2006

3, December 2006                 Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid

Dear Rep. John Conyers,

I am writing to express outrage of your remarks criticizing Jimmy Carter’s use of the word ‘apartheid’ in his new book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid." It was reported that as the incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee, you urged Carter to change the title of the book, which you described as "offensive and wrong." I fear you and many other public officials continue to buckle under the pressure of the hugely influential Jewish lobby, AIPAC, which continues to silence critics of Israel’s polices. There is little doubt that such pressure was used to drag our nation to its unprovoked attack on Iraq with its attendant disastrous consequences. AIPAC and its US supporters, applied similar pressures  in silencing critics of Israel’s attack on Lebanon using US taxpayer funded weaponry. A cursory glance of a map of the Occupied Territories speaks volumes of the dispossession of Palestinian land. What is even more egregious is that our tax money has been used and continues be used to oppress the Palestinians.  

My letter to the local press on this important issue follows:   

 3, December 2006                  Jimmy Carter Book critical of Israel

President Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and architect of the Camp David Accords, is to be applauded for his moral courage exposing the apartheid policies of Israel. Carter is intimately familiar with the long simmering Middle East conflict and his insightful knowledge and comments demand serious attention. In his new book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.", Carter accuses Israel of practicing institutionalized discrimination against the native indigenous population which in many ways exceeds the scourge of apartheid formerly practiced by white South Africa. Carter laments the self-imposed conspiracy of silence which permits such appalling injustice to continue. He comments, “oppression of the Palestinians by Israeli forces in the Occupied Territories is horrendous. And it's not something that has been acknowledged or even discussed in this country.” Carter argues that the intended purpose of oppressing the Palestinians and driving them to utter despair is to encourage them to leave their ancestral lands to provide more land for their colonial oppressors. He writes, "Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian land have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement in the Holy Land." Carter reserves some of his harshest comments on the apartheid wall and the complete strangulation of Gaza. Carter castigates the role of the United States “which is squandering international prestige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonization of Palestinian territories." His views are vigorously echoed by another Nobel laureate, Desmond Tutu of South Africa.

A similar letter was sent to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and a letter of appreciation to former President Jimmy Carter on 3   December 2006

Case for Impeachment of Bush & Close advisors 12-1-2006

1, December 2006 Case for Impeachment of Bush & Close advisors

Elizabeth de la Vega (EdlV), a former federal prosecutor, offers a compelling case for the impeachment of George Bush and his close advisors, in her new book, ‘United States vs. George W. Bush et al’.  EdlV argues that these officials committed high crimes by deliberately defrauding the United States. To buttress her case, EdlV has amassed an impressive set of testimonies from witnesses, public speeches of the accused, White House press briefings, interviews, official documents including Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the 9/11 Commission. After examining all the data, EdlV concludes there is probable cause that the accused are guilty of violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 371.  EdlV is certainly not alone in presenting her arguments for impeachment. Her views are vigorously supported by experts such as Barbara Olshansky, David Lindorff, Michael Ratner, John Dean, and Elizabeth Holtzman. They collectively argue that President Bush knowingly misled the American public and the US Congress in waging an illegal, unprovoked war on Iraq and thus violated his oath of office to uphold the law of the land. 
The case for impeachment will require courage and political will from our lawmakers. Failure to hold the President and his advisors fully accountable will serve as a dangerous precedent, allowing high government officials to continue to act recklessly and with complete impunity.   Our lawmakers need to hear from we the People.  

Elizabeth de la Vega is a former federal prosecutor with more than 20 years of experience. During her tenure, she was a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force and Chief of the San Jose Branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. She may be contacted at ElizabethdelaVega@Verizon.net.

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.