Syria 8-28-13

28, August 2013         Syria

The use of chemical weapons to kill innocent men, women and children is barbaric and those responsible should be held fully accountable – but there is no conclusive evidence that the Assad regime was responsible.  It appears that the Obama administration is acting on alleged proof from Israel as reported in Yedioth Ahronoth, the Israeli mass daily. We have followed this path before in the run up to the Iraq war claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was an imminent threat.  Before we express moral outrage over the chemical attack let us also remember that, according to recent internal CIA disclosures, our government was complicit in providing Saddam Hussein critical logistics “which resulted in some of the most gruesome chemical weapons attacks ever launched." To act unilaterally without a UN Resolution would be an act of folly and illegal under international law. Unfortunately, President Obama has boxed himself in with his red line rhetoric and seems to be unduly influenced by the jingoistic speeches of Eliot Engel, John McCain and Lindsey Graham. In the absence of conclusive proof, an attack on Syria could very likely result in significant  increase in civilian fatalities and engulf the whole region in a much wider conflict. It would be far more prudent to engage the regional powers in a political dialogue rather than use our mighty hammer to pound more nails which could lead to signifant more nails – big and small.

Israel 8-24-13

24, August 2013         Israel

The Israel-Palestinian talks are doomed for failure. Israel continues to mock and abuse the US hand that feeds it billions of aid money by declaring the building of more and more settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Another 1,200 new settlements were recently announced. Predictably, our super meek Secretary of State John Kerry, like all of his predecessors, failed to admonish Israel for their transgressions but instead urged Palestinians "not to react adversely." Terrified of offending pro-Israel politicians and the powerful Jewish lobby, Kerry continues to use the soft noodle approach instead of the big stick or preferably using Netanyahu’s red line rhetoric. Granting Israel a free pass on settlements, its illegal occupation and violation of international law will only encourage Israel to ignore Kerry’s ‘cap in the hand’ soft overtures.  In 1991 200,000 Israelis settled on occupied territory. Today, four presidents later, 400,000 settlers have occupied Palestinian land. Today generations of Palestinians are forbidden to visit Jerusalem resulting in the ghettoization of Palestinians. The “peace process” consists of indulging Israeli intransigence and is yet another example of deflecting much needed US taxpayers money away from the have-nots of our own society. 

Finally, Israel should heed the actions of thousands of artists around the world who have a declared a cultural boycott of Israel which they perceive to be an apartheid state. 

Reporters Leaving the US 8-20-13

20, August 2013   Reporters leaving the US

The heavy handed actions of the US master spy agency, the NSA, have struck a piercing blow at the heart of democracy and freedom of the press. Acutely embarrassed by the revelations of Edward Snowden via the London Guardian and reporter Greg Greenwald, the British government held David Mirandra, Greenwald’s partner, for nine long hours at London’s Heathrow Airport.  

Jacob Appelbaum, computer security specialist has experienced similar harassment by US and other officials and lamented that “what is at stake is the ability for a human being to have dignity and for journalists to have integrity with their sources, threatening the whole concept of a free democracy,"

Reporters without Borders issued a strongly statement castigating Miranda’s detention and 
stated, "the world’s most repressive states often identify journalism with terrorism and now the British authorities have crossed a red line by resorting to this practice.”
Gareth Peirce, a prominent British attorney stated that Section 7, of the British law under which Mirandra was detained was a gross violation of the law’s intended purpose and was merely used to intimidate and punish Greenwald’s reporting activities. 
Laura Poitras, a prominent journalist mocked the White House’s alleged claim that they had not instigated Mirandra’s detention.  She has also been continually harassed and intimidated by security officials. Sadly, more and more reporters are leaving the US and are working for foreign bureaus to escape the tentacles of US and British officials – a sad commentary to our claim to be free and functioning democracy.

US Embassy Closures 8-6-13

6, August 2013   US Embassy Closures

Perhaps the worldwide travel alert of possible al-Qaeda threats coming on the heels of mounting public outrage over domestic spying – should come as no surprise. Is this a real or imagined threat? Is the massive NSA spying agency using the terror threats to wage war on our civil liberties? Prior administrations have used terror threats to goad us into disastrous wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The NSA alleges that the terror threats arose from chatter on the Internet. But don’t our enemies adjust their terror activities to thwart our terror alerts? With the credibility of the NSA at an all-time low, the general public is highly skeptical of the true reasons for its recent unprecedented actions. The closures of 19 embassies would clearly suggest that al Qaeda is a growing menace and not “on its last legs” as the Obama administration claims.

The escalation of drone attacks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and more recently in Yemen has clearly intensified the seething hatred of the U.S. and continues to be a major recruitment tool of the growing network of al Qaeda and its affiliates. The BBC recently showed the scarred images of 20 innocent men, women and children from a failed drone strike in Yemen. The hasty retreat of American civilians in Yemen by helicopter is eerily similar to the final withdrawn from Vietnam and is a sad testament to failed U.S. foreign policies.

Bradley Manning 7-30-13

30 July  2013 Bradley Manning

Independent journalist Alexa O’Brien reported an extremely hostile, intimidating environment pervaded the courtroom during the trial of Bradley Manning. Armed guards roamed the aisles peering into reporters computers every few minutes.

The charges against Manning are patently absurd. He has displayed high moral character and enormous courage of his convictions. He could have remained silent but chose to expose appalling war crimes and cruelty by his fellow servicemen - at great personal safety and his personal liberty.  The short video shown at the trial – a U.S. Apache helicopter firing again and again killing two Reuter’s journalists and ten civilians was just one extremely disturbing example of crimes committed during the invasion of Iraq. The messenger – Manning,  is being punished and the perpetrators of the war crimes, especially the Washington politicians, have been a given a free pass. If Manning chose to remain silent he would have betrayed the U.S. Constitution, his country and most importantly his Creator.  

The trial has vital  impact on First Amendment rights, because the government can always argue that reporters have ‘aided the enemy’ because of easy access of reports via the Internet. We need more whistleblowers  to hold the government accountable for its actions. Just reflect on how the course of history would have changed if we could have exposed government deceit and collusion into launching illegal wars in Central and South America, Vietnam and Iraq. To finger point other nation’s human rights abuses and ignore our own opens us to monumental hypocrisy.

Government Spying 5-16-2013

16, May 2013                          Government Spying

The Justice Department’s admission of its seizure of home and cellphone records of almost 100 Associated Press reporters is the most significant intrusion of freedom of the press in decades and sends a chilling effect on the future of our fragile democracy.  Reporters and whistle blowers will now be loath to challenge the excesses or misdeeds of the Obama Administration lest they encounter a blowback and find themselves clothed in orange jumpsuits and ankle shackles – all in the name of protecting national security. Many governments in the world jail dissidents under the same banner.  

This follows other draconian measures crafted to silence whistleblowers, the Espionage Act which could eviscerate an independent free press, the FISA Amendment Act, which allows for warrantless wiretapping, the National Defense Authorization Act, which permits stripping American citizens of due process and jailing them to indefinite detention. Remember, the Espionage Act was used against Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers which revealed years of government deceit in perpetuating the disastrous Vietnam War which sent thousands of Americans and millions of Vietnamese to an early death.  America has a long history of conducting a massive PR war on its people to shield it from embarrassing decisions.  The recent web of deceit perpetrated by the Bush Administration on bogus claims of WMD’s in Iraq should be stark reminder.

If the media – our government watchdogs are hampered in their independent role we are doomed as a democracy.   

Holocaust Museum 5-10-2013

10, May 2013            Holocaust Museum

I applaud you efforts to keep alive the memory of the appalling Jewish holocaust. Tragically, the Israeli government with the aid of our government is committing horrific crimes in Israel – a country that was born on spams of mindless terrorist attacks by the Irgun and the Haganah on the indigenous population, namely the Palestinians.

Three great documentaries shed new light on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The Gatekeepers" is a collective narrative of six former heads of Israel’s internal security who voice their frustration with successive Israeli government policies. All six heads are now critical of the methods they were assigned to use and they warned that successive governments have undermined Israel’s future by refusing to make peace. A former head, Carmi Gillon, admits that “We are making the lives of millions unbearable, into prolonged human suffering. Another -  Avraham Shalom adds, “ we have become a brutal occupation force

 “Five Broken Cameras”  - tells the story of Emad Burnat, a Palestinian farmer, who partnered with an Israeli film maker Guy Emad to chronicle Emad’s life in his village, Bil’in. Israeli Defense Forces tried to halt the filming by breaking a number of cameras – hence the title. This is now available from Netflix.

Finally, an American Jew, Anna Baltzer, the granddaughter of Holocaust refugees, and an award-winning lecturer and author (http://vimeo.com/6977999), traveled to Israel to capture the lives of ordinary Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. She has appeared on ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’, and  lectured at more than 500 universities, schools, religious institutions, and policy institutes around the world with her acclaimed presentation, "Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories & Photos."

I urge you to set aside a part of your funds for the construction of a Palestinian and Native American holocaust museums to remind us of the horrific crimes committed by Jews in Israel and the early settlers in America and incidentally Canada, against their indigenous population. Finally the Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodia should also erect holocaust museums for the crimes committed by the US.