Saturday, May 20, 2006
Creating Kristallnacht: Hate Baiting at the National Post
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Canada's National Post broke a sensational story; a story so big, the flagship of the CanWest Global media monolith denied it's nationwide dailies, keeping the scoop to themselves. Today, the Post reported Iran has signed into law a provision requiring Iranian Jews and Christians wear identifying badges declaring their religious affiliation. Below the 18 point high headline, a picture of a man and woman, circa Hitler's Germany, each sporting the infamous Yellow Star of David stitched to their overcoats. It's a stunning development, one that should shock the world, and finally convince all of Iran's despotism. But of course, the National Post story is a complete fabrication; a fact Canwest itself is now "reporting."
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Creating Kristallnacht:
Hate Baiting at the National Post
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
May 19, 2006
It sometimes seems we live in a time of unprecedented corruption, perfidy, and abomination; but, as Shakespeare said: "There's nothing new under the sun."
"Hitler" is a name often invoked in the media these days. The terrors of the Nazi regime, especially referencing its grotesque concentration camps, where State enemies were dispatched after suffering religious humiliation, torture, and God knows what else. The world has witnessed ruthless invasions and occupations, inflicted by a tryannical, rogue nation on its smaller neighbours; in the form of Hitler's Germany, the world watched, horror-struck, a racist, ideologically perverse campaign of global domination, whom's goal was no less than the enslavement of the entire planet.
Yes Bill, verily there is nothing new under the sun.
The story of Jewish suffering under the Nazis, both during the rise of fascism in Germany, through its progression to its inevitable ends behind the barbed wire of the concentration camps, reminds of the gruesome potential of collective barbarity. Even today, more than 70 years from the shocking and aweful ascension of Hitler and his henchmen, the remembrance of the legislated "branding" of German Jews, all made to sew the Star of David on their clothing, is a particularly poignant symbol of totalitarianism, the apposite of human decency, early warning of terrible portent.
It also serves a reminder of how quickly a society can be led into madness, an insanity that would allow the blasphemies, forever recorded in the annals of history. It's a story that demands reverent acknowledgment, repect, and a regular revisiting.
As indeed it is remembered in solemn ceremonies, news media, and motion pictures. It is a lesson hard learned by millions of our predecessors, and not to be treated cynically for political advancement, or commercial interest.
Though that's a message apparently lost on the editors of "Canwest Goebbels," as it's affectionately referred in some circles.
The logical extension of the avowedly pro-Israel media monster's pro-war propaganda-driven "information" dissemination philosophy, (as iterated by its late #1, Israel "Izzy" Asper, on his assumption of much of the former Canadian media magnate, disgraced Lord Black's, crumbling empire) today's Holocaust hijacking presented on the Post's front page nation-wide, and quietly being disavowed even now in its on-line edition, is the flowering of the Hate War waged by Canwest in the service of a greater and possibly perpetual state of war in the world. Canwest proved today worse, with this abortion of truth issued than their most jaded critics would believe.
I can't believe it!
I can't believe it took this long for the Likudite Canwest Global to descend to the eye-poking, nostril-gouging level it has in it's smear assault against "evil" Iran; as sinisterly personified singularly in the person of its president, another Hitler in the making, who given half a chance would create a nuclear-tipped missile to set fire to the world; beginning in Israel.
And he hates Jews, we're daily told; would have them all wear badges, immolate the nation, etc...
Yet, the story is bullshit.
Phoney as Saddam's WMD, the National Post published a pack of lies; lies told at a time when the rally cry to an unprovoked war of conquest and occupation in a far off land is the goal of a furious lobbying campaign in America, and around the world. Fake as the babies thrown from Kuwaiti incubators, abandoned to die on the cold, cold hospital floor, etc... used to "justify" the first Gulf War. The Post's 'Iran Eyes Badges for Jews, Christians?' is an incitement to disgust, fear, and the loathing of Iran, and its people, the ones likely to suffer should another front in the War on Terror be allowed opened.
Hate Crime
Unlike America, Canada has laws against crimes of incitement to hatred of identifiable groups, based on ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation parameters. What are Persian-Canadians, and the greater Muslim population of Canada, to make of the Post's story? What effects might they suffer at the long-knuckled hands of the National Post's misinformed readership? Will hasty on-line retractions of page one libel suffice to defer legal proceedings, or government censure?
Canada's newly arrived prime minister, Harper responded to questions from the Canwest reporter tasked to refute the front page fiasco, saying simply:
"Unfortunately we’ve seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action. It boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the earth would want to do anything that would remind people of Nazi Germany."
Yes Stephen, it boggles the mind to be sure.
I'll remember to check the recycling for a front page copy tomorrow
to hang beside the yellowed Canwest call to arms for Iraq pinned on my wall.
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and hosts Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.
Comments are welcome at: pej(at)info.ca
[I generally highlight links to sources, but as Canwest is apparently in "purge splurge" mode, these below are the raw materials I found as of time of writing. - lex]
CanWEst Goebbles Plays the Holocaust Card
by ape • Friday May 19, 2006 at 07:13 PM
Dismembering the Holocaust
canwestgobbles.gif, GIF image, 210x384
photo http://www.canada.com/scripts/frontpage.aspx?name=National+Post&thumb=false
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Experts say report of badges for Jews in Iran is untrue
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A yellow badge worn by Jews in Nazi Germany during the 1940s.(MICHAEL KAPPELER/AFP/Getty Images)
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Font: * * * * Chris Wattie, National Post
Published: Friday, May 19, 2006
Several experts are casting doubt on reports that Iran had passed a law requiring the country’s Jews and other religious minorities to wear coloured badges identifying them as non-Muslims.
The Iranian embassy in Otttawa also denied the Iranian government had passed such a law.
A news story and column by Iranian-born analyst Amir Taheri in yesterday’s National Post reported that the Iranian parliament had passed a sweeping new law this week outlining proper dress for Iran’s majority Muslims, including an order for Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians to wear special strips of cloth.
According to the reports, Jews were to wear yellow cloth strips, called zonnar, while Christians were to wear red and Zoroastrians blue.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre and Iranian expatriates living in Canada had confirmed that the order had been passed, although it still had to be approved by Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect.
Hormoz Ghahremani, a spokesman for the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa, said in an e-mail to the Post yesterday that, “We wish to categorically reject the news item.
“These kinds of slanderous accusations are part of a smear campaign against Iran by vested interests, which needs to be denounced at every step.”
Sam Kermanian, of the U.S.-based Iranian-American Jewish Federation, said in an interview from Los Angeles that he had contacted members of the Jewish community in Iran — including the lone Jewish member of the Iranian parliament — and they denied any such measure was in place.
Mr. Kermanian said the subject of “what to do with religious minorities” came up during debates leading up to the passing of the dress code law.
“It is possible that some ideas might have been thrown around,” he said. “But to the best of my knowledge the final version of the law does not demand any identifying marks by the religious minority groups.”
Ali Reza Nourizadeh, an Iranian commentator on political affairs in London, suggested that the requirements for badges or insignia for religious minorities was part of a “secondary motion” introduced in parliament, addressing the changes specific to the attire of people of various religious backgrounds.
Mr. Nourizadeh said that motion was very minor and was far from being passed into law.
That account could not be confirmed.
Meir Javdanfar, an Israeli expert on Iran and the Middle East who was born and raised in Tehran, said yesterday that he was unable to find any evidence that such a law had been passed.
“None of my sources in Iran have heard of this,” he said. “I don’t know where this comes from.”
Mr. Javdanfar said that not all clauses of the law had been passed through the parliament and said the requirement that Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians wear special insignia might be part of an older version of the Islamic dress law, which was first written two years ago.
“In any case, there is no way that they could have forced Iranian Jews to wear this,” he added. “The Iranian people would never stand for it.”
However, Mr. Kermanian added that Jews in Iran still face widespread, systematic discrimination. “For example if they sell food they have to identify themselves and their shops as non-Muslim,” he said.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, acknowledged that he did not have independent confirmation of the requirement for Jews to wear badges, but said he still believes it was passed.
“We know that the national uniform law was passed and that certain colours were selected for Jews and other minorities,” he said. “[But] if the Iranian government is going to pass such a law then they are not likely to be forthcoming about what they are doing.”
Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, said yesterday that Iran is “very capable” of enacting such a law but could not confirm reports that members of religious minorities must wear identifiable markers on their clothing.
“Unfortunately we’ve seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action,” Mr. Harper said. “It boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the earth would want to do anything that would remind people of Nazi Germany.”
National Post, with files from Allan Woods, CanWest News Service
© National Post 20Iran Eyes Badges for Jews, Christians?
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Wednesday, May 17, 2006
House Folds: Harper Lip-Syncing Canada to War
PEJ News - It's fair to say, the honeymoon phase of Stephen Harper's minority government is over, and the bride's none too happy with his less than upright performance. Undeterred, Harper has urged his party rise again to make of Afghanistan the stick to assert his mastery of the House of Commons. Tonight Harper risked his party's newborn power, putting the Afghan Question in the crucible, making of it a test of confidence.
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House Folds:
Harper Lip-Syncing Canada to War
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
May 17, 2006
With scant notice given his partners in the Parliament, Harper has put forward a motion to the House proposing legislation to ensure an extension of Canada's commitment to the United States, and a continued supply of troops and treasure for Afghanistan through 2008. He's betting the opposition fears forcing another federal election, the third, should his gambit fail and the government fall, in just more than two years; he's betting Canadian voters would punish such a move, and he thinks the Liberals think so too.
Stephen Harper's short tenure at Sussex Drive has some who supported the Conservative/Reform party union wondering today if they chose their man wisely. From the start, Harper displayed an arrogant willingness to set procedural precedents in a manner more suiting a president than prime minister; that is, if George W. Bush is to be considered the exemplar of presidential behaviour. He's made an enemy of the Ottawa press corp., and now refuses to consider anything, or anyone that falls outside his "stay the course" mantra.
The Harper Doctrine
"We cannot walk away quickly. If we need further efforts or further mandate to go ahead into the future, we will go so alone and go to the Canadian people to get that mandate.'' - PM Stephen Harper tells Parliament
Enjoying a mandate slimmer than the debatable 50% plus one granted Bush in 2004, Harper has shown, in the early days of his government (has it been only four months!), a dogged determination to make of Canada a perfect emulation of his philosophical hero, George W. Bush's America. Today in Canada's Parliament, Harper held forth, accusing any who would oppose his pledge, a blank cheque of blood and money to commit the nation to Bush's disaster in Afghanistan.
Buoyed following the faux debate on the Afghanistan debacle that brought not a single party's censure, Harper's inherited military muscularity must seem to he and his ruling tyros a bullet-proof shield they can hide all manner of "adjustments" to the country behind, and employ as cudgel to wield against the opposition. In his now revealed secret identity, Stephen 'Hawk' Harper is on the offensive, attacking any who would challenge "The Mission," charging they don't "support the troops."
NDP leader, Jack Layton reacted to the prime minister's innuendo, saying:
"This Prime Minister has refused to answer these questions and has said in no uncertain terms that if you question the mission you're against our troops. Well, let me be very clear, Canadians will not be lured into this false trap of the prime minister's borrowed sloganeering."
Layton, who was slow to wade into an Afghanistan debate while the Liberals, the initiators of Canada's calamitous policy there, were in power, has finally found voice, and an easy target in the person of Bush impersonator Harper. But, I doubt Harper's "sloganeering" was borrowed; the kind of spin coming out of Ottawa these days costs. Stephen has been given a professional make-over by the same idealogical flackery practiced south of the 49th that has served George, Tony, and Howard of Oz so well for so long.
One only hopes Harper didn't pay full fare for the over-worn rhetoric and practiced outrage he's currently inflicting the country with. Or, for that matter, full price for his newly elevated head flack, former corporate lobbyist, Sandra Buckler, whose political imagination seems limited to FOX News reruns of the base propaganda that has sustained the war against Iraq, while denying yet the proven fictions that led to it.
Ms. Buckler's resume includes service to De Beers Canada, Coca Cola, and Power Corp. She endeared herself further to the aforementioned miffed Ottawa press gang Monday, coyly insinuating the Harper administration would follow the George W. Bush template not only in its treatment of returned dead and wounded soldiers from foreign adventures, but ape too its methods of managing press access, blithely saying, the Tories were "getting to know the press corp," and discovering "what we like, and what we don't like."
For their part, the press is complaining about lack of access to the government, and an insulated PMO, reticent to inform the press, or the people of what they're getting up to.
Denial
The core of the administrations in the United States, Britain, Australia, and now Canada is the refutation of the popular will by those in power. The majority of Canadians polled on the Afghanistan issue have consistently rejected the country's involvement. Turning the democractic paradigm on its head, the few pulling the levers of public policy deny the will of the majority, deny in fact such a majority exists. As George W. Bush would say (doubtless to be soon echoed by an increasingly embattled Harper) "I don't do focus groups."
Blair can blunder along, keeping the course charted for him by the certifiable Maggie Thatcher, heedless of the hundreds of thousands marching in the streets and his party bleeds white, while John Howard is free to harumph in antipodal agreement, regardless of his fellow citizens. Democracy it seems is meant only for the Iraqi's and Afghans.
And Stephen's schtick?
From the House of Commons today, Harper offers this to Parliament:
"Canadians accept risks when those risks are in the service of a greater good, and we honour those who take risks and make the ultimate sacrifice by staying the course and supporting their mission. The events of September 11, 2001 was a wake up call, not just to Americans but to people in all free and democratic nations. Two dozen Canadians were killed as result of the attacks on the twin towers . . . Canada is not safe from such attack and we will never be safe from such attacks as long as we're a society that defends freedom and democracy."
Harper's hypocrisy is as transparent within the House as without. The prime minister continues to insist Canada's involvement in the occupation of Afghanistan is a United Nations supported, and NATO-run mission, though 'Operation Enduring Freedom' is explicitly and solely an American operation. As does his defence minister, Gordon O'Connor, Stephen Harper must believe Canadians too dim to know the truth of the matter; too stupid to recognize his Charlie McCarthy act on the Rideau.
And maybe he's right in that.
The House voted tonight on Harper's "two year extension" to Canada's commitment to the American-led occupation, winning their effort 149-145. With this landslide mandate, Harper promises to reshape the country, one confidence vote at a time, until molded into a tiny replica of his Republican ideal.
Step One: Ensuring an open-ended, illegal war abroad. Check.
Two: Get Tough on stuff. Check
Three: Fix the laws; create private prison industry at home. Pending.
With this endorsement, Harper needn't worry for at least another two years about "debating" Afghanistan; it's a done deal. How many Canadians will kill and die in those two years is something he will also fail to debate.
As if marking this dark passage, another Canadian soldier died in an offensive against "Taliban elements" west of Kandahar. Capt. Nichola Goddard has now the distinction of being the first Canadian woman in uniform to die in combat since WWII, and the seventeenth Canadian killed in Afghanistan.
Speaking of the fallen woman, Brig. Gen. David Fraser told the cameras, she died:
"Doing a job she liked; she loved."
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and hosts Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.
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Tuesday, May 16, 2006
A Call to America's Second Loyalists: An Invitation to Americans
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - The oft overlooked fact of what became the Confederation of Canada in media coverage of the sometimes fractious, always suspicious, special relationship between the "greatest trading partnership in the world," is the role "Americans" played in the creation of their neighbour north.
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A Call to America's Second Loyalists:
An Invitation to Americans
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
May 16, 2006
Fearing the American Revolution would be more an instrument of enslavement than liberation, thousands fled America. Some of those were welcomed by British administered British North America, themselves desperate to grow the northern population before the inevitable military attempts of the ascending Yankees to annex Canada. And, those invasions would come, and be repelled on four different occasions, culminating in 1812.
I mention it to relieve some of those nervous cousins, on both sides of the line, who may yet eye warily the ancient foe next door. Though the north won the battles, ended so long ago, the south won the war, wearing away the economic sovereignty of what would be become Canada, and with it the nation's political heart. It's been a gradual process, but now in the early years of the twentieth century, that erosion has worn channels where barriers were, and created a pool where Canadians and Americans become indistinguishable, if not in culture in philosophy.
It is to those I reach to, those fearing the American Revolution now promising more to enslave than liberate, to again flee to Canada, adding to the too small, like-minded community of this country, and again prepare to defend the principles of truth, freedom, and the democratic ideals currently threatened in your homeland.
'Poor Man's Friend'
Jesse Winchester serenaded the late Pierre Trudeau, lauding him his leadership in resisting the American administration's efforts to extradite American sanctuary-seekers refusing to enter America's war against Vietnam in the late 1960's and early '70's. Those good people then allowed, through Trudeau's intransigence, inclusion within Canadian society enriched the nation, and today too call to their fellow Americans to resist again the United States' historical impulse to war and empire-building. They call for you to join the next front in the battle to save the democracy, where the need is dire:
"Join the fight to save democracy in North America; come save Canada."
Friend Eric Blumrich, one of your countrymen, lamented to me the spiralling descent into fascism a couple years, and wondered aloud if he should not come to Canada. I said he should leave immediately, but warned, Canada has only two or three years, before becoming an emulation of all he loathed at home then. With Stephen Harper's appointment as Prime Minister marks the finish line. Where once our nation offered shelter to conscientous objection, today Canada routinely would return refugees, be they from the Iraq, or marijuana wars.
Public Opinion be Damned
As in the majority of the nations comprising various 'Coalitions of the Willing,' Canadians repeatedly have rejected the current course of Canada's domestic and foreign policies; under both, the reformed Conservative Party, and their predecessors to power, the Liberal Party. But, the wars go on. And, Canada needs soldiers. People willing to stand on guard for principles we've left granted, in both Canada and America, for too long.
Bien Venue, Americain
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and hosts the weekly public affairs program, Gorilla Radio, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.
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Saturday, May 13, 2006
C.B.C. Israel/Palestine Coverage: A Quiet Complicity in Genocide
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - What does nearly a billion dollars per annum buy on the Canadian media market? If you're a Canadian taxpayer, what you get is: C.B.C. - Radio Canada. For decades of Canadians, that has seemed good value, considering the dismal performance of the commercial alternatives; especially when it comes to covering news. But, in light of the overall decline of the quality, and quantity of the C.B.C.'s television news service, it's perhaps time Canadians reassessed their enforced investment.
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C.B.C. Israel/Palestine Coverage:
A Quiet Complicity in Genocide
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
May 13, 2006
"ISRAELI POLICE and PROTESTERS CLASH OVER BARRIER in JERUSALEM" the latest State media banner blares. Yes, the great wall of Israel continues to snake it's way throughout the region once known as Palestine, rending families and infrastructure as it goes, all without so much as a "by your leave" from the steel-fisted rulers of the Holy Land. It's been an ongoing story: Palestinian villages: schools, farms, businesses, and homes torn in twain for the comfort and security of distant Israelis, and enrichment of the few. A theft in broad daylight hardly mentioned in the C.B.C. Here's a sample of their online coverage of this massive injustice to the Palestinian people, and blasphemy against one of the world's most important historical cities.
"Is it legal?" is the rhetorical question posed. And the answer? "According to the Supreme Court of Israel - Yes." Well, that's O.K., I suppose. Moving along.
There have been uncounted protests within Israel and the Occupied Territories over the wall. Some are covered in the Western press, most are not. But, when they are covered, they're given the treatment, standardized as in the C.B.C. piece attached below: On its face, a cool-eyed media assessment, revealing no bias, but a nearer look is revealing.
"Ten of the activists on Saturday were arrested for disturbing the peace, Israeli Army Radio reported."
the C.B.C. records without remark.
Is this as close to the action the C.B.C. intrepids in the field can get?
Consider that, Canada: The news you're getting from Jerusalem is coming straight from the mouth of the Israeli Army. These are the guys doing the killing, now telling you "ten of the activists on Saturday were arrested for disturbing the peace."
The pictures accompanying the story all bear AP (Associated Press) accreditation, so I can't show them to you here for fear of running afoul of copyright laws. Fair is fair. Were the C.B.C. attendant with cameras, I could show their photos to you, because you and I have already paid for the service; but there is no photographic evidence provided. (If you're curious, check this out.)
If you checked out the photo, what you saw was an image of what passes for equality in Palestine/Israel. You see a handful of young Semitic-looking males in the distance, photographed over the shoulders of anonymous soldiers, who are levelling their M-16 rifles at the unarmed youngsters. The photo informs (courtesy C.B.C.) that this is a "clash" between "activists" and "police" in the town of Bil'in, yesterday. Their "activity" seems, from the vantage of the camera, to be limited to the classic "hands in the air" gesture that speaks not a thousand, but two words: "Don't shoot!"
Disturbing the "Peace?"
Speaking to a rally of "activists" protesting America's war against Vietnam, legendary "activist" historian, Howard Zinn said of the riot act just read to them all: "They are not worried about you "disturbing the peace," because there is no "peace" to disturb. They are worried about you disturbing the war."
If the Canadian authorities are worried about this disturbing of the "peace" in Israel today, as reflected in their media arm, the C.B.C., they're less worried about disturbing the wall. When the issue of its legality was raised at the United Nations, and voted an illegal act that must be immediately reversed by a vote of 150-6, the Canadian authorities took the brave stance of abstention.
That was under the Liberals of Jean Chretien. Today, under the bolder leadership of Stephen Harper's reformed Conservative Alliance, the Canadian authorities were first onboard to support the draconian aid cessation to blighted Occupied Palestine as a punitive measure to punish the population their temerity to elect Hamas to government. But, you'll find little mention of that in the article (reprinted complete below), save a single sentence:
"When Hamas formed the government of the Palestinian Authority earlier in 2006, the European Union, the United States and Canada suspended aid payments, which among others things, were used to pay civil servants."
Among Other Things
Among the other things occurring yesterday were reports of protestors shot with "rubber" bullets. Among the injured were a Dane and Australian. Previous demonstrations have included the murder, by Israeli "police" of a Briton, shot in the head by a sniper whilst carrying Palestinian children to safety, and an American woman, run over repeatedly by an Israeli "construction" worker's Caterpillar bulldozer. They were members of the International Solidarity Movement, (ISM), now made targets by the Israeli "police."
Among other things, the Israeli air force paid a courtesy call to Canada during last year's now annual Maple Flag military exercises in Cold Lake, Alberta. There, the IDF heroes instructed Canada's air force on ways best to utilize F-16 fighter jets in enforcing urban occupations. They should know; they who last Autumn, before the election of the Hamas "terrorists," terrorized the Occupied Territories, utilizing those same F-16 fighter jets, flying low-level, supersonic sorties over the heads of the inhabitants, leaving blown out windows in their booming wake. That, among other things is too much to mention for the C.B.C. in providing anything resembling context for the Israel/Palestine "conflict."
Among other things, the people in Palestine are starving. They have no food, no medicine. Among other things, this is a made in Israel disaster, unnatural and catastrophic.
That the C.B.C.'s journalist rarely venture into the Occupied Territories and can forgiven that, given the intransigence of the Israeli government to grant permissions, and proven lethal readiness of the trigger-happy IDF "police" manning the walls of Prison Palestine to shoot journalists, but is it too much to ask they depart the lounges of their comfortable hotels in Jerusalem to do more than make the trip across the street to the Israel Ministry of Information for their news fodder? As the story below indicates, the answer to that is "NO."
Much of that unwillingness to cover the true nature of the Palestinian/Israeli may reflect C.B.C. Toronto's discomfort; journalists in the field know, less news is better news at home when it comes to criticizing Israel. So, why risk a lucrative news career actually covering the news? Any authentic coverage of Palestine instantly reveals the gruesome evidence of a systemic campaign of eradication; a campaign of ethnic cleansing; a genocide, and, no-one in Toronto wants to have that albatross hung about their precious necks.
So, the campaign continues.
The C.B.C. is of course not alone in their cowardice. Western media have consistently massaged the message, buried the truth, and allowed for this monstrous crime's continuity. But, for the most part, those media are commercial interests, free to omit what they wish from their coverage and let the market decide if their product is worthy of attention. The C.B.C. is, on the other hand, paid for by citizen taxes, taxes extracted under threat of imprisonment. If we are to be extorted to support the C.B.C., then is it unreasonable to ask for an alternative to the soap-selling news marketeer's lies, and expect a modicum of reality?
Maybe it's time to can the C.B.C., and divert our tribute to Ottawa to something useful:
Perhaps another fleet of submarines that neither float, nor sink.
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.
Israeli police, protesters clash over barrier in Jerusalem
Last Updated Sat, 13 May 2006 13:00:58 EDT
CBC News
At least 10 people were injured Saturday as Israelis and Palestinians rallied to protest against the construction of Israel's security barrier through an eastern area of Jerusalem.
Activists clash with Israeli border police during a demonstration against the barrier in Bil'in on Friday. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
INDEPTH: Israel and the Palestinians
Police used tear gas against the demonstrators as they tried to march together through the Aram neighbourhood.
Israel began building the mainly concrete-and-steel wall in 2002 to separate Israeli settlements and the Palestinian population in Jerusalem and the West Bank. By its completion, expected in December, it will stretch for hundreds of kilometres.
INDEPTH: Israel's barrier
The barrier has spurred great controversy around the world. Israel says the wall is being built to keep Palestinian suicide bombers in the West Bank from attacking its citizens. The Palestinians have denounced it as a land grab by the Israelis.
Ten of the activists on Saturday were arrested for disturbing the peace, Israeli Army Radio reported.
RELATED: International cash set to flow to Palestinians
4 protesters injured in earlier rally
In a similar protest on Friday, four people were hurt by rubber-coated steel pellets fired by Israel border police in the West Bank village of Bil'in near Ramallah. The injured included two Palestinians, an Australian and a Dane.
Also on Friday, Palestinians started donating money to their government to enable the Palestinian Authority to pay its employees.
At rallies in the West Bank community of Nablus, thousands of Hamas supporters made a show of handing over cheques and valuables such as jewelry to the cash-strapped government.
When Hamas formed the government of the Palestinian Authority earlier in 2006, the European Union, the United States and Canada suspended aid payments, which among others things, were used to pay civil servants.
Hamas supporters donate money and jewelry for the cash-strapped Palestinian government on Friday. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Associated Press)
About 160,000 employees have not received any pay since March.
Western donors have demanded that the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority renounce violence and recognize Israel before they send aid.
India gives $2.2M in aid to Palestinians
The so-called Quartet – the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations – raised Palestinian hopes this week with a proposal to funnel humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank, while bypassing the Hamas-led government.
Members of the Quartet will meet in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss a mechanism that will be responsible for transferring humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.
In a related development, India announced on Saturday that it would give $2.2 million US in aid to the cash-strapped Palestinians, in the form of medical supplies.
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C.B.C. Israel/Palestine Coverage: A Quiet Complicity in Genocide
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - What does nearly a billion dollars per annum buy on the Canadian media market? If you're a Canadian taxpayer, what you get is: C.B.C. - Radio Canada. For decades of Canadians, that has seemed good value, considering the dismal performance of the commercial alternatives; especially when it comes to covering news. But, in light of the overall decline of the quality, and quantity of the C.B.C.'s television news service, it's perhaps time Canadians reassessed their enforced investment.
www.PEJ.org
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C.B.C. Israel/Palestine Coverage:
A Quiet Complicity in Genocide
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
May 13, 2006
"ISRAELI POLICE and PROTESTERS CLASH OVER BARRIER in JERUSALEM" the latest State media banner blares. Yes, the great wall of Israel continues to snake it's way throughout the region once known as Palestine, rending families and infrastructure as it goes, all without so much as a "by your leave" from the steel-fisted rulers of the Holy Land. It's been an ongoing story: Palestinian villages: schools, farms, businesses, and homes torn in twain for the comfort and security of distant Israelis, and enrichment of the few. A theft in broad daylight hardly mentioned in the C.B.C. Here's a sample of their online coverage of this massive injustice to the Palestinian people, and blasphemy against one of the world's most important historical cities.
"Is it legal?" is the rhetorical question posed. And the answer? "According to the Supreme Court of Israel - Yes." Well, that's O.K., I suppose. Moving along.
There have been uncounted protests within Israel and the Occupied Territories over the wall. Some are covered in the Western press, most are not. But, when they are covered, they're given the treatment, standardized as in the C.B.C. piece attached below: On its face, a cool-eyed media assessment, revealing no bias, but a nearer look is revealing.
"Ten of the activists on Saturday were arrested for disturbing the peace, Israeli Army Radio reported."
the C.B.C. records without remark.
Is this as close to the action the C.B.C. intrepids in the field can get?
Consider that, Canada: The news you're getting from Jerusalem is coming straight from the mouth of the Israeli Army. These are the guys doing the killing, now telling you "ten of the activists on Saturday were arrested for disturbing the peace."
The pictures accompanying the story all bear AP (Associated Press) accreditation, so I can't show them to you here for fear of running afoul of copyright laws. Fair is fair. Were the C.B.C. attendant with cameras, I could show their photos to you, because you and I have already paid for the service; but there is no photographic evidence provided. (If you're curious, check this out.)
If you checked out the photo, what you saw was an image of what passes for equality in Palestine/Israel. You see a handful of young Semitic-looking males in the distance, photographed over the shoulders of anonymous soldiers, who are levelling their M-16 rifles at the unarmed youngsters. The photo informs (courtesy C.B.C.) that this is a "clash" between "activists" and "police" in the town of Bil'in, yesterday. Their "activity" seems, from the vantage of the camera, to be limited to the classic "hands in the air" gesture that speaks not a thousand, but two words: "Don't shoot!"
Disturbing the "Peace?"
Speaking to a rally of "activists" protesting America's war against Vietnam, legendary "activist" historian, Howard Zinn said of the riot act just read to them all: "They are not worried about you "disturbing the peace," because there is no "peace" to disturb. They are worried about you disturbing the war."
If the Canadian authorities are worried about this disturbing of the "peace" in Israel today, as reflected in their media arm, the C.B.C., they're less worried about disturbing the wall. When the issue of its legality was raised at the United Nations, and voted an illegal act that must be immediately reversed by a vote of 150-6, the Canadian authorities took the brave stance of abstention.
That was under the Liberals of Jean Chretien. Today, under the bolder leadership of Stephen Harper's reformed Conservative Alliance, the Canadian authorities were first onboard to support the draconian aid cessation to blighted Occupied Palestine as a punitive measure to punish the population their temerity to elect Hamas to government. But, you'll find little mention of that in the article (reprinted complete below), save a single sentence:
"When Hamas formed the government of the Palestinian Authority earlier in 2006, the European Union, the United States and Canada suspended aid payments, which among others things, were used to pay civil servants."
Among Other Things
Among the other things occurring yesterday were reports of protestors shot with "rubber" bullets. Among the injured were a Dane and Australian. Previous demonstrations have included the murder, by Israeli "police" of a Briton, shot in the head by a sniper whilst carrying Palestinian children to safety, and an American woman, run over repeatedly by an Israeli "construction" worker's Caterpillar bulldozer. They were members of the International Solidarity Movement, (ISM), now made targets by the Israeli "police."
Among other things, the Israeli air force paid a courtesy call to Canada during last year's now annual Maple Flag military exercises in Cold Lake, Alberta. There, the IDF heroes instructed Canada's air force on ways best to utilize F-16 fighter jets in enforcing urban occupations. They should know; they who last Autumn, before the election of the Hamas "terrorists," terrorized the Occupied Territories, utilizing those same F-16 fighter jets, flying low-level, supersonic sorties over the heads of the inhabitants, leaving blown out windows in their booming wake. That, among other things is too much to mention for the C.B.C. in providing anything resembling context for the Israel/Palestine "conflict."
Among other things, the people in Palestine are starving. They have no food, no medicine. Among other things, this is a made in Israel disaster, unnatural and catastrophic.
That the C.B.C.'s journalist rarely venture into the Occupied Territories and can forgiven that, given the intransigence of the Israeli government to grant permissions, and proven lethal readiness of the trigger-happy IDF "police" manning the walls of Prison Palestine to shoot journalists, but is it too much to ask they depart the lounges of their comfortable hotels in Jerusalem to do more than make the trip across the street to the Israel Ministry of Information for their news fodder? As the story below indicates, the answer to that is "NO."
Much of that unwillingness to cover the true nature of the Palestinian/Israeli may reflect C.B.C. Toronto's discomfort; journalists in the field know, less news is better news at home when it comes to criticizing Israel. So, why risk a lucrative news career actually covering the news? Any authentic coverage of Palestine instantly reveals the gruesome evidence of a systemic campaign of eradication; a campaign of ethnic cleansing; a genocide, and, no-one in Toronto wants to have that albatross hung about their precious necks.
So, the campaign continues.
The C.B.C. is of course not alone in their cowardice. Western media have consistently massaged the message, buried the truth, and allowed for this monstrous crime's continuity. But, for the most part, those media are commercial interests, free to omit what they wish from their coverage and let the market decide if their product is worthy of attention. The C.B.C. is, on the other hand, paid for by citizen taxes, taxes extracted under threat of imprisonment. If we are to be extorted to support the C.B.C., then is it unreasonable to ask for an alternative to the soap-selling news marketeer's lies, and expect a modicum of reality?
Maybe it's time to can the C.B.C., and divert our tribute to Ottawa to something useful:
Perhaps another fleet of submarines that neither float, nor sink.
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.
Israeli police, protesters clash over barrier in Jerusalem
Last Updated Sat, 13 May 2006 13:00:58 EDT
CBC News
At least 10 people were injured Saturday as Israelis and Palestinians rallied to protest against the construction of Israel's security barrier through an eastern area of Jerusalem.
Activists clash with Israeli border police during a demonstration against the barrier in Bil'in on Friday. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
INDEPTH: Israel and the Palestinians
Police used tear gas against the demonstrators as they tried to march together through the Aram neighbourhood.
Israel began building the mainly concrete-and-steel wall in 2002 to separate Israeli settlements and the Palestinian population in Jerusalem and the West Bank. By its completion, expected in December, it will stretch for hundreds of kilometres.
INDEPTH: Israel's barrier
The barrier has spurred great controversy around the world. Israel says the wall is being built to keep Palestinian suicide bombers in the West Bank from attacking its citizens. The Palestinians have denounced it as a land grab by the Israelis.
Ten of the activists on Saturday were arrested for disturbing the peace, Israeli Army Radio reported.
RELATED: International cash set to flow to Palestinians
4 protesters injured in earlier rally
In a similar protest on Friday, four people were hurt by rubber-coated steel pellets fired by Israel border police in the West Bank village of Bil'in near Ramallah. The injured included two Palestinians, an Australian and a Dane.
Also on Friday, Palestinians started donating money to their government to enable the Palestinian Authority to pay its employees.
At rallies in the West Bank community of Nablus, thousands of Hamas supporters made a show of handing over cheques and valuables such as jewelry to the cash-strapped government.
When Hamas formed the government of the Palestinian Authority earlier in 2006, the European Union, the United States and Canada suspended aid payments, which among others things, were used to pay civil servants.
Hamas supporters donate money and jewelry for the cash-strapped Palestinian government on Friday. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Associated Press)
About 160,000 employees have not received any pay since March.
Western donors have demanded that the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority renounce violence and recognize Israel before they send aid.
India gives $2.2M in aid to Palestinians
The so-called Quartet – the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations – raised Palestinian hopes this week with a proposal to funnel humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank, while bypassing the Hamas-led government.
Members of the Quartet will meet in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss a mechanism that will be responsible for transferring humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians.
In a related development, India announced on Saturday that it would give $2.2 million US in aid to the cash-strapped Palestinians, in the form of medical supplies.
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Sunday, May 07, 2006
Completing the Cycle of Usefulness: Harper Doing his Master's Bidding
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Newly forged Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper is peeved with the country's bleeding heart media reports to the people of their fallen fellow citizens overseas. Echoing his philosophical master in Washington, Harper demanded "No pictures, please!" of the sombre casket bearing processions certain to grow only more frequent. Indeed, so frequent are those processions expected to become, Canada's dead young will too pass unmarked by half-mast flags in the nation's capital. Mr. Harper sees no practical use for ceremonies of this nature.
www.PEJ.org
www.PEJ.org
Completing the Cycle of Usefulness:
Harper Doing his Master's Bidding
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
May 7, 2006
Naturally, Stephen Harper is not always miffed at the media, it has proven useful to his [sic] cause for the most part. As Canada's little remarked overhaul of the Canadian Forces under the vacated Liberal government of Paul Martin, the media silence serves still to further Harper's American dream of Canada's [sic] global muscularity, military conquest, and perhaps one day he being referred to as the "Wartime P.M."
As the plan lain out by his Liberal predecessors began to bear its terrible fruit, Canada's [sic] media, led by State television's flagship news program, The National, rushed the breach, inundating the airwaves with tales of the good-hearted intent of our [sic] armed actors sent to Afghanistan. Peter Mansbridge went so far as to obscure the facts of history, reminding Canadians the invasions and occupations of both Afghanistan and Iraq were due to the 9/11 attacks in America. An extra bit of disingenuousness on Pete's part, no doubt to ensure the continuance of his six figure salary.
Little mention in the media though, that the majority in Canada opposed "The Mission" when it was strictly an American show; opposed it when the U.N. relented, granting the patently illegal retribution bombing campaign a patina-thin imprimatur; opposed when Canadians followed orders and marched into northern Afghanistan to "reconstruct" the country, once affording it "stability;" opposed as our fellow Canadians, since redeployed to the hot zones in the south and west of Afghanistan began killing and dying more regularly; and oppose it still. As the Globe and Mail reported yesterday, (Sat. May 6, 2006), the Globe being one of the few major media players in the country to seriously question Canada's role in the burgeoning quagmire of Afghanistan, "Support Plummets for Afghan Mission." But for the most part, it's been silence from the fourth estate; a useful silence, from Mr. Harper's perspective.
Harper makes no bones about his support of all things Bush. Aping the policies of George W. Bush on media access and flag-dipping for the dead, killed in the wars they share enthusiasm for is not the only similarities der two "leaders" share. Both men reveal a sneering contempt for their respective constituencies, Harper made a career, before his ascension to Sussex Drive, of hammering all things Canadian, and now has the temerity to tell Canadians opposed to the war and continuing occupation of Afghanistan they're too dim to understand the nation's purpose there, and the import of "The Mission."
Harper also shares the Bush's belief that the best place for the citizenry is filling jail cells. Parroting the D.C. Machiavelli, Harper now wants to emulate his spiritual guru's expansion of not only Gulag America abroad, but too in bringing home the benefits of a more broadly criminalized electorate to the corporate interests invested in the so-called 'prison-industrial complex,' in the form of the disastrous "Mandatory Minimum" sentencing policies of the U.S. It's a place, no doubt in Stephen's mind to house an indigent population of slackers, as he characterized the nation when addressing his pals from the U.S.-based, Council for National Policy.
"In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don't feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they're receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance." - Conservative leader Stephen Harper, then vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, June 1997
Harper's generosity seems less limited when it comes to spending billions of public dollars growing his proposed prison industry in Canada. Neither does he hesitate to send troops across the planet, or in doling out billions more for what Canadian Forces honcho, General Rick Hillier says will be a decade-long mission in Afghanistan for Canada. But when it comes to those nasty, Northern European social programs, his purse-strings tighten faster than a sphincter at a border crossing.
On Medicare a pre-Conservative Harper informed the same gathering: "Then there is the Progressive Conservative party, the PC party, which won only 20 seats. Now, the term Progressive Conservative will immediately raise suspicions in all of your minds. It should... They were in favour of gay rights officially; officially for abortion on demand. Officially -- what else can I say about them? Officially for the entrenchment of our universal, collectivized, health-care system and multicultural policies in the constitution of the country."
Stephen Harper's fifth column tendencies were no secret before his minority-election. With approval ratings only George Bush and Tony Blair could envy, Harper has sallied forward, ramming down the collective Canadian gullet mirror image policies of the above mentioned war criminals both at home and abroad. And he's been able to get away with it so far because a complacent public, complicit media, and non-existent "opposition" allow it.
And, in that we are all Stephen Harper's, and George W. Bush's, and Tony Blair's useful idiots.
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host of Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.
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Saturday, May 06, 2006
Exercise Trident Fury and Other Military Demonstrations
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - The military is everywhere in Canada these days it seems. Despite a growing Canadian unease with the country's newly refurbished military doctrine, it's clear the men on both sides of Parliament's aisle are determined to stay the bipartisan military course and make of the nation a footsoldier in America's self-declared War on Terror. This week, Winnipegers are getting to know what living in a military occupation looks like, while quaint Victoria, British Columbia is the foci of a massing of international armed forces, ostensibly gathered to play war games. It was perhaps with an eye to that growing unease that the public announcement of Trident Fury was released only last week.
www.PEJ.org
Exercise Trident Fury and
Other Military Demonstrations
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
May 6, 2006
Today, I accompanied a determined group of Victorians down to the Canadian Forces Base, Esquimalt to deliver a petition to the base commander making him aware the so-called 'Exercise Trident Fury' is in controvention of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. On an unseasonably cold and rainy May day, just more than a dozen people, members of the Victoria Peace Coalition and the Global Compliance Research Project, requested the Base Commander accept and acknowledge the petition.
The petitioners are demanding Parliament and the Department of Defence put a halt to the exercise on grounds the war games constitute a promotional event for militarism. The petition says: "a display of militarism like Exercise Trident Fury by States that are involved in offensive military actions constitutes propaganda for war." Under article 20 SS1 of the International Covenant, "Any propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law."
Trident Fury joins other international operational exercises staged in Canada whose ultimate aim is, as CF Commodore Girouard said of last year's exercise off the coast of Vancouver Island, to demonstrate the "interoperability" of Canada's military with U.S. forces. It's an "interoperability" successive Canadian governements have also been eager to demonstrate to Washington when considering Canada's new role enforcing America's global militarism; both the ousted Liberal and ascendant Conservative administrations favour a greater role for Canada's military, alongside America, overseas.
Exercise Trident Fury commences Monday, May 8th and is scheduled to run until May 19th. A public vigil is planned for outside the gates of CFB Esquimalt Monday, May 8th at 5pm.
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Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Proof of Life: The Bogie Man's Resurrection
[PEJ.org, another site I contribute to, is currently under attack and inaccessible at this hour (A25 10p pdt) please monitor www.pej.org. For complete article links, please the original, highlighted in the title. - ape]
In order to keep the contrived “war on terror” alive, and pump up its central figure, the dead Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a perpetually looming threat, “a rare video” has surfaced, posted on the internet. “The video, released just days after Iraq named a new prime minister and a high-profile audiotape from bin Laden appeared on Arab TV, seemed a deliberate attempt by al-Zarqawi to claim the spotlight again following months of taking a lower profile,” reports NBC News. “It also came just one day after a triple bombing at a resort in Egypt that killed at least 24 people, including 21 Egyptians and three foreigners,” an attack not yet connected to “al-Qaeda,” not that it needs to be—as a matter of course, virtually all terrorism in the Middle East is blamed on al-CIA-duh. “Egyptian authorities have not yet said who they think was behind the attacks, but other security experts have said that previous Sinai bombings have borne some marks of al-Qaida or groups affiliated with it,” the neocon owned and operated Jerusalem Post explains.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s unexpected appearance is rather suspiciously timed. Earlier this month, the CIA’s favorite newspaper, the Washington Times, ran an article claiming the Pentagon “is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program…. documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.” Such an effort is required because most Iraqis believe al-Zarqawi is a Pentagon contrivance, although the Post does not allude to this fact. “For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi’s role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the ‘U.S. Home Audience’ as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.”
Now we are expected to believe al-Zarqawi has obliged the Pentagon by appearing in a video—even though, over the last few years, the mercurial terrorist has assiduously avoided being photographed (except as the hooded executioner of the supposedly hapless Nick Berg—if we are to believe the fairy tale of al-Zarqawi’s supposed exploits). According to NBC, al-Zarqawi decided to be videotaped in order “to display unity among the jihadis in Iraq,” as the fantasy generated by the Pentagon and the White House stipulates that al-Zarqawi runs the resistance (only foreign “jihadis” and Saddam “dead-enders” are involved in the effort to force the United States out of Iraq—everybody else is ready with rose petals, ever thankful for bombed hospitals, destroyed electrical infrastructure, polluted water, and relatives shot up at checkpoints manned by trigger-happy yahoos who thought they joined the military to get an education, differnet than the education they are now getting).
NBC also points out “Zarqawi appears in front of the Mujahedin Shura Council logo” in the video. The Mujahedin Shura Council is portrayed as an “umbrella” group of several resistance organizations in Iraq. “The Mujahideen Shura Council is composed of eight insurgency groups in Iraq: al-Qaeda in Iraq, Victorious Army Group, the Army of al-Sunnah Wal Jama’a, Jama’a al-Murabiteen, Ansar al-Tawhid Brigades, Islamic Jihad Brigades, the Strangers Brigades, and the Horrors Brigades, collaborating to meet the ‘unbelievers gathering with different sides’ and defend Islam.,” writes the SITE Institute.
On April 4, the Telegraph speculated “Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the most feared commander in the Iraqi insurgency, may have been forced to surrender his leadership by rival groups, angered by his tactics and the interference of foreign fighters in the Iraqi conflict…. [al-Zarqawi’s] tactics have alienated many Iraqis, even those sympathetic to the insurgency. Azzam, whose father is known as the ‘prince of the Mujaheedin’, said that he was accused of ‘creating an independent group’ in Iraq, ‘making political mistakes’ and hijacking the Iraqi insurgency for his own cause.” Indeed, the dead al-Zarqawi’s “independent group” hijacked the resistance— not for al-Zarqawi’s “cause,” mind you, but rather the Pentagon sponsored “cause” of portraying the entirely legitimate Iraqi resistance as blood-thirsty thugs and promoting and effectuating “civil war” engineered to result in the balkanization of Iraq. It appears the Pentagon is attempting to hitch al-Zarqawi’s wagon up to the Mujahedin Shura Council, even though he (or the black op in his name) was rejected as a sadistic self-seeker by the Council, or so we are told.
“It was not possible to confirm authenticity, but it was posted on a Web site that al-Zarqawi’s group and others have used to post Internet messages,” NBC continues, adding more dimension to the absurd al-Zarqawi fable. “Al-Zarqawi previously has made statements only through audiotapes posted on the Web, although photos of him obtained by the U.S. government have been widely circulated,” never mind that these photos—numbering less than a dozen—are four or more years old and since they were taken virtually no reliable sources have witnessed the one-leg wonder who has escaped apprehension on several occasions.
In essence, the “release” of this purported video (no doubt straight from a Pentagon video editing deck) is a transparent effort to rekindle the al-Zarqawi myth and connect it to the Iraqi resistance at large. Now, with fresh imagery in mind, millions of gullible Americans will declare al-Zarqawi and his boss, the long deceased Osama bin Laden, alive, well, and on the loose—as Orwell’s Emmanuel Goldstein of the “Brotherhood” was on the run—thus necessitating a “long war” at the behest of the Straussian neocons, their heirs, and the heirs of their heirs, ad infinitum.
Of course, it will be impossible to “confirm” the “authenticity” of the al-Zarqawi video—that is to say not without a video graphics sequence supervisor, a few animators and technical directors on the Pentagon payroll coming forward and spilling the beans.
Dead Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Makes a Video Debut
Kurt Nimmo
Another Day in the Empire
Tuesday April 25th 2006, 6:01 pm
Makes a Video Debut
Kurt Nimmo
Another Day in the Empire
Tuesday April 25th 2006, 6:01 pm
In order to keep the contrived “war on terror” alive, and pump up its central figure, the dead Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as a perpetually looming threat, “a rare video” has surfaced, posted on the internet. “The video, released just days after Iraq named a new prime minister and a high-profile audiotape from bin Laden appeared on Arab TV, seemed a deliberate attempt by al-Zarqawi to claim the spotlight again following months of taking a lower profile,” reports NBC News. “It also came just one day after a triple bombing at a resort in Egypt that killed at least 24 people, including 21 Egyptians and three foreigners,” an attack not yet connected to “al-Qaeda,” not that it needs to be—as a matter of course, virtually all terrorism in the Middle East is blamed on al-CIA-duh. “Egyptian authorities have not yet said who they think was behind the attacks, but other security experts have said that previous Sinai bombings have borne some marks of al-Qaida or groups affiliated with it,” the neocon owned and operated Jerusalem Post explains.
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s unexpected appearance is rather suspiciously timed. Earlier this month, the CIA’s favorite newspaper, the Washington Times, ran an article claiming the Pentagon “is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program…. documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.” Such an effort is required because most Iraqis believe al-Zarqawi is a Pentagon contrivance, although the Post does not allude to this fact. “For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi’s role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the ‘U.S. Home Audience’ as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.”
Now we are expected to believe al-Zarqawi has obliged the Pentagon by appearing in a video—even though, over the last few years, the mercurial terrorist has assiduously avoided being photographed (except as the hooded executioner of the supposedly hapless Nick Berg—if we are to believe the fairy tale of al-Zarqawi’s supposed exploits). According to NBC, al-Zarqawi decided to be videotaped in order “to display unity among the jihadis in Iraq,” as the fantasy generated by the Pentagon and the White House stipulates that al-Zarqawi runs the resistance (only foreign “jihadis” and Saddam “dead-enders” are involved in the effort to force the United States out of Iraq—everybody else is ready with rose petals, ever thankful for bombed hospitals, destroyed electrical infrastructure, polluted water, and relatives shot up at checkpoints manned by trigger-happy yahoos who thought they joined the military to get an education, differnet than the education they are now getting).
NBC also points out “Zarqawi appears in front of the Mujahedin Shura Council logo” in the video. The Mujahedin Shura Council is portrayed as an “umbrella” group of several resistance organizations in Iraq. “The Mujahideen Shura Council is composed of eight insurgency groups in Iraq: al-Qaeda in Iraq, Victorious Army Group, the Army of al-Sunnah Wal Jama’a, Jama’a al-Murabiteen, Ansar al-Tawhid Brigades, Islamic Jihad Brigades, the Strangers Brigades, and the Horrors Brigades, collaborating to meet the ‘unbelievers gathering with different sides’ and defend Islam.,” writes the SITE Institute.
On April 4, the Telegraph speculated “Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the most feared commander in the Iraqi insurgency, may have been forced to surrender his leadership by rival groups, angered by his tactics and the interference of foreign fighters in the Iraqi conflict…. [al-Zarqawi’s] tactics have alienated many Iraqis, even those sympathetic to the insurgency. Azzam, whose father is known as the ‘prince of the Mujaheedin’, said that he was accused of ‘creating an independent group’ in Iraq, ‘making political mistakes’ and hijacking the Iraqi insurgency for his own cause.” Indeed, the dead al-Zarqawi’s “independent group” hijacked the resistance— not for al-Zarqawi’s “cause,” mind you, but rather the Pentagon sponsored “cause” of portraying the entirely legitimate Iraqi resistance as blood-thirsty thugs and promoting and effectuating “civil war” engineered to result in the balkanization of Iraq. It appears the Pentagon is attempting to hitch al-Zarqawi’s wagon up to the Mujahedin Shura Council, even though he (or the black op in his name) was rejected as a sadistic self-seeker by the Council, or so we are told.
“It was not possible to confirm authenticity, but it was posted on a Web site that al-Zarqawi’s group and others have used to post Internet messages,” NBC continues, adding more dimension to the absurd al-Zarqawi fable. “Al-Zarqawi previously has made statements only through audiotapes posted on the Web, although photos of him obtained by the U.S. government have been widely circulated,” never mind that these photos—numbering less than a dozen—are four or more years old and since they were taken virtually no reliable sources have witnessed the one-leg wonder who has escaped apprehension on several occasions.
In essence, the “release” of this purported video (no doubt straight from a Pentagon video editing deck) is a transparent effort to rekindle the al-Zarqawi myth and connect it to the Iraqi resistance at large. Now, with fresh imagery in mind, millions of gullible Americans will declare al-Zarqawi and his boss, the long deceased Osama bin Laden, alive, well, and on the loose—as Orwell’s Emmanuel Goldstein of the “Brotherhood” was on the run—thus necessitating a “long war” at the behest of the Straussian neocons, their heirs, and the heirs of their heirs, ad infinitum.
Of course, it will be impossible to “confirm” the “authenticity” of the al-Zarqawi video—that is to say not without a video graphics sequence supervisor, a few animators and technical directors on the Pentagon payroll coming forward and spilling the beans.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Gorilla Radio for Monday, April 24th, 2006
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - This week on GR: Journalist and author, Dave Lindorff and Mumia Abu Jamail, still living beneath the shadow of American Justice's noose.
Canadian freelance journalist and creator of the news web site, 'From Occupied Palestine.org,' Jon Elmer and the rumoured "re-occupation" of the Gaza Strip.
And; Janine Bandcroft bringing us up to speed with all that's good to do in and around Victoria this week.
Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Monday, 5-6pm Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, 104.3 cable, and on the internet at: http://cfuv.uvic.ca He also serves as a contributing editor at the progressive web news site: http://www.pej.org.
You can check out the GR blog at: http://GorillaRadioBlog.blogspot.com
Gorilla Radio for Monday,
April 24th, 2006
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
April 23, 2006
Twilight; though seemingly impossibly a long six years ago, the twilight of the Bush reign now nears. Whether through impeachment, or a lame-duck idling away of this administration’s power, the end is nigh.
But, George W. Bush’s political death throes mean little to those thousands inhabiting America’s death rows. Yesterday was Mumia Abu Jamail’s birthday; to the man who has spent nearly three decades on death row, spuriously convicted of the murder of a policeman, a change of government means little.
Dave Lindorff is an award-winning investigative journalist, author, and founding member of the National Writer’s Union. His books include: ‘Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal,’ ‘Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For Profit Hospital Chains,’ and the newly released, ‘This Can’t be Happening!: Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy.’
Dave Lindorff and the dark heart of American justice in the first half.
And; will they stay out, or will they go back in?
Just months after their much media ballyhoo-ed departure from the Gaza Strip, Israel’s new Prime Minister now says a re-occupation of the Strip is a distinct possibility. For Palestinians in Gaza however, the occupation didn’t end when the settlers re-settled in the West Bank.
Jon Elmer is a Halifax-based, freelance journalist, and publisher of the web news site, From Occupied Palestine.org. He’s lived, and reported from, Occupied Palestine, and will join Gorilla Radio again today.
In the second half, Jon Elmer and a Palestinian re-occupation?
And; Janine Bandcroft will be here to bring us up to speed with all that’s good to do in and around Victoria this week.
But first, Dave Lindorff and an American twilight’s last gleaming.
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Saturday, April 22, 2006
The Really Real "Long War"
| The Really Real "Long War |  |  |
Chris Floyd Empire Burlesque | |
| Tuesday, 18 April 2006 | |
| Savvy players in the military-industrial racket know that the "War on Terror" is just short-end money: fat and sweet, sure, but it doesn't really have legs. "Islamofacism" is too empty a concept to sustain the kind of decades-long looting of the public treasury that the dear old Cold War used to provide – the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world just aren't interested in dressing up in Nazi drag and playing their assigned roles in the Pentagon-Neocon-Theocon war game. I mean, Jesus Herbert Walker Christ, you can even walk your army right into the heartland of Islam and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and they still won't take the bait. Not a single Muslim nation has gone jihad over Iraq; they haven't all turned into a nice, big monolithic evil empire set on the utter destruction of America. It's like they're all just ordinary people or something, good, bad and indifferent, largely occupied with their own concerns – personal, economic, social, religious, national. Of course, the war has inflamed the extremist fringes, empowered forces of intolerance and hatred to a degree they could never have dreamed of before; yes, its given sectarian terror a major boost, nicely priming the pump for more war profits. And boy howdy, the next go-round, in Iran, will goose the military market to even greater heights. So we're not saying this Terror War gambit is a bad thing, you understand; no, it's been boffo box office all the way. But still, since there actually is no such thing as "Islamofacism," – as opposed to a few virulent and violent outlaw gangs, and a number of authoritarian regimes that have no interest whatsoever in attacking America – you're just not going to get that Cold War mileage you need. No, when it comes to terrorizing your own people into forking over their money and the blood of their children to keep you in clover, there's just no substitute for the real thing: Commies. Hordes of 'em. A billion of 'em, by God! That's right, we're talking China. Now there's a long-term proposition for you. There's the whole ball of wax: nukes, missiles, vast standing armies, territorial tensions, government suppression – it's vintage Kremlin, baby, circa Cuban Missile Crisis, anytime you need it. And here's the beauty part: you can literally make money coming and going. You can dive into the Chinese market, get in bed with businesses backed by Commie brass, like Neil Bush and Donald Rumsfeld have done, give 'em Google and Microsoft and Starbucks – even the Rolling Stones, for Christ's sake – then turn around and bag even more billions in gargantuan weapons programs to act as "prudent hedges against the possibility that cooperative approaches by themselves may fail to preclude future conflict" with them sneaky yellow devils, as the Pentagon's "long-term strategy review" put it recently. Of course, that's what the "War on Terror" is all about anyway: gaining control of the Muslim oil lands in order to throttle China and eventually knock it on the head if it gets too uppity. If Saddam Hussein and the Ayatollah Khamanei had simply handed over their oil fields to the protection of American overseers, then they could have repressed their own people till the cows come home, with the grateful blessing of Washington. (Equatorial Guinea's rapacious dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema has it down pat. He's opened his vast oil reserves to American companies; in return, he's free to torture, loot and starve his people, and still be lauded by those champions of democracy in the Bush White House.) The war in Iraq and the next war in Iran have nothing to do with Islam or liberation or terrorism or any of that katzenjammer. It wouldn't matter if they were all Southern Baptists or acolytes of Ishtar, if they cared tenderly for their citizens or turned them into soylent green. They've got oil, they wouldn't play ball, so they're going down. Control of these resources and strategic areas in order to box in China (and eventually India) and prevent the rise of any potential rival to American domination of global affairs – or rather, the domination of global affairs by a small American elite quite willing to see their own country sink into corruption, ruin, tyranny and fear – is now and has been since the end of the Cold War the driving force of the political faction led by Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and others brought into power by the rigged election of runner-up George W. Bush in 2000. It is for this and no other reason that thousands of Americans have been killed, and tens of thousands maimed in Iraq; it is for this that up to 300,000 innocent Iraqis have been slaughtered; it is for this that the war plans for Iran are going forward. The only way that the pathetic, stunted intellects of this political faction know how to interpret reality is through the paranoid prism of the Cold War, with its hidebound abstractions, its cartoonish exaggerations, its perverted morality (willing to destroy a village, a region, a nation – even the whole world – to "save" it from the enemy) and, more than anything else, the vast power and privilege it accorded to the national security elite. And so they -- and the generations of younger disciples they have spawned -- are trying to re-order the world, through violence, threat and terror, to make reality fit the blinkered template in their heads. And they will keep on trying, even if the flame of Islamic extremism flickers out, even if the Chinese lay down their arms, even if Iran turns its nuclear plants into Wal-Marts and Pottery Barns. There will always be a new Big Enemy to justify their militarist obsessions. Update: Not an hour after posting the final version of this piece, I ran across Michael T. Klare's excellent TomDispatch.com article on much the same theme: the overall strategy of "containing China." Go thou and read likewise. |
Canada: Killing Kyoto, Burying the Bad News
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Back in the saddle! Having made of the last week a media holiday, (a blessed relief I highly recommend) it's time to grasp again the cudgel where I left off. Last week, commencement week for Canada's new "transparent" government, Stephen Harper's Tories quietly axed the country's Kyoto Protocol commitments on global climate change, and as an ominous extra measure, muzzled the public release of a novel detailing the possible effects of climate change on Canada written by an employee of Environment Canada.
www.PEJ.org
Canada: Killing Kyoto,
Burying the Bad News
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
April 21, 2006
Borne in large part of the arrogance and duplicity of its predecessor Liberal government, Stephen Harper's newly minted Tory minions were working overtime to come up with inaugaural legislation designed to both reassure the majority of Canadians not electing to see a Conservative government in power, and to take a post-election swipe at the disgraced Liberals.
On April 11th, with much fanfare and self-congratulation, the minority Tories introduced their first legislation as a sitting government since Brian Mulroney's spectacular self-immolation on Canada's political stage more than a dozen years ago. The so-called 'Federal Accountability Act,' is dedicated to, as the party's website intones:
"[C]reating a new culture of accountability that will change forever the way business is done in Ottawa."
The government "Action Plan" accompanying the details of the proposed legislation also released reminds, for those too-thick-to-recall Canadians who may have forgotten how bad the Liberals were, that the new legislation:
"includes additional measures the Harper government will undertake in order to deliver on all its campaign commitments to clean up government... putting the legacy of political scandal behind us and restoring Canadians' trust in government."
In Stephen We Trust?
Few Canadians doubted the Conservatives under Harper would "change the way things are done in Ottawa," (if not forever, then as long as the Conservatives were running the show). An excellent reason, they most sensibly agreed, to refuse to grant Harper a majority government. Most voters also agreed; things were bad under the corpulent and ultimately complacent Liberals, the perennial governor's hubris perfectly embodied by their ill-chosen and unlamented erstwhile leader, Paul Martin. Another excellent reason to refuse a majority to his long-awaited stab at the country's top job. But, Mr. Harper is being ingenuous when he assumes Canadians' "trust" in their government needs "restoring."
Unlike Harper's south of the border philosophical mentors, most Canadians both respect and trust the institutions created over the last century and half in this country. According to them, the fault, dear Stephen, lies not in the Institution of Canadian governance, but in those that would disregard the intent of those institutions, and dismiss the will of the people in pursuit of personal objectives; regardless if that pursuit is purely venal, as in much of the circus witnessed in the latter days of the Liberals, or consists of high-minded reformation, galloping along heedless of a culture Canadians are rightfully proud, and traditions they have grown comfortable with.
Heading the Charge
Much has been made in the Canadian press of Mr. Harper's take-charge, top-down management style in these early days. With typically dim-wittedness, the ever subservient media here is breathlessly extolling the new PM's manly mastery of the reins of power. Whether he be mounting a tank in Afghanistan in support of the overwhelmingly unpopular and deepening mire "we" find ourselves entangled in there, or clear-cutting Kyoto, the fourth estate seems to find little more to talk about than Harper's wardrobe. But, last week's actions by Harper reveal, the Emperor is not so much transparent as naked.
Hotter than Hell
Mark Tushingham is a scientist working with Environment Canada. In his spare hours, Mr. Tushingham writes fiction. But, the scheduled launch of his recently published novel coincided last week with the low key, late in the day pre-long weekend public release of the government's plan to eliminate 15 Kyoto related programs, (for a start) and the effective cutting of Canada's climate change budget by about 40 percent. At a time when Canada's emission targets, agreed at the Kyoto conference back in the early nineties, are failing spectacularly, this new measure was to be a missive slipped discretely under the media door when most Canadians were scrambling to book flights and locked in line-ups to secure long holiday weekend cheer. Clearly, the prospect of a climate doomsday book, written by one of their own, was unwelcome.
Killing the Message
Tushingham was told he was not to attend his book launch. This, despite the fact it had been pre-arranged, and his publisher had already made the trip from New Brunswick to Ottawa's Press Club to attend the event. According to publishers at DreamCatcher Press, it is an unprecedented move. DreamCatcher's Elizabeth Margaris says:
"He got a directive from the department, cautioning him not to come to this meeting today. So I guess we're being stifled. This is incredible, I've never heard of such a thing."
Tushingham's book, "Hotter than Hell" depicts a world made too hot to inhabit, leading to a water resource war between Canada and the United States.
A spokesperson for the Environment Ministry explained the directive forbidding Tushingham's attendance at his book launch, saying:
"Due process for this event was not followed and that's why it was cancelled."
What that "due process" entails was not elucidated, but spokesperson Ryan Sparrow, added:
"Publicity for the planned book launch identified Tushingham as an Environment Canada scientist, and it was assumed that he would be representing the position of the department. We would not have objected to Mr. Tushingham's appearance if he had been referred to as a private citizen."
Private Citizen, Professional Risk
The implication of Mr. Sparrow's comment lead to some unsettling questions: Is the "position of the department" consistent with fiction, if only those acceptable to the department? Is the muzzling of artistic work, created off-the- clock warranted in any case involving government workers, or is it just in those instances where those works could prove an embarrassment to the government? What does it say of Mr. Harper's "transparent" administration that they would unreservedly attack free speech and expression on a moment's notice, and will that include subtler forms of intimidation employed against those that follow Mr. Sparrow's diktat and deny their professional qualifications?
Hub and Spoke
Harper's neophyte acolytes in power like to describe the leader's style as "hub and spoke management." It's a kinder and gentler way of saying "top down," meant to convey an image of the PM as being, spider-like, at the centre of a web of information and decision-making conduits, nothing getting done without first going through the "hub." When asked about the extraordinary prohibitions ordered against fledgling novelist, Mark Tushingham, Harper claimed he wasn't aware of the details of the situation. But, he was quick to remind, his [sic] government was elected on a platform that includes developing "new" strategies to tackle Canada's so far dismal climate change performance. Adding the vaguely chilling rejoinder:
"I obviously not only hope, but expect, that all elements of the bureaucracy will be working with us to achieve our objectives."
Just whose "objectives" the good bureaucratic spiders are expected to further, and what fate will befall they that fail remains unclear, but clearly, if Mark Tushingham values his tenure on "the spoke," he'll do well to introduce himself to his next book signing as "Citizen Tushingham."
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and host of Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webcast from the University of Victoria. You can check out the GR Blog here.
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Friday, April 07, 2006
Warsaw on the Mediterranean: Israel's Palestine Solution
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Enjoining the sycophantic government of Canada, the European Union today announced it too would halt aid to "Palestine's" newly elected Hamas government, until which time it accedes to Israeli government diktats they recognize Israel's right to exist, swear off violence, and honour former peace agreements. Meanwhile, the uncensured Israeli Defense Force, perhaps taking heart in its new found allies in Europe and Canada, ramped up its bombing campaign over Gaza, today killing a "militant" father and the better part of his family with a missile.
www.PEJ.News
Warsaw on the Mediterranean:
Israel's Palestine Solution
C. L. Cook
PEJ News
April 7, 2006
That Israel has yet honour a single "agreement" for peace yet struck; continues to deny the "existence" of Palestine, some of its most prominent citizen's like "Man of Peace," as George W. Bush calls Ariel Sharon, fail even to recognize "Palestinians" exist as human beings doesn't worry the EU. That Ariel and his pals refer to "them" as "crocodiles," and "vermin" hardly raises a brow in Brussels. Despite the fact Israel continues to bomb, assassinate, and expropriate territory seems still to matter little to those moral paragons of Europe.
Just today in Rafah, a missile attack aimed at Eyed Abu Al-ein, a reported leader of the Popular Restistance Committee killed seven people. Travelling with the "terrorist" were his wife, nephew, and five year old daughter. Three others in the car were reportedly killed, and twelve more "militant terrorists" were wounded, including Abu Al-ein's young son.
And, the intrepid European Union reaction?
Silence, so far, save for FIFA, football's international governing body, who expressed great concern at last week's bombing of a soccer pitch in Gaza. FIFA's Deputy General Secretary, Jerome Champagne says his organization has asked the Israeli government for a better explanation for the attack, claiming the IDF's contention the soccer pitch was being used as a "rocket launching pad" is untrue.
Champagne hinted the organization may sanction Israel, saying;
"Football should remain outside politics." Adding;
"FIFA has been fighting for more than a century to make this game universal.
To hit a football field is really the wrong signal."
Monsieur Champagne needn't worry; unlike the assassination of Abu Al-ein and his family, the football field was more likely just another victim of the random shelling of the Gaza Refugee Camp, and not an attack against the game.
Having little time to keep up with Israel's new offensive, Palestinian President and leader of the former Fatah government, Mahmoud Abbas condemned yesterday's Israeli Air Force's missile attack against his presidential compound.
Abbas said;
"The continuous, random bombarding in Gaza is not justified. It wants nothing [more] but to disrupt daily life of [the]Palestinian people."
But, for the last leader the Israeli government refused to talk peace with, this can come as no revelation: While still in power, Abbas witnessed the daily, supersonic, low altitude "buzzing" of residential neighbourhoods in Gaza last autumn. A practice that didn't stop until a neighbouring Jewish enclave was "buzzed" by mistake, and it's occupants terrified.
What would that be, but nothing more than an attempt to disrupt the daily life of Palestinian people?
Not content though with merely shelling soccer pitches, assassinating "militants," their families, and attendant bystanders, word leaking from Israeli propaganda wing operatives at, Debkafile, hints, al Zarqawi, the elusive pimpernel once behind every carbombing, kidnapping, and beheading in Iraq, is now enroute to Gaza to practice similarly his arts; targeting this time Hamas.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Still waiting for Brussels... Perhaps a little more blood and mayhem will yet move the EU
A brief sojourn to the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC.org) reveals just a few of the reported atrocities going on today in Occupied Palestine. Scrolling the News Briefs one gets these:
Three residents injured in an explosion in Hebron
Israeli settlers take over Palestinian homes in Hebron
Army arrests four residents from Bethlehem
Israeli Army invades Askar refugee camp and arrests child
One Palestinian killed and three injured in continued Israeli raids in Nablus
Heavy artillery shells areas north and east of the Gaza strip
Army invades Sabastia village west of Nablus
Israeli Army seals of the main road north of Tubas
Army storms Al Rihia village in Hebron, arrest one resident
Two children released after one year in jail
And, the bottom of the margins promises "more..."
How much "more" of this slow genocide must we witness before the European Union, and the world puts an end to the Israeli violence against, and terrorizing of the Palestinian people?
As the Nazi's before them did in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Israeli government has walled in the "vermin," and, as the Nazi's before them did, the Israeli government is now systematically eradicating that vermin with bullets, bombs, and starvation. And like the appeasers of Europe then, Europe, America, (and U.S. puppet satellite, Canada) are willing today to abet this atrocious crime against decency.
Chris Cook is a contributing editor to PEJ News, and hosts Gorilla Radio, a weekly public affairs program, broad/webast from the University of Victoria, Canada. You can check out the GR Blog here.
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