You'd think something as Orwellian as this could only happen in a place like Canada, with its legacy of monarchial rule, but this month, in the "Land of Lincoln," our Bill of Rights was shredded by the Illinois state's attorney and a circuit judge, leaving a 16-year-old girl in leg-chains -- for publishing a flier critical of homosexuals!
***
Teen sent home in hate-flier incident
Student will be strictly monitored
By Carolyn Starks
Chicago Tribune | May 30, 2007
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/northwest/chi-hatecrime_30may30,1,7640443.story
A teenage girl charged with a felony hate crime for making fliers with derogatory statements about homosexuality and distributing them at a Crystal Lake high school was released from a juvenile detention center Wednesday but will remain strictly monitored.
The 16-year-old student, whose ankles were shackled in court, cried after McHenry County Circuit Judge Michael Chmiel said she could return home to her mother, who sat beside her during the juvenile court hearing. "I want phone calls and Internet usage fully monitored," Chmiel said. "Everything and anything your mom tells you to do, you have to do."
Chmiel told the girl not to have any contact with Crystal Lake South High School, which suspended her after the incident. She also was ordered to get counseling and to attend a drug- and alcohol-assessment program.
The girl and another 16-year-old female student were arrested by Crystal Lake police about 1:45 p.m. May 11 after they distributed about 40 fliers in the high school's student parking lot.
The fliers had a photograph of two males kissing and included inflammatory words, authorities said. Both males attend the school and one of them was identified in the photo. One of the alleged victims was in court with his mother. Both declined to comment.
The girls were charged with a hate crime because the fliers were meant "to incite a breach of peace or cause injury to the person or persons the message was directed against." said Thomas Carroll, McHenry County first assistant state's attorney.
The girl released to her mother on Wednesday was held in a juvenile detention facility after her arrest because the judge was concerned about nearly a dozen run-ins with police and an unstable home life.
However, prosecutors agreed she could return home with strict monitoring.
Chmiel asked the mother if she agreed to help control her daughter, who was ordered to wear a monitoring device on her ankle while at home. "We will not be having anyone to our house," the mother told the judge. "No friends will be over. I will make sure [she] stays in the house and restrict her phone calls and that type of thing."
If convicted, penalties could range from probation to a 30-day sentence in the Kane County Juvenile Detention Facility.
The girl's attorney, Matthew Haiduk, said he plans to seek dismissal of the charges because her written words "are protected speech under the 1st Amendment."
"I don't think there was any risk of harm ... or a threat of harm," he added.
Assistant State's Atty. Robert Windon said "we do not feel this type of behavior is what the 1st Amendment protects."
Ed Yohnka, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said that without seeing the flier, it is difficult to know whether it was threatening. "It is clear to us the school has a right to punish a student for distributing fliers on school grounds absent any permission to do so ... but that wasn't the tool that was used here," Yohnka said. "Instead there was this immediate jump to a criminal charge. ... One hopes there would be other ways to deal with these things on campus other than the inclusion of a police officer."
***
To have Mr. Hoffman's news, essays and columns e-mailed to you free-of-charge or obligation, send an e-mail to: HoffmanWire-subscribe@topica.com When you receive Topica's e-mail in response to your subscription request, simply click on your reply button; that's all there is to it. You need not visit Topica's website in order to subscribe. You may easily unsubscribe, hassle-free, at any time.
***
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Professor Faurisson attacked by Zionist thugs in Italy
By Daniele Scalea
Claudio Moffa, the professor of Afro-Asian history at the Università degli Studi of Teramo (Italy) organized a master's degree program named after former ENI's manager Enrico Mattei and dedicated to the Middle East. This year the master's degree course encompassed a taboo theme in Europe: mythologization of the "Holocaust" and its exploitation by US and Israeli ruling classes for political and financial purposes.
The level of the master's program lecturers and participants is high and their cultural background quite varied: among others, we could cite Moffa himself, Franco Cardini (distinguished historian), Massimo Fini (well-known journalist and philosopher), Tiberio Graziani (of the University of Perugia), Maurizio Blondet (journalist and essayist), Fabio Alberti (director of a humanitarian NGO working in Iraq and Palestine), Vittorio Dan Segre (professor and former Israeli diplomat), Domenico Losurdo (philosophy professor), Israel Shamir (reporter and essayist), Giulio Andreotti (former Italian premier), Samir al-Kassir (Syrian ambassador) and Abolfazl Zohrevand (Iranian ambassador).
On the wave of master's program's great successes --considering students' interest-- was the decision by Claudio Moffa to invite Robert Faurisson, a controversial French professor who denied that Nazi persecution of Jews during the Second World War reached the quantitative and qualitative levels described by mainstream historiography. According to Faruisson, German leaders never ordered genocide, homicidal gas chambers didn't exist and the number of Jewish victims is very much lower than six million.
Because of his theories, Faurisson was removed from his university, deprived of his pension, criminally prosecuted and subjected to some physical beatings. Nevertheless, the 78 year-old professor is still fighting for freedom of inquiry in Europe. It's important to note that neither Faurisson nor Moffa have neo-Nazi affections: on the contrary, Claudio Moffa during his youth was active in a far left organization and on racial issues, Prof. Faurisson is a liberal.
The invitation to Faurisson generated a wave of complains by Zionist movements and individuals, which viewed the Enrico Mattei master's program as "unfriendly" towards Israel. A number of Jewish personalities have signed a petition against freedom of speech, writing that no one who researches the "Holocaust" could go beyond certain "unquestionable facts," and demanding that academic and political authorities ban the master's program. Professor Moffa defended his initiative, promoting a petition in favor of freedom of speech, which was signed by hundreds of academicians, students, journalists and working people. Moffa publicly invited some of the critics to a cross-examination of Prof. Faurisson, but they all refused.
The Italian mainstream media, especially two Italian newspapers ("L'Unità" and "la Repubblica", the latter owned by a Jewish billionaire), began an aggressive campaign against Professors Moffa and Faurisson; moreover, some Zionist organizations, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, publicly asked the University of Teramo to ban Faurisson's lecture. Just a few days before the event, in the face of Moffa's refusal to cancel the lecture, the university's Chancellor decided to close all buildings and rooms connected to the Political Science Department. The Italian minister of university research, Fabio Mussi, took the side of the Zionists and against freedom of speech and Faurisson's lecture. Claudio Moffa refused to bow to these inquisitors and moved the master's degree program's events into a hotel in Teramo.
On May 18th, Professor Faurisson arrived at Teramo and, before the lecture gave a press conference in front of the hotel. Just a few minutes after the conclusion of the press conference, a small gang of Zionist thugs tried to attack the elderly French professor. He was saved from serious harm by the prompt action of Professor Moffa and some of the onlookers. Frustrated in their attempt to physically assault Faurisson, the Zionist gang engaged in a brawl with onlookers and the police, injuring Vice-Chief Constable Gennaro Capasso, who suffered a fractured clavicle. Capasso's commander, Teramo's Chief Constable, rather than defend the researchers from some 50 Zionist hoodlums, obliged Moffa and Faurisson to cancel the lecture and leave the city under police escort.
Who were the attackers? They are some middle-aged Jews from Rome, members of the LED, (Lega Ebraica di Difesa), Italian branch of the J.D.L. ("Jewish Defense League") founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. That organization supplies paramilitary training to its members (some of whom volunteer for the Israeli army) and "guard" Jewish areas in Rome. The LED often physically attack persons whose only "fault" is to have criticized Israeli policies. For example, in 1992 LED paramilitaries, armed with iron bars and revolvers, assaulted the office of a small conservative political party, the Movimento Politico, destroying both their offices and the organization. Since 2002, the LED has been responsible for a number of attacks against Palestinian sympathizers.
All of these crimes remain unpunished. LED is not isolated among Italian Jews: Riccardo Pacifici, alleged leader of LED, is vice-president of Rome's Jewish community. The day after the attempt against Faurisson, Pacifici was interviewed by an Italian newspaper. He not only refused to condemn the violence but also demanded the removal of Professor Moffa from his chair at the university. In response, Claudio Moffa has started to organize the next year master's program. Moreover, he has constituted a "Committee Against Repression of Freedom of Speech and Thinking" which is promoting a new appeal (see below).
Postscript:
In a letter quoted by "La Repubblica," Fabio Mussi, Italy's Minister of Higher Education -- using the rabbinic term for the "Holocaust" ("Shoah") -- was reported to have stated as follows: Mussi said "inviting to an Italian campus a figure ... who denies the gravity of the Shoah has no academic merit, but merely bears witness to a mediocre provocation."
References:
http://www.mastermatteimedioriente.it/ Site of the Master "Enrico Mattei per il Medio Oriente"
Dagoberto Husayn Bellucci, La Jewish Defense League, "Rinascita", 28 giugno 2006
Maurizio Blondet, C'è uno squadrismo kosher, "Effedieffe Giornale Online", 21 maggio 2007
Giuseppe Caporale, Proteste e schiaffi per Faurisson, "la Repubblica ", 19 maggio 2007
(Editorial), Il giorno di Faurisson: scontri, disordini, insulti, feriti, " PrimaDaNoi.it", 19 maggio 2007
Ellezeta, Faurisson e Moffa aggrediti da ebrei venuti da Roma, " viaroma100.net", 19 maggio 2007
PETITION
The imminent risk for every Italian and European citizen of any political belief is a general gagging of free expression and the creation of a horrific totalitarian system which, in spite of Europe's hypocritical image of "democracy", is without precedent in history. Let's sign a petition against the monopolistic mass-media, against the censorship laws that destroy European liberties, against gagging of teachers (at any level), against fundamentalism, against idiocy and seedy opportunism spreading both on the Right and the Left among political and intellectual classes.
Viva la liberte!
Italian Committee against Repression of Freedom of Speech and Thinking
In order to sign the petition please e-mail: pepperosci@alice.it
***
Claudio Moffa, the professor of Afro-Asian history at the Università degli Studi of Teramo (Italy) organized a master's degree program named after former ENI's manager Enrico Mattei and dedicated to the Middle East. This year the master's degree course encompassed a taboo theme in Europe: mythologization of the "Holocaust" and its exploitation by US and Israeli ruling classes for political and financial purposes.
The level of the master's program lecturers and participants is high and their cultural background quite varied: among others, we could cite Moffa himself, Franco Cardini (distinguished historian), Massimo Fini (well-known journalist and philosopher), Tiberio Graziani (of the University of Perugia), Maurizio Blondet (journalist and essayist), Fabio Alberti (director of a humanitarian NGO working in Iraq and Palestine), Vittorio Dan Segre (professor and former Israeli diplomat), Domenico Losurdo (philosophy professor), Israel Shamir (reporter and essayist), Giulio Andreotti (former Italian premier), Samir al-Kassir (Syrian ambassador) and Abolfazl Zohrevand (Iranian ambassador).
On the wave of master's program's great successes --considering students' interest-- was the decision by Claudio Moffa to invite Robert Faurisson, a controversial French professor who denied that Nazi persecution of Jews during the Second World War reached the quantitative and qualitative levels described by mainstream historiography. According to Faruisson, German leaders never ordered genocide, homicidal gas chambers didn't exist and the number of Jewish victims is very much lower than six million.
Because of his theories, Faurisson was removed from his university, deprived of his pension, criminally prosecuted and subjected to some physical beatings. Nevertheless, the 78 year-old professor is still fighting for freedom of inquiry in Europe. It's important to note that neither Faurisson nor Moffa have neo-Nazi affections: on the contrary, Claudio Moffa during his youth was active in a far left organization and on racial issues, Prof. Faurisson is a liberal.
The invitation to Faurisson generated a wave of complains by Zionist movements and individuals, which viewed the Enrico Mattei master's program as "unfriendly" towards Israel. A number of Jewish personalities have signed a petition against freedom of speech, writing that no one who researches the "Holocaust" could go beyond certain "unquestionable facts," and demanding that academic and political authorities ban the master's program. Professor Moffa defended his initiative, promoting a petition in favor of freedom of speech, which was signed by hundreds of academicians, students, journalists and working people. Moffa publicly invited some of the critics to a cross-examination of Prof. Faurisson, but they all refused.
The Italian mainstream media, especially two Italian newspapers ("L'Unità" and "la Repubblica", the latter owned by a Jewish billionaire), began an aggressive campaign against Professors Moffa and Faurisson; moreover, some Zionist organizations, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center, publicly asked the University of Teramo to ban Faurisson's lecture. Just a few days before the event, in the face of Moffa's refusal to cancel the lecture, the university's Chancellor decided to close all buildings and rooms connected to the Political Science Department. The Italian minister of university research, Fabio Mussi, took the side of the Zionists and against freedom of speech and Faurisson's lecture. Claudio Moffa refused to bow to these inquisitors and moved the master's degree program's events into a hotel in Teramo.
On May 18th, Professor Faurisson arrived at Teramo and, before the lecture gave a press conference in front of the hotel. Just a few minutes after the conclusion of the press conference, a small gang of Zionist thugs tried to attack the elderly French professor. He was saved from serious harm by the prompt action of Professor Moffa and some of the onlookers. Frustrated in their attempt to physically assault Faurisson, the Zionist gang engaged in a brawl with onlookers and the police, injuring Vice-Chief Constable Gennaro Capasso, who suffered a fractured clavicle. Capasso's commander, Teramo's Chief Constable, rather than defend the researchers from some 50 Zionist hoodlums, obliged Moffa and Faurisson to cancel the lecture and leave the city under police escort.
Who were the attackers? They are some middle-aged Jews from Rome, members of the LED, (Lega Ebraica di Difesa), Italian branch of the J.D.L. ("Jewish Defense League") founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane. That organization supplies paramilitary training to its members (some of whom volunteer for the Israeli army) and "guard" Jewish areas in Rome. The LED often physically attack persons whose only "fault" is to have criticized Israeli policies. For example, in 1992 LED paramilitaries, armed with iron bars and revolvers, assaulted the office of a small conservative political party, the Movimento Politico, destroying both their offices and the organization. Since 2002, the LED has been responsible for a number of attacks against Palestinian sympathizers.
All of these crimes remain unpunished. LED is not isolated among Italian Jews: Riccardo Pacifici, alleged leader of LED, is vice-president of Rome's Jewish community. The day after the attempt against Faurisson, Pacifici was interviewed by an Italian newspaper. He not only refused to condemn the violence but also demanded the removal of Professor Moffa from his chair at the university. In response, Claudio Moffa has started to organize the next year master's program. Moreover, he has constituted a "Committee Against Repression of Freedom of Speech and Thinking" which is promoting a new appeal (see below).
Postscript:
In a letter quoted by "La Repubblica," Fabio Mussi, Italy's Minister of Higher Education -- using the rabbinic term for the "Holocaust" ("Shoah") -- was reported to have stated as follows: Mussi said "inviting to an Italian campus a figure ... who denies the gravity of the Shoah has no academic merit, but merely bears witness to a mediocre provocation."
References:
http://www.mastermatteimedioriente.it/ Site of the Master "Enrico Mattei per il Medio Oriente"
Dagoberto Husayn Bellucci, La Jewish Defense League, "Rinascita", 28 giugno 2006
Maurizio Blondet, C'è uno squadrismo kosher, "Effedieffe Giornale Online", 21 maggio 2007
Giuseppe Caporale, Proteste e schiaffi per Faurisson, "la Repubblica ", 19 maggio 2007
(Editorial), Il giorno di Faurisson: scontri, disordini, insulti, feriti, " PrimaDaNoi.it", 19 maggio 2007
Ellezeta, Faurisson e Moffa aggrediti da ebrei venuti da Roma, " viaroma100.net", 19 maggio 2007
PETITION
The imminent risk for every Italian and European citizen of any political belief is a general gagging of free expression and the creation of a horrific totalitarian system which, in spite of Europe's hypocritical image of "democracy", is without precedent in history. Let's sign a petition against the monopolistic mass-media, against the censorship laws that destroy European liberties, against gagging of teachers (at any level), against fundamentalism, against idiocy and seedy opportunism spreading both on the Right and the Left among political and intellectual classes.
Viva la liberte!
Italian Committee against Repression of Freedom of Speech and Thinking
In order to sign the petition please e-mail: pepperosci@alice.it
***
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Oprah Manipulated Again by Master Hoaxster Elie Wiesel
By Daniel McGowan
When Elie Wiesel took Oprah Winfrey to Auschwitz, the choreography was perfect. Jewish suffering was paramount; remember the six million, the gas chambers, the Zyklon B, the death marches, and "Arbeit Macht Frei."
Ignore the facts that none of Wiesel's family was gassed, that 50 million non-Jews were killed, that Wiesel chose to leave Auschwitz with the Nazis rather than be liberated by the Russians as was Anne Frank's father. And certainly ignore the ethnic cleansing and murder of perhaps two million Germans, mostly civilians, after the war.
Now Elie will take Oprah to Israel to "sympathize with the suffering of the people of Israel" meaning the suffering of Jews, of course.
He won't be taking her to the ghetto known as Gaza, where 1.4 million Palestinians languish in hunger and sickness. He won't be taking her to the Israeli concentration camp at Ketziot in the Negev Desert.
Nor will this icon of the Holocaust Industry be taking Oprah to Deir Yassin, the site of a massacre of Arab civilians perpetrated by Wiesel's employer, The Irgun, in April 1948. When he accompanies her at the most famous Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem, they will be looking across the valley at Deir Yassin, but Elie will not mention the massacre nor apologize for it.
Nor will they discuss on camera or privately that today over half the people within the borders controlled by Israel are not Jews. Such inconvenient facts fly in the face of the quest to build a Jewish state in Palestine, a quest that is patently racist.
First Auschwitz, now Israel -- what is next for the Oprah and Elie show? Perhaps they could recreate the Jewish slave ship Mazeltoff and sail together from Africa to Curacao and on to America. Oprah at the prow, Elie at the wheel, the hold packed with black slaves sailing into Hasbara.
mcgowan@hws.edu
***
When Elie Wiesel took Oprah Winfrey to Auschwitz, the choreography was perfect. Jewish suffering was paramount; remember the six million, the gas chambers, the Zyklon B, the death marches, and "Arbeit Macht Frei."
Ignore the facts that none of Wiesel's family was gassed, that 50 million non-Jews were killed, that Wiesel chose to leave Auschwitz with the Nazis rather than be liberated by the Russians as was Anne Frank's father. And certainly ignore the ethnic cleansing and murder of perhaps two million Germans, mostly civilians, after the war.
Now Elie will take Oprah to Israel to "sympathize with the suffering of the people of Israel" meaning the suffering of Jews, of course.
He won't be taking her to the ghetto known as Gaza, where 1.4 million Palestinians languish in hunger and sickness. He won't be taking her to the Israeli concentration camp at Ketziot in the Negev Desert.
Nor will this icon of the Holocaust Industry be taking Oprah to Deir Yassin, the site of a massacre of Arab civilians perpetrated by Wiesel's employer, The Irgun, in April 1948. When he accompanies her at the most famous Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem, they will be looking across the valley at Deir Yassin, but Elie will not mention the massacre nor apologize for it.
Nor will they discuss on camera or privately that today over half the people within the borders controlled by Israel are not Jews. Such inconvenient facts fly in the face of the quest to build a Jewish state in Palestine, a quest that is patently racist.
First Auschwitz, now Israel -- what is next for the Oprah and Elie show? Perhaps they could recreate the Jewish slave ship Mazeltoff and sail together from Africa to Curacao and on to America. Oprah at the prow, Elie at the wheel, the hold packed with black slaves sailing into Hasbara.
mcgowan@hws.edu
***
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Moscow, Idaho Shooter: US Government Agent?
According to an article in the Spokane, Washington "Spokesman-Review" newspaper, Jason Hamilton, the shooter who killed three people and himself in Moscow, Idaho last weekend was a card-carrying member of the heavily government-infiltrated Aryan Nations group, as well as a criminal with a long arrest record and someone who was "licensed by the federal government to possess fully automatic weapons, including a military-style machine gun..."
While automatic weapons were not used by Hamilton during his killing spree, it is nevertheless true that an automatic weapons license issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is very difficult to obtain and persons who apply for the license are closely scrutinized by government agents.
Hamilton had been affiliated with the Aryan Nations group for the past seven years. He "had an extensive criminal record in Idaho, Arizona, California and Oklahoma." He was convicted of domestic battery in 2006, aggravated assault in 1992 and marijuana possession in 1996.
It seems possible that Hamilton was a government agent or informant who had infiltrated Aryan Nations, otherwise how would he ever have been granted the coveted fully automatic weapons license? Note well this quote from the Spokesman-Review:
"...shortly ...after (he) became a member of the Aryan Nations...Hamilton was arrested in Latah County for shooting at a building or a car, but the charge was reduced through a plea bargain, incomplete court records show."
So what was the plea bargain? Having him turn government informant on Aryan Nations and then eventually moving him higher up the shadow government's ladder, to the point of privileged possession of automatic weapons?
The question investigators need to ask is: what role did the US government play in their (probable) agent's terror spree last weekend in Moscow, near the campus of the University of Idaho and on the grounds of the Latah County Courthouse?
Is this terror for terror's sake? "Getting the fear"? Man's government needs to sow fear and terror if they wish to retain their power over us. Jason Kenneth Hamilton may have been an instrument toward that end.
How else would a clearly unstable "extremist" with a criminal record, legally obtain automatic weapons, and plea bargain a circa 1999 or 2000 shooting, into an inconsequential (and unspecified) sentence, about which conveniently "incomplete records" are silent?
Cf. "Shooter Linked to Aryans," The Spokesman Review, May 23, 2007, pp. 1 and 9.
***
To have Mr. Hoffman's essays and columns e-mailed to you free-of-charge or obligation, send an e-mail to: HoffmanWire-subscribe@topica.com When you receive Topica's e-mail in response to your subscription request, simply click on your reply button; that's all there is to it. You need not visit Topica's website in order to subscribe. You may easily unsubscribe, hassle-free, at any time.
***
Amnesty International Documents Israeli War Crimes in Lebanon in 2006
120 Palestinian Children Murdered by Israelis in 2006
Amnesty International accused the Israelis of committing war crimes during the war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006. In its annual global human rights report, released May 22, 2007 the organization said Israeli army troops "committed...war crimes. In particular, Israeli forces carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on a large scale. Israeli forces also appear to have carried out direct attacks on civilian infrastructure intended to inflict a form of collective punishment on Lebanon's people..."
Amnesty also accused Israelis of launching "hundreds of thousands" of cluster bombs, which it said contained up to 4 million bomblets, into southern Lebanon during the final days of the war, after the terms of a cease-fire had already been agreed.
"The million or so unexploded bomblets that were left continued to kill and maim civilians long after the end of the war," said the report. "Some 200 people, including tens of children, had been killed or injured by these bomblets and newly laid mines by the end of the year." The report accused Israel of failing to provide detailed maps of the exact locations where its forces launched cluster bombs to the UN bodies in charge of clearing unexploded ordnance, despite what Amnesty called repeated requests that it do so.
The international human rights organization also slammed the actions of Israeli army troops and settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying some 650 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers in 2006- half of them unarmed civilians, including approximately 120 children.
"Investigations and prosecutions relating to such abuses [by both soldiers and settlers] were rare and usually only occurred when the abuses were exposed by human rights organizations and the media," said the report.
***
Amnesty International accused the Israelis of committing war crimes during the war on Lebanon in the summer of 2006. In its annual global human rights report, released May 22, 2007 the organization said Israeli army troops "committed...war crimes. In particular, Israeli forces carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on a large scale. Israeli forces also appear to have carried out direct attacks on civilian infrastructure intended to inflict a form of collective punishment on Lebanon's people..."
Amnesty also accused Israelis of launching "hundreds of thousands" of cluster bombs, which it said contained up to 4 million bomblets, into southern Lebanon during the final days of the war, after the terms of a cease-fire had already been agreed.
"The million or so unexploded bomblets that were left continued to kill and maim civilians long after the end of the war," said the report. "Some 200 people, including tens of children, had been killed or injured by these bomblets and newly laid mines by the end of the year." The report accused Israel of failing to provide detailed maps of the exact locations where its forces launched cluster bombs to the UN bodies in charge of clearing unexploded ordnance, despite what Amnesty called repeated requests that it do so.
The international human rights organization also slammed the actions of Israeli army troops and settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying some 650 Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers in 2006- half of them unarmed civilians, including approximately 120 children.
"Investigations and prosecutions relating to such abuses [by both soldiers and settlers] were rare and usually only occurred when the abuses were exposed by human rights organizations and the media," said the report.
***
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Please Pray for Hoffman's Father
MICHAEL HOFFMAN'S FATHER NEEDS PRAYER
I would like to ask everyone's prayers for my 79-year-old father. He underwent surgery in April to repair an aortic aneurysm that he was told would eventually burst if major surgery was not undertaken. The repair was made and the surgery was "said to be" successful.
However, Dad has had recurring and rather severe pulmonary edema since then. Twice it was drained with a needle (three bottles full each time). Prior to his surgery he was in good physical condition, jogging two miles a day and working part-time.
Today a third recurrence was detected and he was hospitalized for a three-day drainage of the fluid in his left lung.
He is a strong, hard-working and active man with an appetite for life. Please pray that God will heal him!
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Michael Hoffman and the Hoffman family
***
I would like to ask everyone's prayers for my 79-year-old father. He underwent surgery in April to repair an aortic aneurysm that he was told would eventually burst if major surgery was not undertaken. The repair was made and the surgery was "said to be" successful.
However, Dad has had recurring and rather severe pulmonary edema since then. Twice it was drained with a needle (three bottles full each time). Prior to his surgery he was in good physical condition, jogging two miles a day and working part-time.
Today a third recurrence was detected and he was hospitalized for a three-day drainage of the fluid in his left lung.
He is a strong, hard-working and active man with an appetite for life. Please pray that God will heal him!
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Michael Hoffman and the Hoffman family
***
Rep. Ron Paul Interviewed on CNN's Late Edition
Here is Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul's recent interview with CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer," hosted by John King:
KING: Let me ask you more broadly about your views on foreign policy. Obviously, you believe the United States should have a limited role in the world, especially in terms of projecting military force. So, if Kim Jong Il rolled south into South Korea today, should the United States intervene?
PAUL: Well, it depends on what the Congress says. We certainly shouldn't do what we did in -- under the Truman administration, go in under our U.N. resolution. You go to the Congress and find out if it's a threat to our national security. I personally would think right now that it isn't a threat to our national security.
I want to make a point, though, that if we weren't over there, I think Korea would be unified like South Vietnam or Vietnam is unified. They have railroads now opened up between the two. They want to share information.
KING: Let me jump in. I don't want to solve the problems of the Korean peninsula today. I do want to get your views on foreign policy. Let me give you another example. If China took back Taiwan today, you say go to the Congress, or does the president not have the authority as commander in chief?
PAUL: Absolutely he does not have the authority. Where does he get it? You can't go to war without Congressional approval. And that's not a threat to our national security. That's something internal affairs. Why should we send hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in a civil war?
I mean, are we over in Russia right now over Chechnya? I mean, it wouldn't make any sense. Did we go to war over Hong Kong?
We should follow the Constitution and the advice of the founders. Don't go looking for dragons to slay. I mean, why should we go and provoke and look for trouble? We should talk to people, negotiate, be diplomatic and trade with people.
We do much better trading with Vietnam than we did with fighting with them, and we lost 60,000 men there. It makes so much common sense and is so appealing to the majority of Americans. Let me tell you, I really believe that.
KING: You have received some criticism. Some say you are the person who doesn't belong in a Republican debate. You were a past libertarian candidate for president, of course. You have views that are out of what many would think of the mainstream, at least in today's Republican Party.
I want to read you some of the criticism that came out after this last debate and ask you to respond to the politics of it. These are some comments made of your performance. Here's Roger Simon writing in The Politico: "In terms of the presidency, nobody cares what Ron Paul says, perhaps not even Ron Paul."
Gloria Borger writing in U.S. News and World Report: "Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who gives new meaning to the question asked by Ross Perot's former running mate, Admiral James Stockdale: 'Who am I? Why am I here?' " And in The Daily News of New York, an editorial: "Ron Paul, whose performance Tuesday proved him the Sanjaya of the political arena."
What do you make of the critics who say, why is this guy in a Republican debate? If he wants to run, run as the Libertarian.
PAUL: Well, I would ask you why you pick out three when I could find you probably 1,000 that contradict exactly what you say. I would say that I'm more Republican than they are. The Republican tradition is always to win on the peace position.
Democrats have always won or, you know, got us into war. We got out of Korea with Eisenhower. We got out of Vietnam with, eventually, with Nixon. We ran on a peace program in the year 2000. No world policemen, no nation-building, humble foreign policy.
Peace is a positive message, not a negative message. You don't win by -- politically, you don't win. There's a strong tradition of non-intervention in the Republican Party. That is the American position. That is the constitutional position. That is the very strong advice from the founders.
So when they attack me and say, silence Ron Paul, they're saying silence the constitution, silence the advisers, the founders of the country, silence our platform, close down the big tent, make it narrow. And as long as you agree with a foreign policy that is failing, then it's OK to be a Republican. I don't buy into that, and neither do the American people.
KING: Let me jump into what comes next. You're about 1 percent in the polls, and many say, whether they agree or disagree with your views, there are many who say at some point you need to have fewer candidates on the stage for these debates to be meaningful.
The chairman of the Michigan Republican Party says he's going to try to get you -- and perhaps others, but you specifically -- pushed out of future debates. He said of you: "I think he would have felt more comfortable on the stage with the Democrats in what he said last night and I think he is a distraction in the Republican primary, does not represent the base of the party, does not represent the party."
That's Saul Anuzis, the chairman of the Republican Party in the state of Michigan, who says, among other things, he thinks you don't deserve a spot on the stage. Will you continue to be in the Republican debates and at some point, forget your name for a second, forget your candidacy, should they be winnowed down to fewer candidates?
PAUL: Well, why do you pick that statement that has been discredited and removed? The chairman of the Michigan party now has withdrawn that. He has given up on that.
Why don't you let the people decide? Why do you want to eliminate democracy? Why stomp out the grassroots candidate and only reward those with $100 million that get money from the special interests? That's not very democratic.
I support the Republican platform better than any other candidate, I am convinced of. Take out the platform. They're for less government. They're for personal liberty.
We ran on our program in 2000 for a humble foreign policy. How can anybody say I'm not Republican? I'm the most conservative member of the Congress. I vote for the least amount of spending and the least amount of taxes, and they say I'm not Republican enough?
I mean, why don't you challenge that side rather than challenging me and feed into the frenzy that say get rid of the reporter, get rid of the person delivering the information rather than dealing with the information. Non-intervention is a real political victory. We cannot win as Republicans next year if we just continue to dig our heels in, send more men and women over there to die on a policy that has failed.
That is the issue. Republicans are scared to death to face up to the truth. And my job is to make them face up to it and show them that the majority of Americans are with me, not with the current foreign policy that we're following.
KING: Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, Republican candidate for president. Low in the polls but certainly shaking and stirring things up in the Republican race. Congressman, thanks for joining us today on "Late Edition."
To watch a video of the interview:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Ron_Paul_The_majority_of_Americans_0521.html
To support Ron Paul for President:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
***
KING: Let me ask you more broadly about your views on foreign policy. Obviously, you believe the United States should have a limited role in the world, especially in terms of projecting military force. So, if Kim Jong Il rolled south into South Korea today, should the United States intervene?
PAUL: Well, it depends on what the Congress says. We certainly shouldn't do what we did in -- under the Truman administration, go in under our U.N. resolution. You go to the Congress and find out if it's a threat to our national security. I personally would think right now that it isn't a threat to our national security.
I want to make a point, though, that if we weren't over there, I think Korea would be unified like South Vietnam or Vietnam is unified. They have railroads now opened up between the two. They want to share information.
KING: Let me jump in. I don't want to solve the problems of the Korean peninsula today. I do want to get your views on foreign policy. Let me give you another example. If China took back Taiwan today, you say go to the Congress, or does the president not have the authority as commander in chief?
PAUL: Absolutely he does not have the authority. Where does he get it? You can't go to war without Congressional approval. And that's not a threat to our national security. That's something internal affairs. Why should we send hundreds of thousands of Americans to die in a civil war?
I mean, are we over in Russia right now over Chechnya? I mean, it wouldn't make any sense. Did we go to war over Hong Kong?
We should follow the Constitution and the advice of the founders. Don't go looking for dragons to slay. I mean, why should we go and provoke and look for trouble? We should talk to people, negotiate, be diplomatic and trade with people.
We do much better trading with Vietnam than we did with fighting with them, and we lost 60,000 men there. It makes so much common sense and is so appealing to the majority of Americans. Let me tell you, I really believe that.
KING: You have received some criticism. Some say you are the person who doesn't belong in a Republican debate. You were a past libertarian candidate for president, of course. You have views that are out of what many would think of the mainstream, at least in today's Republican Party.
I want to read you some of the criticism that came out after this last debate and ask you to respond to the politics of it. These are some comments made of your performance. Here's Roger Simon writing in The Politico: "In terms of the presidency, nobody cares what Ron Paul says, perhaps not even Ron Paul."
Gloria Borger writing in U.S. News and World Report: "Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who gives new meaning to the question asked by Ross Perot's former running mate, Admiral James Stockdale: 'Who am I? Why am I here?' " And in The Daily News of New York, an editorial: "Ron Paul, whose performance Tuesday proved him the Sanjaya of the political arena."
What do you make of the critics who say, why is this guy in a Republican debate? If he wants to run, run as the Libertarian.
PAUL: Well, I would ask you why you pick out three when I could find you probably 1,000 that contradict exactly what you say. I would say that I'm more Republican than they are. The Republican tradition is always to win on the peace position.
Democrats have always won or, you know, got us into war. We got out of Korea with Eisenhower. We got out of Vietnam with, eventually, with Nixon. We ran on a peace program in the year 2000. No world policemen, no nation-building, humble foreign policy.
Peace is a positive message, not a negative message. You don't win by -- politically, you don't win. There's a strong tradition of non-intervention in the Republican Party. That is the American position. That is the constitutional position. That is the very strong advice from the founders.
So when they attack me and say, silence Ron Paul, they're saying silence the constitution, silence the advisers, the founders of the country, silence our platform, close down the big tent, make it narrow. And as long as you agree with a foreign policy that is failing, then it's OK to be a Republican. I don't buy into that, and neither do the American people.
KING: Let me jump into what comes next. You're about 1 percent in the polls, and many say, whether they agree or disagree with your views, there are many who say at some point you need to have fewer candidates on the stage for these debates to be meaningful.
The chairman of the Michigan Republican Party says he's going to try to get you -- and perhaps others, but you specifically -- pushed out of future debates. He said of you: "I think he would have felt more comfortable on the stage with the Democrats in what he said last night and I think he is a distraction in the Republican primary, does not represent the base of the party, does not represent the party."
That's Saul Anuzis, the chairman of the Republican Party in the state of Michigan, who says, among other things, he thinks you don't deserve a spot on the stage. Will you continue to be in the Republican debates and at some point, forget your name for a second, forget your candidacy, should they be winnowed down to fewer candidates?
PAUL: Well, why do you pick that statement that has been discredited and removed? The chairman of the Michigan party now has withdrawn that. He has given up on that.
Why don't you let the people decide? Why do you want to eliminate democracy? Why stomp out the grassroots candidate and only reward those with $100 million that get money from the special interests? That's not very democratic.
I support the Republican platform better than any other candidate, I am convinced of. Take out the platform. They're for less government. They're for personal liberty.
We ran on our program in 2000 for a humble foreign policy. How can anybody say I'm not Republican? I'm the most conservative member of the Congress. I vote for the least amount of spending and the least amount of taxes, and they say I'm not Republican enough?
I mean, why don't you challenge that side rather than challenging me and feed into the frenzy that say get rid of the reporter, get rid of the person delivering the information rather than dealing with the information. Non-intervention is a real political victory. We cannot win as Republicans next year if we just continue to dig our heels in, send more men and women over there to die on a policy that has failed.
That is the issue. Republicans are scared to death to face up to the truth. And my job is to make them face up to it and show them that the majority of Americans are with me, not with the current foreign policy that we're following.
KING: Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, Republican candidate for president. Low in the polls but certainly shaking and stirring things up in the Republican race. Congressman, thanks for joining us today on "Late Edition."
To watch a video of the interview:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Ron_Paul_The_majority_of_Americans_0521.html
To support Ron Paul for President:
http://www.ronpaul2008.com
***
Saturday, May 19, 2007
University shut down to suppress "Holocaust" revisionist
Italian campus denies denier
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/101921.html
An Italian university shut down to prevent a lecture by a Holocaust denier.
The head of the University of Teramo, in central Italy, ordered the
shutdown Friday (May 18) after it failed to dissuade Robert Faurisson from
appearing. Faurisson, who has been prosecuted in his native France for
arguing that the Nazi gas chambers were a myth, had been invited by a
history professor at the university.
Jewish groups said the invitation was unbecoming of a serious academic
institution.
***
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/101921.html
An Italian university shut down to prevent a lecture by a Holocaust denier.
The head of the University of Teramo, in central Italy, ordered the
shutdown Friday (May 18) after it failed to dissuade Robert Faurisson from
appearing. Faurisson, who has been prosecuted in his native France for
arguing that the Nazi gas chambers were a myth, had been invited by a
history professor at the university.
Jewish groups said the invitation was unbecoming of a serious academic
institution.
***
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Hoffman's Speech in Michigan a Great Success
On Saturday May 12 this writer addressed the Battle of Ideas Forum in the Lansing, Michigan area. The title of my talk was "A Modest Inquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity." Members of the audience came from as far away as Maryland, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois. I am delighted to report that a small delegation of Palestinian Christians were also present.
I spoke for an hour about the hidden side of Orthodox Judaism and the scope of its influence among contemporary gentiles. The audience was attentive and enthusiastic and several of them lined up for questions at the conclusion of my speech. Many of our books, CDs and DVDs were purchased.
The night before, I was taped for one hour in an interview to be broadcast soon on local cable television in Michigan.
We will notify you of cable TV broadcast times of the interview and of any tapes of my Saturday speech, should they become available.
Hearty thanks are due to the intrepid and dynamic Christian activist John Mangopoulos, and the local Michigan sponsors of the Battle of Ideas Forum, for making all of this possible.
***
To have Mr. Hoffman's essays and columns e-mailed to you free-of-charge or obligation, send an e-mail to: HoffmanWire-subscribe@topica.com When you receive Topica's e-mail in response to your subscription request, simply click on your reply button; that's all there is to it. You need not visit Topica's website in order to subscribe. You may easily unsubscribe, hassle-free, at any time.
***
I spoke for an hour about the hidden side of Orthodox Judaism and the scope of its influence among contemporary gentiles. The audience was attentive and enthusiastic and several of them lined up for questions at the conclusion of my speech. Many of our books, CDs and DVDs were purchased.
The night before, I was taped for one hour in an interview to be broadcast soon on local cable television in Michigan.
We will notify you of cable TV broadcast times of the interview and of any tapes of my Saturday speech, should they become available.
Hearty thanks are due to the intrepid and dynamic Christian activist John Mangopoulos, and the local Michigan sponsors of the Battle of Ideas Forum, for making all of this possible.
***
To have Mr. Hoffman's essays and columns e-mailed to you free-of-charge or obligation, send an e-mail to: HoffmanWire-subscribe@topica.com When you receive Topica's e-mail in response to your subscription request, simply click on your reply button; that's all there is to it. You need not visit Topica's website in order to subscribe. You may easily unsubscribe, hassle-free, at any time.
***
Monday, May 14, 2007
Criticism of Israel May Haunt Teacher
Professor's Attempt to get tenure splits DePaul community
By Ron Grossman
Chicago Tribune Tribune | May 11, 2007 (Metro section, p. 2)
A tenure committee at DePaul University may weigh in Friday on a donnybrook that has been waged with a combination of learned footnotes and body-blow rhetoric, a fight reverberating across the nation and beyond academia.
Norman Finkelstein, an assistant professor of political science, wants tenure at the North Side institution. His detractors say he uses his academic post as a political pulpit from which to bash Israel. His supporters say Jewish organizations want to silence legitimate criticism of the Jewish state.
His most vocal critic, Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz, threatened to sue one of Finkelstein's publishers for libel. Finkelstein reportedly threatened to sue DePaul colleagues who vote against his promotion. Finkelstein's mentor, famed linguist Noam Chomsky, calls the case "scandalous."
Now, under the secrecy that cloaks decisions about whether professors are granted tenure, Finkelstein's bosses and colleagues must decide how far academic freedom extends and where its abuse begins.
One thing his opponents and champions agree upon is that Finkelstein does political science a la Don Rickles, the comedic master of insults. In recommending his promotion, members of the political science department noted that in Finkelstein's work, "careful and important scholarly arguments are often sprinkled with ad hominem attacks, invective and unsparing criticism."
In his books, Finkelstein has called efforts to get compensation for Holocaust victims from Germany a "shakedown." He labels leaders of Jewish organizations "Holocaust-mongers." Contending the number of survivors has been inflated to scoop up more money, Finkelstein in one book recollects the words of his mother, herself a prisoner of the Nazis: " 'If everybody who claims to be a survivor actually is one,' my mother used to exclaim, 'who did Hitler kill?' "
At the same time, Finkelstein has supporters among widely respected scholars. Raul Hilberg, the dean of Holocaust historians, formerly of the University of Vermont, has spoken favorably of Finkelstein's book "The Holocaust Industry."
Chomsky and other Finkelstein supporters have said that his record of publications qualifies him for tenure. If tenure is denied, they say, the burden is on the university to show it is not bowing to outside pressure.
Finkelstein, who declined to comment for this story, denied to an Israeli newspaper that he foments anti-Semitism: "I am just the messenger who reports on the actions of the Jewish establishment, actions that are encouraging anti-Semitism." University officials also declined to comment on the case.
Finkelstein, who is Jewish, has written books highly critical of Israel. He is a frequent speaker at other universities. His appearances have a regular rhythm: A Jewish organization protests, and the university president responds by defending the principle of free speech, while acknowledging some people might find Finkelstein's views hurtful. An SRO audience is virtually guaranteed.
In class, Finkelstein gets excellent student evaluations, encouraging discussion of issues from a variety of positions. "Of my advisees who've spoken highly about Norm's classes, four of six are Jewish," said Richard Farkas, a DePaul professor of political science.
But Finkelstein writes his books in the style of a counter-puncher, framing them as a critique -- often a denouncement -- of another scholar's work. Finkelstein has called Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Prize-winner Elie Wiesel the "resident clown" of the "Holocaust circus." After Dershowitz published "The Case for Israel," Finkelstein responded with "Beyond Chutzpah." As publication approached, verbal war broke out.
"He called me a 'moral pervert,' " Dershowtiz said. "Supposedly he was going to claim I didn't write my own book." Dershowitz put Finkelstein's publisher on notice that he would sue if that claim were to appear in the book, which, in the end, it did not. But Dershowitz has hardly gone silent; in an interview with the Tribune, he said of the upcoming tenure vote, "Finkelstein would be the first person to get tenure because he is anti-Semitic."
The pros and cons will wind up on the desk of De Paul's president, Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, whose own administration seems conflicted.
In an internal report now circulating on the Internet, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chuck Suchar, writes that Finkelstein's style is inconsistent with "DePaul's Vincentian values," including respect for "the rights of others to hold and express different intellectual positions."
But two years ago, Holtschneider held up Finkelstein as an example of the university's values. Another faculty member, Thomas Klocek, was being fired after a heated exchange with Muslim student leaders.
Holtschneider denied a comparison between Klocek and Finkelstein, writing in an e-mail that he hoped "DePaul's longstanding friends in the Jewish community" would see the need for a scholar to speak freely.
"We have learned throughout history that the greater good is served when all people are allowed to express an opinion," Holtschneider wrote.
rgrossman@tribune.com
***
By Ron Grossman
Chicago Tribune Tribune | May 11, 2007 (Metro section, p. 2)
A tenure committee at DePaul University may weigh in Friday on a donnybrook that has been waged with a combination of learned footnotes and body-blow rhetoric, a fight reverberating across the nation and beyond academia.
Norman Finkelstein, an assistant professor of political science, wants tenure at the North Side institution. His detractors say he uses his academic post as a political pulpit from which to bash Israel. His supporters say Jewish organizations want to silence legitimate criticism of the Jewish state.
His most vocal critic, Harvard University law professor Alan Dershowitz, threatened to sue one of Finkelstein's publishers for libel. Finkelstein reportedly threatened to sue DePaul colleagues who vote against his promotion. Finkelstein's mentor, famed linguist Noam Chomsky, calls the case "scandalous."
Now, under the secrecy that cloaks decisions about whether professors are granted tenure, Finkelstein's bosses and colleagues must decide how far academic freedom extends and where its abuse begins.
One thing his opponents and champions agree upon is that Finkelstein does political science a la Don Rickles, the comedic master of insults. In recommending his promotion, members of the political science department noted that in Finkelstein's work, "careful and important scholarly arguments are often sprinkled with ad hominem attacks, invective and unsparing criticism."
In his books, Finkelstein has called efforts to get compensation for Holocaust victims from Germany a "shakedown." He labels leaders of Jewish organizations "Holocaust-mongers." Contending the number of survivors has been inflated to scoop up more money, Finkelstein in one book recollects the words of his mother, herself a prisoner of the Nazis: " 'If everybody who claims to be a survivor actually is one,' my mother used to exclaim, 'who did Hitler kill?' "
At the same time, Finkelstein has supporters among widely respected scholars. Raul Hilberg, the dean of Holocaust historians, formerly of the University of Vermont, has spoken favorably of Finkelstein's book "The Holocaust Industry."
Chomsky and other Finkelstein supporters have said that his record of publications qualifies him for tenure. If tenure is denied, they say, the burden is on the university to show it is not bowing to outside pressure.
Finkelstein, who declined to comment for this story, denied to an Israeli newspaper that he foments anti-Semitism: "I am just the messenger who reports on the actions of the Jewish establishment, actions that are encouraging anti-Semitism." University officials also declined to comment on the case.
Finkelstein, who is Jewish, has written books highly critical of Israel. He is a frequent speaker at other universities. His appearances have a regular rhythm: A Jewish organization protests, and the university president responds by defending the principle of free speech, while acknowledging some people might find Finkelstein's views hurtful. An SRO audience is virtually guaranteed.
In class, Finkelstein gets excellent student evaluations, encouraging discussion of issues from a variety of positions. "Of my advisees who've spoken highly about Norm's classes, four of six are Jewish," said Richard Farkas, a DePaul professor of political science.
But Finkelstein writes his books in the style of a counter-puncher, framing them as a critique -- often a denouncement -- of another scholar's work. Finkelstein has called Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Prize-winner Elie Wiesel the "resident clown" of the "Holocaust circus." After Dershowitz published "The Case for Israel," Finkelstein responded with "Beyond Chutzpah." As publication approached, verbal war broke out.
"He called me a 'moral pervert,' " Dershowtiz said. "Supposedly he was going to claim I didn't write my own book." Dershowitz put Finkelstein's publisher on notice that he would sue if that claim were to appear in the book, which, in the end, it did not. But Dershowitz has hardly gone silent; in an interview with the Tribune, he said of the upcoming tenure vote, "Finkelstein would be the first person to get tenure because he is anti-Semitic."
The pros and cons will wind up on the desk of De Paul's president, Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, whose own administration seems conflicted.
In an internal report now circulating on the Internet, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chuck Suchar, writes that Finkelstein's style is inconsistent with "DePaul's Vincentian values," including respect for "the rights of others to hold and express different intellectual positions."
But two years ago, Holtschneider held up Finkelstein as an example of the university's values. Another faculty member, Thomas Klocek, was being fired after a heated exchange with Muslim student leaders.
Holtschneider denied a comparison between Klocek and Finkelstein, writing in an e-mail that he hoped "DePaul's longstanding friends in the Jewish community" would see the need for a scholar to speak freely.
"We have learned throughout history that the greater good is served when all people are allowed to express an opinion," Holtschneider wrote.
rgrossman@tribune.com
***
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Photo-forger back to work for Establishment media
Ex-'Blade' Photog Who Altered Images Contracts With N.Y. Photo Agency
By Joe Strupp
Editor & Publisher | May 08, 2007 3:00 PM ET
NEW YORK -- Just one month ago photographer Allan Detrich resigned from The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, after editors discovered he had altered nearly 80 images. But now Detrich has contracted with a New York photo agency to distribute hundreds of photos he took of last week's devastating tornados in Kansas.
"I personally do believe in giving a person a second chance," said J.P. Pappis, president of the Polaris Agency, a five-year-old photo news agency that is working with Detrich. "He has sent us his files and they are terrific." Pappis said. Due to Detrich's past problems, Pappis is requiring the raw files of some 700 images to be supplied so that he can be sure they are not altered. "This is a first encounter, there is a little bit of controversy in the background," Pappis admitted. "We said we had to see the raw files and he has cooperated."
If the agency is successful in selling any of Detrich's images, Pappis said future business dealings could take place. "If we are successful, we might give him a second chance," Pappis said. "He made a mistake, he was caught, so do we put him in the electric chair?"
Detrich, a former longtime Blade employee who was a 1998 Pulitzer finalist, quit on April 7 after admitting he changed a photo of a college baseball team, but claimed it had been mistakenly submitted for publication. That photo ran March 31.
When it was discovered that Detrich had altered the image, a Blade review of his work found he had submitted 79 altered images since January, with 58 appearing either in the paper or online.
"I am never going to do that again," Detrich said this week about the Blade images. "I have gotten over that and I am working on a new career." An avowed "storm chaser" for 10 years, Detrich said he traveled to Kansas when the tornado-type weather was forming on Friday, arriving in Greensburg, Kan. just as the devastating tornado struck the small town. During the follow-up coverage, he was interviewed by several news outlets, and provided images of his tornado photos to CNN and Fox News for their Web sites.
Pappis said he was watching CNN on Saturday, was impressed by Detrich's work, and tracked him down. "He sent [the images] to us and they will have interest to magazines and newspapers, we will send them out and hope they get picked," Pappis said. "We don't know yet what the demand will be, it is early."
Pappis said he became aware of the Blade-related problems, but wanted to give Detrich a chance given the quality of the work. Polaris Assignment Editor Ryan Schick said the agency does not often request raw files of images, but sought to request them this time given Detrich's past. "Mr. Detrich was more than wiling to give us the opportunity to view everything raw," Schick said.
Detrich said he was continuing his photo career and had learned his lesson about altering anything. "I am being as honest and forthright as I can," he said. "I have no reason to screw up my life again."
***
By Joe Strupp
Editor & Publisher | May 08, 2007 3:00 PM ET
NEW YORK -- Just one month ago photographer Allan Detrich resigned from The Blade of Toledo, Ohio, after editors discovered he had altered nearly 80 images. But now Detrich has contracted with a New York photo agency to distribute hundreds of photos he took of last week's devastating tornados in Kansas.
"I personally do believe in giving a person a second chance," said J.P. Pappis, president of the Polaris Agency, a five-year-old photo news agency that is working with Detrich. "He has sent us his files and they are terrific." Pappis said. Due to Detrich's past problems, Pappis is requiring the raw files of some 700 images to be supplied so that he can be sure they are not altered. "This is a first encounter, there is a little bit of controversy in the background," Pappis admitted. "We said we had to see the raw files and he has cooperated."
If the agency is successful in selling any of Detrich's images, Pappis said future business dealings could take place. "If we are successful, we might give him a second chance," Pappis said. "He made a mistake, he was caught, so do we put him in the electric chair?"
Detrich, a former longtime Blade employee who was a 1998 Pulitzer finalist, quit on April 7 after admitting he changed a photo of a college baseball team, but claimed it had been mistakenly submitted for publication. That photo ran March 31.
When it was discovered that Detrich had altered the image, a Blade review of his work found he had submitted 79 altered images since January, with 58 appearing either in the paper or online.
"I am never going to do that again," Detrich said this week about the Blade images. "I have gotten over that and I am working on a new career." An avowed "storm chaser" for 10 years, Detrich said he traveled to Kansas when the tornado-type weather was forming on Friday, arriving in Greensburg, Kan. just as the devastating tornado struck the small town. During the follow-up coverage, he was interviewed by several news outlets, and provided images of his tornado photos to CNN and Fox News for their Web sites.
Pappis said he was watching CNN on Saturday, was impressed by Detrich's work, and tracked him down. "He sent [the images] to us and they will have interest to magazines and newspapers, we will send them out and hope they get picked," Pappis said. "We don't know yet what the demand will be, it is early."
Pappis said he became aware of the Blade-related problems, but wanted to give Detrich a chance given the quality of the work. Polaris Assignment Editor Ryan Schick said the agency does not often request raw files of images, but sought to request them this time given Detrich's past. "Mr. Detrich was more than wiling to give us the opportunity to view everything raw," Schick said.
Detrich said he was continuing his photo career and had learned his lesson about altering anything. "I am being as honest and forthright as I can," he said. "I have no reason to screw up my life again."
***
Monday, May 07, 2007
Kristol, Coulter and Friedman: Three Mouths in Search of a Brain
By Ian Schachner
Ithaca, N.Y.
After reading...(the) preview of Bill Kristol's TIME article predicting a Republican win in the 2008 elections, I honestly felt sick to my stomach. Why in God's name is this man or any of his friends still given valuable space in print and on television? Why do media outlets continue to give people like Bill Kristol, Ann Coulter, and Tom Friedman the time of day? Bill Kristol has made countless untrue, and in many cases, idiotic comments about political affairs, always saying whatever is necessary to support neoconservative policies. He claimed before the war that there was little evidence that Sunni and Shia Muslims don't get along, that we will be respected around the world because of our invasion of Iraq, and he made countless other incorrect predictions about Saddam's possession of WMD's.
We can also now fill a book with examples of how Ann Coulter is nothing more than a vitriolic, childish racist who cares more about getting attention and promoting hate than about providing anything useful to any discussion.
Then we have well-respected people like NY Times writer Thomas Friedman, who is now infamous for claiming that another 6 months is needed to really gauge whether our Iraq fiasco will work...he of course made this claim over and over again for 4 years, showing a complete lack of credibility on evaluating foreign policy.
Yet these same people are the ones still writing and making headlines and spewing out more factually incorrect, biased nonsense day after day. The biggest joke in the media world is the notion that mainstream newspapers, magazines, and TV shows try to educate and inform the public. If these news outlets actually cared about providing their readers with the truth, they would make at least some effort to track the quality of their writers, their guests, and the tendency of their readers to get the correct information from their product. Despite their ability to do so, no such regular tracking system exists.
The only measurements that matter to these organizations are readership and viewers (i.e. profits), making them no different than sensationalist tabloids.
It's about time the public starts keeping stats on so called authority-figures and pundits, and then uses this info to demand that media outlets give time and space to those who have proven their worth. The way things are now, you can be wrong 100 times...show a lack of even the most basic knowledge of another country, and still US media outlets will seek your input and cite you as an expert source on domestic and foreign policies. Is anybody really surprised that we can be so easily lured into a war? My God, when you look at who our shameful fourth estate is making us listen to, it's not really a shock that our citizens are so ignorant about history and current affairs? What in the world does it take for someone in the US to lose their credibility these days?
***
After reading...(the) preview of Bill Kristol's TIME article predicting a Republican win in the 2008 elections, I honestly felt sick to my stomach. Why in God's name is this man or any of his friends still given valuable space in print and on television? Why do media outlets continue to give people like Bill Kristol, Ann Coulter, and Tom Friedman the time of day? Bill Kristol has made countless untrue, and in many cases, idiotic comments about political affairs, always saying whatever is necessary to support neoconservative policies. He claimed before the war that there was little evidence that Sunni and Shia Muslims don't get along, that we will be respected around the world because of our invasion of Iraq, and he made countless other incorrect predictions about Saddam's possession of WMD's.
We can also now fill a book with examples of how Ann Coulter is nothing more than a vitriolic, childish racist who cares more about getting attention and promoting hate than about providing anything useful to any discussion.
Then we have well-respected people like NY Times writer Thomas Friedman, who is now infamous for claiming that another 6 months is needed to really gauge whether our Iraq fiasco will work...he of course made this claim over and over again for 4 years, showing a complete lack of credibility on evaluating foreign policy.
Yet these same people are the ones still writing and making headlines and spewing out more factually incorrect, biased nonsense day after day. The biggest joke in the media world is the notion that mainstream newspapers, magazines, and TV shows try to educate and inform the public. If these news outlets actually cared about providing their readers with the truth, they would make at least some effort to track the quality of their writers, their guests, and the tendency of their readers to get the correct information from their product. Despite their ability to do so, no such regular tracking system exists.
The only measurements that matter to these organizations are readership and viewers (i.e. profits), making them no different than sensationalist tabloids.
It's about time the public starts keeping stats on so called authority-figures and pundits, and then uses this info to demand that media outlets give time and space to those who have proven their worth. The way things are now, you can be wrong 100 times...show a lack of even the most basic knowledge of another country, and still US media outlets will seek your input and cite you as an expert source on domestic and foreign policies. Is anybody really surprised that we can be so easily lured into a war? My God, when you look at who our shameful fourth estate is making us listen to, it's not really a shock that our citizens are so ignorant about history and current affairs? What in the world does it take for someone in the US to lose their credibility these days?
***
US and Saudis Sponsoring anti-Iran Terrorism
Report: Saudis, US sponsoring covert action against Iran
Michael Roston
May 7, 2007
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Report_Saudis_US_sponsoring_covert_action_0507.html
The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United States are working with other states in the Middle East region to sponsor covert action against Iran, according to a report in this month's edition of The Atlantic. The report also suggests that covert attacks may occur against Iran's oil sector.
David Samuels, in a lengthy article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, reports that the US is promoting a campaign against Iran that includes covert action.
Since last Fall, he writes, "Rice and her colleagues in the administration decided to embark on a daring and risky third course: a coordinated campaign, directed with the help of the intelligence services of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates....The bill for the covert part of this activity, which has involved funding sectarian political movements and paramilitary groups in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, is said to amount to more than $300 million. It is being paid by Saudi Arabia and other concerned Gulf states, for whom the combination of a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq and a nuclear-armed Iran means trouble."
Samuels suggests that Iran has already faced a variety of internal attacks as a consequence of this covert program.
"They pointed to an upsurge in antigovernment guerrilla activity inside Iran, including a bomb in Zahedan, the economic center of the province of Baluchistan, that killed 11 soldiers in the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on February 14; the mysterious death of the Iranian scientist Ardashir Hosseinpour, who worked on uranium enrichment at the Isfahan nuclear facility; and the defection of a high-ranking Iranian general named Ali Asgari, a former deputy minister of defense who was also the Revolutionary Guard officer responsible for training and supplying Hezbollah during its war against the Israelis in southern Lebanon in the 1980s," Samuels notes.
More than that, Samuels warns that these covert actions may soon target Iran's petroleum sector.
"People focus altogether on the nuclear facilities and how difficult they would be to take out," he quotes former Secretary of State George Shultz as saying. "But it’s not difficult for somebody to sabotage those refineries."
Samuels' report echoes an earlier story by the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh.
"The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said," he wrote in the March 5 article.
Samuels full report is available to subscribers at The Atlantic's website:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200706/condoleezza-rice
***
To have Mr. Hoffman's essays and columns e-mailed to you free-of-charge or obligation, send an e-mail to: HoffmanWire-subscribe@topica.com When you receive Topica's e-mail in response to your subscription request, simply click on your reply button; that's all there is to it. You need not visit Topica's website in order to subscribe. You may easily unsubscribe, hassle-free, at any time.
***
Michael Roston
May 7, 2007
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Report_Saudis_US_sponsoring_covert_action_0507.html
The governments of Saudi Arabia and the United States are working with other states in the Middle East region to sponsor covert action against Iran, according to a report in this month's edition of The Atlantic. The report also suggests that covert attacks may occur against Iran's oil sector.
David Samuels, in a lengthy article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East, reports that the US is promoting a campaign against Iran that includes covert action.
Since last Fall, he writes, "Rice and her colleagues in the administration decided to embark on a daring and risky third course: a coordinated campaign, directed with the help of the intelligence services of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates....The bill for the covert part of this activity, which has involved funding sectarian political movements and paramilitary groups in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, is said to amount to more than $300 million. It is being paid by Saudi Arabia and other concerned Gulf states, for whom the combination of a hasty American withdrawal from Iraq and a nuclear-armed Iran means trouble."
Samuels suggests that Iran has already faced a variety of internal attacks as a consequence of this covert program.
"They pointed to an upsurge in antigovernment guerrilla activity inside Iran, including a bomb in Zahedan, the economic center of the province of Baluchistan, that killed 11 soldiers in the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on February 14; the mysterious death of the Iranian scientist Ardashir Hosseinpour, who worked on uranium enrichment at the Isfahan nuclear facility; and the defection of a high-ranking Iranian general named Ali Asgari, a former deputy minister of defense who was also the Revolutionary Guard officer responsible for training and supplying Hezbollah during its war against the Israelis in southern Lebanon in the 1980s," Samuels notes.
More than that, Samuels warns that these covert actions may soon target Iran's petroleum sector.
"People focus altogether on the nuclear facilities and how difficult they would be to take out," he quotes former Secretary of State George Shultz as saying. "But it’s not difficult for somebody to sabotage those refineries."
Samuels' report echoes an earlier story by the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh.
"The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said," he wrote in the March 5 article.
Samuels full report is available to subscribers at The Atlantic's website:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200706/condoleezza-rice
***
To have Mr. Hoffman's essays and columns e-mailed to you free-of-charge or obligation, send an e-mail to: HoffmanWire-subscribe@topica.com When you receive Topica's e-mail in response to your subscription request, simply click on your reply button; that's all there is to it. You need not visit Topica's website in order to subscribe. You may easily unsubscribe, hassle-free, at any time.
***
Friday, May 04, 2007
"Lessons of The 'Holocaust" --not learned
"Holocaust" propaganda is shoved down our throats around-the-clock under the pretext that by learning "the lessons of the 'Holocaust" we will prevent ethnic-cleansing and ethnic targeting from happening ever again.That's the cover story but it's an enormous lie. "Hololcaust" propaganda is exclusively for the purpose of raising the standing of Judaics to a protected class of superior saints and martyrs who may, in turn, holocaust whomever they choose, such as the Palestinians. Hence, "Holocaust" propaganda is a function of race-superiority. The supposed heightened sensitivity to attacks on minorities which it is alleged to impart is non-existent. We have documented that fact in our book "The Israeli Holocaust Against the Palestinians."
Here now is more evidence. The New York Times has published a front page story about how Judaic Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff seeks to target people of Pakistani ethnicity and ban them from entering the U.S. Don't imagine for a moment that the Times published the story to expose Chertoff. The article contains not a word of protest or dismay. Rather it condones Chertoff's policy by emphasizing the supposedly nefarious nature of Pakistani people.
Imagine the earth-shaking outcry throughout the West if the U.S. government sought to ban Israelis from entering America. The spectre of "the harbinger of another Holocaust" would reverberate around the globe in editorials, marches, protests, demonstrations, TV and radio programs and government and UN statements of outrage etc.
But it is "happening again" --this time to the Pakistanis--and Holocaust Weekly News --(otherwise known as the New York Times), has no problem with it. They report it in a tenor of business-as-usual, because Pakistani people do not have the exalted "Holocaust martyr" status that Zionists do. Any ethnic targeting of Judaics is a "crime against humanity" and a cause for severe punishment, while ethnic targeting of Pakistanis is a "legitimate security move."
The NY Times' report is mostly about the dangers Pakistanis pose. The Times is so full of its own Zionist hubris it can't imagine anyone would get excited about a ban on an ethnicity, unless that ethnicity is Judaic. The "lessons of the 'Holocaust" apply only to Judaics, as a racket for elevating their status above humanity.
U.S. Seeks Closing of Visa Loophole for Britons
By JANE PERLEZ | New York Times | May 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/world/europe/02britain.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
(Excerpt)
LONDON, May 1 — Omar Khyam, the ringleader of the thwarted London bomb plot who was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday, showed the potential for disaffected young men to be lured as terrorists, a threat that British officials said they would have to contend with for a generation.
But the 25-year-old Mr. Khyam, a Briton of Pakistani descent, also personifies a larger and more immediate concern: as a British citizen, he could have entered the United States without a visa, like many of an estimated 800,000 other Britons of Pakistani origin.
American officials, citing the number of terror plots in Britain involving Britons with ties to Pakistan, expressed concern over the visa loophole.
In recent months, the homeland security secretary, Michael Chertoff, has opened talks with the government here on how to curb the access of British citizens of Pakistani origin to the United States.
At the moment, the British are resistant, fearing that restrictions on the group of Britons would incur a backlash from a population that has always sided with the Labor Party. The Americans say they are hesitant to push too hard and embarrass their staunch ally in the Iraq war, Prime Minister Tony Blair, as he prepares to step down from office.
Among the options that have been put on the table, according to British officials, was the most onerous option to Britain, that of canceling the entire visa waiver program that allows all Britons entry to the United States without a visa. Another option, politically fraught as it is, would be to single out Britons of Pakistani origin, requiring them to make visa applications for the United States.
Rather than impose any visa restrictions, the British government has told Washington it would prefer if the Americans simply deported Britons who failed screening once they arrived at an airport in the United States, British officials said. The British also screen at their end, and share intelligence with the Americans.
But Washington feels strongly, Mr. Chertoff has said, that it has the right to build controls against terrorists from Britain who do not have a prior criminal record...
***
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Judaic Role in the Black Slave Trade - Back on the air!
After the video we posted to Google Video, "The Judaic Role in the Black Slave Trade," featuring Prof. Tony Martin, racked up more than 40,000 viewers in less than fifteen months, Google performed "system maintenance" which destroyed the soundtrack on the broadcast.
After several attempts at "re-uploading" the video, it's finally back up at the Google Video website, CLICK HERE.
Of course, by "coincidence," the 40,000 audience rating is gone, the great reviews and comments have also vanished and we're starting from scratch.
If you haven't seen it, you should. Dr. Martin's talk is preceded by a ten minute discussion of recent developments in the field by Michael A. Hoffman II.
***
After several attempts at "re-uploading" the video, it's finally back up at the Google Video website, CLICK HERE.
Of course, by "coincidence," the 40,000 audience rating is gone, the great reviews and comments have also vanished and we're starting from scratch.
If you haven't seen it, you should. Dr. Martin's talk is preceded by a ten minute discussion of recent developments in the field by Michael A. Hoffman II.
***
Hoffman Newsletter with Virginia Tech Massacre notes
This month's hard-copy newsletter is mostly devoted to the largely unknown record of one of the finest Chief Justices of all time, Roger B. Taney, but all my notes on the Virginia Tech massacre are also published in this issue, for those who may be interested. (Subscribers: your issue is being mailed today).
Revisionist History Newsletter no. 44: Chief Justice Roger Taney, A Profile in Courage
Scourge of Lincoln and Guardian of the Constitution, Taney was one of the best justices ever to lead the Supreme Court: his fight against the central bank, and for states' rights and our immemorial liberties in opposition to Abraham Lincoln's military tyranny is detailed in this issue's cover story. Many parallels with today's situation! This is the revisionist history of an unjustly obscure jurist who should be known to, and honored by, all true Americans.
PLUS: "Certain Anomalies in the Case of 33 Deaths at Virginia Tech."
Hoffman's thought-provoking dossier on the massacre -- the holes in the official account and some aspects of the case that just don't add up.
Also: news of a new edition of the Septuagint text; and more.
Send a money order for $7.50 in the U.S. or $9 foreign (in US funds from a US bank)
Or order this single issue with your Visa or Mastercard at this link:
http://www.revisionisthistory.org/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi?p_id=10037
OR SAVE MONEY by subscribing ($35 for six issues in the US; $45 foreign) and taking issue no. 44 as the first issue of your subscription
Subscribe with your Visa or Mastercard at this link:
http://www.revisionisthistory.org/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=3322606.6730*e40j00&product=Subscriptions
Independent History and Research
Box 849, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83816 USA
***
Revisionist History Newsletter no. 44: Chief Justice Roger Taney, A Profile in Courage
Scourge of Lincoln and Guardian of the Constitution, Taney was one of the best justices ever to lead the Supreme Court: his fight against the central bank, and for states' rights and our immemorial liberties in opposition to Abraham Lincoln's military tyranny is detailed in this issue's cover story. Many parallels with today's situation! This is the revisionist history of an unjustly obscure jurist who should be known to, and honored by, all true Americans.
PLUS: "Certain Anomalies in the Case of 33 Deaths at Virginia Tech."
Hoffman's thought-provoking dossier on the massacre -- the holes in the official account and some aspects of the case that just don't add up.
Also: news of a new edition of the Septuagint text; and more.
Send a money order for $7.50 in the U.S. or $9 foreign (in US funds from a US bank)
Or order this single issue with your Visa or Mastercard at this link:
http://www.revisionisthistory.org/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi?p_id=10037
OR SAVE MONEY by subscribing ($35 for six issues in the US; $45 foreign) and taking issue no. 44 as the first issue of your subscription
Subscribe with your Visa or Mastercard at this link:
http://www.revisionisthistory.org/cgi-bin/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=3322606.6730*e40j00&product=Subscriptions
Independent History and Research
Box 849, Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 83816 USA
***
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Israelis Hold Vanunu's Christianity Against Him
Deir Yassin Remembered Board Member Mordechai Vanunu Found Guilty on all Charges of Speaking to the Foreign Media
By Daniel McGowan
Mordechai Vanunu served his full sentence of 18 years for telling the world that Israel has nuclear weapons. But he has never been freed or allowed to leave Israel.
Today he was found guilty of numerous counts of speaking with the foreign press, a further restriction and one that even Alan Dershowitz has said is wrong.
Vanunu renounced Judaism and became a Christian while in prison, over eleven years of which was in solitary confinement. This has inflamed the Israeli government, perhaps more than his charges that Israel is an apartheid state where over half the population that is not Jewish has lesser rights or no rights at all.
These current convictions support Vanunu’s contention that non-Jewish citizens and Palestinians living within the borders controlled by Israel have no rights, no freedom of movement, and no freedom of speech.
The court will meet on May 18th to fix a sentence for each count against Vanunu.
Mordechai Vanunu has been a member of Deir Yassin Remembered since he was in prison. He became a Board member in 2004 and has participated in our annual commemorations at Deir Yassin for the past three years. He is shown in a 33-minute video leading the DYR march on April 9, 2006, which can be seen at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=341600202419569830&hl=en
***
By Daniel McGowan
Mordechai Vanunu served his full sentence of 18 years for telling the world that Israel has nuclear weapons. But he has never been freed or allowed to leave Israel.
Today he was found guilty of numerous counts of speaking with the foreign press, a further restriction and one that even Alan Dershowitz has said is wrong.
Vanunu renounced Judaism and became a Christian while in prison, over eleven years of which was in solitary confinement. This has inflamed the Israeli government, perhaps more than his charges that Israel is an apartheid state where over half the population that is not Jewish has lesser rights or no rights at all.
These current convictions support Vanunu’s contention that non-Jewish citizens and Palestinians living within the borders controlled by Israel have no rights, no freedom of movement, and no freedom of speech.
The court will meet on May 18th to fix a sentence for each count against Vanunu.
Mordechai Vanunu has been a member of Deir Yassin Remembered since he was in prison. He became a Board member in 2004 and has participated in our annual commemorations at Deir Yassin for the past three years. He is shown in a 33-minute video leading the DYR march on April 9, 2006, which can be seen at
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=341600202419569830&hl=en
***
Israeli newspaper admits Iran is enemy of al-Qaeda
A Little-Known Fact about Iran Divulged by an Israeli Newspaper today:
Iran "has always condemned operations by the terrorist network al-Qaeda and even came close to a war with the Afghan group Taliban following an attack by Taliban forces against the Iranian consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif in August 1998, in which nine Iranian diplomats were killed."
Haaretz, May 1, 2007
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/854493.html
***
Iran "has always condemned operations by the terrorist network al-Qaeda and even came close to a war with the Afghan group Taliban following an attack by Taliban forces against the Iranian consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif in August 1998, in which nine Iranian diplomats were killed."
Haaretz, May 1, 2007
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/854493.html
***
Author Predicts Another School Attack this Month
Loren Coleman, author of "The Copycat Effect" is predicting another school shooting, this time in May. He gives his reasons here:
http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2007/05/mays-coming-copycat.html
I would caution Loren to stop and consider whether or not such predictions actually become self-fulfilling prophecy. By the nature of our reality, that which we anticipate, we are-- by the power of our mind -- helping to bring about. To be fair, Loren probably assumes he is only alerting law enforcement to the higher probability of an attack in the time frame he outlines. However, if he is astute enough to talk of "twilight language" he ought to understand the sub-rosa dimensions of his own thinking.
Moreover, to what extent is "law enforcement" at the elite or federal level possibly implicated in the Virginia Tech shootings?
Aside from his prediction, much of the rest of the data in his column is of interest to investigators and researchers into the Virginia Tech tragedy, and I recommend it solely on that basis. Here is an excerpt:
"Before 9/11, most of the shooters were rural and suburban Caucasian males. After 9/11, while young white males are still shooters, an international flavor to the personalities and locations of the shooters and shootings occurred - with a German (Erfurt, Germany), a Native American (Red Lake, MN), an East Indian Sikh (Montreal, Canada), and a South Korean (VA Tech), being some notable and prominent examples mentioned by the media. For those four individuals, however, they all took on the mantle of Columbine, and discharged their own cultures and ethnicities to become Columbine copycats..."
***
http://copycateffect.blogspot.com/2007/05/mays-coming-copycat.html
I would caution Loren to stop and consider whether or not such predictions actually become self-fulfilling prophecy. By the nature of our reality, that which we anticipate, we are-- by the power of our mind -- helping to bring about. To be fair, Loren probably assumes he is only alerting law enforcement to the higher probability of an attack in the time frame he outlines. However, if he is astute enough to talk of "twilight language" he ought to understand the sub-rosa dimensions of his own thinking.
Moreover, to what extent is "law enforcement" at the elite or federal level possibly implicated in the Virginia Tech shootings?
Aside from his prediction, much of the rest of the data in his column is of interest to investigators and researchers into the Virginia Tech tragedy, and I recommend it solely on that basis. Here is an excerpt:
"Before 9/11, most of the shooters were rural and suburban Caucasian males. After 9/11, while young white males are still shooters, an international flavor to the personalities and locations of the shooters and shootings occurred - with a German (Erfurt, Germany), a Native American (Red Lake, MN), an East Indian Sikh (Montreal, Canada), and a South Korean (VA Tech), being some notable and prominent examples mentioned by the media. For those four individuals, however, they all took on the mantle of Columbine, and discharged their own cultures and ethnicities to become Columbine copycats..."
***
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