Silent
spring
By Peter Lagerquist,
Al-Jazeera
Ahmed Mardawi was
barely two months
old when the first
Iraq war started
in 1991. That winter
the Israeli army
imposed a curfew
on the West Bank
and moved in force
into Hable’s
streets, where the
first Intifada still
smoldered. A sound
bomb was detonated
just outside the
house where the
Mardawis sheltered
with their newborn.
The baby started
crying and developed
a fever; when his
father tried to
take him to the
hospital in nearby
Qalqiliya, the local
army commander army
refused. Ahmed survived
but lost his hearing.
Now a slight, shy
12 year old with
liquid brown eyes
and pale, freckled
cheeks, Ahmed hears
the world dimly
through a conch
on his left ear.
His own voice is
a stranger to him,
his enunciation
labored, nearly
unintelligible.
On weekdays, he
attends a special
school a few kilometers
down the road in
Qalqiliya, but over
the past year Israeli
closures and curfews
have made the commute
increasingly difficult.
It will soon get
worse. Since July
last summer, a massive
Israeli “Security
Fence”
which will eventually
stretch the length
of the West Bank,
has started to envelope
the village. In
order to annex the
nearby settlement
of Alfe Menashe
to Israel, it will
permanently sever
Hable from Qalqiliya
and the rest of
the West Bank and
expropriate thousands
of dunums of land
from the village,
impoverishing most
of its families,
including Ahmed’s.
Crusade:
Racial and religious
exclusivism in George
Bush's America
By Michael Gillespie,
Media Monitors Network,
April 6, 2003
". . . this crusade,
this war on terrorism,
is going to take
awhile.": President
George W. Bush,
September 16, 2001
-- On a recent Friday,
American flags and
red, white, and
blue streamers waved
proudly in the breeze
in Vidor, Texas,
as hundreds of East
Texans turned out
for a “Support
our Troops”
rally at the Vidor
High School football
stadium. Whether
the Vidor rally
was one of many
across the USA reportedly
arranged by managers
of radio stations
owned by San Antonio-based
media giant Clear
Channel Communications,
Inc., which has
strong ties to the
Bush administration
and the Republican
Party, is unclear.
Clear Channel Vice
Chair Thomas Hicks
purchased the Texas
Rangers baseball
team in 1998 in
a lucrative deal
that made then-Texas
governor and Rangers
part owner George
W. Bush a multi-millionaire.
Clear Channel, which
operates some 1,225
radio and 40 television
stations in the
United States and
advertises itself
as “a leading
promoter, producer
and marketer of
live entertainment
events,” owns
at least two radio
stations in nearby
Beaumont, Texas.
According to the
Enterprise, Beaumont’s
daily newspaper,
Vidor rally organizers
said they didn’t
intend to make a
statement about
the war, but “many
of those attending
the afternoon rally
denounced anti-war
demonstrators for
being unpatriotic.”
Clear Channel has
denied ordering
its station managers
to organize the
rallies, but one
thing is certain:
whoever chose Vidor
as a rally site
had a finger on
the pulse of George
Bush’s crusade
and the xenophobic
ignorance and racial
and religious exclusivism
that drive it. A
Ku Klux Klan stronghold
for nearly a century,
Vidor is still home
to members of active
Klan organizations
today. One
of them, the White
Camelia Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan,
espouses a Christian
Identity racial
ideology and a theology
based on interpretations
of selected Old
and New Testament
passages used to
support claims that
the Anglo-Saxon,
Germanic, and Scandinavian
peoples are “God’s
chosen people, Israel.”
The White Camelia
Knights’ periodic
fundraising and
recruiting drives
in Vidor typically
include the sale
of peanut brittle
at literature tables
set up outside the
doors of the local
Wal-Mart, evidence
that such Klan groups
and the attitudes
they represent enjoy
significant popular
support in George
Bush’s Texas.
When
“Precision”
Bombing Really Isn't:
The Evil, the Grotesque
and the Official
Lies [with 5 intermezzos]
By Marc W. Herold,
Dissident Voice,
April 12, 2003
"So far, the liberators
have succeeded only
in freeing the souls
of the Iraqis from
their bodies": George
Monbiot, The Guardian,
April 1, 2003 /
"We had a great
day. We killed a
lot of people. We
dropped a few civilians,
but what do you
do? I'm sorry...but
the chick was in
the way.": U.S.
Marine Sgt. Eric
Schrumpf, New York
Times, March 29,
2003 -- Since
my previous essay
(3), U.S.-U.K. bombing
of Iraq has wreaked
widespread carnage,
utterly discrediting
any notion of careful
targeting and 'precision'
strikes. Through
Friday, March 28th,
U.S. bombs and missiles
had killed about
450 Iraqi civilians,
injuring at least
1000. Well over
800 Iraqi civilians
died under U.S.
projectiles since
the start of the
war, that is, more
than 50 per day
[see Table 1]. In
the week since March
28th, U.S. "precision"
projectiles have
hit a vegetable
market, numerous
homes, markets,
a hospital, a trade
fair, telephone
exchanges, a bus,
farms, a grain silo,
a street outside
an emptying mosque,
the lawn of a women's
university, etc.Through
April 1st, 700 cruise
Tomahawk missiles
had been fired and
8,000 bombs had
been dropped. (4)
Intermezzo #1. Commander
Jeff Penfield of
a F/A-18 Super Hornet
aboard the USS Abraham
Lincoln after a
Friday of bombing
Baghdad with 1,000
lb. laser-guided
'precision' bombs,
reflected, "It was
exhilarating...It
was all nice and
calm in the city...[but]
once those bombs
hit all hell broke
loose. I bet we
saw 15 SAMs. About
three or four up
our way so we had
to defend a couple
of times. What I
felt more than anything
was exhilaration."
(5) U.S. commanders
and the pilots say
they are taking
great pains to limit
casualties in their
efforts to overthrow
President Saddam
Hussein. On the
receiving end, Iraqi
officials said over
50 civilians were
pulverized by a
blast at a busy
marketplace in northwestern
Baghdad on Friday.
A litany of lies
has spewed forth
from U.S. and U.K.
officialdom, whose
intent appears to
be to capture the
headlines regardless
of the substance
said. (44) The thinking
is that the general
public remembers
mostly 'headlines',
therefore priority
must be to monopolize
the headlines with
claims [which later
get retracted but
at no political
cost]. The following
chart presents a
brief, incomplete
listing of such
official lies...In
point of fact, U.S.
bombing during Iraq
War II has to-date
been over three
times as deadly
to civilians as
that of Iraq War
I, notwithstanding
the dramatic use
of so-called precision
weapons...
Humiliation
and Rage Stalk the
Arab World
By Neil MacFarquhar,
New York Times,
April 13, 2003
For many Arabs,
Baghdad was lost
last week. Sure,
Saddam Hussein ranked
up there in the
pantheon of world-class
tyrants, a torturer
and mass murderer
who slaughtered
thousands of his
people and waged
reckless wars that
beggared the rest.
But he was still
an Arab leader ruling
an Arab country
— their tyrant.
The Americans, on
the other hand,
are foreign —
an invading army
of Democracy Delivery
Men pulling up to
the curb with piping
hot liberty, democracy,
openness, free speech
and freedom to travel.
But of course they
pulled up in a tank
and are Westerners,
the same people
who promised all
last century that
the Arab world would
be able to throw
off the yoke of
colonialism yet
never let them.
Proof? Look at Israel,
they say here, a
Western colonial
outpost planted
on Arab soil in
1948. The United
States has for decades
been promising the
Palestinians a state
with freedom and
self-determination.
What have they delivered?
Nothing. There,
in that sense of
historical impotence
and betrayal, is
the root of the
frustration, sadness
and rage that shot
through the Arab
world on Wednesday
when an American
armored vehicle
toppled a statue
of Saddam Hussein
in the heart of
Baghdad. "Saddam
Hussein fomented
a miracle: he took
history backwards
many generations,"
Talal Salman, the
publisher of the
respected Al-Safir
newspaper in Beirut,
wrote in a bitter
front page editorial,
grieving the loss
of the richest Arab
civilization to
what he described
as a colonial power.
"What a tragedy
again plaguing the
great people of
Iraq," he wrote.
"They have to chose
between the night
of tyranny and the
night of humiliation
stemming from foreign
occupation." Toward
the end, even when
they knew the game
was lost, many Arabs
were rooting for
the idea that even
Iraqis who despised
Mr. Hussein would
take up arms along
side his troops.
A little more of
him seemed preferable
to a lot of Americans.
"They know that
the Saddam Hussein
regime will eventually
end one day, he
will die," said
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb,
a professor of social
sciences at the
Lebanese American
University. "With
America you have
a whole system,
an entirely different
system. The threat
from America is
far greater than
the threat from
a government that
will disappear one
day."
Pitching
a tent to encourage
peace
By Michael Cartwright,
Indianapolis Star,
April 13, 2003
A tent is a short-term
dwelling -- a modest
structure set up
while more durable
quarters are under
construction. Comfortably
housed in our own
semi-stable democratic
institutions, many
Americans have grown
impatient with the
decades-old struggle
of Israelis and
Palestinians to
find their way to
peace. Captivated
by stories of violence
and recalcitrance,
we fail to notice
the existence of
the day-to-day efforts
of those who take
modest steps toward
a lasting peace.
We would do well
to pay more attention
to ventures such
as the Nassar family's
"tent of nations."
Set on a hilltop
near Bethlehem,
the family farm
belonging to George
Nassar, his brothers
and his mother is
not in cultivation
because all roads
to the farm have
been destroyed.
The Nassar family,
including George's
American wife, Alison
Jones-Nassar, can
no longer live on
the land because
of the violence
around them. Still,
the family continues
its 10-year court
battle to keep the
land and put it
back into production.
The latest threat
is a group of Israeli
settlers who have
tried to take possession
of the land even
though the Nassar
family has all the
necessary documentation
to prove its legal
ownership going
back more than 80
years.
Baghdad
Battered by US Gas
Bombs
By Hassan Tahsin,
Arab News, April
14, 2003
The United States
and Britain alleged
that Iraq possesses
weapons of mass
destruction. Thus
disarmament became
the initial justification
for a military attack
on Iraq. After more
than 15 days of
war, Brigadier Vincent
Brooks, a military
field commander,
stated at a press
conference in Qatar:
“Until today,
the American forces
have not found any
banned weapon of
mass destruction
in Iraq ...”
If Washington and
London are honest
in the justifications
they have presented
for launching war,
then it is neither
possible nor acceptable
that Baghdad and
a number of other
Iraqi cities should
be shelled with
chemical bombs.
Yes, that is the
truth; Baghdad has
been battered with
chemical bombs and
bombs carrying highly
combustible depleted
uranium. The website
www.bbcarabic.com presents
a detailed account
of the type of weapons
and ammunition used
in the current war.
Aside from these
munitions, advanced
cluster bombs carrying
ethylene gas have
also been used.
They are called
MOABs, or massive
ordnance airburst
bombs, and they
are essentially
chemical bombs.
What
Sharon says
Editorial, Haaretz,
April 14, 2003
There is a gnawing
concern in reading
Sharon's words,
given the way his
government has been
dealing with the
Palestinians, that
the prime minister
is raising "the
issue of stages,"
as he called it,
as a means of undermining
the road map by
entangling it in
endless and barren
arguments dooming
it to oblivion.
-- In his first
extended comments
following America's
victory over Iraq,
Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon is full of
optimism. "There
is... a chance to
reach an agreement
faster than people
think," he declared
in an interview
with Haaretz that
appeared yesterday,
saying "opportunities
have currently been
created that did
not exist before."
Sharon stated that
"eventually" a Palestinian
state will indeed
be established alongside
Israel, adding,
"I do not think
that we have to
rule over another
people and run their
lives. I do not
think that we have
the strength for
that. It is a very
heavy burden on
the public, and
it raises ethical
problems and heavy
economic problems."
As expected, his
statements resulted
in headlines and
reactions in Israel
and throughout the
world. Many commentators,
including some Palestinians,
sought encouraging
tidings in Sharon's
words. On the Israeli
right, however,
there were vehement
expressions of reservations
about Sharon's prognostications.
Ministers Avigdor
Lieberman and Effi
Eitam, who head
the two most extreme
right-wing parties
in the coalition,
warned they would
not support the
concessions indicated
in Sharon's statements.
Count on Sharon
and his senior adviser,
Dov Weisglass, now
in Washington holding
political talks,
to know how to highlight
those reponses in
their contacts with
the administration
as a way of emphasizing
the prime minister's
supposed moderation
of his policies.
Americans
defend two untouchable
ministries from
the hordes of looters
By Robert Fisk,
The Independent,
April 14, 2003
Iraq's scavengers
have thieved and
destroyed what they
have been allowed
to loot and burn
by the Americans
– and a two-hour
drive around Baghdad
shows clearly what
the US intends to
protect. After days
of arson and pillage,
here's a short but
revealing scorecard.
US troops have sat
back and allowed
mobs to wreck and
then burn the Ministry
of Planning, the
Ministry of Education,
the Ministry of
Irrigation, the
Ministry of Trade,
the Ministry of
Industry, the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs,
the Ministry of
Culture and the
Ministry of Information.
They did nothing
to prevent looters
from destroying
priceless treasures
of Iraq's history
in the Baghdad Archaeological
Museum and in the
museum in the northern
city of Mosul, or
from looting three
hospitals. The Americans
have, though, put
hundreds of troops
inside two Iraqi
ministries that
remain untouched
– and untouchable
– because
tanks and armoured
personnel carriers
and Humvees have
been placed inside
and outside both
institutions. And
which ministries
proved to be so
important for the
Americans? Why,
the Ministry of
Interior, of course
– with its
vast wealth of intelligence
information on Iraq
– and the
Ministry of Oil.
The archives and
files of Iraq's
most valuable asset
– its oilfields
and, even more important,
its massive reserves
– are safe
and sound, sealed
off from the mobs
and looters, and
safe to be shared,
as Washington almost
certainly intends,
with American oil
companies.
Policing
the academy
By Joseph Massad,
Electronic Intifada,
April 14, 2003
As I was reading
one of the latest
death threats I
received via e-mail,
I remembered the
defamatory campaigns
to which Edward
Said has been subjected
since the 1970s
and which included
the firebombing
of his office in
the 1980s. Since
last summer, apologists
for Israel's "right"
to be a racist state
(and to use whatever
violence it can
muster in defence
of that "right")
have begun a campaign
of defamation against
anyone in the US
academy who dares
to question any
Israeli action or
practice. This campaign
is part of a larger
effort to discredit
US universities
as arenas for independent
scholarship and
thought. It also
aims to delegitimise
universities who
refuse to serve
the interests of
either the national
security state or
the Israeli government.
The fact that those
spearheading this
campaign are almost
exclusively part
of a large conglomerate
known as the pro-Israel
lobby in the US
is hardly surprising.
Since 11 September,
the campaign has
expanded to include
any academic who
believes that Islam
is not a terroristic
evil religion bent
on murdering the
"civilised", and
that Muslims and
Arabs are humans
who are entitled
to civil, political,
and human rights
in their own countries
as well as in the
United States. While
academics live in
a world where intellectual
disagreements are
registered through
scholarly debates
and discussions,
and where methodological
disputes are negotiated
on the pages of
academic journals
and books and in
the context of conferences,
the new self-designated
academic policemen
refuse to acknowledge
such modes of argumentation
and fora as appropriate.
In their fantasy
world, the offending
academics must be
silenced, dismissed
from their jobs,
and their offending
publications heaped
and burned in an
auto-da-f?. The
strategy of the
thought policemen
consists of a refusal
to address any of
the offending contentions
made by scholars
and instead relies
on the use of policing
methods of discrediting,
intimidation, and
character assassination
often used in societies
run by the secret
police. The overall
purpose of this
policing agenda
is the destruction
of academic freedom
and the subversion
of democratic procedure.
America's
attacks on Syria
simply confirm fears
of its Middle East
intentions
Editorial, The Independent,
April 14, 2003
There is something
unseemly, not to
say alarming, about
the way in which
the US appears to
be setting up Syria
as the next threat
to world peace and
security even before
the guns have fallen
silent in Iraq.
With looting and
violence continuing,
barely restrained,
over the weekend,
President Bush and
his senior officials
peppered Syria with
warnings about its
behaviour –
warnings all too
reminiscent of the
ones that preceded
the war on Iraq.
They held Syria
responsible for
myriad iniquities.
But central was
the accusation that
Syria could be harbouring
Iraq's former leaders.
"The Syrian government
needs to co-operate,"
said Mr Bush. In
separate television
interviews, his
Secretaries of State
and Defence repeated
the warning and
recalled that Washington
had long designated
Syria a state that
sponsored terrorism.
There was "no question",
Donald Rumsfeld
said, that senior
Iraqis had fled
to Syria or used
Syria as an escape
route. Mr Powell
accused Syria of
supplying Iraq with
"materials" –
apparently meaning
weapons. Meanwhile,
Saddam Hussein's
half-brother, Watban
al-Tikriti, was
reported to have
been captured by
US forces while
trying to reach
Syria, and a gunman
who shot dead a
US marine in Baghdad
was said to be carrying
a Syrian passport.
Syrians, said Mr
Rumsfeld, accounted
for the largest
number of foreign
fighters encountered
by US troops in
Iraq. As yet unsubstantiated
rumours include
reports that Iraq
may have sent some
of its illegal weapons...
to Syria for safe-keeping.
