By David Kravets
Monday, January 26, 2009
Hate. Remorse. Forgiveness
Years after racial strife in Rock Hill, 2 whites apologize to 5 blacks
- The Herald
Next to a lunch counter that was segregated for so long sat a table of two white people and five black people
The conversation quickly took the group back to Jan. 31, 1961.
Elwin Wilson, one of those white men, had come that day to that very lunch counter four steps from where he was now, wanting to pull one of those black men off of the stool he was sitting on. He wanted to give a beating.
Coleman, had been just outside, among so many, wanting to scream racial epithets. But 48 years later, Wilson, now 72, and Coleman, in his mid-60s, wanted something entirely different from these five black people.
They wanted forgiveness.
These black men and women -- just a few of the folks known as the "Friendship Nine" and the "City Girls" -- have been honored in museums.
They have been apologized to by politicians.
But never before had any of the white men from that day in 1961 asked to meet any of them, and sit down with them where it all started and apologize for hating them.
So, David Williamson and Willie McCleod, Phyllis Hyatt and Elsie Springs, and for sure Patricia Sims, didn't skip a beat to forgive.
Williamson said words that he and the other men and women protesters have said for decades.
"We accept your apology," Williamson said. "We forgave everybody a long time ago."
60 Minutes: Is Israel's free ride almost over?
By Jane Stillwater
Last Sunday, "60 Minutes" ran a segment on Israel and Palestine, and for the most part they did a good job of covering some of the very real issues there. But according to segment host Bob Simon, "Demographers predict that within ten years Arabs will outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Without a separate Palestinian state the Israelis would have three options, none of them good. They could try ethnic cleansing, drive the Palestinians out of the West Bank, or they could give the Palestinians the vote." What? Democracy is not a good option?
Although Simon struggled valiantly with presenting a fair view of the so-called "settler" situation on the West Bank, there were a couple of scenes on that subject that made me almost want to laugh. Instead of showing us footage of the thousands of modern (by American standards) condos that have been built on Palestine's West Bank so that we could get real-life glimpses into the lives of some of these so-called "settlers" as they hung out on their verandas, sipped coffee in their posh living rooms or watched their big-screen TVs, Simon showed us footage of some grubby woman in a headscarf as she wandered around on some rock pile out in the middle of nowhere, wielding a pickax.
This woman had obviously never seen a pickax before in her life. This woman appeared to be straight out of central casting.
But here's one scene that "60 Minutes" left out, as described to me by a reliable American reporter currently in Gaza:
Gaza woman: "I have ten children."
Israeli Defense Force soldier: "Pick out five of them to be shot."
Gaza woman: "I cannot do that."
IDF soldier: If you don't, then I will." Soldier then picks out five children randomly and shoots them.
Last Sunday, "60 Minutes" ran a segment on Israel and Palestine, and for the most part they did a good job of covering some of the very real issues there. But according to segment host Bob Simon, "Demographers predict that within ten years Arabs will outnumber Jews in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Without a separate Palestinian state the Israelis would have three options, none of them good. They could try ethnic cleansing, drive the Palestinians out of the West Bank, or they could give the Palestinians the vote." What? Democracy is not a good option?
Although Simon struggled valiantly with presenting a fair view of the so-called "settler" situation on the West Bank, there were a couple of scenes on that subject that made me almost want to laugh. Instead of showing us footage of the thousands of modern (by American standards) condos that have been built on Palestine's West Bank so that we could get real-life glimpses into the lives of some of these so-called "settlers" as they hung out on their verandas, sipped coffee in their posh living rooms or watched their big-screen TVs, Simon showed us footage of some grubby woman in a headscarf as she wandered around on some rock pile out in the middle of nowhere, wielding a pickax.
This woman had obviously never seen a pickax before in her life. This woman appeared to be straight out of central casting.
But here's one scene that "60 Minutes" left out, as described to me by a reliable American reporter currently in Gaza:
Gaza woman: "I have ten children."
Israeli Defense Force soldier: "Pick out five of them to be shot."
Gaza woman: "I cannot do that."
IDF soldier: If you don't, then I will." Soldier then picks out five children randomly and shoots them.
Long term soil devastation in Gaza due to use of white phosphorus and depleted uranium
Losses are huge in the Gaza Strip with many of the devastated population still in tears, some little kids afraid to return to school today.
The environmental effects will continue to be uncovered for years on lands that become less fertile with each invasion and home demolition.The Agriculture Minister in the Gaza Strip noted today that the Israeli military continues to target farmers on their lands near the boundary lines. Many people are unable to reach the fields. He added on Saturday that in the Mediterranean just off the Gaza coast Israeli naval ships continue to open fire on fishermen, preventing them from working.
Financially speaking it is clear that reconstruction costs in the Strip are around two billion. The Ministry of Agriculture says that another 170 million USD is needed for that sector alone.
Agriculture Minister Mohammad Al Agha told a press conference in Gaza City today that nearly a thousand water wells were destroyed along with 60 percent of the Strips total agricultural land. Included in the 170 million figure needed is the cost for reconstruction to the fishing industry in the Mediterranean Sea.
Massive destruction [was] caused in the agricultural and fishing sector of the Gaza Strip through bulldozing thousands of acres and destroying wells, agriculture and poultry and livestock farms, fishing ports and fishing boats, and canning and packaging plants.
Al Agha said that the Israeli military use of white phosphorus and depleted uranium have a direct impact on agriculture and public health as the length of stay of these toxic substances in the soil will continue to create disastrous results.
Is Afghanistan going to be Obama's Iraq?
The US could find itself isolated as the conflict goes on
A soldier on patrol in Afghanistan last week. Up to 30,000 more US troops may be sent in by the summer
President Barack Obama is facing warnings that the US risks repeating some of its errors in Iraq as the new administration turns its focus to Afghanistan, where Nato forces are engaged in a conflict which has already lasted longer than the Second World War.
Having received a briefing on his first day in office from General David Petraeus, the top US commander in the region, Mr Obama is preparing to meet his military chiefs to decide on the size and shape of the Afghanistan reinforcements he promised during his election campaign. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, said just before Christmas that up to 30,000 more troops could be sent by summer, nearly doubling the size of the US force in the country. Britain, the next largest contributor in the 41-nation international force, has fewer than 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, which means American dominance of the campaign against the Taliban is set to increase.
"There are fears that this could become a US war rather than a Nato one," said Christopher Langton, senior fellow for conflict at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. "With other Nato members already planning to scale back, the US could find itself isolated. Rather than being an international operation, it would become another 'coalition of the willing', as in Iraq – though with the crucial difference that the Afghan mission has had a United Nations mandate throughout."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/is-afghanistan-going-to-be-obamas-iraq-1515332.html
Obama’s new foreign policy team prepares escalated bloodletting in Afghanistan and Pakistan
By Patrick Martin
In a series of meetings and public appearances Wednesday and Thursday, and with the first military strikes of his administration, President Barack Obama has given a clear signal that he plans intensified bloodshed in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the US escalates its military intervention in Central and South Asia.
Missiles fired from unmanned Predator drones struck two targets inside Pakistan Friday morning, killing at least 18 people. As is always the case with such exercises in remote-controlled murder, US officials claimed they were targeting Al Qaeda, although even US media accounts admitted that the majority of those killed were local residents.
Three missiles struck the village of Zharki in North Waziristan, killing ten people, of whom five were described by US "security sources" as Al Qaeda militants. A few hours later, another missile hit a house in South Waziristan, killing eight people whose identities were not known.
The strikes were the latest in a series of more than two dozen such attacks since last August, and Pentagon officials said they had carried out the attacks under existing authority from the outgoing Bush administration, while keeping the new president fully informed of the action.
The death toll from the missile campaign, according to Pakistani government figures, numbers at least 263 people. Even US government officials claim only a handful of those killed had any ties to Al Qaeda or the Taliban.
The attacks on sovereign Pakistani territory are blatant violations of international law, which the regime in Islamabad protests verbally, while continuing to accept billions in US subsidies to the country's military.
'US strike' on Pakistan kills 21
 Pakistani paramedics treat a victim of a missile attack. |
The death toll from two suspected US missile strikes in Pakistan -- under President Barack Obama -- has risen to 21, security officials say.
Intelligence officials said eight people including five militants of Arab origin died in the missile strike at a house near Mir Ali, the main town in North Waziristan districts near the Afghan border.
Hours later another suspected US drone fired two missiles into a house in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, killing seven people.
"Six bodies of local tribesmen were found in the rubble of the house which was destroyed in a US missile strike on Friday just outside the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan district," an official was quoted by AFP as saying.
The attacks were the first since US President Barack Obama took office Tuesday.
Intelligence officials said eight people including five militants of Arab origin died in the missile strike at a house near Mir Ali, the main town in North Waziristan districts near the Afghan border.
Hours later another suspected US drone fired two missiles into a house in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, killing seven people.
"Six bodies of local tribesmen were found in the rubble of the house which was destroyed in a US missile strike on Friday just outside the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan district," an official was quoted by AFP as saying.
The attacks were the first since US President Barack Obama took office Tuesday.
The real reason Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich
During Eric Holder's confirmation hearing, Arlen Specter scolded the attorney general-designate, but no one mentioned Israeli pressure.
By Joe Conason
In an editorial that appeared on the morning of the hearings, the Washington Post urged the Senate to question Holder "closely" on the Rich matter. But it is difficult for senators (and editorial writers) to ask pertinent questions when they are completely ignorant of the real background and motivations of the players in the case. Even now, the true machinations behind the Rich pardon cannot be discussed honestly -- perhaps because they implicate the government and the security services of the state of Israel.
Sitting quiet and grave before the committee, Holder listened as Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., one of the leading windbags of our time, held forth on how dreadful Rich is and how awful the pardon was. The fugitive trader, who still lives in Switzerland, had "a reprehensible record," Specter said -- alluding to reports that Rich did business in Iraq and Iran. The Pennsylvania Republican demanded to know how Holder could possibly have recommended a pardon for such an odious figure.
No doubt Holder was advised by the president-elect's transition team not to argue with Specter or anyone else about Rich. He must have been told not to talk about the foreign-policy issues that heavily influenced his view of the Rich decision. So he offered a meek mea culpa, took his lumps from Specter, and promised that his mistakes had made him a better man. Considering that his objective is to get through the hearings without undue stress, that was probably the wisest course. Telling the truth would only have inflamed the Republicans and the press, while creating unwanted drama for Obama.
Still, it would have been a refreshing change from the usual confirmation minuet if instead of humbly apologizing, Holder had tartly instructed the buffoonish Specter, his fellow senators, the press, and the public about the actual circumstances of the Rich affair. He might have started with the fact that continuous lobbying on Rich's behalf from the highest Israeli leaders and their American friends -- among whom Specter no doubt counts himself -- became even more intense in the days before Clinton left office. He could have noted that such pressures coincided with Clinton's efforts to conclude a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. And he could have explained to Specter that Rich's deals in Iran and Iraq were often related to his other role -- as an asset of the Mossad who gathered intelligence and helped to rescue endangered Jews from those regimes.
It is clear that Holder and his colleagues in the Justice Department had ample reason for concern over the proposed pardon, in part because pardoning a fugitive violated precedent. But for the Post to call him "the pardoner" in a front-page headline directing readers to the editorial was grossly unfair. Clinton had sole constitutional discretion to grant the pardon, and he would have done so whether Holder liked it or not.
But Holder understood that there were deeper reasons why the pardon was likely to be approved, which had nothing to do with the political and charitable contributions of Rich's ex-wife, the Manhattan socialite Denise Rich. The New York Times offered just a hint in a front-page story that appeared shortly after the Holder nomination was announced. Only at the very end did the Times mention the pressure from "the Israelis" that had persuaded Holder not to oppose the pardon -- as he told Beth Nolan, then the White House counsel.
Placed in its international context, that remark puts an entirely different coloration on Clinton's decision and on Holder's forbearance.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Airlines treating squabbles, snuggling as terrorism
At least 200 airline passengers have been convicted of terrorism for incidences that have involved little more than raised voices, foul language and drunken behavior.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Tamera Jo Freeman was on a Frontier Airlines flight to Denver in 2007 when her two children began to quarrel over the window shade and then spilled a Bloody Mary into her lap.
She swatted each of them on the thigh three times. It was a small incident, but one that in the heightened anxiety after the Sept. 11 attacks would have enormous ramifications for Freeman and her children.
A flight attendant confronted Freeman, who responded by hurling a few profanities and throwing a can of tomato juice on the floor.
The incident led to Freeman's arrest and conviction for a federal felony defined as an act of terrorism under the Patriot Act, the controversial federal law enacted after the 2001 attacks.
"I had no idea I was breaking the law," said Freeman, who spent three months in jail before pleading guilty.
Freeman, 40, is one of at least 200 airline passengers who have been convicted under the law. In most cases, there was no evidence that the passengers had attempted to hijack an airplane or physically attack a flight crew member. Many simply have involved raised voices, foul language and drunken behavior.
Some security experts say the use of the law by airlines and their employees has run amok.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008656969_airfelonies220.html
JUDGE JUDY WILL PRESIDE OVER HISTORIC BUSH-CHENEY LARGE CLAIMS COURT TRIAL
by B. Elwin Sherman -- Court TV Reporter
() Disassociated Press
Fiery TV JudgeTo Hear Landmark Suit
"Hell On Heels"The REAL 'Decider'
"I'm SPEAKING!!!"
LOS ANGELES, CA -- (DP) A spokesman for the popular long-running Court TV program Judge Judy has confirmed that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will "finally get their day in court."
In a surprise programming announcement from CTV, the network reported that the soon-to-be former U.S. President & Vice-President will appear as co-defendants in an upcoming episode of Judge Judy. It was taped last summer at an undisclosed location.
"Yes, at the time, we couldn't believe it either," said Timothy Regler, the show's Executive Producer, "but we knew that Dick Cheney had always been a big fan of the show. His people contacted us to set it up."
Working closely with the office of California's Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr., lawyers from both parties were able to broker special dispensations in behind-the-scenes negotiations. This resulted in a lifting of the standard $5,000 award limit, and made Judge Judy's ruling the final & absolute decision in a case that's rumored to see staggering dollar amounts.
Any award monies, if the plaintiff prevails, will come from a special fund reserved for this purpose. And, like the other Wall Street bailouts recently approved by Congress, no one has a clue where the money will come from or how it will be dispersed.
The special class-action suit was filed by "every living thinking thing that walks or crawls" in the United States.
In Final Legal Act, Bush Appeals Spy Ruling
The request was lodged with U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco at 10:56 p.m. EST on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday -- about 13 hours before the inauguration of President Barack Obama. The filing was among now former President George W. Bush's final legal acts in office.
The Bush administration asked Walker's permission to appeal his Jan. 5 decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Walker had ruled that "sufficient facts" exist that two U.S.-based lawyers for an Islamic charity might have been spied upon for the case to proceed to the next stage.
The case seeks the courts to rule on the constitutionality of the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping program the president approved in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
Congress authorized the spy program last year as part of legislation immunizing participating telecommunication companies from lawsuits accusing them of violating their customers' civil liberties, but the spying in this case allegedly happened in 2004. Eric Holder, the incoming U.S. attorney, said the Obama administration supported the spy legislation and would defend it in a separate challenge.
On Monday, the Bush administration sought to prevent the disclosure of a Top Secret document at the center of a closely watched spy case, a document Walker ruled could be admitted.
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/in-final-legal.html
UN Rapporteur: Initiate criminal proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld now
By Scott Horton
In an interview on Tuesday evening with the German television program "Frontal 21," on channel ZDF Professor Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Rapporteur responsible for torture, stated that with George W. Bush's head of state immunity now terminated, the new government of Barack Obama was obligated by international law to commence a criminal investigation into Bush's torture practices.
"The evidence is sitting on the table," he stated. "There is no avoiding the fact that this was torture." He pointed to the U.S. undertakings under the Convention Against Torture in which the country committed that it would criminally prosecute anyone who tortured, or extradite the person to a state that would prosecute him. "The government of the United States is required to take all necessary steps to bring George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld before a court," Nowak said.
Manfred Nowak, an internationally renowned law professor at the University of Vienna, currently serves as an independent expert for the United Nations looking at allegations of torture affecting member states. In 2006, he undertook a special investigation of conditions at the U.S. detention facilities at Guantánamo in which he concluded that practices approved by the Bush Administration violated human rights norms, including the prohibition against torture.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
