The Radical Mormon

Found this really good post at thepeoplesvoice.org on the Associated Press.  This makes perfectly good sense to me.  Read it and see what you think.  An excerpt:

The Associated Press is a monstrous contradiction. On one hand, the 162-year-old, corporate-media collective feigns high concern for accuracy, objectivity, and other journalistic principles; on the other hand, it operates at the expense of same.

By way of its being a corporate collective, its top priority is to maximize revenues of its members. While this is not an illegal goal in and of itself, no corporate enterprise should be able to get away with accomplishing that goal at any cost and by any means, including deception and flat-out lies.

Too many people in the world are fooled by AP’s self-styled image of being the most trustworthy source for breaking news the world over. Sure, it is the world’s largest and most widely-distributed news service; but in light of certain patterns of shoddy and sometimes blatantly fraudulent reporting, this only makes it the most dangerous and subversive.

Here are a few facts you may not know about the “largest and most trusted” news service:

The article then goes through 5 main points and explains fairly well why the AP is not to trusted at all.

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/08/05/p27496

You know all of those 220 or so medical patients in Gaza who have died since the siege by Israel began because the Shin Bet wouldn’t allow them access to Israeli hospitals? 

http://www.imemc.org/article/56357

Well, it turns out that the Shin Bet has been holding their illnesses over their head and at least in some instances, making their access to Israeli hospitals conditional upon their providing the Shin Bet with intelligence on their countrymen. 

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) is the arbiter of life and death for gravely ill Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, the NGO Physicians for Human Rights charged in an 83-page report released early Monday morning.

The report includes dozens of pages of testimony by 11 Gazan citizens whom the Shin Bet has allegedly questioned and tried to pressure into providing intelligence information in return for permission to cross into Israel on their way to medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip.

According to the report, entitled Holding Health to Ransom, PHR charged that Shin Bet interrogators question Palestinians who have applied (and often already received) exit permits to enter Israel on their way to urgent medical treatment in Israel, the West Bank or Jordan. According to the report, the interrogators demand that the patients provide intelligence information in return for permission to leave.

“The conduct and policy of the Shin Bet have turned patients’ vulnerability into a primary means for obtaining security information,” the authors of the report charged. “Long waiting times, questioning of the patient about himself and his acquaintances and appropriation of cellphones to extract phone numbers of family members and acquaintances are all part of the harsh atmosphere in which the patient is aware that his refusal to respond may bar him from exiting Gaza for much-needed treatment.

“Once the Shin Bet has established control over a patient, permitting medical treatment is explicitly or implicitly made contingent upon collaboration.”

 

The article then gives an example of this murderous activity:

One of the testimonies in the report involved a Gaza resident about 38 years old named Aleph, who suffered from Hodgkin’s lymphoma and needed to undergo a PET/CT scan. The appointment, set for Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, had to be punctual because the procedure required isotopes which would die out within minutes of the appointed time.

According to the description of Aleph’s experience, “the patient arrived at Erez Crossing early in the morning and was made to wait there for hours. When he finally went in for questioning, his interrogators demanded that he collaborate and threatened that unless he responded to their demand, they would prevent his entry into Israel.

“Then,” continued Aleph, “he said, you have cancer and it will soon spread to your brain. As long as you don’t help us [you can] wait for Rafah Crossing [to open].”

According to the report, Aleph was forced to wait 10 hours at Erez. By the time the permit was authorized, the isotopes had died out and there was no point in his going to the hospital.

Of course this is denied by the Shin Bet… just as they denied beating up Mohammed Omer a while back.  This should come as no surprise to those who are familiar with Shin Bet’s dealings with Palestinians over the years.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331182353&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

Israel is responsible for another death here.  This time the death of a 3 month old infant with a (probably) treatable heart disease:

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported on Thursday that a 3-month old infant from Deir Al Balah town, in the central Gaza Strip, died of a heart disease as the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip emptied the hospital in the coastal region from the basic medical supplies and equipment.

http://www.imemc.org/article/56300

At least 220 sick Palestinians have died since the beginning of the seige, mostly due to not being allowed into Israel to be treated in better equiped hospitals.

In other news, horrifying violence of Israeli soldiers against a blindfolded, tied up man, was caught on videotape as shown here at the Guardian as he is shot in the foot with no provocation whatsoever.  Absolutely horrifying.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/30/israelandthepalestinians?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Layla Anwar has posted a couple of articles of horrifying proportions.  One is about a young Iraqi woman raped and tortured for months on end by US military occupation forces in Iraq. 

She beat me for more than one an hour and she forced me to drink a glass of water, and I knew later that they put a drug in it. I regained my consciousness after two days to find myself naked. I knew immediately that I have lost something that all the laws in the earth will not be able to return it to me once again. I had been raped. A hysterical fit attacked me and I started to hit my head violently against the walls till more than five American soldiers head by that soldier women entered the cell and started to beat me, and they raped me alternately while they laughing and listening to a loud music.

Day by day the scenario of raping me was repeated. And every day they invent new ways that are crueler than the prior ways.

After about one month, a Negro soldier entered my cell and threw me two pieces of American military clothes. He said in weak Arabic language to wear them. After he put a black bag on my head, he led me to a public toilet where there are pipes for cold and hot water and he asked me to bathe. He then closed the door and left.

I was so exhausted and feeling pain, and despite the tremendous number of the bruises in my body, I poured out some water on my body. Before I finish my bath, the Negro soldier came in. I frightened, and I hit him in the face with the water bowl. His reaction was so tough. He raped me cruelly and spit on my face, then he left and returned with two soldiers who returned me to the cell.

The treatment continued that way, to the extent that sometimes I was raped ten times in a day, the matter which affected my health negatively.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20387.htm

If you are able to get to her blog page (which I wasn’t able to after a while for some reason) she has an equally horrifying tale of a man who was taken prisoner in the night in Iraq by US occupation forces and tortured for months, sustaining brain trauma from the beatings which killed his motor neurons on one side.  He says he witnessed horrible forms of torture by the US soldiers such as pulling a woman apart by tying two ropes to her ankles and separating her body etc.  That story can be found in her July 31 posting I think.

These sorts of stories remind me of the things Mormon witnessed and wrote to his son in Moroni chapter 9:

  7 And now I write somewhat concerning the sufferings of this people. For according to the knowledge which I have received from Amoron, behold, the Lamanites have many prisoners, which they took from the tower of Sherrizah; and there were men, women, and children.

  8 And the husbands and fathers of those women and children they have slain; and they feed the women upon the ^aflesh of their husbands, and the children upon the flesh of their fathers; and no water, save a little, do they give unto them.

  9 And notwithstanding this great ^aabomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after ^bdepriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is ^cchastity and ^dvirtue—

  10 And after they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most ^acruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts, because of the hardness of their hearts; and they do it for a token of bravery.

  11 O my beloved son, how can a people like this, that are without civilization—

  12 (And only a few years have passed away, and they were a civil and a delightsome people)

  13 But O my son, how can a people like this, whose ^adelight is in so much abomination—

  14 How can we expect that God will ^astay his hand in judgment against us?

This is awesome.  Nader is above 5% in this latest CNN poll!

This survey, taken after Obama’s high-profile trip to Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Europe, shows him with about the same lead he had last month. It also shows little change since the spring in the faith people have in Obama to handle the Iraq war, terrorism and other issues. People thought his trip was appropriate by a two-to-one margin. More than four in 10 say they think Obama is acting like he’s already won the election, and nearly that many say McCain is attacking him unfairly. Just over a third think both are arrogant. Obama leads McCain by 46 percent to 42 percent when third-party candidates are included, with Ralph Nader getting 6 percent and Bob Barr, a former GOP congressman from Georgia running for president as a Libertarian, getting 3 percent.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ijClHoidEl8XEJMJoUooHU1R_nmgD928DRQG4

Recently discovered this powerful documentary about the attack of the Israeli Defense Forces against the Refugee camp at Jenin in April of 2002.  Official reports say there were 52 palestinians killed in the attack, but listening to the testimony of the people interviewed in this documentary leads me to think that the actual numbers should probably be much higher. 

Scott Ritter has written a great analysis of the current situation in the relationship between Iran and the US.  He starts out with a good, to the point, explanation of the MEK in Iran and how the US is in all probability using it (constituting an act of war already).  He then goes on to dis the MEK provided laptop computer (which the Bush administration uses to point its finger at Iran’s nuclear program) and to show how the computer would be treated if it were a serious piece of evidence (which treatment it’s not receiving).  Then he gets on the IAEA official from Finland who is taking Bush’s side on the laptop issue and gives him a beating.  This is great stuff.  Ritter appears to have the best understanding of the situation of any analyst out there.  Too bad the mainstream doesn’t give him airtime.  Please read his analysis in full.  Here is an excerpt:

The war between the United States and Iran is on. American taxpayer dollars are being used, with the permission of Congress, to fund activities that result in Iranians being killed and wounded, and Iranian property destroyed. This wanton violation of a nation’s sovereignty would not be tolerated if the tables were turned and Americans were being subjected to Iranian-funded covert actions that took the lives of Americans, on American soil, and destroyed American property and livelihood. Many Americans remain unaware of what is transpiring abroad in their name. Many of those who are cognizant of these activities are supportive of them, an outgrowth of misguided sentiment which holds Iran accountable for a list of grievances used by the U.S. government to justify the ongoing global war on terror. Iran, we are told, is not just a nation pursuing nuclear weapons, but is the largest state sponsor of terror in the world today.

Much of the information behind this is being promulgated by Israel, which has a vested interest in seeing Iran neutralized as a potential threat. But Israel is joined by another source, even more puzzling in terms of its broad-based acceptance in the world of American journalism: the Mujahadeen-e Khalk, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group sworn to overthrow the theocracy in Tehran. The CIA today provides material support to the actions of the MEK inside Iran. The recent spate of explosions in Iran, including a particularly devastating “accident” involving a military convoy transporting ammunition in downtown Tehran, appears to be linked to an MEK operation; its agents working inside munitions manufacturing plants deliberately are committing acts of sabotage which lead to such explosions. If CIA money and planning support are behind these actions, the agency’s backing constitutes nothing less than an act of war on the part of the United States against Iran.

Read the rest here:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080729_acts_of_war/

President Ahmadinejad of Iran was interviewed on NBC and asserted that his country is not producing nuclear weapons.

“We are not working to manufacture a bomb,” NBC’s Brian Williams quoted Ahmadinejad as saying following an interview with the president in Tehran. “Nuclear weapons are so 20th century.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agN336SOksKw&refer=home

This should be no revelation though as this has been confirmed by the IAEA throughout the past few years.  One great piece of news is that there has been enough pressure on our elected officials to stall HR 362, which called for a naval blockade on Iran (an act of war by all interpretations).

A measure that would impose a naval blockade on Iran stalled in Congress this week after grassroots opponents of a new war with Iran spoke out against it.

House Resolution 362, authored by Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), would have mandated a prohibition on “the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran.”

These sanctions establishing a naval blockade sounded to many people like the first step towards war with Iran.

This is good news.  If this thing got stalled and never went anywhere I’d be as happy as could be.  There are apparently calls for amendments to the bill which erase the blockade language and insert language towards diplomacy.

In a column last week at Huffington Post, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), another co-sponsor of the measure, urged amending it. Wexler argued that the language that called for a naval blockade be removed, and provisions calling for direct American involvement in the negotiations with Iran, with the goal of stopping Iranian pursuit of nuclear weapons and its sponsorship of terror, be inserted.

http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/7186/

Though this is better than leaving it as it is, I would rather see the bill dissappear all together.  It is full of inflammatory lies and half-truths about Iran, and completely ignores our own treacherous dealings with Iran.

The above is a chart stolen from the Washington Post of civilian deaths caused by the US in Afghanistan.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/07/25/GR2008072500493.html?sid=ST2008072500498&pos=list

It seems that during my hiatus from the outside world during my recent move, the western press has started to pay modest attention to US military massacres of Afghanistan civilians a little bit more.  There’s the above chart from the Wa. Post and there’s also an article from MSNBC:

KABUL - U.S. and NATO military officials in Afghanistan have launched investigations into three separate U.S.-led airstrikes that Afghan officials say killed at least 78 civilians this month.

The investigations come during what U.N. and Afghan officials say is one of the deadliest years for civilians since the war began. In the first six months of this year, the number of civilians killed in fighting has increased by nearly 40 percent over the same period last year, according to U.N. data.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25844505/

When the initial Afghan government report came out showing that our boys massacred a wedding party full of women and kids along with the bride, there was not a peep to be found in any major US media outlets and there was just a small article in the UK daily, The Independant.  It’s apparently not very newsworthy in the USA.

Obama has stated his policy of reducing troop levels in Iraq and sending those troops right on over to Afghanistan, but my guess is that the more troops we have over there, the more guns we will have pointing at Afghanistan civilians… especially since we can’t even tell the difference between Taliban fighters and a wedding party full of women and children. 

Our military always talks about taking every measure to reduce civilian collateral damage, but what we are doing over there is just plain old wrong.  We drop bombs on whole neighborhoods in search of the so-called bad guys.  In the first place, this sort of technique would never be tolerated in the USA.  Is it ok to drop a bomb on a neighborhood because we heard there was an escaped convict there?  And then cry foul because the escaped convict was hiding among civilians?  thus making the deaths the fault of the bad guys since we can’t help where the bad guys hide now can we?

In the second place, these so-called bad guys are often normal joes who have been so impacted by the US military presence (had family members killed by the US etc.) that they have taken up arms to protect what they have left. 

Let’s get the heck out of there.  Iraq and Afghanistan.  There’s no difference.  We should have stayed out of both places to begin with. 

You want another reason to get out of these places?  How about this one:  We killed a 14 year old boy who was fetching keys for his dad, an Iraqi newspaper editor. 

According to the U.S. statement, American troops were trying to recover a disabled vehicle in Kirkuk on Wednesday when multiple shots were fired at them from the taxi. One soldier was wounded, it said.

“The soldiers returned fire, killing a young Iraqi man in the taxi,” the military said, adding that Iraqi police later detained the driver.

Taha insisted his son was not armed and said he didn’t believe the taxi driver was either.

“My son was only 14 years old,” he told The Associated Press. “He is neither a terrorist, nor a gun carrier. He didn’t even know how to use a pistol. The only thing he knew how to use was the computer.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25854694/

We do way too much killing over there and we need to get out yesterday so another life is not lost to our protectors of freedom and democracy. 

Just noticing these days how nothing much has changed with the Empire’s rhetoric toward Venezuela and Chavez.  In the Presidential race, McCain has ruled out talks with Chavez saying he’s a charlatan and thug:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/02/uselections2008.usa?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

and Obama is fairly inflammatory towards Venezuela himself saying that Chavez is an enemy of the US and calling out for sanctions against him.  Most recently he said that Venezuela “is a destructive force in the region” because of its alleged support for the Colombian guerilla group, the FARC, its “anti-democratic practices,” and its “incendiary rhetoric” against the U.S.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3657

This sort of talk is uninformed and unfortunate.  It is fairly clear that Chavez has not supported the FARC’s armed struggle, nor has he supported the FARC financially as Colombian liar Uribe would like us to believe.  Obama would do well to take a look at how destructive US foreign policy has been in Latin America for the last century.  Yet, he continues to play the game and support US imperial design on the riches of Latin America.  I guess it only makes sense since the people that pay for his campaign are at least partially made up of companies which make a killing on trade with Latin American countries.  Ah what a refreshing thing it would be to see someone with a backbone running for president for once.  Then again, we already have such men as Nader and Paul, but they are marginalized by the press (which is owned by the same people who give financial support to the two major candidates) and are seen as non-viable wierdos.

Chavez, of course, is no dummy in all of this:

“The two candidates for the US presidency attack us equally, they attack us defending the interests of the empire,” Chavez said at a meeting of his socialist party. “Let’s not kid ourselves, it is the empire and the empire must fall. That’s the only solution - that it comes to an end.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/17/venezuela.usa

Also notable in US/Venezuelan relations is the old charge championed previously by Rumsfeld that Venezuela buying arms from Russia is an unnecessary and suspicious activity:

“We’ve repeatedly communicated concerns with Russia about Chavez’s arms build-up in the past, and we’re going to continue to do so,” Gonzalo Gallegos, a US State Department spokesman said.

“We continue to question … whether such acquisitions are in line with Venezuela’s legitimate defense needs,” Gallegos added.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=265ce87e-dc86-4aaa-baf9-a378d992682f&MatchID1=4735&TeamID1=8&TeamID2=6&MatchType1=1&SeriesID1=1194&PrimaryID=4735&Headline=US+criticises+Russia-Venezuelan+arms+deal&strParent=strParentID

Remember Rumsfeld’s concerns from 3 years ago?

After the meeting, Mr. Rumsfeld told journalists the United States was troubled by reports that Venezuela is seeking to buy 100,000 assault rifles and 10 military helicopters from Russia.

“I can’t imagine what is going to happen to 100,000 AK-47s,” he said.  “I don’t understand why Venezuela needs 100,000 AK-47s.”

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-03/2005-03-23-voa82.cfm?CFID=16536995&CFTOKEN=56773369

These concerns are unfounded and are most likely politically motivated as pointed out here:

However, one military expert said that Venezuela is merely replacing old equipment rather than than increasing its stocks. Anna Gilmour of the well known defense magazine, Jane’s, said, “ Venezuela has increased indeed its military purchases over the last three years. But it is replacing obsolete weapons and military equipment, instead of just buying new equipment or new weapons.” She also hinted that Rumsfeld may have “political” reasons for making the comments about Venezuela.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has also inserted himself into the row. He called Rumsfeld a “war dog” and said that the U.S. is threatening Venezuela, something Rumsfeld denies, “ The dog says in a cynical way that he knows no one who is threatening Venezuela, so he does not know himself. We should give the little dog a mirror so that he can see his face,” said Chávez.

Chávez also made a polite request to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe that he make a comment on Rumsfeld’s remarks. Colombia borders Venezuela and, although relations between Uribe and Chávez are good, the border area is renowned for military and paramilitary activity on both sides. Chávez wants Uribe to say whether he is one of those “neighbors” with “concerns.”

According to the news agency EFE, Uribe was asked today in a radio interview how he would respond to Chavez and merely stated that Colombia has “very good relations” with the countries of South America, among these Venezuela, and with the United States.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/1988

The Vice President of Venezeula, Jose Vicente Rangel was very eloquent in pointing out the absurdity of Rumsfeld’s preoccupation with the Venezuelan government’s military purchases:

The Lord of War, Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense of the United States made some statements following the same line of repeating the usual impertinences about Venezuela. These impertinences inspired by the goal of getting involved in the internal politics of other nations and violate our sovereignty, continue being utilized systematically by U.S. officials.

In Venezuela we are worried about the elevated military spending by the United States, which stands around 450 billion dollars, representing a spending that surpasses that of the 18 other military powers that follow them. The U.S. alone absorbs 36% of the world’s military spending. This has generated great preoccupation in the majority of the countries around the world, since there is no justification for the building of so many devices for war.

As the government of that country has said in repeated opportunities, they are the greatest military power in history, and its objectives are to control and assure its hegemony over the rest of the world. What are they fearing in order to justify such increase in military spending? Can anybody believe such country could be invaded by a foreign power?  What is really happening is that the U.S. has developed a very new doctrine through which they justify their arms buildups. This is the frequently mentioned preventive war. For them it is not about peace, but about preventive war. This is the doctrine that has the whole world worried because, as we all know, it has already been put into practice.

That is the big difference with the arms purchase which we are doing in an act of political sovereignty, with the only goal of defending our independence and guaranteeing the self-determination of our people. These weapons, as everybody knows, don’t have the potential for aggression against anybody. They are exclusively for defense, to which we have a right as all nations of the world do.

We have to say even more: in this moment the U.S. has started a new phase in its imperialist aggression against our homeland. They started with a propaganda war, and now they increase their attack, using one of the promoters of the so called Star Wars, who seeks to create enemies for Venezuela, among our friends. The North American strategy is aimed at destroying Latin American unity, and take possession of our energy resources. Venezuela is just one step in their global ambitions.

The escalation of these attacks confirms the existence of a plan by the U.S. government against Venezuela. This plan was tested on April 11 of 2002, with the coup d’etat against President Hugo Chavez, and continued developing with the strike and oil sabotage starting December 2, 2002, with systematic statements by spokespersons of the Bush administration, with a media campaign such as those that the empire has unleashed through history whenever they want to consummate an aggression, or through the assassination attempts of that have been detected, and other series of efforts to destabilize.

Definitely, the U.S. is worried because Latin America is liberating itself. This preoccupation is that of the slave owner who does not accept the liberating struggles of the oppressed peoples. The U.S. preoccupation with Venezuela is because our country is building a true democracy of equals, something that the U.S. does not carry through neither with their own people, nor with the international scene.

The U.S. preoccupation arises because we are building another world, a world in which other worlds can fit. They are worried that the South also exists.

From the south we respond, with dignity as our flag, and understanding the big responsibility we have as the descendants of San Martin, Artigas, O’Higgins, Abreu e Lima, and Bolivar.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/1019