Category Archives: Freedom of Speach

Yahya Abu Zakariya: "Dropping al-Mayadin first fig leaf first "

هل أسقط  د. يحيى أبو زكريا ورقة التوت الأولى عن قناة الميادين
جهينة نيوز- كتب المحرر السياسي:
على الرغم من أن إعلان رئيس مجلس إدارة قناة “الميادين” الإعلامي المستقيل من “الجزيرة” غسان بن جدو منذ البداية اتجه نحو التأكيد على أن “الميادين” التي رفعت شعار “الحقيقة كما هي” ستلتزم ثوابت عروبية وتنهج نهجاً مقاوماً للهيمنة الصهيوأمريكية في المنطقة، وستكون محايدة إزاء الأحداث والتحوّلات السياسية برمتها، ما يذكّرنا بمقدمات انطلاقة قناة “الجزيرة” ولاسيما إبان الحرب على العراق وقبلها الاحتلال الأمريكي لأفغانستان، غير أن هذه الادّعاءات والمزاعم بدأت تتكشّف مع اشتداد الحرب على سورية، وتكالب دول وأطراف غربية وعربية على الشعب السوري وقيادته وجيشه، ما يشير إلى قرب سقوط هذه المزاعم وخاصة مع الاختبار الأول الذي كان بطله الكاتب والباحث والإعلامي الجزائري د. يحيى أبو زكريا.
فالتصريحات التي أدلى بها أبو زكريا للإعلام السوري مؤخراً يبدو أنها قد أزعجت إدارة “الميادين”، ما اضطرها لإصدار بيان تتبرأ من خلاله من تصريحات أبو زكريا!!.. مؤكدة في بيانها التوضيحي أنها ليست معنية ولا تتبنى أي موقف سياسي أو كلام إعلامي ورد على لسان أي فرد من أسرة القناة الصحفية، كما أن القناة لا تكتفي بعدم التبني فقط بل إنها ترفض رفضاً باتاً أي تصريح لأي زميلة أو زميل يتضمّن تجريحاً لأشخاص أو أنظمة حكم أو مسؤولين أيّاً كان الموقف من هؤلاء.

وجاء في البيان أيضاً: إن قناة “الميادين” تؤكد أنها حريصة على رسالتها الإعلامية وثوابتها التي تضمّنتها وثيقة سياسات القناة، وأيضاً المفردات التي جاءت في كلمة رئيس مجلس إدارة القناة غسان بن جدو عند افتتاح القناة في 11/6/2012، ودون ذلك فإن القناة ليست معنية بأي كلام أو موقف أو كتابة لأي زميل، وما صدر ويصدر عن أي منهم هو رأي شخصي لا يلزم القناة ولا تتبناه.
نفهم كما يفهم غيرنا أن من حقّ أي وسيلة إعلامية أن تلتزم الحياد وتحافظ على سلامة خطابها الموجّه إلى الجمهور، والابتعاد به عن أي تأويل أو تفسير يؤدي إلى الإخلال بميثاق هذه الوسيلة، ويزعزع ويقوّض مصداقيتها، غير أنه ليس مفهوماً ولا مقبولاً أن تفرض أي وسيلة إعلامية سياستها وأحكامها وقوانينها على العاملين فيها وتلزمهم برأيها اختلافاً أو اتفاقاً، أو تربط بشكل مباشر أو غير مباشر تصريحاتهم بمرجعيتها، وتذكّر الجمهور أن فلاناً موظف لدينا، خاصة مع قامة كبيرة كالباحث والإعلامي يحيى أبو زكريا، الذي لم يرتكب جرماً أو ذنباً يستوجب إصدار هذا “البيان الناري”، سوى أنه قال في حواراته مع الإعلام السوري وبيّن “الحقيقة كما هي” بأن قطر ونعجتها حمد بن جاسم آل ثاني، والنعجة المستنسخة عنه (دوللي الجامعة العربية) نبيل العربي يقودون المؤامرة على سورية، ويدعمون الجماعات الإرهابية المسلحة بالإعلام والأموال والأسلحة الفتاكة لتدمير سورية وقتل شعبها، وتشويه صورة وشيطنة قيادتها التي رفضت وترفض الهيمنة الصهيوأمريكية في المنطقة، بل حوّلوا جامعة الدول العربية إلى منبر لتشتيت العرب لا توحيدهم، وقتل الشعب العربي لا الحفاظ على دمائه، ولعلّ جرائمهم في ليبيا وسورية أكبر دليل على ما قاله أو ذهب إليه أبو زكريا!!.
كنّا نتمنّى على “الميادين” أن تحترم حرية أبو زكريا في قول ما يريد دون اجتزاء أو تأويل مغلوط، أو تفصيل مواقفه الشخصية على مقياس القناة وسياساتها، أو إصدار بيان توضيحي لتصريحات أدلى بمثلها لوسائل إعلام غير سورية، إلا إذا أخذتنا الظنون باتجاه ما بدأ البعض يلمح إليه أن استقالة بن جدو من “الجزيرة” لم تكن إلا تكتيكاً التفافياً نحو استعادة المال القطري دوره في الإعلام الموجّه من خلال منبر آخر بعد افتضاح “الجزيرة” وربيعها العربي المزعوم، وسقوطها المريع والكشف عن تلفيقاتها وفبركاتها للأحداث بما يخدم الجماعات الإرهابية المسلحة وجرائمها وتفجيراتها وقتلها وتهجيرها للأبرياء في المحافظات والمدن والبلدات السورية، ودورها القذر في دفع ليبيا نحو التقسيم والحرب الأهلية.
كما كنّا نتمنى أيضاً ألا تثير “الميادين” هذه الضجة والبربوغاندا الإعلامية في بيانها التوضيحي وتعلن تبرؤها من تصريحات أبو زكريا، إلا إذا اعتبرنا أن احتجاجاً أو هاتفاً من حمد بن جاسم وأزلامه من النعاج قد استدعى هذه الضجة وإصدار هذا البيان، وهنا يكون د. يحيى أبو زكريا قد أسقط ورقة التوت الأولى عن قناة “الميادين”، وبات لزاماً علينا أن نتوقع أنها تسير باتجاه الحفرة التي سقطت فيها سابقتها قناة “الجزيرة!!.

ANTI-US SENTIMENT ON THE RISE IN TURKEY

Posted on February 10, 2013 by

Anti U-S sentiment is on the rise in Turkey on multiple levels. In the public sphere, the Turkish residents are angry at what they call the U-S attempt to impose its hegemony over their country. On the diplomatic level, Ankara seems to be angry at Washington for leaving the Turks up the creek without a paddle on the Syrian issue.

Turkey: Facing International Responsibility

Dmitriy SEDOV
 
The very complexity of Middle East situation and the games of their own played by such influential powers as Iran and Israel resulted in Turkey’s getting bogged down in a web of contradictions. Trying to become a dominant regional force using the Syrian crisis as leverage will hardly lead Turkey out of the precarious situation.
The Turkish leadership has done its best to get the Syrian rebels tied by the burden of future commitments hoping they will become the backbone of dependent regime under the Turkey’s influence. Meanwhile the Turkish powers are tightening the screws inside their own country. The Ergenekon case came to surface in 2008. It’s not over as yet. Ergenekon is the name given to an alleged clandestine, secularist ultra-nationalist organization in Turkey with possible ties to members of the country’s military and security forces. The would-be group, named after Ergenekon, a mythical place located in the inaccessible valleys of the Altay Mountains, is accused of terrorism in Turkey. 330 of armed forces commissioned officers and generals are behind bars now accused of participation in an attempted coup d’etat. The Turkish media is persecuted. The New York based Committee to Protect Journalists reports, «The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has waged one of the world’s biggest crack¬downs on press freedom in recent history. Authorities have imprisoned journalists on a mass scale on terror-ism or anti-state charges, launched thousands of other criminal prosecutions on charges such as denigrating Turkishness or influencing court proceedings, and used pressure tactics to sow self-censorship. Erdoğan has publicly deprecated journalists, urged media outlets to discipline or fire critical staff members, and filed numerous high-profile defamation lawsuits. His gov¬ernment pursued a tax evasion case against the nation’s largest media company that was widely seen as politi¬cally motivated» (1). That’s what gives rise to protests each time the official Ankara calls for intervention in Syria. Erdogan tries to take advantage of the chaos caused by the Arab Spring in order to make Turkey become a dominant regional power, but the plans are not echoed by due public support.
Not so long ago the relations with Syria were the backbone of Turkish foreign policy. The bilateral trade was burgeoning, the visa regime was repealed. Erdogan and Assad spent vacations together. The Greater Middle East concept authors exerted pressure on Turkey to make it change the policy in 2011.
The present situation in the region is a real headache for Turkey. The support of rebels requires huge expenditure. Turkey had to accommodate over a hundred of thousands Syrian refugees on its soil spending over 300 million dollars for the purpose. But it’s not the main issue of concern. The international terrorists have moved to Syria from North Africa. Where will they strike next? The politicians in Ankara have reasons to be anxious about the future after the Syria’s crisis is over. The Patriot air defense missiles deployed in Turkey are a real irritant for the «Allah servants».
Now the events unfold in the aftermath of Patriot deployment. The Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, a Marxist group with a history of political violence in Turkey, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the American Embassy in Ankara releasing a statement calling the United States «the murderer of the peoples of the world.» The organization came out in support of Assad, the explosion was not the first terror act committed by the group. This time they killed an embassy guardian, a few passers-by were wounded. The suicide bomber had enough explosive to destroy a three storey building.
Former U.S. ambassador to Turkey Ross Wilson, speculated that the masterminds of the embassy bombing may have been partly motivated by U.S.-Turkish policy on Syria. «A successful attack would embarrass the Turkish government and security forces, and it would have struck at the United States, which is widely – if wrongly – thought to have manipulated the Erdogan government into breaking with Bashar al-Assad and supporting efforts to remove him from power», Wilson, director of the Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, wrote in an analysis. «That might rekindle public support for the group. Alas for DHPK/C, this seems unlikely», (2) he added.
One can recall thousands hit the streets in Turkey to protest the government’s policy at the times the situation in Syria aggravated. In October 2012 the Turkish parliament sanctioned new military actions against the neighbor, the demonstrations flooded Istanbul. No doubt, anti-NATO and anti-US sentiments will flare up again when the flows of extremists coming from Syria will reach critical numbers, they will mix up with Kurdish militants and become part of a «terrorist cocktail» that would serve as a tool to destroy the state.
According to estimations, there are about 15-20 millions of Alevi Muslims in Turkey or one fourth of population. Unlike the Kurds, the Turkish Alevis don’t have plans to create an independent state; their only demand is equality with the Sunni majority. But they have strong blood ties to Syrian Alawites and are capable of influencing Turkish policies. In case the situation worsens again, there would be enough Alevis ready to lend a helping hand to Damascus.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party is a Kurdish organization which has since 1984 been fighting an armed struggle against the Turkish state for an autonomous Kurdistan and cultural and political rights for the Kurds in Turkey. It’s a leading Kurdish force in the Middle East. The Damascus consent to cede the control over the Kurdish inhabited territories in Syria was inspiring for their brethren in Turkey. Syrian government forces have abandoned many Kurdish-populated areas, leaving the Kurds to fill the power vacuum and govern these areas autonomously, including providing for their own security. The Kurds saw the action as a step on the way of establishing an independent state together with their brethren in Iraq. Under the circumstances, the radicalization of Turkish Kurdistan is inevitable. Actually it is already taking place. Kurdish militants regularly attack Turkish military and officers of justice. The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) is a Syrian affiliate of the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). It is one of the most important Kurdish opposition parties in Syria as well as a charter member of the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change and the People’s Council of Western Kurdistan. The PYD calls for the constitutional recognition of Kurdish rights and «democratic autonomy», rejecting classical models such as federalism and self-administration. While condemning authoritarian rule in Damascus, the PYD is responsible for disrupting Kurdish efforts to form a united opposition front. Its influence among the Turkish Kurds is on the rise.
* * *
The stability of Middle East has always been intertwined with interethnic and interconfessional relations in the region. General order and Ankara’s siding with radical extremist forces engendered by the Arab Spring are incompatible things. The Turkey-fuelled rebellion in Syria will hardly be limited by the territory of one country; it could spill over and destabilize Turkey itself. Today Ankara coordinates activities with Washington’s Persian Gulf puppets on strings. But Turkey is a major actor in West Asia; it has much greater international responsibility in comparison with the Gulf oil monarchies. Will Turkey be able to be up to par and face its international responsibility with dignity?
(1) http://cpj.org/reports/Turkey2012.English.pdf
(2) http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/national_world&id=8978129
 

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BDS Better Learn from its Mistakes

By Gilad Atzmon

It’s almost funny to read the BDS’ leadership’s outraged reactions to top ethnic-cleansing advocate Alan Dershowitz when he tried to stop a discussion with Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti discussing BDS at NYC Brooklyn College.

It’s funny because the BDS leadership unfortunately is drowning in the exact same Talmudic herem culture as is Dershowitz. Just like Dershowitz, BDS is itself engaged in a relentless assault on fundamental and elementary rights such as freedom of speech and freedom of expression. So often, we learn about BDS embarking on yet another assault on dedicated humanists and intellectuals – in many cases, leading supporters of Palestine – as we watch Palestinian solidarity transformed itself into just another zone of occupation.

BDS could easily become a positive development if it could only tell the difference between an academic and an avocado. If BDS is really interested in the ‘day after’, it must immediately remove itself from Talmudic herem culture and engage in open discourse driven by principles of ethics, tolerance and pluralism.

I believe in freedom of speech and I also believe that the current herem culture has transformed Palestinian solidarity into a an intellectual desert. No intellectual, ideological or ethical matter may be discussed without the looming threat of excommunication – a devastating state of affairs which has already reduced some of Palestine’s potential young leaders into mere accessories of Jewish Power – in effect, Sabbath Goyim.

This week’s power struggle between Dershowitz and BDS should be a wake-up call. BDS should learn from its mistakes. First, it must become an advocate of freedom of speech. This alone would signify a shift from the tribal to the universal and from Zion to Athens where the Palestinian discourse truly belongs.
 

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Integrity – Prof. NORTON MEZVINSKY’s letter on Today’s NYT


Wednesday, February 6, 2013 at 10:00AM

Gilad Atzmon 

http://www.nytimes.com/

To the Editor:

Re “Amid Criticism, College Says Event on Israel Can Proceed“‌ (news article, Feb. 5):

The president of Brooklyn College, Karen L. Gould, is correct in allowing speakers who are critical of Israeli policies regarding Palestinians in the West Bank and who favor Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions to be allowed to speak on campus when invited by students and/or faculty. Not allowing these speakers to present their views on campus would violate freedom of expression and academic freedom.

Likewise, B.D.S. advocates should realize that their attempts to boycott and disallow speakers and others who support Israeli policies regarding Palestinians and who are in opposition to B.D.S. also violate principles of freedom of expression and academic freedom.

NORTON MEZVINSKY
New York, Feb. 5, 2013

The writer is a professor at Central Connecticut State University and president of the International Council for Middle East Studies.

Interview with Gilad Atzmon by Prof. Norton Mezvinsky-Washington Report

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More on the Gilad Atzmon controversy – and why it matters…

By Alison Weir

http://alisonweir.org/

I’d rather be researching and writing articles on Palestine-Israel; analyzing media coverage ; placing advertisements and billboards around the country; creating fact-sheets, cards, booklets and other materials on the topic; updating the websites (e.g. here and here and here) we’ve created to get the facts out; creating new initiatives; and numerous other productive activities for justice and peace.

However, I feel I need to briefly take time out to provide information about the Gilad Atzmon controversy, since I feel the attacks on him are enormously unfair, they continue to occasionally interfere with productive efforts, are sometimes used to try to block my presentations (more on this later), and because an important new article on the topic has just come out.
Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli who moved to London about 20 years ago, is a superb jazz musician who has written several books, and blogs about Israel-Palestine.

His most recent book, and the center of the controversy, is The Wandering Who: A Study of Jewish Identity Politics, in which he draws on his background in philosophy (he has a Masters degree in the subject) to explore the Jewish connection to the Jewish state.

Some activists found this topic impermissible and began to launch attacks on Atzmon, which largely seemed geared at preventing others from reading his work for themselves.

In February 2012 a public letter denouncing him was launched with 33 signatories, none of them Palestinian. (One signatory, listed first, is Lebanese; the full list is below).

The letter was circulated widely and reposted various places; eventually accruing 173 names. This time a handful were Palestinian.

(At least one prominent US activist, not Palestinian, didn’t sign the letter publicly, but privately attempts to block Atzmon’s events in the US.)

In March a second public letter denouncing Atzmon was published – this one with a particularly defamatory headline and somewhat militaristic terminology: “Granting No Quarter: A Call for the Disavowal of the Racism and Antisemitism of Gilad Atzmon.

It contained a grand total of 23 signatories. All were Palestinian, most of them living in the US.
Some of the individuals who signed these letters later admitted they had never read Atzmon’s book. (In fact, given how busy we all are, I would guess few of them did.)

Many others – including both Palestinian and Jewish activists, authors, and scholars – refused to sign it.

In fact, many prominent and widely respected individuals – such as Richard Falk, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ramzy Baroud, lauren Booth, David Rovics, Sameh Habeeb, Sheldon Richman, Nahida Izzat, and Cynthia McKinney – openly praised it. (See more here.)

I myself wrote a mild commentary saying that I respected people on both sides of the controversy but came down on the side of free speech and against “thought police.” I also posted a commentary by another person.

Because of this, some solidarity activists now openly attack Richard Falk and others because of their stand on Atzmon, and there are apparently a few who attack me because of my comments.
One person emailed the sponsors of one of my talks in London, falsifying what Atzmon says and I had written, in an attempt to persuade the organizers to cancel the event.

Other individuals, endeavoring to block my talks and prevent If Americans Knew tables at conferences and events, have claimed that I tried “to tell Palestinians what to do” because I had commented on this controversy, even though 23 signatories hardly represents all Palestinians, and even though many other Palestinians also disagreed with the letter these individuals had signed.
Now there is a new development. An individual named Blake Alcott has written a thorough analysis of Atzmon’s writings and of the attacks against him, published on CounterPunch and Redress. (I will also post it below.) As Redress Editor Nureddin Sabir 
writes:

“Blake Alcott debunks the ‘anti-Semitism’ slur levelled at musician and writer Gilad Atzmon by US academic Ali Abunimah, and explains that Atzmon ‘illuminates the ‘pro-Semitic’ racist ideology fatal to Palestinians’.”

To reiterate what I wrote in my first post on this controversy:

I respect and like people on both sides of this controversy, including a number of people who signed the letters attacking Atzmon.

Even though I disagree with the decision some made to sign these letters, I still feel we are allies in an urgent cause and hope we will continue to work together to bring the change that is so desperately needed. Let us set aside attacks on Atzmon and others, let us not let others exploit this issue to block presentations by those who differ on this issue, and let us turn our full focus, time, and efforts to our life-and-death struggle against the continued oppression of millions of men, women, and children in Palestine and beyond.

To read more:

The wandering who- Gilad Atzmon

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Journalist BLOCKED and CENSORED by TIME WORLD!

by Eileen Fleming
Thursday, January 17th, 2013

Journalists Helen Thomas and Eileen FlemingTwo days ago, this reporter posted the following comment at the TIME WORLD article, Iran: Khamenei’s Ban of Nuclear Weapons Binding | TIME.com:

In April 2010, Iran hosted a conference in Tehran on nuclear disarmament and sixty countries were represented but NOT the USA!
Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei issued a statement delivered at the conference stating that nuclear weaponry was “haram” meaning prohibited under Islam and he also blew the doors off Israel’s and America’s nuclear deceptions:

“If America’s claims of fighting the proliferation of nuclear weapons were not false, would the Zionist regime be able to turn the occupied Palestinian lands into an arsenal where a huge number of nuclear weapons are stored while refusing to respect international regulations in this regard, especially the NPT?

“There is only one government that has committed a nuclear crime so far. Only the government of the United States of America has attacked the oppressed people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic bombs in an unfair and inhumane war”using or even threatening to use such weapons is a serious violation of the most basic rules of philanthropy and is a clear manifestation of war crimes.

“The greatest violators of the NPT are the powers who have reneged on their obligation to dispose of nuclear weapons mentioned in Article 6 of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. These powers have even surpassed other countries with respect to promoting nuclear weapons in the world. By providing the Zionist regime with nuclear weapons and supporting its policies, these powers play a direct role in promoting nuclear weapons which is against the obligations they have undertaken according to Article 1 of the NPT.

“We believe that besides nuclear weapons, other types of weapons of mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons also pose a serious threat to humanity.

“The Iranian nation, which is itself a victim of chemical weapons, feels more than any other nation the danger that is caused by the production and stockpiling of such weapons and is prepared to make use of all its facilities to counter such threats. We consider the use of such weapons as haram (religiously forbidden) and believe that it is everyone’s duty to make efforts to secure humanity against this great disaster.”

On 5 April 2009, President Obama stood on the world stage in Prague and admitted, “As the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. When we fail to pursue peace, then it stays forever beyond our grasp. We know the path when we choose fear over hope. To denounce or shrug off a call for cooperation is an easy but also cowardly thing to do. That’s how wars begin. That’s where human progress ends.

“The voices of peace and progress must be raised together.
“Human destiny will be what we make of it.
“Words must mean something.”

In 1987, from Ashkelon prison, Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower Mordechai Vanunu wrote:

“The passive acceptance and complacency with regard to the existence of nuclear weapons anywhere on earth is the disease of society today.

“This struggle is not only a legitimate one – it is a moral, inescapable struggle.

“Already now there are enough nuclear missiles to destroy the world many times over [and] this issue should unite us all, because that is our real enemy.

“Is any government qualified and authorized to produce such weapons?” The Fierce Urgency of All Thing Nuclear

Since that comment and link remains-and before the worn out and inaccurate canard of ‘SPAMMING’ is hurled at me because I OFFER information- I wonder WHAT happened and WHY the following COMMENTS have disappeared-as in CENSORED- from Obama, Netanyahu Seem Headed for US-Israel Clash by AP / Amy Teibel and I am no longer able to login with my Facebook Account..

What is now missing from the TIME WORLD thread but remains on my Facebook Wall are:

Israeli peacemaker Jonathan Ben Artzi, a PhD candidate at Brown University and nephew to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has witnessed a lifetime of Israel’s abuse of Palestinians, declared:

“Sometimes it takes a good friend to tell you when enough is enough. As they did with South Africa two decades ago, concerned citizens across the US can make a difference by encouraging Washington to get the message to Israel that this cannot continue.”

“If Americans truly are our friends, they should shake us up and take away the keys, because right now we are driving drunk, and without this wake-up call, we will soon find ourselves in the ditch of an undemocratic, doomed state.”-excerpted from VANUNU’S WAIT for LIBERTY, Remembering the USS LIBERTY and My Life as a Candidate of Conscience for US HOUSE 2012

LibertySurvivor wrote: “Is it not time for the US to allow a real Congressional Investigation of the deliberate attack on the USS Liberty? Is it? Forty five years plus the survivors have been waiting. Justice in this country? LOL”

My response ‘disappeared’ within seconds-but remains captured on my FB WALL:

YES indeed and BTW, one reason I ran for US HOUSE in 2012 to raise awareness about Israel’s attack on America’s premier spy ship on 8 June 1967.
VERY sad that TIME keeps deleting my efforts/comments-although the one they just censored from this thread remains on my FACEBOOK WALL and also in my 4th book- VANUNU’S WAIT for LIBERTY, Remembering the USS LIBERTY and My Life as a Candidate of Conscience for US HOUSE 2012

All TIME WORLD accomplished was to lead me back to my dinner conversation with Journalist and Former White House correspondent Ms. Helen Thomas and another excerpt from my fourth book:

After cheese cake for desert I asked Ms. Thomas what she would advise anyone who wanted to go into the field of journalism and she stated,

“Go for it! It’s the greatest profession in the world because you are always learning and you are aware of the world, so you just might be able to affect change.

“You cannot have a democracy without an informed people.

“Information is everything; it enlarges your intellect and that guides you.

“The job is to follow the truth and report where it leads you!

“Right and wrong is not relative. Empathy is fine but kindness and sympathy do not change the facts and conscience is everything!

“Leaders are suppose to do the right thing and we should back up the president when he does the right thing; but drop him when he doesn’t.

“The WHY is the most important question-not that something happened- but WHY did it happen?

“Somewhere along the way America lost its soul.

“People have to rise up but Americans have become so passive and power overwhelmingly abusive.”

I responded, “So how do we fix this situation?”

Ms. Thomas replied, “It’s being done!”

I also brought up Ms. Thomas’s first and last question to President Obama regarding Middle East nuclear weapons when he blew her off claiming he didn’t want to ‘speculate’ and her ‘peers’ remained mute, although the State Department has reams of documentation about Israel’s WMD.

Ms. Thomas replied, “They have no conscience.”

I also claim their lack of integrity borders on treason!

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No room for Pro-Syria Articles/Opinions in English Al-akhbar

“Even our colleagues in «Al-Akhbar» follow the news agencies, and are unaware of the killer!

Since twenty-two months, the media of the enemy is attaking us by debauchery and “allied” media by neutrality!

Enough.” Nahid Hattar wrote for Arabic Al-Akhbar

From time to time I post Arabic articles and Opinions puplished in Lebanese Al-akhbar, and add the English vesion translated and published at the English version. More
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The following articles/opinions are not translated nor puplished at the English version.

All above are written by Hahid Hattar, a leftist from Jordan, who knows the real enemy.
Is it a date with a new Sadat?  puplished in Arabic only,

Atlantic’s Erdogan Ottoman’s Bashar puplished in Arabic only

BTW, the thought police in Arabic Al-Akhbar censored my first coment. Its posted here.

No surprise if the the thought police of English version decide whats worth translation in the Arabic version.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Turkish Police Crackdown on Students Provokes National Protest

Local Editor

Turkish police crackdown on students; December 2012Hundreds of demonstrators marched to the prime minister’s office in Ankara on Friday to protest a police crackdown on university students earlier this week.
Around 500 protesters, estimated by Agence France Presse, chanted slogans blasting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, unfurling banners reading “Set Free Detainees” — referring to students who were arrested Tuesday after protesting the prime minister’s visit to Middle East Technical University (METU).

Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protest at the university, where Erdogan went to watch the launch of a Turkish earth observation satellite into orbit aboard a Chinese rocket.

Around 50 protesters were injured, and police detained 12 students after the clashes, according to local media outlets.

One of the protesters, Baris Barisik, suffered a brain hemorrhage after a gas bomb hit him in the head during the protest.

The police crackdown sparked outrage among academics and opposition parties, which accused the AKP of authoritarianism.

A group of METU academics boycotted classes Thursday to protest police violence and detentions, which were also criticized by the mainstream media and a rights group.

For its part, the human rights group Amnesty International called on Turkish officials to launch a “speedy, comprehensive and neutral investigation into the incident … where police used excessive force against peaceful protesters at the METU campus.”

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Qatari poet gets life sentence in secret trial

Published Thursday, November 29, 2012
 
A Qatari poet was sentenced to life imprisonment on Thursday on charges of insulting the emir of the small Gulf state in a trial shrouded in secrecy.

Mohammad Ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami was arrested on 16 November 2011 on charges of “insulting” the emir of Qatar and “inciting to overthrow the ruling system,” AFP reported.

Ibn al-Dheeb’s lawyer, Nagib al-Naimi, confirmed the court’s sentence, and indicated that he would appeal the verdict. Al-Naimi said his client has been jailed in solitary confinement for almost a year during which he has not seen his family.

According to activists, the evidence used by the prosecution against Ibn al-Dheeb centered on his “Jasmine poem,” written in 2010 in support of the Tunisian uprising.

The insult charges appear to be based on the verse: “we are all Tunisia in the face of the repressive” regimes. The poem can be heard below:

A document allegedly obtained from the court detailing Ibn al-Dheeb’s sentence was circulating online on Thursday, sparking outrage from advocates.

Amnesty also denounced irregularities in Ibn al-Dheeb’s trial, since court sessions were reportedly “held in secret.”

Al-Naimi was reportedly barred from attending one of the court sessions, and had to provide a written defense, Amnesty reported.

Ibn al-Dheeb’s ruling stands in stark contrast to Qatari ruler Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani public advocacy for freedom of expression. He set up the Doha Centre for Media Freedom in to promote press freedom in 2008.

But freedom of expression is strictly controlled in the oil-rich nation, which is a close ally of the United States.

“Inciting to overthrow the regime” is a charge punishable by death in Qatar, while “insulting the emir” carries a five-year prison sentence, the watchdogs said.

Human Rights Watch denounced Ibn al-Dheeb’s incarceration as “further evidence of Qatar’s double standard on freedom of expression.”

(Al-Akhbar, AFP, Reuters)

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Irish TV host: ‘Israel is a cancer in foreign affairs’

Former newspaper editor Vincent Browne, the host of Ireland’s top television political talkshow, ‘Tonight with Vincent Browne’, on TV3 has called Israel “a cancer in foreign affairs”. After the remark, Vincent said that his criticism of Israel doesn’t mean he hates the Jewish people.
Israel is a cancer in the foreign affairs. It polarises the Islamic community of the world against the rest of the world,” said Browne.

Unless you deal with the problem of Israel and Palestinians in that part of the world, there’s going to be conflict and disharmony. It’s a massive injustice – they stole the land from Arabs,” added Browne.

On the show, Vincent also blasted both US president Barack Obama and his main challenger Mitt Romney for avoiding to discuss Israel’s harmful effects on American foreign policy – which has fueled Muslim hatred toward America and the West. Incidentally, the US third party presidential candidate, Jill Stein (Jewish herself), has called both Obama and Romney as Israeli slaves.

Israel’s deputy ambassador to Ireland, Nurit Tinari-Modai, called Browne “an anti-Semite” while claiming her parents were brutally murdered during the Holocaust. Interestingly, Rabbi Wolf Gunther Plaut, in his 1990 book, ‘The Man Who Would Be Messiah’, has claimed that Holocaust was committed by Frankist Jews.

I would have never believed that the day would come when a presenter on an Irish TV station would make racist, anti-Semitic remarks,” she said.
In response, Browne said:”What I resent is the suggestion that because you’re critical of Israel, you’re automatically anti-Semitic. I don’t think that’s acceptable“. Browne also refused to apologise for his statement and insisted that the Zionist entity was established in 1948 after European Jews stole Arab land.

Browne claimed that pro-Israel Jewish groups are in habit of blackmailing Israel’s critics by branding them as “anti-Semites” or “Holocaust deniers”. He insisted his remarks were not much different from Irish or European foreign policy.

Vincent Browne 68, is a journalist, editor, talkshow host and founder of popular Village Magazine which he sold in 1998. As a war-reporter, Browne covered Czechoslovakia in 1968 and later IRA-British war for The Irish Times.

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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!