COUP VOTE IN HONDURAS, IMPOSTER IN THE WHITE HOUSE: HAS OBAMA’S “MINI-ME” INFILTRATED THE PRESIDENT?
November 26th, 2009 - by: danny
SATURDAY: “RIGGED ELECTION SUNDAY IN HONDURAS”–US WINKING AT ILLEGAL PROCESS BROUGHT ABOUT BY COUP
“Honduras’ upcoming vote a boon to de facto rulers” reports, LA TIMES, “The de facto leaders appear to have gotten away with a military-backed coup. Not only have efforts to restore the ousted leader failed, but the US has said it will recognize a new presidential vote.”
See Narconews.com for more thorough coverage.”
SQUEEZE ON IRAN BEGINS: FIRST STEPS TO WAR?
-AP VIENNA — The U.N. nuclear agency’s board censured Iran on Friday, with 25 nations backing a resolution that demands Tehran immediately mothball its newly revealed nuclear facility and heed U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on it to stop uranium enrichment.
Iran remained defiant, with its chief representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency declaring that his country would resist “pressure, resolutions, sanction(s) and threat of military attack.”
AP: IRAN SEIZES NOBEL PRIZE MEDAL IN ACT OF DEFIANCE
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian authorities have confiscated Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi’s medal, the human rights lawyer said Thursday, in a sign of the increasingly drastic steps Tehran is taking against any dissent.
In Norway, where the peace prize is awarded, the government said the confiscation of the gold medal was a shocking first in the history of the 108-year-old prize
MUST READ: OH AFGHANISTAN–(T/h) to Jackie Newberry
Kilcullen: It’s all or nothing, Mr. President
via The Best Defense by Thomas E. Ricks on 11/18/09
Last night I went to see David Kilcullen, the most quotable Australian since the Brothers Gibb, report on his most recent tour of Afghanistan. This is a great way to begin a speech:
One afternoon about six weeks ago I got ambushed in a valley in Dora Nur, in Nangarhar province…
Kilcullen, who is now a consultant to NATO and the U.S. government spent much of his time explaining how the war effort in Afghanistan is being crippled by the debilitating corruption of the Kabul government. (I’d bet this is similar to the straight talk Secretary Clinton is delivering today on her visit to Afghanistan.) He said a Western diplomat in Kabul told him that the government there reminds him of the Nationalist Chinese government in 1949, with an urban elite trying to scrape together as much wealth as they can before time runs out and they have to scoot.
Kilcullen described a “cycle of corruption” that is destroying Afghanistan:
Corruption
Leads to
Rapacious behavior of government officials
Leads to
Rage and alienation of the people
Leads to
Operating space for the Taliban
Leads to
Growing Taliban strength
Leads to
Taliban encouragement of poppy cultivation
Leads to
Poppies producing funds that corrupt government officials
Leads to
More corruption
And so on
“Poppy is the Taliban CERP,” he said, a chilling phrase to anyone who knows the major role that that U.S. military acronym refers to money that American commanders used to win friends and influence people. The farmers who grow the dope only make about $800 million total annually, he said, with the vast majority of revenue, more than $3 billion, being split between drug lords, the Taliban, and government officials.
His bottom line is that there are two real options in Afghanistan: Either tell the Kabul government we are pulling out, or put in enough troops to actually break the cycle of corruption, which he said would be a minimum of about 40,000. “We either put in enough to control, or we get out.” The worst thing we could do, he added, is put in enough troops to get more people killed but not enough to do anything to break change the behavior of corrupt officials. Also, he said, it is more about what you do than the actual number of troops — “If you do it wrong, you could put it a million troops and it wouldn’t make any difference.”
Without quite saying so, he also indicated that time is a factor right now. “We’re seeing a lot of money leaving the country. We’re seeing tribes associated with the Northern Alliance re-arming. … A lot of people are getting nervous.” He talked about how attuned local Afghan leaders in remote areas are to American politics, being familiar with the various stances of President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Carl Levin. “Right now we’re sending kind of a message of indecision.”
One surprise to me was that he isn’t particularly worried about the possibility of al Qaeda moving back into Afghanistan. “I hope so,” he said, explaining that it would be a strategic gain for us to see the terrorist group leave Pakistan and move into parts of Afghanistan that essentially are “the moon with gravity.”
“INFILTRATING” THE OVAL OFFICE, AN “ALIEN” OBAMA?
HAS A “MINI-ME” INVADED THE PRESIDENT?
OFF TO THE CONGO
It was amusing to read that a well-dressed Virginia couple, husband with a tux, blonde wife in a Sari. managed to infiltrate the White House State Dinner, presumably an institution known for the highest of security. Red faced secret service officials muttered something about a security post that did not follow procedures. They hoaxed their way in.
Oh, how could we be human without human errors? To add insult to injury, President Obama and Joe Biden had his picture taken with the party crashers. All Smiles. Who knew?
But a more insidious infiltration may have occurred and is still largely unaccounted for. Could there be an imposter in the oval office? In a scene out of the movie “ALIEN,” Barack Obama’s evil “Mini-Me” seems to have infiltrated the body and brain of the 44th President turning a Yes We Can candidate into the No We Won’t President.
Slowly, all of his pre-electoral commitments seem to be going by the wayside and the Martin Luther King quoting leader of the free world has morphed into his predecessor. Forget ending bringing the troops home. closing GITMO quickly, reversing the Patriot Act, etc. etc
Why does this happen? How did it happen? Why did so many of us expect or hope for a different outcome? Political scientists will tell you how institutions have more power than individuals. They will point to how holding office doesn’t mean you can impose your will. They will stress the pervasive power of the Military Industrial complex, the clout of the lobbysists and the omnipresence of the Wall Street goliath.
UPDATE: NOTE—Obviously I was searching for a metaphor to describe a process that has been underway for some time, and should have been more recognizable but i have always been attracted to the contradictions of power, not just the obvious certaintees,
My friend Bill Bowles takes me to task for this allusion, or illusion, or softness inside the skull, writing in respose:
“Imposter in the White House? What is it with a lot of liberal/left thinkers and the idea that somehow Obama started off as one kind of person (the ‘Yes We Can’ bit) and has been ‘turned’ into a ‘No We Won’t’ kinda prez? Where does this come from?
It was clear from the getgo what kind of president Obama would be. It’s like the argument that in the days running up to the March 18, 2003 invasion of Iraq by the barbarians, the whole thing could have been called off, if Saddam had done the ‘right thing’, whatever that was.
You don’t get to send 250,000 soldiers and materiel right up to the borders of Iraq and then send ‘em all home again, any more than you get to become president of the United States without being already utterly and totally compromised on anything meaningful.
“It is in our strategic interest, in our national security interest, to make sure that al-Qaeda and its extremist allies cannot operate effectively in those areas…We are going to dismantle and degrade their capabilities and ultimately dismantle and destroy their networks.
“After eight years — some of those years in which we did not have, I think, either the resources or the strategy to get the job done — it is my intention to finish the job,” Obama said. “And I feel very confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we’re doing there and how we intend to achieve our goals, that they will be supportive.” – Barack Obama, ‘Afghan troops announcement likely Dec. 1′, Washington Post, 24 November, 2009
“It was amusing to read that a well-dressed Virginia couple, husband with a tux, blonde wife in a Sari, managed to infiltrate the White House State Dinner, presumably an institution known for the highest of security. Red faced secret service officials muttered something about a security post that did not follow procedures. They hoaxed their way in.
“Oh, how could we be human without human errors? To add insult to injury, Joe Biden had his picture taken with the party crashers. All Smiles. Who knew?
“But a more insidious infiltration may have occurred and is still largely unaccounted for. Could there be an imposter in the oval office? In a scene out of the movie “ALIEN,” Barack Obama’s evil “Mini-Me” seems to have infiltrated the body and brain of the 44th President turning a Yes We Can candidate into the No We Won’t President.” – “Infiltrating” the Oval Office, an “Alien” Obama?, Danny Schechter, News Dissector, 27 November, 2009
The only people feeling conned are those who conned themselves into thinking that Obama was something other than a true servant of the Empire. The term ‘house negro’ comes to mind but that’s probably very non-PC these days. Whatever, he fulfilled a purpose, he filled an ideological void with promise, in very much the same way as a TV commercial offers the fantasy of the faraway place, of being somebody else and last but not least, the fantasy of the skin.
It was a brilliant but extremely short-term ‘solution’ to the crisis of legitimacy the state was going through when it was decided at the highest levels that Obama was to be the ‘chosen one’. Short-term because, well look at what he’s doing: aside from the rhetoric and the cool family photo ops, he’s Bush in drag. Okay, it was a toss-up between playing the female or race card but she’s right in there anyway and right from the getgo, and followed by all the usual suspects, Brzezinski, damn, the entire Cabal!
I could go about Danny Schecter’s piece, “‘Infiltrating” the Oval Office’ as it contains a very good analysis of what I’d expect the titular head of Empire to be doing, like receiving his corporate and political masters, who want to make sure he’s making the ‘right’ kinds of decisions for them. How could it ever be otherwise? It’s been this way for decades….”
Criticism noted, attempt at humor was not!
One sign who has power is who gets access and who doesn’t On Wednesday night, right before Thanksgiving, when the national focus is on the homefront, the White House finally released more names from its visitors list assuming the news would be downplayed. It was.
Where are the workers, the youth, the community organizers, the homeowners, the unemployed on the list?
Insurgent voices were not welcome.
And I am not just talking about the mainstream media centrists invited to the dinner. Ms. Couric of CBS News, accompanied by Brooks L. Perlin; Tom Friedman of The New York Times, accompanied by his wife, Ann; Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post, accompanied by his wife, Julie; Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN, accompanied by his wife, Rebecca; Robin Roberts of ABC News; Brian Williams of NBC News, accompanied by wife, Jane; Fareed Zakaria of CNN, and wife Paula.
No Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart or Keith Olbermann, much less any of the legions of pro-Obama bloggers,
But its wasn’t the dinner guests that tell the story—it’s the everyday business guests including a gaggle of Wall Street financiers, the very people who he should be investigating, all given all access passes.
That tells you something.
Reports the Times:
“The latest list – some 1,600 names – includes Thomas Donohue, the head of the Chamber of Commerce who has been embroiled in a fight over climate change with the Obama administration. It also includes T. Boone Pickens, the energy investor and author of the best-selling book “The First Billion Is the Hardest.”
A three-time visitor was Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive of the private equity company Blackstone Group. Also on the list was General Electric’s chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, who came to see Mr. Obama’s chief Congressional lobbyist, Phil Schiliro.
… The first list of names released last month included Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Rex W. Tillerson of Exxon Mobil and David J. O’Reilly of Chevron.”
Ach so!
Presidents come into office saying they will change the system and are then routinely amazed that they can’t. Not only do they have to deal with corruption in Congress and the partisan wars as well as an often surly media but also their campaign donors who don’t just give money for philanthropic reasons.
They press to get what they want, and in many cases were promised.
So is it any surprise that Presidents love the military because, nominally, are at the top of the chain of command. They can give order and have them followed. They are regularly saluted and feel important. Military pilots fly them around. The uniformed ones treat the President with deference. What a high in more ways than one. In a rugged political climate, here no one talks back, Yes Sir, No Sir. That’s how they like it.
Notice that Obama is following in LBJ’s and Bush’s footsteps by escalating a war and justifying it in speech next Tuesday at the US Military Academy, where he can be assured of a protest-free venue and the adoration of all the people there who, in effect, report to him as Commander in Chief.
The folks who cheered for his promise to bring the troops back from Iraq will not be invited. You can bet on that.
Of course there’s more to it than that . He has been captured by the “logic”, the belief he can impose guidelines and criteria as part of the center that defines sensible policy in terms of pragmatism, not principle. All of these markets and rules will be out the window when more Americans start getting killed or more atrocities are reported on all sides.
Tom Hayden writes:
The president’s proposed Afghanistan policy is not a product of intelligent rethinking so much as it is a predictable Obama preference for an imaginary centrism.
On the one hand, he is sending 30,000 more American troops, who have been dying at a current rate of more than 500 per year.
On the other hand, he is attempting to placate growing anti-war sentiment by pledging to limit the duration of the war.
As with all compromises, this one will satisfy only the few. It is what President Bill Clinton called kicking the can down the street.
The antiwar movement will continue to support Rep. Barbara Lee’s bill cutting off funds for the troop escalation and Rep. Jim McGovern’s resolution calling for the administration to offer an exit strategy.
Sending 30,000 or more American soldiers to die for the Karzai government is a waste of valuable American lives, which at the present rate will exceed 1,000 in two years of bloody battles under President Obama. Spending one million dollars per American soldier will mean a waste of one trillion dollars on this war by the end of the President’s term of eight years.
These costs in human lives and tax dollars are simply unsustainable.”
NYT: Taliban Open Up Front in Once-Quiet Afghan North
Militants have had a resurgence in Kunduz, a province that American and Afghan officials did not think they had to worry about.
THE PRETEXT FOR THE WAR: CAN WE TRUST IT?
Why it’s impossible to support the war in Afghanistan
by Edward F. Haas
It’s been eight years since the United States invaded Afghanistan. After all these years many Americans have lost sight of the alleged purpose of our invasion – to hunt for Osamabin Laden and al Qaeda.
What has also been lost is any government inquiry whatsoever into the accuracy of the “smoking gun” evidence that the Bush Administration presented as the final justification for invading Afghanistan – the peculiar “Osama bin Laden confession video”.
Released on December 13, 2001, the videotape of bin Laden and associates taking pleasure in the 9/11 attack was seen around the world – over and over again. I remember the 24 hour news channels playing the same scenes practically non-stop while the talking heads told their audiences that this was absolute proof that the United States invasion of Afghanistan a few months earlier on October 7, 2001 was the right action.
The corporate media, liberal and conservative, failed to question the Department of Defense Press Release 630-01 that accompanied the video release. No so-called professional journalist found the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the video unusual. The corporate types just accepted at face value that the videotape was discovered by U.S. forces in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The names of the troops that discovered the video, the name of the unit, the circumstances as to how the video was actually discovered, and what prompted the troops to look at the video in the first place was never asked by the White House Press Corps or any other corporate media type. How U.S. troops discovered the video and what prompted the troops to explore the content of the video remains a mystery.
That is if you believe Press Release 630-01was factual.
Many Americans, as well as other people around the world, believe the video was a U.S.government fabrication. Others believe it to be the result of a sting operation taped in the last week of September 2001. This would mean that Osama bin Laden did not know he was being videotaped, and that the U.S. and foreign intelligence operatives had bin Laden in their sights prior to the U.S. invasion. A strong argument can be made that if bin Laden had been captured or killed before the U.S. invasion, support for the war would have been greatly diminished, particularly outside the United States.
Israel okays 28 new settlement buildings, despite freeze
“Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday ordered the IDF to issue a temporary freeze order, but at the same time allowed the construction of 28 new public buildings in settlements.”
Half-Truths Dim Chances for Mideast Talks
By Ethan Bronner – New York Times
The Guardian: Pro-Israel lobby group bankrolling Tories, film claims
50% of MPs in the shadow cabinet are Conservative Friends of Israel members, according to Channel 4
THANKSGIVING–THE VICTIMS SPEAK: The Truth About Thanksgiving
from `Rogue Nation’ by Vernon Coleman, published by Blue Books
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“Dr. Livingstone, I Presume”—MY “RETURN” TO CONGO, ONCE “THE HEART OF DARKNESS”
November 26th, 2009 - by: danny
In 1961, I was a freshman at Cornell, editing a magazine I started with a fellow New York High School newspaper editor Ken Rubin. It was called Dialogue and we set out to explore the issues that would later rock the 60′s – civil rights, Africa’s emergence on the world stage, Vietnam etc. We wanted to encourage an end to what was then called – and maybe called again – “Apathy” on campus. JFK had come president and the “winds of change: were blowing.
In that year, far away, in the Congo, a young charismatic leader, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated. We later learned the CIA’s hands were all over his killing.
After it happened, African students reached out to Kenny and myself to front a memorial march on Campus to protest the murder. The African students were afraid they would get deported if they did it in their name. So it was left to two Jewish kids, one from The Bronx, the other from Queens to call for a solemn parade attended by hundreds of Africans in national dress, the two of us and some other activists.
The march was confronted with a counter —protest by Young Conservatives with racist signs suggesting they would cook the Africans in a pot. There was a confrontation but it was non-violent.
Later, I studied about Africa and would eventually go to South Africa and become involved as an activist, writer, researcher and filmmaker with the campaign to end apartheid that took more than 30 years of sharp struggle.
My interest in the Congo flagged as that country was taken over by a CIA stooge and dictator, Mobuto Seso Seko who renamed the country Zaire.
Years later, I was stirred by Mohamad Ali’s “rumble in the jungle” and began to follow events there as that country became a human rights nightmare. Our company Globalvision produced the human rights series Rights & Wrongs that did coverage on the aftermath of the genocide in neighboring Rwanda.
Then, as fate would have it, what went around, came around and I was asked to direct a film about efforts to make peace there, especially about an initiative by the leaders of Congo and Rwanda to work together to try to stop the killing and sexual violence in a country known for its rich mineral resources, especially Coltran used in making cell phones we all rely on.
We desperately need the work and at the same time, this is very challenging opportunity. I have decided to go and leave Saturday and hope to blog from there but I am not sure if I can. I am hoping to avoid my own rumbles there, and stay out of a war that has been compared in terms of casualties to World War 2.
Unfortunately, peace is not threatening to break out as Africa Confidential reports:
The United Nations Security Council’s tenuous authority in Africa has been further threatened by an explosive new report from a UN Group of Experts* showing wide-ranging violations of the arms embargo on Congo-Kinshasa by both Western and African states.
The expert panel reports that killer militias in Eastern Congo have been receiving military orders from leaders based in Germany and France and getting finance from two Spanish-based charities linked to the Roman Catholic church in clear breach of the UN sanctions regime. The report also accuses the governments of Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania and Congo-Kinshasa of allowing serious breaches of sanctions and the illegal export of mineral wealth.
After heated discussions at UN headquarters in New York on 20 November, several Council members want to dilute the report’s recommendations — if not bury them, Africa Confidential has learned. The Council is due to meet again on 25 November to discuss the report, but China has been pushing for a substantive delay on any actions while the report is translated into another five languages.
This latest crisis for the UN’s operations in Congo-Kinshasa follows growing concerns about relations between the Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies en République Démocratique du Congo (Monuc) and the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC) after the latter was found to have been involved in mass killings and rapes of civilians in Eastern Congo. The new report reinforces concerns voiced by some UN officials about the management of Monuc, the UN’s most expensive peacekeeping operations costing over US$1 billion a year, under Alan Doss, the British diplomat who is currently UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Representative in Congo. Continuing criticism of the ineffectiveness of Monuc and its high cost are undermining diplomatic support for the mission.
GUARDIAN: THE WEST HAS LOST ITS WAY IN THE CONGO
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Financial Crisis Update, Mortgage Fraud, The Wall In Israel, Your Letters And Much More
November 26th, 2009 - by: danny
SEC probes derivatives in insider trading cases
By Rachelle Younglai – Reuters
“Bills pending in Congress would impose new rules designed to shed light on the $450 trillion over-the-counter private swaps market, including requiring derivatives dealers to report trades and forcing more derivatives onto exchanges.”
Dubai: Minor upset in playground of the rich — or first domino of new crash?
LAS VEGAS SUN: FBI TASK FORCE TAKES DOWN SCAMMERS
To measure the depth of the mortgage fraud crisis in Las Vegas, look no further than FBI agent Michael Rawlins’ desk. He moved here in March 2008 and has generated 40 criminal cases, all but one of which are ending in guilty pleas.
In the coming weeks he and the bureau’s white-collar crime squad hope to send dozens more cases to federal prosecutors, and dozens more after that.
Such resolutions, as one suspect after another rolls over, might make his work seem like slam dunks.
But the reality is that there are thousands of cases in Nevada he and his FBI colleagues know they will never get to – even if they knew of them all, so widespread is the crime.
Indeed, complaints of real estate fraud are still pouring into the Southern Nevada Mortgage Fraud Task Force Hotline.
AP: Global Energy Holdings Group files Chapter 11 – Global Energy Holdings Group, an Atlanta-based renewable energy company, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.In a filing Wednesday
AP: More bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts
WASHINGTON – Bankruptcy filings in federal courts jumped by more than one-third this year, as businesses and individuals struggled to regain their footing in a weakened economy.New numbers from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts show about 1.4 million bankruptcy cases were filed
MEDIA
Google, News Corp, Bing And Access To News
“the flaw in Murdoch’s and Microsoft’s logic is that information spreads so quickly these days, exclusives last about 30 seconds. Any information “hidden” from Google will quickly end up on a site that is indexed by Google.”
IAIPEI, Taiwan – A daily newspaper in Taiwan has been fined for illustrating news stories involving crime and violence in vivid animation on its Web site, an official said Thursday.
The Apple Daily was fined 500,000 New Taiwan dollars ($15,500) Wednesday for using motion graphics to reconstruct and illustrate stories of rape, sexual assault and violence that appeared in the newspaper, said Taipei Mayor Hau
Lung-bin.
“We respect news freedom, but news media must not air improper content with no restraint on the pretext of news freedom,” Hau told a news conference.
DID YOU KNOW? WE SPY ON CHINA, WE SPY WITH CHINA!
Bill Gertz INSIDE THE RING : U.S.-China joint spying
Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair is visiting Beijing this
week to take part in a secret ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of two
U.S. electronic eavesdropping posts in western China.
The Cold War listening posts were aimed at the Soviet Union and now spy on
Russia, and they represented the most substantive yet secret sign of the
strategic gambit launched during the Nixon administration of using the
so-called “China card” to counter the Soviets.
The eavesdropping posts are located in remote western Xinjiang province near
the towns of Qitai and Korla, and they remain a closely held electronic
spying program.
ARE WE GETTING THE TRUTH?
Maybe late: This story from the Telegraph reports months later about a secret bailout of banks that failed. How many American institutions did the same? Clearly, those in charge as NOT telling us what is really going on!
Telegraph: Bank of England tells of secret £62bn loan to save RBS and HBOS
The Bank of England secretly lent £61.6bn to Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS at the height of the financial crisis to prevent their immediate implosion, it said on Tuesday.
JAMES GALBRAITH ON HUFF POST:
LETTERS:
Michael Wade asks
I can’t seem to find a place to buy your latest book Crime of Our Times. Is it out yet?
Making a deal right now but coies available from me at Globalvision, 575 8th Ave #2200 NY NY 10018—$20 plus $3.95 s&H.
CAPTAIN RICK WRITES:
Thank you Danny for your recent article . It i clearly tells us about the kind of people who ran all of us into the next depression.
Unlike 1929. where much of the economy/ population/industries were complicit in the crash, I think it is only just a few thousand that are the cause here. These Wall street types / bankers/ congress are psychopathic beyond belief.
What I just don’t understand is what hope do the super rich have for continuance of their life style, if the the majority or the world is in ruins???????
If all of us cant buy their junk made in China. Where are they goiing to get their maid service?
Denis Baudis writes:
I read your latest article, on the Epoch times online edition. ” Will Christmas shoping save us ? ”
I totally agree with you. So far most everyday people are broke by now, because they have used up their hard earned savings, cashed their IRAs etc.. Even if they want to buy, a lot of people cannot, we are heading toward another financial disaster.
Just my 2 cents.
John Parman: George Washington started Thanksgiving.”
Hillel Schenker, an editor of Palestine Israel Journal was just in Berlin and made some comparisons in his blog:
There is an extraordinary photo of East and West Berliners standing on the remains of the Berlin Wall on November l0, 1989, carrying a banner which reads in English translation — “For a Berlin without walls, in a Germany without tanks, in a Europe without borders” — which can be seen in the Gallery section of www.flying-colors.de.
It was designed and placed there by Michael Steitzer, a German-American, who like many other Berliners rushed to climb on and over and break down the wall on those historic November days, 20 years ago.
I had the privilege of being in Berlin on November 9th, 2009, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the night that changed the world. Michael and others vividly described that historic evening, when East German government spokesperson Günter Schabowski, declared that all East German citizens were free to travel abroad, “effective immediately” he said in response to a journalist’s question, despite the fact that Egon Frenz’s transition government had only intended to open the border in an organized fashion the next day. Jazz singer Eva described how she rushed to the Wall from the Berlin side, and was hoisted up onto the top by her friends. While the East German guards just stood by, watching. One of them even exclaimed: “Why was I standing here all these past 20 years?” I also heard Ambassador J.D. Bindenagel, who served as deputy mission head of the American Embassy in East Berlin in 1989, about the chaos and confusion of that unforgettable evening.
It’s hard not to make comparisons with “our wall” that snakes along and into the border between the West Bank and Israel.
Of course, the Berlin Wall separated two sides of the same people, while ours separates between Palestinians and Israelis. Also, their wall was an inherent part of the Cold War, while ours was established as a security measure against Palestinian suicide bombers by an Israeli government which was incapable of dealing with its understandable security concerns via diplomatic means.
I was surprised to discover, when visiting the remnants of the Berlin Wall, how relatively low and thin it was, compared to our Wall which in some places is over 8 meters high, and quite thick. It reminds me of the shock that people have when they first see the Jordan River, which is supposedly “deep and wide” according to the old spiritual, but is actually just a narrow stream. Of course the Berlin Wall eventually became a double wall, with a no-man’s land in the middle, tightly guarded by East German soldiers with orders to shoot to kill if anyone tried to climb over the wall. We’ve got IDF soldiers manning the checkpoints along our wall, and 250 Israeli women from 18 to 80 from Machsom Watch (Checkpoint Watch), who call themselves Women Against the Occupation and for Human Rights, monitoring the behavior of the Israeli soldiers.
I hope you had a good break yesterday. I leave tomorrow for a three week trip. I hope you and Mediachannel will be here when I get back.
Comments to dissector@mediachannel.org
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About Danny Schechter
Danny Schechter is an Emmy award winning journalist, television producer and independent filmmaker who also writes, blogs and speaks about media issues.
His latest film is PLUNDER The Crime Of Our Time.
Mr. Schechter is NOT the Godfather of Soul.
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