*SAIGON FLASHBACK*

*SPEAKING WITH FORKED TONGUE*

*ARCHBISHOP TUTU ON ISRAEL*

Today marks an anniversary that the Pentagon would prefer to ignore. It is not a day that Colin Powell wants to remember either, because his formative military years were connected to it. It is not a date commemorated on the front page of the New York Times or the New York Post or on most TV News. Today, April 30th in 1975 was the day on which that that artificially created country of South Vietnam either “fell” or was “liberated”–depending on your political orientation. It is the day that peace finally broke out, in the sense that the Vietnam War came to a conclusive halt as a lone tank smashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon that, six months earlier, I stood in front of and stared at. It was the day that helicopters ferried US personnel and some Vietnamese supporters to waiting aircraft carriers in the South China Sea–where many of the choppers were thrown overboard in a final act of humiliation.

Everyone who lived through that war, fought in it, lost family members in it, or reported on it, as I did, will never forget its impact. Since a media induced amnesia seems to be a permanent condition in our world, may I spend a moment mourning the millions who died and the illusions here that died with them? In the end, technology did not prevail, and superior firepower did not prevail. Today, for those of us who look back, we see a world that prefers to forget that thirty-year debacle of war and death. Vietnam is for many Americans no longer a war to regret, but an “era” stripped of its meaning. To some it is an unending series of movies or continued outpatient visits to VA hospitals. In parts of America, some of those black POW flags still fly in the illusion that US prisoners are still being held. The truth is we are all POWs of that war, and continue to watch as similar deadly and futile military contests on the same model careen towards the same result.

FAST FORWARD TO AFGHANISTAN

Columnist David Corn reports: “Recently, a group of local leaders from Khost, Afghanistan, came calling on the U.S. embassy in Kabul. They wanted to discuss what had happened last December when the U.S. military bombed a convoy carrying tribal elders headed to the inauguration of interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai. Yet no one at the embassy would see them. “It‚s amazing,” one of the Khost representatives told The Washington Post. “The Americans will accept wrong reports and bomb our people. But they don’t allow us to come in and tell them the truth.”

“Throughout the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. government — particularly the Pentagon — has denied credible reports from eyewitnesses and pro-American Afghan officials that errant U.S. bombs have killed and maimed Afghan civilians. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has acknowledged, in an abstract manner, that in war civilians are occasionally hit by accident. But he and the Pentagon have repeatedly refused to admit particular mistakes like the attack on the convoy. In one instance, the CIA did pay $1,000 to each family of 12 to 20 Afghan soldiers who were killed when U.S. Special Forces, believing they were striking a Taliban and Al Qaeda stronghold, assaulted two compounds containing Afghan troops loyal to Karzai’s government. But even in this case, Rumsfeld stubbornly maintained that the U.S. military had committed no error.

“The estimate of Afghan civilians killed accidentally runs from several hundred to several thousand. Last December I wrote an article proposing the United States pay compensation to those civilians who lost relatives, limbs, homes and businesses due to misguided American bombs. I was lucky enough to be able to promote this idea on several television and radio shows. The e-mail poured in, almost all of it against my idea, and much of it profane. But in recent weeks, there have been positive stirrings on this front — albeit no groundswell — even as the Bush administration has adamantly stuck to its we-don’t-make-specific-mistakes stance.”

MADNESS DETOUR TO GUANTANAMO BAY

When the Paris Peace talks on Vietnam concluded, prisoners on both sides were released. Some Americans described being tortured in places like the Hanoi Hilton. Vietnamese prisoners poured out of inhumane ‘tiger cages’ in the South, many unable to walk because they had been forced to survive in unbearable conditions. Later, we learned about the horrible effects of post-traumatic stress disorders of all kinds. At the time, many clucked their tongues at the abuses that other countries practiced.

Today, consider Guantanamo Bay where Afghan POW’s are incarcerated. I reported yesterday on the opening of a new high security unit there with cells that are even smaller than the temporary chicken like cages the prisoners are kept in. The AP reports “U.S. military commanders say detainees flown here since Jan. 11 arewell-fed, free to practice their religion and get good medical care.”

“THEY PACE LIKE WILD ANIMALS….”

Now read this from the same wire service report carried in Saturday’s Washington Post: GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — They pace like caged animals and stayawake all night under the glare of spotlights. They scream at the world - when they’re not staring into space.

“Months of confinement in crude, chain-link cells at Camp X-ray have left its 300 detainees from the war on terrorism at best a little stir crazy, at worst, suicidal.

“A couple have had those thoughts, but none have acted on it,” said Navy Lt. Pam Herbig, a psychiatric nurse at this remote U.S. outpost on Cuba’s eastern tip.

“So far, 13 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida fighters have been put on medication for mental disorders ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder to the early stages of schizophrenia, Herbig said. The total has nearly doubled in recent weeks.

“The patients “have had trouble sleeping,” she said. “They’re anxious. They have a lot of ruminations. There’s sadness.”

“Muslim chaplain Abuhena M. Saiful-Islam - who had frequent contact with the detainees before leaving the base last week - described growing dismay over what detainees consider cruel and inhumane conditions.”

JENIN PROBE ON HOLD

Israel says that the Pope is with them. An official web site reveals that “President Moshe Katsav received a letter from Pope John Paul II on Sunday denouncing Palestinian terrorism against civilians. The Pope’s letter is a response to Katsav’s letter regarding the standoff at the Church of the Nativity, where he wrote that Israel will not let the Palestinians terrorists exploit holy places.” CNN reports this morning that it is official: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s security Cabinet decided Tuesday not to cooperate for now with the U.N. fact-finding team looking into the conflict at the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli sources tell CNN that Israel’s conditions for the mission still have not yet been met.” Sorry I can’t tell you what these “conditions” are but imposing conditions on an independent probe is or should be verboten. Meanwhile Israel continues to benefit from and take full advantage of the mixed signals coming its way from the USA

MIXED SIGNALS

The New York Times reports on the jump page in its lead story by David Rhode, way down in paragraph 19, “As in the past, the Bush administration sent mixed signals about Israel’s entry into Palestinian-controlled territory. At the State Department, Mr. Boucher said Israel should “finish its withdrawal” from reoccupied Palestinian areas and “refrain from further incursions.” But the White House spokesman, Mr. Fleischer, indicated that the United States understood the Israeli response.

“Palestinian officials issued a statement tonight condemning the Hebron incursion as “a political decision by Israel to destroy and blow up what was agreed upon last night with the American and European envoys,” a reference to the proposal regarding Mr. Arafat.

CHOMSKY: US POPULATION IN DARK…

The New York Times does not share the comments of critic Noam Chomsky who told the Between the Lines radio show: “Bush’s support for Sharon is not very different from Clinton’s support for Barak. Their policies are not all that different, and in fact the current actions have been fully supported by the political opposition, the Labor party in Israel which is represented in the Cabinet by Shimon Peres. There are differences of course, personalities differ, the policies differ but they’re within the same framework.

“It’s worth mentioning that U.S. policy is not only opposed by the people of the region, it’s also opposed by the majority of the population of the United States. They may not be aware of it, but in fact, the policy advocated by most of the population, according to polls, is the one that the United States has been blocking for 25 years and continues to block. People can’t know that because the facts aren’t presented to them, but it’s easy to discover if you do a little bit of research and avoid the picture presented in the main doctrinal institutions.

“So right now, according to the latest poll, the majority of the population supports the Saudi peace initiative which was accepted by the Arab League last month. But that’s exactly the policy that the U.S. has been blocking in international isolation since 1976 when it was proposed at the U.N. Security Council and vetoed by the United States. And it continues consistently right in between. As long as the population isn’t made aware of that, they can’t know that they’re opposing Washington’s policies, but they are.”

BISHOP TUTU BLASTS ISRAELI “APARTHEID”

Another critic comes from even further away, from South Africa. Nobel peace prize-winner Desmond Tutu has now weighed in on this conflict. Writing about apartheid in the holy land in the Guardian, he notes: “I am patron of a Holocaust center in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders. What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visit to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. On one of my visits to the Holy Land I drove to a church with the Anglican bishop in Jerusalem. I could hear tears in his voice as he pointed to Jewish settlements…

The military action of recent days, I predict with certainty, will not provide the security and peace Israelis want; it will only intensify the hatred. Israel has three options: revert to the previous stalemated situation; exterminate all Palestinians; or - I hope - to strive for peace based on justice, based on withdrawal from all the occupied territories, and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state on those territories side by side with Israel, both with secure borders…

“We should put out a clarion call to the government of the people of Israel, to the Palestinian people and say: peace is possible, peace based on justice is possible…”

ONLY HEARING WHAT ONE WANTS

It is far easier to proclaim the virtues of peace than to establish the methods for achieving it. Bishop Tutu cities his support for the Holocaust center, but I am told that many Holocaust survivors are in a state of great alarm and distress over the widespread outbreaks of antisemitic violence in Europe, the recent victory of Le Pen in France (His electoral success has triggered massive protests in that country. TV news in the US took note of them yesterday) and growing criticism of Israel. They are in a state of psychological mobilization that often makes it hard to have rational discussions in part because of the environment of mistrust. David Remnick reports on this in some detail in the current New Yorker (with great photos by Magnum’s Giles Peress). (PS: I am told that hatred against Jews is spelled with one word and a small s as in antisemitism, while hatred of all Semites is spelled anti-Semitism.)

One problem that I have been noting is that the internet makes it easy for all sides to pump out a steady flow one-sided partisan information which tends to reinforce existing views rather than challenge them with other facts or perspectives. When one is only exposed to this died of propaganda/polemic and official views, critical thinking goes out the window. Hence the need for peace proponents like Rabbi Michael Lerner to engage in verbal gymnastics to assure his own community (which doesn’t always buy it) that he understands their fears as in his recent column in the LA Times:

“I have great compassion for Jews who can’t imagine a world in which other people can be trusted. The horrors of the Holocaust continue to reverberate.But if we allow that fear to shape our current perceptions of possibility, we will self-fulfillingly recreate the very world of antagonism toward Jews that we feared–and that would give Adolf Hitler a posthumous victory. The best response to the hatred of the past is to pursue a path that affirms love, justice and peace, and rejects the “realists” who insist that our only security lies in military domination over the Palestinian people.”

ONE-SIDED JOURNALISM

Even progressive journalists like Robert Scheer feel a need to disclose their religious orientation in order to speak out openly in what is as much an appeal for tolerance and open mindedness as to take a stand. He writes: “I am Jewish and I daily converse with Jewish friends and acquaintances whose relatives, including their children, are living through the hell that suicide bombers have brought to the heart of Israel’s civic life. Meanwhile, I have not a single acquaintance who is personally connected with anyone on the Palestinian side of events.

“I would hazard to guess that most Jewish editors and reporters living in the United States are in a similar situation. Shouldn’t that make us less likely to be deeply affected by the traumas visited upon Palestinian civilians by Israeli tanks and helicopters because they have not been recounted by our own friends and family?

“It is to the immense credit of U.S. journalists of whatever background that they stand broadly accused of being sympathetic to the Palestinians–not because the charge rings true, but because it indicates they have somewhat succeeded in humanizing the face of an otherwise alien people. To humanize a people does not mean to apologize for the behavior of murderous individuals, movements or institutions representing the dark revenge fantasies of a people’s consciousness, of course. But to blindly endorse the outrage of one side while ignoring the pain of the other does both a disservice.”

“CHARMING”

China’s new designated top leader was in New York yesterday. What was one of the first stops on this Communist Party’s Official’s visit? That mecca of all markets–the New York Stock Exchange of course. A recent issue of Foreign Policy magazine suggests that China’s capitalists may be in the process of buying out and literally acquiring China’s remaining communists, Anyway, Reuters reports that - Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao toured Wall Street and the United Nations and laid a wreath at the site of the September 11 attacks on Monday, beginning his first official visit to the United States…, a handful of supporters of China’s banned Falun Gong spiritual group protested, some with a banner reading, “Stop suppressing Falun Gong. Hu also met New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said the Chinese leader was “charming”.

LESS THAN CHARMING

The European Journalism Center reports: Premier Silvio Berlusconi has again roiled members of the Italian intelligentsia by saying their use of state-run television has been “criminal.” Mr Berlusconi’s recent comments again raised the issue of his conflict of interest, which has yet to be resolved nearly a year after he took power.

“Mr Berlusconi is Italy’s richest man and controls the country’s largest private broadcaster, Mediaset. With the state-run RAI, Mediaset’s only competitor, he essentially controls 90 per cent of the television market. The centre-left opposition has mounted demonstrations that have drawn thousands in recent weeks, complaining about the concentration of power over information in Berlusconi’s hands. The opposition has been joined in its outrage by journalists, actors and filmmakers, among them director Nanni Moretti.

“On April 20, Mr Moretti sent a letter to the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, asking him to intervene. “You are the custodian of the constitution, therefore the guarantor of the liberty of each one of us,” Mr Moretti wrote, according to transcripts of the letter published in Italian newspapers. “But what is left of liberty when the liberty of opinion and the liberty of information are threatened and absolutely attacked by the head of the government?”

“Berlusconi said it would be necessary for the new heads of RAI to “not allow this to happen again.”

UPDATE: THAT TEXAS-SAUDI AIR TRAFFIC STORY

When I was in Dallas on Sunday, the Morning News carried a front page story suggesting that Saudi Prince Abdullah had demanded that no women air traffic controllers be allowed to service his plane’s trip to Texas. How shocking? But was it true? The story failed this dissector’s smell test, and I wrote about it. The Saudi’s denied it with uncharacteristic outrage. Their denial was taken by some as simply proof that the incident occurred.

When I came back to New York I asked my colleague, Tim Karr at the Globalvision News Network, if there were any other reports on this shadowy incident, that looked so much to me like disinformation disguised as a dispatch. Lo and behold, he sent me this story. I can’t vouch for its veracity but it is another side to a story that did discredit the Saudi mission. From Arab News.com vis gvnews.net

Saudi Delegation Victim to Instant U.S. Folklore

“WASHINGTON, Apr 30, 2002 — Here’s the scenario: The meeting between Crown Prince Abdullah and President George W. Bush is successful, despite a negative national media spin proclaiming disaster before the two met.

“Following the Abdullah-Bush summit, positive press about the Saudi peace plan in the Mideast is rehashed.

“Suddenly, bizarre news appears in the press that “Aides to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah asked that only male air-traffic controllers guide his flights during his visit to Texas,” unnamed “officials” told the Associated Press.

“The effect was instantaneous. Immediately the news focus swung from the positive results of the Abdullah-Bush meeting, to the disparaging focus on the alleged request.

“‘Texas Furious as Controllers Say Saudi Tried to Ban Women,’ screamed a lead story in Sunday’s Washington Times.

“The Dallas Morning News, which broke the story, called it ‘an outrage.’ The uproar surrounding Prince Abdullah’s purported request generated considerable attention in Texas, and dominated radio talks shows over the weekend - with heated comments.

“‘It’s just one more example of the United States kow-towing to the Arab world for their oil,’ said one woman on a Dallas talk show.

“‘I wonder how he treated Mrs. Bush at Crawford,’ snapped another.

“An unnamed FAA official told the Dallas Morning News that the alleged Saudi request was ‘an outrage.’ The official was quoted as saying: ‘Prince Abdullah is in our country and should adhere to our rules.’ The damage was done.

“Many air traffic control officers were furious over allegations that were never substantiated.

“‘We have received no request from either the Saudis or the US State Department that we provide any special services for Crown Prince Abdullah’s visit,’ said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig.

“Officials from the Saudi delegation stepped in to try to take charge of the unsubstantiated rumor.

“Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister and member of Abdullah’s entourage in Texas, called the reports ‘absolute nonsense.’ ‘The role of women in Saudi Arabia is undergoing tremendous transformation,’ Prince Saud said.

“‘They make up half the population.>p>”‘They are needed to bring the population to its full capacity.’ Adel Al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, also denied the assertions the prince had asked that women be excluded from air traffic control duties affecting his flights to and from meetings last week with President Bush in Texas.

“‘It’s a bad joke… and absolutely did not happen,’ Al-Jubeir said during an interview on Fox News Sunday. ‘I’m telling you, we didn’t make the request. We denied it at the time. The FAA denied it at the time,’ Al-Jubeir said.

“Brit Hume, the Fox interviewer, noted that the FAA had qualified its denial by saying if such a request was made, he was not aware of it.

“‘The request was allegedly made to the airport, not to the FAA, so that wouldn’t preclude it,’ Hume said.

“‘The crown prince didn’t even fly in on his aircraft,’ Al-Jubeir said.. ‘He flew in on Prince Bandar’s aircraft. The pilots on Prince Bandar’s aircraft are former Air Force One pilots.

“‘With regard to no women on the ramp, there were a lot of women on the ramp, including American ladies who had lived in Saudi Arabia and whose husbands had retired (from Aramco). There were television cameras there. You can look at the images. We have several hundred aircraft that fly into the US on diplomatic missions, and we have never made a request like this. How America manages its air traffic control system is entirely up to it,’ said Al-Jubeir.”

DID IBM AID THE HOLOCAUST

Media Channel affiliate, The Guerilla News network writes to advise all of us that they have posted a new “NewsVideo: “Did IBM help the Nazis Round Up the Jews? Featuring Edwin Black, recently nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his book ‘IBM and the Holocaust’, this is one of the most controversial case studies about U.S. corporate complicity with the Nazi regime. Is it news, though?” http://www.gnn.tv

I have saved the heaviest news for the end. The Financial Times reports that Matt Groening admits he may be close to “winding up” The Simpsons. I am winding up this column now, Thanks for visiting. See you tomorrow, and hopefully with input and comments that you can share by writing: dissector@mediachannel.org.