doremus observes
Doremus Jessup, editor of the Fort
Beulah The Daily Informer, in Sinclair Lewis'
famous book "It Can't Happen Here", at its
conclusion, "drove out saluted by the meadow larks,
and onward all day, to a hidden cabin in the Northern
Woods where quiet men awaited news of freedom.....still
Doremus goes on, into the sunrise, for a Doremus Jessup
can never die......
*******************************
> Israeli
Lobby Slips Anti-Free Speech Bill Through House of
> Representatives...
> Bill Can Still Be Defeated in Senate if Citizens Act
Now.
> By Michael Collins Piper
> The Israeli lobby has launched an all-out drive to
ensure congressional passage of a bill (approved by the
House and now before a Senate committee) that would set
up a virtual federal tribunal to investigate and monitor
criticism of Israel on American college campuses.
On September 17, 2003 the House Subcommittee on Select
Education unanimously approved H.R. 3077, the
International Studies in Higher Education Act, which was
then passed by the full House of Representatives on
October 21. The chief sponsor of the legislation was Rep.
Peter Hoekstra, a conservative Republican from Michigan.
This bill is dangerous--a direct affront to the First
Amendment and the> product of intrigue by a small
clique of individuals and organizations which combines
the "elite" forces of the powerful Israeli
lobby in official Washington.
There are absolutely no grass-roots organizations
supporting this measure whatsoever. Instead, leading the
push for Senate approval of the House-originated bill,
are the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith, the
American Jewish Congress, and the American Jewish
Committee. Also lending its support is Empower
America, the neo-conservative front group established by
longtime pro-Israel publicist William Kristol, editor and
publisher of billionaire Rupert Murdoch's Weekly Standard
which is said to be the "intellectual" journal
that governs the train of foreign policy thinking in the
Bush administration.
H.R. 3077 is innocuously worded and quite bureaucratic in
its tone, decipherable only to those with the capacity to
wade through legislative linguistics, but essentially it
would set up a seven-member advisory board that would
have the power to recommend cutting federal funding for
colleges and universities that are viewed as harboring
academic critics of Israel. Two members of the board
would be appointed by the Senate, two by the House, and
three by the Secretary of Education, two of whom are
required to be from U.S. federal security agencies. The
various appointees would be selected from what the
Christian Science Monitor described on March 11 as
"politicians, representatives of cultural and
educational organizations, and private citizens." In
other words, it would be another federal "blue
ribbon" panel akin to the Warren Commission that
ostensibly investigated the JFK assassination and the now
highly-suspect federal commission looking> into the
9-11 terrorist attacks.
>
Gilbert Merkx, vice provost for international affairs and
development and director of the Centre for International
Studies at Duke University has echoed the fears of many
when he charged that this so-called advisory board
"could easily be hijacked by those who have a
political axe to grind and become a vehicle for an
inquisition."
>
> In fact, the primary individuals promoting this
effort to control intellectual debate on the college
campuses are known for having a political axe to grind:
they are all prominent and outspoken supporters of Israel
and harsh critics of the Arab and Muslim worlds. They
are: 1). Martin Kramer, a professor of Arab studies at
The Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University in Israel;
2). Stanley Kurtz, a contributor of ex-CIA man William F.
Buckley Jr.'s bitterly anti-Arab National Review Online
and a research fellow at the staunchly pro-Israel Hoover
Institution; and 3). Daniel Pipes, founder of the
pro-Israel Middle East Institute and its affiliate,
Campus Watch, an ADL-style organization that keeps tabs
on college professors and students who are-or are
suspected of being-critics of Israel. Hiding behind the
banner of defending America, these three-along with the
Israeli lobby affiliates promoting H.R. 3077-are claiming
that they are fighting "anti-Americanism" as it
is being taught on the college campuses.The promoters are
also suggesting that this legislation would-in the words
of the American Jewish Committee-"enhance
intellectual freedom on campus by enabling diverse
viewpoints to be heard," when, of course, the
legislation would do precisely the opposite.
>
The Republican House members who originally joined
Hoekstra in co-sponsoring this dangerous legislation
should be named for the record. They are: . John A.
Boehner (Ohio) . John R. Carter (Texas) . Tom Cole
(Oklahoma) . James Greenwood (Penn.) . Howard (Buck)
McKeon (Calif.) . Patrick J. Tiberi (Ohio) . Joe Wilson
(South Carolina) However, don't try to find out how your
representative voted when the bill came before the full
House. Hoekstra asked for a suspension of the House
rules-which was approved-and made it possible for this
controversial measure to be passed with an un-recorded
"voice vote" wherein there is no record of how
individual House members voted, or if they even voted at
all.
In fact, the measure passed by the House is precisely the
very same type of proposed "ideological
diversity" legislation that American FreePress first
warned about, although, at the time, the measure was
being kicked around for possible introduction in the
Senate by two prominent Republicans, Rick Santorum
(Penn.) and Sam Brownback (Kan.). What happened was that
AFP's initial report on the legislation gained so much
widespread circulation in e-mails being sent out
nationwide
> among American college and university professors and
on the Internet, even so far as the Arab world, that the
resulting negative publicity forced Santorum and
Brownback to back off.
However, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) picked up their
torch and introduced H.R. 3077 in the House, containing
precisely the language that his Senate colleagues had
intended to introduce until AFP blew the whistle.
To their credit, virtually every major American education
organization-including even the teacher's union, the
National Education Association-have raised their concerns
about this campaign to muzzle the free speech of
teachers, professors and instructors. And the American
Civil Liberties Union has also protested this measure.
Critics say this is a new form of what has been known in
the past as "McCarthyism" and no matter what
you may think about the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy whose
name rightly or wrongly inspired that terminology, the
truth is that this legislation is "McCarthyism"
by virtue of the popular definition.
The only chance to destroy this legislation and stop it
dead in tracks is for enough grass-roots citizens to rise
up and demand that H.R. 3077 be put to rest. And believe
it or not, the one senator who may be able to stop it is
Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy of Massachusetts. The Israeli
lobby's pet project, H.R. 3077, innocuously named as The
International Studies in Higher Education Act of
2003--and popularly known as "Title 6"--is now
before the Senate's Committee on Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions.> This committee is controlled by the
Republican majority who are likely to support the bill,
but the ranking minority member is powerful Sen. Edward
M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) who has been-perhaps to the surprise
of many, including even AFP readers--an outspoken critic
of Daniel Pipes, one of the leading proponents of H.R.
3077.
Although it is not well known, Kennedy's second wife is
an Arab-American and he has become quite attune to
Arab-bashing of the type that Pipes engages in. As
such--despite what one may think of Kennedy's views on
other issues--he is seen as a possible roadblock in the
way of final approval by the Senate committee of H.R.
3077.
Contact Senate Members.
Urge that H.R. 3077 be shelved.
Homeland Security's New
Truck For US
Built in partnership
with International Truck and Engine Corporation, the
vehicle showcases the latest in armor protection, and
detection and deterrent capabilities. Smar Truck lll is
equipped with a weapons station module featuring a
remote controlled .50-caliber machine gun which rises
from the back of the vehicle and has sniper-detection
directional sound capabilities.
Source
URL: http://www.rense.com/general50/hom.htm
From
Richard Sauder, PhD
The Army's new Smart Truck lll concept, designed for
America's homeland security, or for use in a war zone,
sits outside Cobo Center March 6, 2004 before being put
on display for it's March 8 unveilling at the Society of
Automotive Engineers 2004 World Congress.
FYI.
Homeland Security's new armored truck, with a
remote-controlled .50 cal machine gun on the roof. For
controlling American crowds when they realize how they've
been betrayed by the Patriot Act, and the White House and
Congress and Supreme Court, and the NWO, and the
totalitarian Skull and Bones global agenda of absolute,
violent social control?
."DON'T YOU KNOW IT IS
MORE DIFFICULT TO SPEAK UP IF YOU DELAY?"
..RALPH NADER IN JUNE
The American Bar Association last year
did manage to speak out against the Justice Department
snooping on conversations between clients and their
attorneys. But they stopped short of going into the other
areas, the other canyons of the Patriot Act.
This is very troubling. It brings to mind the words of
that German theologian. I have tried myself to get some
bar groups of general application, not the civil rights
bar groups, the state bar association and national, to
speak out. And they just don't think things are bad
enough.
And I told them; well what is your breaking point? How
bad should it be? Don't you know that it's more difficult
to speak up the more you delay?
We shouldn't be too cocky about the inherent defenses
for our liberties and our rights that we assume too
quickly, lie in the interstices of our democratic fabric.
We're entitled to be very, very worried and very
concerned. Not only on behalf of the hundreds who are
incarcerated without charges, without their names being
released, without access to lawyers. But for all of their
relatives and all other Americans who wished and wanted
to speak out but they kept it within themselves for fear
of being labeled, of being placed under surveillance. How
many of you since September 11th have wanted to speak
your mind on numerous occasions, but thought better of
it?
A few days ago, the Inspector General for the Justice
Department came out with a report wrapping the knuckles
of the Attorney General and his associates for not
adequately distinguishing between innocent people with
Arab or Islamic surnames and people who evidence would
show deserved scrutiny.
When the Inspector General inside the Justice
Department goes that far and I commend that report to
you, it's on their website, you can imagine how far he
would have liked to go. Because he is under the
supervision of the attorney general. And he does like his
job.
But this is the first glimmer of public concern within
the government that is shared by the concern of many
attorneys in the civil rights division and other areas of
the Justice Department. And by many people in the State
Department. And by many people who have recently worked
for the government. But they haven't yet organized
themselves to take a stand.
We have noted, of course, in our own experience what
kind of discrimination we have been encountering. The
first and second generation of immigrants from Lebanon
and Syria suffered a lot of the discrimination. But they
were too -- what is the word -- they were too either
cautious to speak out or tried to shrug it off or tried
to say, well compared to the discrimination that we're
getting in this country, it's nothing compared to the
Ottoman Empire. But it was there in all its forms:
social, occupational, professional, political, economic.
But the third and fourth generations helped organize
this group because they just didn't want to take it
anymore. They'd seen the work of professor Shaheen and
the way their ethnic groups were depicted in Hollywood
films. They personally felt the sting and it was a sting
that often came with a reward if you didn't organize
against it. You got a job. You sold something to a buyer
or a wholesaler.
But I think it's time now to expand the resistance to
this because of the Patriot Act and all that I have
mentioned that's been going on in terms of Mis-law
enforcement.
Otherwise what will happen is that the penumbra of
discrimination will expand rapidly in proportion to the
hard-core and serious violation of people's rights and
the incarceration of innocent people.
I hope that you'll consider, when you go back to your
homes, doing what citizens are now building in places
like Illinois and Connecticut -- small groups of councils
focusing on the Patriot Act, focusing on stopping Patriot
Act II, focusing on educating people that this threat
applies to all of them.
And in so doing, thousands of these little informal
groups are holding teach-ins, meetings in living rooms
and I hope that you will join some of your friends who
are already doing this as well as others.
March 16,
2004
Seventh Iraq
War Veteran Kills Himself
By Mark Benjamin, United Press International
WASHINGTON -- A Colorado-based Army Special Forces
soldier back from Iraq shot himself in the head in his
front yard Sunday night, according to police -- at least
the seventh soldier who has committed suicide after
serving there.William Howell, 36, shot himself after
following his wife around the yard with a handgun,
according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. Howell
served with the 10th Special Forces group in Iraq and
returned to Fort Carson last month, according to the
Army.
Another soldier who was attached to that unit in Iraq,
Staff Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany, has claimed that the
10th Special Forces Group ignored him when he sought help
with mental problems there, and then charged him with
cowardice instead. Pogany, 32, also says the Army is
ignoring the side effects of an anti-malaria drug called
Lariam he took with the Special Forces, which has been
linked to mental problems, aggression and suicides.
The Army's Special Operations Command did not respond to
a question Tuesday about whether Howell had taken the
drug or had sought help for mental health concerns. The
El Paso County Sheriff's Department got a phone call just
before 9:30 Sunday night from Howell's wife about a
"physical disturbance" at their home in
Monument. She said her husband had gone to get a gun.
Police said the line then went dead. When they called
back, Howell said there was no problem. When police
arrived, Howell was following his wife around the yard
with a handgun and talking to her. "He was ordered
to drop his weapon by one of the officers, but instead
placed the weapon to his head and pulled the
trigger," the sheriff's office said in a statement.
One officer fired at Howell, not realizing whom Howell
was shooting at, and hit Howell in the arm. The El Paso
County Coroner said Howell died from his own shot.
Howell's wife was treated for a minor head injury. A
13-year-old and two infants were in the house, unharmed.
Police said they have no records of previous domestic
disputes involving Howell or his address.
Pogany, the soldier who was charged with cowardice, has
said he suffered a debilitating panic attack in Iraq last
fall after seeing the body of a mangled Iraqi while with
10th Special Forces. He says he sought help, but was
rebuffed, and eventually charged with cowardice, which is
punishable by death. The Army has since withdrawn those
charges but he continues to fight the Army on others. In
Iraq, the Special Forces had just given Pogany his third
Lariam pill when he suffered the attack. The Food and
Drug Administration warns that Lariam can cause panic
attacks, thoughts of suicide, depression, anxiety,
paranoia, delusions and psychosis that can occur long
after taking the drug.
A leading veterans' advocate two months ago warned
Congress that soldiers who experience mental problems
during or after deployments need help and not punishment.
"Nowhere is this apparent disregard for
psychological injuries more apparent than in the case of
Sgt. Georg-Andreas Pogany, who was charged with
cowardice," Steve Robinson, Executive Director of
the National Gulf War Resource Center, told a House Armed
Services Committee panel on Jan. 21. Robinson, a former
Army Ranger, told UPI that some soldiers have heard about
the Pogany case and are afraid of seeking help because of
what happened to him. "This Pogany case has had a
chilling effect on soldiers coming forward. I have talked
to soldiers who have said it," he said. Robinson
also asked Congress to look into Lariam. "This drug
needs to be investigated to determine if it is harming
and in some cases killing our own soldiers,"
Robinson told that panel.
It is not clear whether Howell ever asked for help when
he returned from Iraq, but Pogany's attorney, Rich
Travis, said the Special Forces have created an
"atmosphere" that makes soldiers afraid to seek
help. "I think it is the Special Forces that does
create an atmosphere where you can not approach your
commander and ask for help," Travis said. "I
don't think it is a leap of logic to think (Howell) knew
how Georg was treated by the chain of command. I think it
was pretty well known."
Travis also said the Army, which invented Lariam, is now
ignoring its side effects. Three special operations
soldiers who served in Afghanistan and had apparently
taken Lariam allegedly killed their wives at Fort Bragg
in the summer of 2002. Those three soldiers also
committed suicide. In the investigation into the Fort
Bragg killings, the Army said that Lariam could not have
triggered a cluster of five apparent murders and three
suicides from that summer because some suspects did not
take Lariam. Suicides in connection with Operation Iraqi
Freedom have become an issue after an unusual spike
occurred last summer in Iraq. The Pentagon says 21 Army
suicides have been confirmed in Iraq and Kuwait --
reflecting a suicide rate within the normal range. A
report on mental health problems in Iraq was ordered last
August by the Army surgeon general but has not been
released.
According to the Army, six soldiers have killed
themselves after returning from Iraq, not counting
Howell. UPI reported that one soldier back from Iraq died
last July, and another this January, at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center. A Fort Campbell soldier who had
been in Iraq killed himself in January.
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