Mr. President, please attack Appalachia

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Did the United States murder journalists?

By Robert Fisk

What is a journalist’s life worth? I ask this question for a number of reasons, some of them — frankly — quite revolting. Two days ago, I went to visit one of my colleagues wounded in the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Samia Nakhoul is a Reuters correspondent, a young woman reporter who is married to another colleague, the Financial Times correspondent in Beirut. Part of an American tank shell was embedded in her brain — a millimeter difference in entry point and she would have been half paralyzed — after an M1A1 Abrams tank fired a round at the Reuters office in Baghdad, in the Palestine Hotel, last week.

Samia, a brave and honorable lady who has reported the cruelty of the Lebanese civil war at first hand for many years, was almost destroyed as a human being by that tank crew.

At the time, General Buford Blount of the 3rd Infantry Division, told a lie: he said that sniper fire had been directed at the tank — on the Joumhouriyah Bridge over the Tigris river — and that the fire had ended “after the tank had fired” at the Palestine Hotel. I was between the tank and the hotel when the shell was fired. There was no sniper fire — nor any rocket-propelled grenade fire, as the American officer claimed — at the time. French television footage of the tank, running for minutes before the attack, shows the same thing. The soundtrack — until the blinding, repulsive golden flash from the tank barrel — is silent.

Samia Nakhoul wasn’t the only one to be hit. Her Ukrainian cameraman, father of a small child, was killed. So was a Spanish cameraman on the floor above. And then yesterday I had to read, in the New York Times, that Colin Powell had justified the murder — yes, murder — of these two journalists. This former four-star general — I’m talking about Mr. Powell, not the liar who runs the 3rd Infantry Division — actually said, and I quote: “According to a US military review of the incident, our forces responded to hostile fire appearing to come from a location later identified as the Palestine Hotel... Our review of the April 8th incident indicates that the use of force was justified.”

But it gets worse. A few hours before I visited Samia, I was in Beirut with Mohamed Jassem al-Ali, the managing director of the Qatar-based Arab al-Jazeera channel. On that same day –Apr. 8 — that the American tank fired at the Reuters office in Baghdad, an American aircraft fired a missile at the al-Jazeera office in Baghdad. Mr. al-Ali has given me a copy of his letter to Victoria Clarke, the US Assistant Secretary of State of Defense for Public Affairs in Washington, sent on Feb. 24 this year. In the letter, he gives the address and the map coordinates of the station’s office in Baghdad — Lat: 33.19/29.08, Lon 44.24/03.63 — adding that civilian journalists would be working in the building.

The Americans were outraged at al-Jazeera’s coverage of the civilian victims of US bombing raids. And on Apr. 8, less than three hours before the Reuters office was attacked, an American aircraft fired a single missile at the al-Jazeera office — at those precise map coordinates Mr. al-Ali had sent to Ms. Clarke — and killed the station’s reporter Tareq Ayoub.

“We find these events,” Mr. al-Ali wrote in his slightly inaccurate English, “unjustifiable, unacceptable, arousing all forms of anger and rejection and most of all need an explanation.”

And what did he get? Victoria Clarke wrote a letter that was as inappropriate as it was “economical with the truth.” She offered her “condolences” to the family and colleagues of Mr. Ayoub and then went on to write a preachy note to al-Jazeera.

“Being close to the action means being close to danger,” she wrote. “...We have gone to extraordinary [sic] lengths in Iraq to avoid civilian casualties. Unfortunately, even our best efforts will not prevent some innocents from getting caught in the crossfire [sic]... Sometimes this results in tragedy. War by its very nature is tragic and sad...”

Pardon me? Al-Jazeera asks why its office was targeted and Ms. Clarke tells the dead man’s employer that war is “sad”? I don’t believe this. General Blount lied about his tank crew on the Tigris river. “General” Powell went along with this lie. And now Ms. Clarke — who clearly was told to write what she wrote since her letter is so trite — does not even attempt to explain why an American jet killed Al Jazeera’s reporter (just like an American missile was fired at Al Jazeera’s office in Kabul in 2001).

A Ukrainian, a Spaniard, an Arab. They all died within hours of each other. I suspect they were killed because the US — someone in the Pentagon though not, I’m sure, Ms. Clarke — decided to try to “close down” the press. Of course, American journalists are not investigating this. They should — because they will be next.

As for Mohamed al-Ali, he has the painful experience of knowing that he gave the Pentagon the map coordinates to kill his own reporter. Who was the pilot of the American jet that fired that missile at al-Jazeera? Why did he fire? What were the coordinates? Who was the American tank officer who blasted a piece of metal into Samia’s brain? A day after he fired, I climbed on his tank and asked the soldier on top if he was responsible. “I don’t know anything about that, sir,” he replied. And I believe him. Like I believe in Father Christmas and fairies at the bottom of my garden.

Source: Independent (UK)

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Mr. President, please attack Appalachia

By Mike Bryan

Mr. President, please attack Appalachia.

You have promised the Iraqis that they will share in the wealth of their oil. We could use some of that same sharing here. We have coal and timber that is being extracted, yet very little of the profits remain in our area. If the Iraqis are to share in the profits from their natural resources, we would like to share in the profits from ours.

You have promised healthcare for all Iraqis. We could use the same thing here. Far too many of us are without health insurance and adequate access to good healthcare facilities. You have also promised to rebuild the schools in Iraq. We too have schools that need to be rebuilt and that need more funding.

Certainly you can find a justification for attacking us. We have weapons of mass destruction. Just go inspect the former uranium enrichment plant near Piketon, Ohio. You will still find all sorts of radioactive waste on and around that site. Test our waters. Test our ground. Test our air. You will find an abundance of chemical and biological agents that could be used as weapons. We literally live among them.

After all, Appalachia is America’s third world. Terrorists are breeding everywhere. Where there is poverty there is unrest. Where there is poor education there is suspicion. Where there is neglect there is anger. As far as potential dangers go, Appalachia should be near the top of your list. Stomp out the bad before it turns thoroughly evil. Pre-emptively strike us now before it becomes too late. Do it before we make something else out of our fertilizer ingredients.

Since Appalachia is a highly religious area, an attack could easily be explained as the fulfillment of prophecy. Many here would even agree with your need to attack us. In fact, we would probably help supply the troops.

Without any long-term energy strategy or alternative planning, once the oil is gone the US will become increasingly dependent on coal and wood. Appalachia has lots of that. Even today, the profitability of many US businesses would be threatened if Appalachia refused to supply them with electricity, coal, and other resources.

Can America afford to wait until a crisis is at hand before attacking Appalachia? The decision is yours. You do not even have to involve the United Nations since we are within US borders. You can go it alone.

The rest of the country will be fairly easy to convince about the need to attack us. The national news media will surely rise to your side. Prejudice against hillbillies already devalues our lives in comparison to those in the rest of the country, so our devastation and casualties would have to be nearly as high as in Iraq before anyone from outside Appalachia complains too loudly. Besides, people here have lived as second-class citizens for so long we now thoroughly expect to be treated as second-class citizens - and the rest of the nation expects to treat us that way. How else could you explain the relatively small outcry currently raised by our exceedingly high unemployment rates, poor education, high pollution, poor healthcare, high poverty, and poor leadership?

In fact, attacking us will probably help cement your re-election.

You might experience some local militia counterstrikes, but those will probably be disorganized and minor. After all, Appalachia lacks any central command, what with its being comprised of the parts of twelve states and only the whole of one state. West Virginia could be your focus. Find someone evil there to target, such as Jay Rockefeller.

He asked the FBI to investigate those forged documents you used to help justify your war against Iraq. How embarrassing that must have been: International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Mohamed El Baradei addressed the UN and publicly humiliated you by showing your assertion that Iraq was trying to import uranium from Niger was based on crudely faked information. Someone should pay for such an embarrassment and who better than a Democrat who is a Rockefeller?

So Mr. President, you have all the elements you need: weapons of mass destruction, a nearly third world enemy, potential terrorists, someone to call evil, and an easy path to victory. Now all you have to do is attack. And please, do it soon. We need the reparations, better schools, better infrastructure, universal healthcare, and a fair share in the wealth of our own resources.

You also promised Iraq democracy. We could use that here as well.

Please, Mr. President, attack Appalachia next.

Source: CommonDreams.org

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