The DISH
Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use
Vol. 12 Issue 12…Dedicated to the Dialogue
on Race…March 22, 2009
News You Use
Re-Thinking US
Boycott of WCAR
On Saturday, March 21, Professor Vernellia Randall held a press conference at the University
of Dayton School of Law to protest the Obama
administration's threatened boycott of the Durban Review Conference, which will
be held in
Sponsored by the United Nations, the Durban Review is charged with evaluating
the progress of the goals set forth at the World Conference against Racism,
Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR) held in
Jewish groups and
According to Professor Randall,
"We need President Obama to reverse the
For more information on Professor
Randall's efforts to get the Obama administration to rethink its boycott of
WCAR II, email randall@udayton.edu.
For more information about the Durban Review Conference, visit www.un.org, click on Conferences and Events. To
read the U.S. Department of State releases, visit www.state.gov.
Charles W. Freeman, Jr.
"On the question of U.S. strikes on targets on Iran or
elsewhere, I simply want to register what I think is an obvious point; namely
that what 9/11 showed is that if we bomb people, they bomb back."
Born in
After law school, Freeman joined the United States Foreign Service (1965),
working first in India and Taiwan before being assigned to the State
Department's China desk, where he was assigned as the principal interpreter
during President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China.
Freeman later became the State Department Deputy Director for Republic of China
(
Freeman served in various
positions within the State Department, including overseas assignments as deputy
chief of mission in Beijing, China and Bangkok, Thailand, before being selected
as principal deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs (1986).
During these assignments he attained a working knowledge of several languages.
Freeman speaks fluent Chinese, French, Spanish, and conversational Arabic. He
became United States Ambassador to
From 1992 to 1993, Freeman served
as a Distinguished Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies. From
1993 to 1994, he was Assistant Secretary of Defense, International Security
Affairs. From 1994 to 1995, Freeman was Distinguished Fellow, United States
Institute of Peace. In 1995 he became Chairman of the Board of Projects
International, Inc., a Washington-based business development firm arranging
international joint ventures.
In 1997, Ambassador Freeman succeeded
George McGovern to become the president of the Middle East Policy Council,
which "strives to ensure that a full range of
For four years, from 2004,
Freeman served on the board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation. He
is a member of the board of several diplomatic institutes, as well as several
corporate and non-profit advisory boards. Over the course of his diplomatic
career, Freeman earned numerous honors and awards, including two Distinguished
Public Service Awards (1994), Order of 'Abd Al-'Azziz, 1st Class (1994), Defense Meritorious Service
(1991), CIA Medallion (1991) and Distinguished Honor Award (1991). His most
recent major publications and writings include Arts of Power: Statecraft and Diplomacy, U.S.
Institute of Peace Press (1997) and The
Diplomat's Dictionary, Second Edition, revised, U.S. Institute of
Peace Press (1997).
On February 26, 2009, the Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair
named Freeman chair of the National Intelligence Council, which culls
intelligence from sixteen
Statement on Withdrawal
By
Charles W. Freeman, Jr.
To all who supported me or gave
me words of encouragement during the controversy of the past two weeks, you
have my gratitude and respect.
You will by now have seen the
statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I
have withdrawn my previous acceptance of his invitation to chair the National
Intelligence Council.
I have concluded that the barrage
of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office.
The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I
do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively
while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a
passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country.
I agreed to chair the NIC to strengthen it and protect it against
politicization, not to introduce it to efforts by a special interest group to
assert control over it through a protracted political campaign.
As those who know me are well
aware, I have greatly enjoyed life since retiring from government. Nothing was
further from my mind than a return to public service. When Admiral Blair asked
me to chair the NIC I responded that I understood he was "asking me to give
my freedom of speech, my leisure, the greater part of my income, subject myself
to the mental colonoscopy of a polygraph, and resume a daily commute to a job
with long working hours and a daily ration of political abuse." I added
that I wondered "whether there wasn't some sort of downside to this
offer." I was mindful that no one is indispensable; I am not an exception.
It took weeks of reflection for me to conclude that, given the unprecedentedly challenging circumstances in which our
country now finds itself abroad and at home, I had no choice but accept the
call to return to public service. I thereupon resigned from all positions that
I had held and all activities in which I was engaged. I now look forward to
returning to private life, freed of all previous obligations.
I am not so immodest as to
believe that this controversy was about me rather than issues of public policy.
These issues had little to do with the NIC and were not at the heart of what I
hoped to contribute to the quality of analysis available to President Obama and
his administration. Still, I am saddened by what the controversy and the manner
in which the public vitriol of those who devoted themselves to sustaining it
have revealed about the state of our civil society. It is apparent that we
Americans cannot any longer conduct a serious public discussion or exercise
independent judgment about matters of great importance to our country as well
as to our allies and friends.
The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that
there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own
from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and
events in the
There is a special irony in having been accused of improper regard for the
opinions of foreign governments and societies by a group so clearly intent on
enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government - in this case, the
government of
The outrageous agitation that followed the leak of my pending appointment will
be seen by many to raise serious questions about whether the Obama
administration will be able to make its own decisions about the
In the court of public opinion, unlike a court of law, one is guilty until
proven innocent. The speeches from which quotations have been lifted from their
context are available for anyone interested in the truth to read. The injustice
of the accusations made against me has been obvious to those with open minds.
Those who have sought to impugn my character are uninterested in any rebuttal
that I or anyone else might make.
Still, for the record: I have never sought to be paid or accepted payment from
any foreign government, including
I retain my respect and confidence in President Obama and DNI Blair. Our
country now faces terrible challenges abroad as well as at home. Like all
patriotic Americans, I continue to pray that our president can successfully
lead us in surmounting them.
Jewish solidarity with Muslims against Zionism
By John Burl Smith
"For over one hundred years,
they have been subjected to a carefully conceived plan, to drive them from their
homes and their land," stated Rabbi Yisroel D.
Weiss, Neturei-Karta International or Jews United Against Zionism representative, in
Zionism is a political construct that has caused strife between Arabs and the
indigenous Jewish populations of
Barred from the media, Neturei-Karta organized
demonstrations in
Relegated to news outlets like Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera, anti-war activist Anas Tekriti of the Muslim British Initiative in
Jimmy Johnson, international coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions (ICAHD ) in
Several London-based Jewish organizations in coalition with Muslim groups were
the driving force behind mass demonstrations throughout Europe and
Kamal Al-Halbawy of the
Muslim Brotherhood said, "Faith groups were at the very heart of this
campaign. Christians of various denominations and Jewish groups with different
views on
A diverse group of Eight Jewish
Canadian women protesting
The group included Judy Rebick, professor; Judith
Deutsch, psychoanalyst and president of Science for Peace; and filmmaker, B.H. Yael. Smadar Carmon, a Canadian
Israeli peace activist said, "We carried out the protest to ensure that
Jewish voices against the massacre in
Israeli Soldiers Tell of Atrocities
Tel Aviv - Pressured by Israeli
human rights groups, the Israeli military announced Thursday (3-19-09) that it
had ordered an investigation by the Criminal Investigation Division of the IDF
(Israel Defence Forces) Military Police into
allegations that war crimes were committed during the
Breaking the Silence, an
ex-soldiers' organization has revealed many atrocities committed against
Palestinians, according to The Independent on Sunday, a
One witness said soldiers
complained openly that "we should kill everyone there [in the center of
Breaking the Silence has collected testimony from hundreds of former troops
concerned about what they saw and did - including abuses of Palestinians -
during their service in the occupied territories. These incidents might have
been forgotten by all except for the more than 3,000 Palestinian casualties
inflicted by Operation Cast Lead this January.
The nine human rights groups, including B'Tselem and
the Association for Civil Rights in
Jewish Domination of American Media
By John Burl
Smith
"There is no greater power
in the world today than that wielded by the manipulators of public opinion in
The foregoing description is taken from a pamphlet published by the research
staff of National Vanguard Books entitled Who Rules
"The mass media form our
image of the world and then tell us what to think about that image. Essentially
everything we know -- or think we know -- about events outside our own
neighborhood and acquaintances comes to us via daily newspapers, weekly news
magazines, radio, movies, or television. For example, the way in which the news
is covered: which items are emphasized and which are played down; the
reporter's choice of words, tone of voice, and facial expressions; the wording
of headlines; the choice of illustrations -- all of these things subliminally
and yet profoundly affect the way in which we interpret what we see or hear.
Moreover, columnists and editors employ carefully developed psychological
techniques that guide our thought and opinion so that we are in tune with the
"in" crowd, the "beautiful" people and "smart"
money. They shape our attitudes toward various types of people and behaviors, and
then exhibit them in context on TV dramas and situation comedies."
This report was commissioned by
the National Alliance, a conservative think tank, consequently I do not
subscribe to many of its views. Some may even consider
their views and how they present information racist or bigoted. Nevertheless,
in providing background and history, they name names (which are far too
numerous to list here) of not only companies but individuals to support their
contention of Jewish domination of
Usually, faced with such
allegations, Jews simply offer the counter charge of "anti-Semitism"
to cow those making such assertions. However, this 21-page report goes to great
length to show that the Jewish controlled "media's treatment of
This fascinating report, not only
tells what is behind the Jewish takeover, it explains the psychology as well.
"The average American, distinguishes between TV's fictional situations and
reality with great difficulty. Responses to the televised actions, statements,
and attitudes of TV actors are much like one's response to peers in real life.
For all too many Americans, the real world has been replaced by the false
reality of the TV environment, and it is to this false reality that they
conform." According to these researchers, what Jews have done with their
control is blur the line between entertainment and news, whether televised or
printed. The insidious thing about this form of thought control is that even
when we realize that entertainment or news is biased, the media masters still
are able to manipulate our thoughts."
If one controls the information people get, they control the thoughts people
have. Control of the opinion-molding media is nearly monolithic -- television,
radio, newspapers, magazines, books, motion pictures -- speak with a single
voice. Despite the appearance of variety, there is no real dissent, no
alternative source of facts or ideas accessible to the great mass of people
that might allow them to form counter opinions to that of the media masters.
It isn't simply a matter of the media being controlled by profit-hungry
capitalists, some of whom happen to be Jewish; it is how this power is used.
Whether one agrees with the contention that Jews in control of the media are a
threat, particularly in the case of Zionism and Israel, to the detriment of
America, this report is not only interesting, but fascinating reading. For
those who dare challenge what they think they know about freedom of the press
in
Disgruntled feels: Outrageous! First of
all, it was foolish for the federal government to use borrowed money to bail
out investment banks and an insurance company. Now, we learn that a
considerable sum of those borrowed funds that our children and their children
will have to repay with interest went to foreign entities. Even more outlandish
is the revelation that AIG paid approximately $165 million of bailout money in
bonuses to the executives that made the decisions that led to its failure. It
has been decided that the government will not bail out many of the homeowners
that made mistakes in buying homes they could not afford based on their income,
but it is okay to bail out the financial entities that greedily raped them of
their limited resources and stuck them up with exorbitant interest rates on the
road to creating this financial mess. What is happening now goes beyond the
notion of moral hazard; it is outrageous for the federal government to reward
failure on this magnitude. Even more outrageous is the lack of public outrage
over the pay outs to these thieves and plunderers.
Disgruntled
wants to know: Out of one side of their mouths, they espouse such things
as free market ideology and democracy. Out of the other, they demand government
handouts to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars with the frequent
public warning - "there will be far direr consequences for the
economy," if the government fails to hand over the money. In this
instance, forget the "invisible hand," the magical mechanism of
market correction; the government must act and do so quickly without question.
Now that all these dollars have been showered on financial markets and
Americans are still losing homes and jobs and stuck with usury interest rates
on their credit cards, it is time we faced the unpleasant fact and ask the
tough questions we have religiously avoided. The answers may shed some light on
the hypocrisy that abounds between stated philosophy and policy. One such
question is, did the federal government bail out the nation's financial
industry because it is controlled by the same group of people that shape public
opinion and has bought and control our elected representatives?
Disgruntled
says: These are tough economic times. No one can envision the future
with enough clarity to guide our actions to ensure a positive outcome; we are
basically "shooting" in the dark, even the pundits and experts admit
we are in unchartered territory. So, most of us struggle, which is a part of
life, hoping to make the best possible decisions. Tragically, some choose to
end it by shooting themselves and others. I have noticed an increase, at least
in the reporting, in the multiple deaths and suicides, such as the German
student, the young man in