[NV Greens] Fwd: Incomplete News Undermines US Values

[Paul Etxeberri]

>Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:41:52 -0700
>From: Peter Phillips <peter.phillips at sonoma.edu>
>Subject: Incomplete News Undermines US Values
>To: project-censored-L at sonoma.edu, dansc at yahoogroups.com,
>  laamn at yahoogroups.com, acmemembers-owner at acmecoalition.org
>Reply-to: PROJECT-CENSORED-L at sonoma.edu
>X-ELNK-AV: 0
>
>Incomplete News Undermines US Values
>By Peter Phillips
>
>Dozens were kidnapped by roving gangs off the streets of their 
>hometowns, disappeared from families, hooded, chained, repeatedly 
>interrogated, incarcerated for years in military prisons, and then 
>told it was all a mistake. Did this happen in Stalinist Russia, some 
>South American military dictatorship, Apartheid South Africa? No, 
>the gangs were special forces of the US Government operating with 
>approval from the highest levels of the Pentagon, the victims Afghan 
>civilians recently released from the Guantanamo military prison camp 
>in Cuba.
>
>The New York Times published an article April 20 reporting how 17 
>innocent Afghans were recently freed from Guantanamo prison after 
>three and half years. "Several of the Afghans said in interviews 
>that they had been told by American officers that they were being 
>freed because they were innocent of any crime," the article 
>reported. "The men would be given new clothes, turbans and travel 
>money and allowed to go home," the paper disclosed.
>
>Prior to the release of the Guantanamo prisoners last Fall, Seymour 
>Hersh fully exposed the US's worldwide abuse of power and violation 
>of human right in articles published in the Guardian and New Yorker. 
>Hersh documented that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, with 
>approval from the White House, had authorized a special-access 
>program (SAP) to go on global manhunts for terrorists. It was deemed 
>OK to kidnap suspected terrorists and take them to countries that 
>would get tough (torture) them during interrogations. Several 
>hundred people captured wholesale in Afghanistan and transported to 
>Cuba were deemed enemy non-combatants without rights of due process 
>or coverage under the Geneva Convention.
>
>The New York Times' story covers the release of the internees 
>without Hersh's historical context of high level official approval. 
>Additionally, the NY Times story fails to address coverage of how, 
>in a country that supports due process and human rights, our 
>military could take such tragic action violating the rights of these 
>men and their families. Instead the story implies that the 
>kidnapping of these Afghans was justified in that undoubtedly some 
>of the prisoners were guilty. This is like rounding up the church 
>choir because the minister was caught in bed with the organist.
>
>Failure to publish the full truth regarding the release of the 
>Afghan prisoners is a strong indication that the New York Times and 
>corporate media groups in general are unable and unwilling to fully 
>address human right violations by our own government. The broad 
>publication of stories about the breach of human rights by our 
>national security forces is inconsistent with corporate media's 
>continuing desire to have 24 hour access to sources of news inside 
>the White House, Pentagon and State Department. This failure of 
>nerve to support the public's right to know and insure a transparent 
>governmental process is undoubtedly giving America a black eye in 
>the world community. Increasingly America is seen as an uncontrolled 
>empire of power and abuse. For many in the world we are the Darth 
>Vaders of the planet - pure evil incorporated.
>
>Non-Americans know that the people in the US do not approve of these 
>practices. We must, however, openly share their outrage and demand 
>that America hold to our values of due process and human rights. To 
>do this we must support media that address these issues. We need a 
>media that post and recognize the United Nations Declaration of 
>Human Rights in every newsroom. Anything less cuts at the very soul 
>of the American people.
>
>--
>Peter Phillips Ph.D.
>Sociology Department/Project Censored
>Sonoma State University
>1801 East Cotati Ave.
>Rohnert Park, CA 94928
>707-664-2588
>http://www.projectcensored.org/


-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand
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