Finkelstein makes some excellent points about the legality of Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank and Golan Heights .
But when it comes to Israel Finkelstein are outside any International Law or principles of conduct.
Finkelstein's interviewer can not even imagine a scenario in which Israel may have done something wrong or may have committed crimes since Israel is supposedly the beacon for the values of Western Civilization.
For instance Hamas is accused of using human shields which might be true in some instances and if true these are war crimes but accusing Israel's IDF of such crimes even if committed by a small portion of the Israeli army is seen as an attack on Israel and its legitimacy as a state. So any such accusations against Israel'i troops are characterized as being propaganda by Israel's enemies. to undermine the IDF and Israel
US more worried about who leaked the video of what some call a massacre committed by US forces against civilians & journalist in Iraq. The US military and the US government are uninterested in the fact that their soldiers were possibly involved in a massacre.
Once again they operate on the basis that whatever the US government or US troops do it is permissible because they claim God or history & righteousness are on their side.
So the Obama administration condemns those who leak information which the US government has restricted based upon the all encompassing notion of US national security.
So Whisle blowers are condemned as traitors, as subversives and as giving aid & comfort to Americas enemies and therefore these individuals are according to this logic "Terrorists" by US military and the US government. All the US government & the Pentagon and or the White House have to do is whisper National Security and in their view this makes criminal such sharing of government documents.
Releasing the video was a wake up call for the public to know how bad things have been and are in Iraq.
As we have seen since the Invasion of Iraq seven years ago the American people , the American government is not interested in discovering the truth about its military actions in Iraq or elsewhere . A large portion of Americans have over the years become defenders of torture, kidnapping , renditions, secret prisons, the collective punishment of the Iraqi people .
For instance the attack on Fallujah was meant as a means for getting revenge for the four private security personnel who were brutally killed in Fallujah.
And it was seen as a way to punish all of the people in Fallujah that America in response to such killings will kill thousands if necessary in retaliation . The attitude of the Americans and their allies in Iraq is that for every foreign soldier killed they will kill a dozen , a hundred or a thousand Iraqis whether combatants or non-combatants since all are guilty.
America broke it America owns it and must fix it.
So rather than question the war in Iraq or the occupation or the tactics the US uses they attack those who dare question or reveal America's questionable tactics which may in fact be deemed as War Crimes or Crimes Against Humanity.
So when it comes to whistle blowers Obama's administration is just as bad as the Bush Regime.
Under a more progressive president whistle blowers would be investigated to see if they deserve a medal or large cash reward or if the release of information was done for financial gain or for some less than noble motive or agenda..
US Military finds the Wiki-leak
June 07, 2010 — According to Wired.com, US Army intelligence specialist Bradley Manning has been arrested for leaking sensitive material to WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks is the same organization that back in April released raw footage of a deadly assault in Iraq in 2007 that killed militants and civilians alike. Eric Montalvo says that that were two men who were hackers and one ratted the other out to the Federal Government.
Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs loses it forgets her talking points and spews as much hate into a minute out doing the likes of ponderous sleepy UberConservative Nativist Newt Gingrich
Hot Debate: Is a Mosque next to Ground Zero offensive?
There is a heated debate going on in New York City over whether an Islamic culture center and mosque should be opened near Ground Zero, where many perished on 9/11. New Yorkers are asking why a mosque, and why at Ground Zero? There have been many protests throughout the city; the outraged protestors say that building a mosque there is like building a crematorium at Auschwitz. Robert Salaam from The American Muslim radio show and Pamela Geller, the director of Stop Islamisation of America debate this sensitive issue.
Pam Geller in this debate begins by repeating her talking points which at first glance may almost appear reasonable til she goes off the rails .
She says she's not talking about all Muslims just the extremist . But then she goes a bit extreme calling Islam as a religion dedicated to violence. She says hundreds of millions of people have been killed by Muslims and plundered stealing land etc.
She says the reason the Muslim Americans want to build a mosque at 9/11 sight is to celebrate the terrorist attack.
And then she goes on to say that when Muslims conquer a nation the first thing they do is build a Mosque.
So she characterizes the building of the Islamic center as a form of Islamic Triumphalism that it is to celebrate the slow incremental take over of the United States. Even if the particular Imam or Muslim group backing this project turned out to engaged in some sort of subversive action this does mean all Muslim Americans are involved in some deep dark conspiracy.
Didn't Christians build churches when they conquered Africa, Asia, India , the Americas- but we forget in Pam's world when a country is conquered by Christians and Jews this is a good thing.
She then goes into an anti-Islamic rant that Islam is evil because Muhammad and the Qur'an are evil -Islam in her view is a threat to Western Civilization which for the last 2,000 years has been WHAT at peace ??? She says Americans and all Western countries must wake up to the fact that all Muslims are involved in a conspiracy to make the West become Islamic but it is happening incrementally -odd the anti-Immigrant groups say the US is being invaded by hispanics or it was the liberals & Socialists . Don't think so.
Why is Islam a threat because Geller erroneously claims all Muslims insist upon an extremist form Sharia Islamic law .
The anti-Islamic crowd and their phony scholars have a tendency towards an extreme bias against Islam and so work is often suspect or just dead wrong .
The Imam rightfully says that Geller is just fanning the flames of hate and bigotry.
Her attacks on Islam is not just an attack on some Muslim extremists but is aimed at all Muslims and Islam itself and on the Qur'an and the Prophet Muhammad.
This is like arguing that because some Americans or some American Christians see noting wrong or amiss in the killing of civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan since all Iraqis or all Muslims are potential terrorist and then to take the next step and claim Christianity is an intolerant warring religion based upon the actions of a minority of American Christians.
For more see page at top of this blog entitled Islamophobe
Michael Morgan in his book Lost History quotes from what is considered Muhammad's
"last sermon,... Muhammad... sets out some visionary and progressive concepts with which men will struggle for a thousand years to come, such as the following on racial and ethnic equality:
All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white-except by piety and good action.
And Abu Bakr the first Caliph of Islam is quoted as saying in his first speech to the Ummah:
O Men! I have been assigned the job of being a ruler over you while I am not the best among you. If I do well in my job,help me. If I do wrong ,redress me. Truthfulness is fidelity, and lying is treason. The weak shall be strong in my eyes until I restore to them their lost rights, and the strong shall be weak in my eye until I have restored the rights of the weak from them.
Abu Bakr first Caliph of Islam -Found in Lost History by Michael Hamilton Morgan ,p. 12 pub. 2007.
Website - http://www.MeccaCentric.com
Robert Baum in this video argues that Islam in the Middle Ages was far more tolerant of other religious groups that is Non-Muslims than Christian Europe was of Non-Christians and of those who Christians who differed over certain theological tenets ( that is Heresies )
"Children of Abraham: Remembering the Shared Traditions and Histories of Judaism, Christianity and Islam" by Robert Baum
and so it goes,
GORD.
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