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A black list for "excuse makers"

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Sorry I don't have a link for this. I got it in a news letter sent to my email. But the origional sight is FAIR.org if you're interested in looking into it.
Fair wrote:
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has urged the U.S. government to create blacklists of condemned political speech--not only by those who advocate violence, but also by those who believe that U.S. government actions may encourage violent reprisals. The latter group, which Friedman called "just one notch less despicable than the terrorists," includes a majority of Americans, according to recent polls.

Friedman's July 22 column proposed that the State Department, in order to "shine a spotlight on hate speech wherever it appears," create a quarterly "War of Ideas Report, which would focus on those religious leaders and writers who are inciting violence against others." But Friedman said the governmental speech monitoring should go beyond those who actually advocate violence, and also include what former State Department spokesperson Jamie Rubin calls "excuse makers." Friedman wrote:

"After every major terrorist incident, the excuse makers come out to tell us why imperialism, Zionism, colonialism or Iraq explains why the terrorists acted. These excuse makers are just one notch less despicable than the terrorists and also deserve to be exposed. When you live in an open society like London, where anyone with a grievance can publish an article, run for office or start a political movement, the notion that blowing up a busload of innocent civilians in response to Iraq is somehow 'understandable' is outrageous. 'It erases the distinction between legitimate dissent and terrorism,' Mr. Rubin said, 'and an open society needs to maintain a clear wall between them.'"

The "despicable" idea that there may be a connection between acts of terrorism and particular policies by Western countries is one that is widely held by the citizens of those countries. Asked by the CNN/Gallup poll on July 7, "Do you think the terrorists attacked London today mostly because Great Britain supports the United States in the war in Iraq?" 56 percent of Americans agreed. In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll (7/7-10/05), 54 percent said "the war with Iraq has made the U.S....less safe from terrorism." Since they see a connection between Iraq and terrorism, a majority of Americans are what Friedman calls "excuse makers" who "deserve to be exposed."

Friedman's column urged the government to create quarterly lists of "hatemongers" and "excuse makers"--as well as "truth tellers," Muslims who agree with Friedman's critique of Islam. Friedman's proposed list of "excuse makers" would have to include his New York Times colleague Bob Herbert, who wrote in his July 25 column, "There is still no indication that the Bush administration recognizes the utter folly of its war in Iraq, which has been like a constant spray of gasoline on the fire of global terrorism."

Leading members of the U.S. intelligence community might also find themselves on such a blacklist, based on a report summarized earlier this year in the Washington Post (1/14/05):

"Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of 'professionalized' terrorists, according to a report released yesterday by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank.... According to the NIC report, Iraq has joined the list of conflicts--including the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate, and independence movements in Chechnya, Kashmir, Mindanao in the Philippines, and southern Thailand--that have deepened solidarity among Muslims and helped spread radical Islamic ideology."

Though Friedman calls on the State Department to compile the "Top 10 hatemongers" list in a "nondiscriminatory way," it's doubtful that such a list would, in fact, even-handedly include all advocates of violence. It would not be likely, for example, to include someone like Thomas Friedman, who during the Kosovo War (4/6/99) called on the Clinton administration to "give war a chance," writing, "Let's see what 12 weeks of less than surgical bombing does." In a follow-up column (4/23/99) he declared that "Like it or not, we are at war with the Serbian nation," and insisted that "every power grid, water pipe, bridge, road and war-related factory has to be targeted." Despite the fact that by calling for attacks on civilian targets he was advocating war crimes, Friedman should have no fear that he'll find himself on a State Department list of "hatemongers."

Friedman's suggestion that those who seek to understand or explain political violence are not part of "legitimate dissent" comes at a time when calls for censorship are becoming more and more blatant. Bill O'Reilly (Radio Factor, 6/20/05, cited by Media Matters, 6/22/05) made a chilling call for the criminalization war opponents:

"You must know the difference between dissent from the Iraq War and the war on terror and undermining it. And any American that undermines that war, with our soldiers in the field, or undermines the war on terror, with 3,000 dead on 9/11, is a traitor. Everybody got it? Dissent, fine; undermining, you're a traitor. Got it? So, all those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining everything and they don't care, couldn't care less."

The call for the arrests of Air America Radio hosts was said as though it were a joke, though O'Reilly is deadly serious when he says that the commentators on that network are "undermining" the war--and that such "undermining" is treason.

O'Reilly more recently (7/25/05) went after Herbert's column that argued that the Iraq War fueled terrorism: "Bob Herbert is most likely helping the terrorists, but his hatred of Mr. Bush blinds him to that. He's not alone, but this kind of stuff has got to stop. We're now fighting for our lives. And those helping the enemy will be brought to your attention."

"Attention," rather than arrests, is all that Friedman has threatened "excuse makers" like Herbert with. But it's a small step, as O'Reilly's rhetoric demonstrates, between marginalizing critics of U.S. foreign policy as "just one notch less despicable than the terrorists"--and criminalizing criticism itself.

this guy actually wants to make a black list of people with dissenting opinions. How do people like this get into the mainstream media?

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    right..........this guy has obviously never heard of the constitution and free speech then........excuse makers, thats an interesting orwellian term........i think the call for squashing political dissent will become louder as although its a marginal section of society not swallowing the crap, it is considerable enough to worry the elites, who want to ensure it doesn't spread.....i guess we're lucky america seems to be in a more advanced state of fascism then over here, if you can call it luck......
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    truly scary but ...it will come to pass as many predicted.
    thats clan on cabbage soup for the rest of his unatural then ...
  • Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    Oh dear.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Good thing I like cabbage! ;-)

    As for these McCarthyite fossils. Such true hatemongers and apologists for government criminality will find themselves, like their namesake in his day, judged according to their own measure and saddled with the ignomy of their predecessors when the shame of our present course finally sinks into the public psyche.

    Its always darkest before the dawn.
  • Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    Its always darkest before the dawn.

    Aww, so optimistic!

    McCarthyism is very strong in the US. Bush seems to be bringing it back, too!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sadly this is what happens when public apathy and disregard for constant civic scrutiny of our political system (and its media mouthpieces) allows the vermin to crawl back out from under the rocks history has previously dumped on them.

    Just another turn of the great wheel or "same empire mentality, different era".
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Friedman is clearly a patriotic hero. Any dissenters should be fried in the electric chair. Yehaw.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sadly
    Just another turn of the great wheel or "same empire mentality, different era".
    sadly the people will be sacrificed ...most of them willingly ...to the biggest highest tech form of death and hatred ever devised by man ...same as it ever wasd.

    we actualy see the writing on the wall ...surely the majority see it ...but turn their eyes away and look instead upon their material comforts and security ...just like they always did ...hoping and praying but doing nowt.
    hoping and praying whilst being led off to slavery ...or even worse ...war.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Nothing new, I do recall a female Lib Dem MP being condemned for saying she understood the actions of terrorists in Palestine and even though she made it clear she didnt support their actions was still roundly condemned by MPs and media alike.

    George Galloway also was recently castigated for making the link between the London bombings and Iraq. Freedom of speech is often more an ideal than reality in this country let alone the States. :yes:
  • Teh_GerbilTeh_Gerbil Posts: 13,332 Born on Earth, Raised by The Mix
    And of Course, Ken Livingstone was fucked over by the media for saying the same.

    Seems ever so well the Media is being used to the Goverments advantage. We are becoming more like the States all the time.

    But, at least Ken can go it alone. He has proved this.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Private Eye had a good feature this week regarding the death of Robin Cook. It quoted the tributes that had flooded from the newspapers, and next to them earlier comments some papers made in the build-up to the Iraq war.

    The Super Soaraway S*n, for instance, was saying how Cook was a great man of formidable integrity and blah blah blah and how tragic his death was. A big change of heart, seeing as only a couple of years ago he was described as a "traitor", "coward" and generally speaking worthless terrorist-appeasing scum, for daring to criticise America and Britain's war on Iraq.

    The Torygraph ran a similar feature involving Ken Livingstone only a few weeks ago, without such harsh words but with the same meaning- criticise the government or suggest the country might be in the wrong about something, and you are automatically branded a terrorist-loving traitor.

    Nice to see we're going down the same path as neocon America... :rolleyes:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Where the dog goeth, the tail doth follow.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Freedom of speech is the pillar od democracy.
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