THE HANDSTAND | april 2005 |
|
STOPPRESS STOPPRESS STOPPRESS BBC Radio Ulster, Arts Extra (TX: 18.30 19.00 weeknights)
Beaconsfield Arts
Centre Press Release, London. Semiconductor
|
7th April Peres tells Cheney no construction takes place in Ma`aleh Adumim at present. Ha'aretz |
Meanwhile,7th
April
Palestinian homes
in
East Jerusalem are
torn down..........
Condolences to Irish Catholics from a correspondent to
Handstand:Sunday - April 3. 2005
Dear Friends:
I extend you and, particularly, the followers of
the Catholic Church my deep condolonces and
profound sympathy, as we all (Christians, Muslims,
Jews, Hindus, Pudists, etc.) mourn the passing
of the Pop, John Paul the II.
This man was not ONLY a spiritual leader for the
Catholic Church during the last 26 years, but he
also was, indeed, an international figure and a
global champion for peace, freedom, multi-faith
dialogue and, above all, diginty, respect and
love of human being, regardless his/her color,
race, faith, or otherwise.
In sympathy and solidarity,
Hilmi Salem, PhD.
The Modern
Crusaders, by Robert Fisk
www.aljazeera.info
The castles of the Americans are made of pre-stressed concrete and steel but they serve the same purpose and doom those who built them to live in prisons. From the Green Zone in the center of Baghdad, the US authorities and their Iraqi satellites can see little of the city and country they claim to govern. Sleeping around the gloomy Republican Palace of Saddam Hussein, they can stare over the parapets or peek through the machine-gun embrasures on the perimeter wall but that is as much as most will ever see of Iraq. The Tigris River is almost as invisible as that stream sloshing past the castle of Mseilha. The British Embassy inside the Green Zone flies its diplomats into Baghdad Airport, airlifts them by helicopter into the fortress and there they sit until recalled to London.
Indeed, the Crusaders in Lebanon men with thunderous names like Tancred and Bohemond and Baldwin used a system of control remarkably similar to the US Marines and the 82nd Airborne. They positioned their castles at a days ride or a days sailing down the coast in the case of Lebanon from each other, venturing forth only to travel between their keeps. And then out of the east, from Syria and also from the Caliphate of Baghdad and from Persia came the hashashin, the Assassins the Crusaders brought the word back to Europe who turned the Shiite faith into an extremist doctrine, regarding assassination of their enemies as a religious duty.
Anyone who doubts the relevance of these foreign fighters to present-day Iraq should read the history of ancient Tripoli by that redoubtable Lebanese-Armenian historian Nina Jidejian, which covers the period of the Assassins and was published at the height of the Lebanese civil war.
F****** shut up
and pay up!!No mercy from the woman named Danielle,
working at the Winn-Dixie Supermarket , who incessantly
used the "F" word to complaining
"customers," even when young children were
present.
Supporters
of Terri Schiavo have been RIPPED OFF of over $20,000.
Thousands of Terri Schiavo supporters have made their
pilgrimage to Pinellas Park, Florida over the past few
weeks to peacefully assemble and pray. Local police
frequently directed them to park in the large Winn-Dixie
Supermarket parking lot across the street from the
Woodside Hospice. It was literally a "Winn-win"
situation. Demonstrators, thirsty from the hot Florida
sun, purchased water and Gatoraid by the truckloads from
Winn-Dixie and surrounding retailers. The economy in
Woodside Hospice enclave never looked so good. That was
until TODAY, when dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Schiavo
supporters walked out of Winn-Dixie to their cars, only
to find that their cars
had VANISHED.
Why? Because EVK Enterprises, Inc., the property
management company renting space to Winn-Dixie, began
towing cars with a redemption fee of $161 PER CAR. An
estimated 150 cars were towed, for fees in excess of
$20,000 -- ALL IN CASH!
One Terri supporter, Jerry McGlothlin, purchased retail
products at the Winn-Dixie shopping center, from the CVS
Pharmacy and the auto parts store, and left two shopping
bags in his front seat in plain sight before he walked
across the street briefly to the front of the Woodside
Hospice, out of respect to Terri Schiavo. Then he walked
back across the street and purchased $148.13 in groceries
at Winn-Dixie, since he had a scheduled 8 day stay in St.
Petersburg, visiting his nephew. Jerry then returned to
an empty space where his car had been. After five hours
of wrangling with the Winn-Dixie store manager, the
management company and several people in Winn-Dixie's
corporate headquarters to help him get his car returned,
not a single person lifted so much as a finger to help.
He eventually had no choice but to pay to retrieve his
car.
At the main entrance to the Winn-Dixie on the 66th Street
side, there was a "No protest parking please"
sign that covered a second sign stating that
"unauthorized" vehicles will be towed at
owner's expense by Yoho's Towing. Ordinarily a reasonable
observer would not consider actual Patrons of Winn-Dixie
as being "unauthorized," but then again, this
is the heated Schiavo debate, and nothing about it seems
ordinary.In McGlothlin's case he made 3 purchases in
three of the stores in the shopping center, totaling over
$200. As long as anyone crossed the
street to show support of Terri Schiavo, even for 10
minutes, they got towed by "security" forces
who monitored who crossed the street.
The
Perfect Terrorist Plan
To Level The Twin Towers Created In 1976
Greg Szymanski American Free Press March 20, 2005
T.McNiven Alerts the American People as
Ordered by his Superiors in 1976
The laundry list of terrorist warnings handed to the Bush
administration prior to 9/11 makes the President and
others look like "bumbling idiots or a bunch of
conniving criminals" responsible for the mass
murders at the Twin Towers and in Afghanistan and Iraq.
These are the harsh words of Timothy McNiven, an
outspoken critic of the President's handling of 9/11 and
a 29-year U.S. Defense Department operative still under
contract with the government.
He says not only did the Bush administration purposely
ignore Al Q'aida in the months preceding the WTC attacks,
but the situation is even more disturbing, considering
his military unit way back in 1976 devised a mock
terrorist attack of the Twin Towers exactly like what
occurred on 9/11.
McNiven, who first went public in an affidavit included
in a 9/11-related federal conspiracy (RICO) lawsuit filed
against Bush and others in 2004, claims his unit was
ordered to create the "perfect terrorist plan"
using commercial airliners as weapons and the Twin Towers
as their target.
The publicized version of the study, commissioned by
Congress, was to identify security lapses and submit
corrective measures to lawmakers. However, McNiven claims
the real purpose of the study was to brainstorm how to
pull off the perfect terrorist attack using the exact
same 9/11 scenario.
The study, commissioned to C-Battery 2/81st Field
Artillery, U.S. Army, stationed in Strassburg, Germany in
1976, specifically devised the scenario of the Twin
Towers being leveled by Middle Eastern terrorists using
commercial airliners and even plastic box cutters to
bypass security.
To silence critics, McNiven has successfully passed a
credible lie detector test regarding his participation in
the study as well as other specific orders given to him
by his superiors in case of a real attack on the Twin
Towers.
The head of the 1976 mock terrorist plan was Lt. Michael
Teague of Long Island, who McNiven says was given
specific orders by higher-ups in the military to use the
Twin Towers as the terrorist target.
McNiven said he has been unable to contact Lt. Teague,
but was interested in his opinion now that "the 9/11
attacks happened the way we planned them in 1976."
"I remember Lt. Teague changed the scenario of the
supposed study from a 100 story building to the Twin
Towers," recalled McNiven, emphasizing that Lt.
Teague was acting on specific orders from unknown
superiors.
"He then said he thought it was very strange to be
asked to devise a plan to blow up your own home town. But
as I watched the Twin Towers really collapse on the
morning of September 11th, I realized I was watching the
very same thing we devised in the 1976."
Since that ominous realization, McNiven has devoted his
entire life to alerting the American public about the
similarities between 9/11 and the 1976 study without much
success, his story basically being ignored by politicians
and the mainstream media.
"Why am I doing this? Why have I spent every waking
hour trying to bring this story to the American
people?" asked McNiven, claiming he still is
following a strange direct military order given to him
more than 25 years ago.
"During the course of the terrorist plan we were
devising, I made the statement to Lt. Teague that if the
WTC was ever attacked like we planned, I'd go public. I
was then physically assaulted and told never to reveal
anything we were doing regarding the Twin Towers."
However, about a week later a strange turn of events
occurred. For no apparent reason, McNiven claims his
superiors completely changed their minds.
"I was given the direct order that if the Twin
Towers were ever attacked the way we discussed in the
1976 study, I was to do everything in my power to bring
the similarities to the attention of the American people.
"I have no idea why they changed their minds, but I
was then emphatically told that this order was never to
be rescinded - never - because those who would rescind
it, would be the very same people who turned against the
American people."
Besides taking a lie detector to verify his story,
McNiven has made public a detailed list of about 40 names
of those individuals who took part in the mock terrorist
plan, including Col. Robert Morrison, Maj. Joe Dipiero,
Sgt. Middleton, Sgt. Arroyo and many others.
"There were also people from the Defense Department
and the CIA who were monitoring the study, but I wasn't
able to get their names," he added.
Some of McNiven's most recent assignments with the
Defense Department include work on the Northwest Drug
Task Force and various other drug smuggling and weapons
trafficking cases.
http://www.infowars.
com/articles/sept11/perfect_plan_level_twin_towers_created_1976.htm
Also see:
Codename Grillfire
http://www.codenamegrillfire.com/index.php?n=1&id=1
Last updated 29/03/2005
This
is about Israel, not anti-semitism
By Ken
Livingstone
The Guardian, UK, MiddleEast.Org
MiddleEast.Org
29 March 20059 March 2005
Racism is a
uniquely reactionary ideology, used to justify the
greatest crimes in history - the slave trade, the
extermination of all original inhabitants of the
Caribbean, the elimination of every native inhabitant of
Tasmania, apartheid. The Holocaust was the ultimate,
"industrialised" expression of racist
barbarity. Racism serves as the cutting edge of the most
reactionary movements. An ideology that starts by
declaring one human being inferior to another is the
slope whose end is at Auschwitz. That is why I detest
racism.
No
serious commentator has argued that my comments to an
Evening Standard reporter outside City Hall last month
were anti-semitic. So I am glad that Henry Grunwald,
president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews,
accepted on these pages that "Ken is sincere when he
states that he regards the Holocaust as the worst crime
of the last century".
The contribution of
Jewish people to human civilisation and culture is
unexcelled and extraordinary. You only have to think of
giants such as Einstein, Freud and Marx to realise that
human civilisation would be unrecognisably diminished
without the achievements of the Jewish people. The same
goes for the Jewish contribution to London today.
As mayor, I have pressed for police action over
anti-semitic attacks at the highest level, and my
administration has backed a series of initiatives of
importance to the Jewish community, including hosting the
Anne Frank exhibition at City Hall and measures to ensure
the go-ahead for the north London eruv.
Throughout the
1970s, I worked happily with the Board of Deputies in
campaigns against the National Front. Problems began
when, as leader of the Greater London Council, I rejected
the board's request that I should fund only Jewish
organisations that it approved of. The Board of Deputies
was unhappy that I funded Jewish organisations
campaigning for gay rights and others that disagreed with
policies of the Israeli government.
Relations with the board took a dramatic turn for the
worse when I opposed Israel's illegal invasion of
Lebanon, culminating in the massacres at the Palestinian
camps of Sabra and Shatila. The board also opposed my
involvement in the successful campaign in 1982 to
convince the Labour party to recognise the PLO as the
legitimate voice of the Palestinian people.
The fundamental
issue on which we differ, as Henry Grunwald knows, is not
anti-semitism - which my administration has fought tooth
and nail - but the policies of successive Israeli
governments.
To avoid manufactured misunderstandings, the policies of
Israeli governments are not analogous to Nazism. They do
not aim at the systematic extermination of the
Palestinian people, in the way Nazism sought the
annihilation of the Jews.
Israel's expansion
has included ethnic cleansing. Palestinians who had lived
in that land for centuries were driven out by systematic
violence and terror aimed at ethnically cleansing what
became a large part of the Israeli state. The methods of
groups like the Irgun and the Stern gang were the same as
those of the Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic: to drive out
people by terror.
Today the Israeli government continues seizures of
Palestinian land for settlements, military incursions
into surrounding countries and denial of the right of
Palestinians expelled by terror to return. Ariel Sharon,
Israel's prime minister, is a war criminal who should be
in prison, not in office. Israel's own Kahan commission
found that Sharon shared responsibility for the Sabra and
Shatila massacres.
Sharon continues to
organise terror. More than three times as many
Palestinians as Israelis have been killed in the present
conflict. There are more than 7,000 Palestinians in
Israel's jails.
To obscure these truths, those around Israel's present
government have resorted to demonisation. Initial targets
were Palestinians, and have now become Muslims. Take the
Middle East Media Research Institute, run by a former
colonel in Israeli military intelligence, which poses as
a source of objective information but in reality
selectively translates material from Arabic and presents
Muslims and Arabs in the worst possible light.
Today the Israeli
government is helping to promote a wholly distorted
picture of racism and religious discrimination in Europe,
implying that the most serious upsurge of hatred and
discrimination is against Jews.
All racist and anti-semitic attacks must be stamped out.
However, the reality is that the great bulk of racist
attacks in Europe today are on black people, Asians and
Muslims - and they are the primary targets of the extreme
right. For 20 years Israeli governments have attempted to
portray anyone who forcefully criticises the policies of
Israel as anti-semitic. The truth is the opposite: the
same universal human values that recognise the Holocaust
as the greatest racist crime of the 20th century require
condemnation of the policies of successive Israeli
governments - not on the absurd grounds that they are
Nazi or equivalent to the Holocaust, but because ethnic
cleansing, discrimination and terror are immoral.
They are also
fuelling anger and violence across the world. For a mayor
of London not to speak out against such injustice would
not only be wrong - but would also ignore the threat it
poses to the security of all Londoners.
Ken Livingstone is the London mayor
HAITI: representaction.net,
PRESS RELEASE
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
The reshuffling of
the Cabinet of Haiti's provisional government has been
at the center of public attention over the past few
weeks. Of particular
interest, the appointment of Michel Bernardin to the
position of Minister
of the Interior has provoked a public outcry, forcing the
rapid withdrawal
of his nomination by Prime Minister Latortue. This
decision, however, has
not tempered the expression of indignation, which has
been voiced through
numerous protests in newspapers, radio and television
stations denouncing
Michel Bernardin for crimes committed during the bloody
regime of Francois
Duvallier. During this era of pervasive terror, thousands
of individuals
disappeared, causing many Haitian families to lose loved
ones without
knowledge of neither the circumstances surrounding their
deaths nor the
identity of the criminals. Certain crimes, as well as the
names of the
perpetrators, have remained forged in the collective
memory of the public,
due to their particularly violent nature. Michel
Bernardin, who has since
been abroad and living the life of a "model
citizen", recently resurfaced
in Haiti with political aspirations to a Cabinet
position. In a press
release dated February 4th, 2005, his attempts to refute
these accusations
fell short of convincing.
After many years of silence, the Parisien Family is now
able to share with
the public the story of their tragic loss. The night of
May 16th 1969, a
violent crime was committed against Leslie (Loly)
Parisien (21-year-old
engineering student at the State University of Haiti, and
the youngest of
the Parisien family) and Jacques Holly (insurance broker
in his early
twenties, and Leslie's brother-in-law) by Michel
Bernardin, his cousin
(brother of Max Dominique - Francois Duvalier's
son-in-law) and a third
accomplice. These murderers, self-appointed judges and
executioners of
Jacques Holly, brutally assassinated him, along with
Leslie, an
inconvenient witness. These murders were committed in the
presence of
Jacques' wife (Leslie's sister), who miraculously escaped
death in the
mountains by cover of night. Fearing for her life, she
remained in hiding
then sought refuge abroad. The criminals are alledged to
have fled the
country shortly after the murder. While the Parisien and
Holly families
have remained grief-striken, in fear and with little hope
of justice for
many years, the details of the crime remain as clear
today as when the
events took place. Other witnesses can confirm the
presence of Michel
Bernardin and his accomplices at the time and place of
the victims'
abductions.
In honor of their two loved ones, whose bodies were never
found, the
Parisien Family accuses Michel Bernardin of the murders
of Leslie Parisien
and Jacques Holly, and will continue to denounce him
until justice is
served. The time has come when he will face his accusers
publicly and in
broad daylight, a privilege that Leslie and Jacques were
not afforded, when
the two young men had to face their executioners in a
killing field in the
dead of night.
The Parisien Family has contacted the Center for
Constitutional Rights
(CCR), which has a long history of prosecuting human
rights' violators.
According to the CCR's Executive Director, Mr. Ron
Daniels, his
organization is considering filing a lawsuit against
Michel Bernardin if he
ever enters the United States again.
Serge Parisien, M.D.
May Parisien, M.D.
Jules Parisien, M.D.
Bertha Parisien, R.N.
Lionel Parisien, Eng.
Ginette Parisien, R.N.
Jean-Claude Parisien, Eng.
Nicole Parisien, R.N. Gladys Parisien, M.D.
Mrs Philomene Latortue (age 88, mother of Loly)
Vastey Parisien, M.D. (deceased, father of Loly)
***************************
FRANCAIS
***************************
NOTE DE PRESSE
Mardi, le 29 Mars, 2005
Le remaniement du Cabinet Ministeriel du gouvernement
provisoire d'Haiti a
maintenu l'attention publique depuis les dernieres
semaines. En
particulier, la nomination de Michel Bernardin au poste
de Ministre de
l'Interieur a provoque une clameur d'indignation publique
que le retrait
precipite de cette nomination n'a pas pu apaiser. Cette
derniere s'est
manifestee dans de nombreux articles dans la presse
ecrite et parlee
denoncant Michel Bernardin pour sa participation dans des
actions
criminelles perpetrees durant le regime sanguinaire de
Francois Duvallier.
Pendant ces decenies de terreur, des milliers de familles
haitiennes ont
perdu des etres chers sans aucun detail sur les
circonstances de leur
disparition. Cependant, certains crimes, a cause de leur
caractere
particulierement odieux, sont restes vifs dans la memoire
du public ainsi
que les noms de ceux qui y etaient impliques. Michel
Bernardin, vivant a
l'etranger depuis lors en "citoyen modele",
revint recemment au pays avec
de hautes aspirations politiques en ce moment de crise
nationale. Dans une
note de presse parue le 4 Fevrier 2005, il tenta de
refuter ces
accusations, en falsifiant les dates et circonstances de
ces evenements.
Apres plusieurs annees de silence, la famille Parisien a
l'opportunite de
dire la verite sur les circonstances de la disparition de
ses fils. Un
crime revoltant fut perpetre dans la nuit du 16 Mai 1969
sur les personnes
de Leslie (Loly) Parisien (age de 21 ans, benjamin de la
famille Parisien
et etudiant de la Faculte de Genie) et de Jacques Holly
(agent d'assurance
et beau-frere de Leslie) par Michel Bernardin, son cousin
(l'un des freres
de Max Dominique - gendre de Francois Duvallier) et un
troisieme complice.
Ces meurtriers, apres s'etre designes juges et executeurs
de Jacques Holly,
assassinerent brutalement ce dernier ainsi que Leslie,
temoin genant de
leur action crapuleuse. Cet assassinat fut commis en
presence de l'epouse
de Jacques (soeur de Leslie, alors etudiante en
Medecine). Cette derniere
echappa miraculeusement, fuyant la scene du crime a la
faveur de la nuit et
des accidents de montagnes de la region. Craignant d'etre
decouverte, elle
gagna le maquis pendant plusieurs mois avant de se
refugier a l'etranger.
Les criminels quitterent le pays peu de temps après.
Alors que les deux
familles resteront plongees dans la douleur et la
frustration, sans espoir
de justice pendant des annees, les details de ce crime
seront a jamais
graves dans leurs memoires aussi vivement qu'au premier
jour. D'autres
temoins pourront confirmer la presence de Bernardin et de
ses acolytes sur
les lieux de l'enlevement des victimes la nuit du 16 Mai
1969.
En l'honneur de ses deux disparus dont les depouilles ne
furent jamais
retrouvees, la famille Parisien accuse Michel Bernardin
du meurtre de
Leslie Parisien et de Jacques Holly et continuera a le
denoncer jusqu'a ce
que justice soit faite. Le moment est finalement arrive
ou Michel Bernardin
repondra pour ses crimes. Il aura l'opportunite de
confronter ses
accusateurs publiquement et en plein jour, une position
enviable comparee a
celle de Leslie et de Jacques qui firent face a leurs
meurtriers dans un
champs d'execution desert, sous le couvert de la nuit.
Nous avons contacte le Centre des Droits Constitutionels
aux Etats Unis.
Cette organisation, vouee au respect des droits humains,
a une longue
histoire d'investigation de crimes et de poursuites de
violateurs. Son
Directeur Executif, Mr. Ron Daniels, entreprend les
etapes necessaires pour
instituer une action judiciaire contre Michel Bernardin,
s'il remettait les
pieds sur le sol Americain.
Serge Parisien, M.D.
May Parisien, M.D.
Jules Parisien, M.D.
Bertha Parisien, R.N.
Lionel Parisien, Ing.
Ginette Parisien, R.N.
Jean-Claude Parisien, Ing.
Nicole Parisien, R.N. Gladys Parisien, M.D.
Mme Philomene Latortue (88 ans, mere de Loly)
Vastey Parisien, M.D. (decede, pere de Loly)
***************************