I should have read Daniel Ellsberg’s excellent memoirs – SECRETS: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers – long ago. But better late than never.
Here is the lead of a piece I did on the book for the new issue of Freedom Daily :
Daniel Ellsberg is the kind of American who should receive a Medal of Freedom. Except that the Medals of Freedom are distributed by presidents who routinely give them to “useful idiots†and apologists for their wars and power grabs. It should be renamed the Medal for Enabling or Applauding Official Crimes in the Name of Freedom.
Ellsberg knowingly risked spending a life in prison to bring the truth about the Vietnam War to Americans. He had hoped truth would set Americans free from the spell of official lies. But the experience in Iraq indicates that Americans have learned little if anything from the Vietnam-era deceits.
(The Future of Freedom Foundation puts the full text of Freedom Daily articles online a few months after the print/email version appears).
One reminds you, Mr. Bovard, that Doris Day received the Medal of Freedom Award in 2004 from President Bush.
Who will ever forget her contributions to the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press in Teacher’s Pet?
It is cultural icons such as Ms. Day that have made the United States what it is today.
What ever do you mean, Eugene?
Yes, Eugene a cultural hooker…Meanwhile the war DRAGs on & on Daniel Ellsberg deserves the Nobel prize for peace, not the stinkin devalued (like the dollar) medal of freedom……….Tenant got it for keeping quiet about 911….a payoff for traitors and warcriminals…Who would want it…its dirty like America…
Where is Ellsberg on our current war and it’s Israel cause? Silent. Is Ellsberg worth the read?
“The failure to hold impeachment hearings on what seems extremely solid grounds…amounts to complicity by Congress in this abrogation of the Constitution. Moreover we’re seen as an outlaw state by the international community for ignoring international law on torture and on aggression. The attack on Iraq without authorization by the U.N. Security Council… means that we have committed and are in the process of committing a crime against the peace in the Nuremburg sense…”
[Daniel Ellsberg]
Mr.Paul? Mr.Jones?
Ellsberg has been outspoken on the war against Iraq and he has been especially active in warning on the dangers of a war against Iran. Check out his website.
Even today the mainstream press treats Daniel Ellsberg with disdain while clicking its heels for Oliver North, Ellsberg’s polar opposite.
In the months following the NYT publication of excerpts of the papers, ABC anchorman Howard K. Smith said in an interview that he had read some of the expurgated documents, and felt that lives would be endangered had they been published. He seemed to indicate the imperiled to whom he referred were government decision-makers in the early days of the war; Smith’s appraisal of the stakes involved may have been animated by his own son’s death in that war. To my knowlege, the complete Leslie Gelb study that Ellsberg copied – all 7,000-plus pages – have never been publicly released. Anyone know if they have? If not… wonder what’s in there.
Actually, I think it is available on the Internet at a couple different locations.
Sen. Mike Gravel was also a hero in getting out the papers.
Personally insulting the recipients of the award is not going to help anything. Was Elie Wiesel a useful idiot? The award is silly but it is a simple fact that if you start insulting other people you will alienate those people and others who admire them. Perhaps this is one reason why libertarians and anti-war people never get anywhere–because they come across as holier-than-thou. Sometimes people are ignorant, true, but do they become educated by being berated and insulted? This is just a display of authoritarianism. Come to think of it isn’t hostility itself a questionable means to achieve peace? There may be such a thing as righteous anger, but would it have been righteous to personally insult Ella Fitzgerald for accepting it when she was dying of diabetes with her legs amputated? The government is the enemy not entertainers.
One could not agree more. Americans must recognize the great men among them even if they black women with amputated legs. These are cultural icons of the first order and in his own transcendental goodness and graciousness President George W. Bush recognizes them in the name of all humanity, including every Iraqi and Iranian, and forever, down the great long vinyl-floored, fluorescent-lit corridor of human history!
Another recipient of the 2004 Medal of Freedom was Robert Bartley:
His views, while always emphasizing freedom, were not predictable. For example, he infuriated some fellow conservatives and gladdened others in 1984 by endorsing the idea of a constitutional amendment establishing “open borders” for the United States. For Mr. Bartley, the free flow of people across borders in response to market forces was as important as the free flow of ideas and products.
A strong supporter of Israel and a friend — and on some issues an ally — of prominent neo-conservatives such as Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz, he nonetheless abjured, as he put it, “the ‘national greatness’ crusade” of two editors of the Weekly Standard magazine.
Like the Neo-Cons themselves, he was unflaggingly polite and never insulting in regard to anything having to do with Zionism or Israel. Moroever, in regard to “the national greatness crusade”, Mr. Bartley, a great American, realized instinctively that it was much more important to be open and honest and put the greatness of Zionism and Israel first, rather than coddle Americans with the cheap sentiment that United States’ national interests were of any importance in the world.
A truly great American, and a great American journalist who takes his place in the Parnassus of American letters beside such immortals as Stephen Crane, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Clark Gable and Doris Day!
Centuries from now his works will be read in all the languages of the world, even Tagalog, and his economical thinking will stand without blush on the shelf of great benefactors of humanity like Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Malthus, and Chuck Norris.
Is it too early for a great admirer of such an Olympian presence in American culture and letters to begin the campaigning to have his mere corporeal presence on this planet mummified–after he leaves his mortal coil naturally–to be exhibited as holy relic and reminder of greatness in the Smithsonian Institute, in a glass case perhaps, somewhere near the Spirit of Saint Louis?
Or does not this man deserve a Great Pyramid of his very own?
corr: “even if they be black women with amputated legs”
Yes, indeed there is NO justification for disruption or even impoliteness and lack of civility in expressing one’s opposition to the war in Iraq or to the coming attack against Iran.
Long-haired hippies, barefoot and unshaved, nude antics by kempt women with bad puns like “No Bush” painted on their abdomen only serve to alienate the very audience that the antiwar people want to reach.
Why just the other day one heard from a member of the inner circle, Congressman Paul’s own cutting and really effective critique of the Bush and Cheney administration.
Mr. Paul was lunching with that like-minded stalwart, Congressman Jones, in the Congressional Cafeteria.
The main course was a magnificently prepared chipped beef on toast that Mr. Paul, brashly displaying his Texas roots, ate with a sprinkle of denatured red chili powder.
Then came the ineivtable decaffeinated coffee with dessert.
Mr. Jones had the white chocolate hominy mousse. Mr. Paul, with a devil-may-care look in his eye, called for cling peaches in syrup.
Mr. Paul paused and meditated over the peaches, and said softly as if thinking deeply over something of monumental importance, “Peaches, yes. But we must eat them slowly and with proper procedure.”
With truly scathing opposition like that, how long can this war, and all the coming wars, endure?
NEW YORK AP May 13, 2008- Oil prices shot to a new record near $127 a barrel Tuesday on concerns that Iran may consider cutting crude oil production. Gas prices, meanwhile, rose to a new record over $3.73 a gallon Tuesday, and their advance shows little sign of slowing with Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer driving season, just 10 days away.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose as high as a record $126.98 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday before retreating to settle up $1.57 at $125.80
Must ask Bartley or someone like that–is this what they call the Laugher Curve?
Bon appetit!
If I remember correctly, the WALL AGAINST MEXICO is contracted out to Boeing for roughly USD $700,000,000, whatever that might mean in today’s USD.
I cannot recall whether the electronic battlefield accessories that go with it are separate contracts or not.
Nor have I seen any clear references to what connection Blackwater, which wants into the Taco Bell Border Patrol Franchise, has either to the WALL or the battlefield.
Incidentally part of the wall was built, supposedly inadvertently, on the Mexican side of the border.
At any rate, thereby arise several questions:
(1) When is Mr. Chertoff going to be put under house arrest, pending litigation?
(2) When are Chertoff, Boeing exceutives, and other administration and corporate officials going to be prosecuted for malversation?
(3) When is the wall going to come down?
(4) What is the worth of the present sections in scrap metal?
(5) When is Boeing going to be nationalized in lieu of paying its criminal and civil fines and other debts?
Perhaps one can contract Professeor John Yoo to write up the indictments.
Eugene,
A couple of random thoughts:
1. Does the US plan to auction off naming rights for the Great Border Wall (in the fashion of naming new ballparks, etc.)? I should think Taco Bell or Corona might subsidize the construction. Plus renting out 700 miles of billboard space should help bring in some badly needed funds.
2. Doris Day accomplished one miraculous feat – who was the wag who said, “I knew her before she was a virgin”?
Now about Putin’s signing those economic sanctions on his last day in office as president.
Looks like Iran is threatening the United States with imposing economic sanctions on itself.
Mr. Chavez?
Hey, hombres–what the peso today?
USD 1 = MXN 10.483.
Oh.
Hey, hombres, them Messkins got a lot of oil. And as any Neo-Con will tellya, Spanish is an anti-Semitic language. Furthermore, there is no question the Messkin leadership is building WMD for use against Israel.
This situation cannot go on. The US must attack Messco and overthrow this dangerous anti-Semitic Aztec-Spanish dictatorship!
I mean the war would pay for itself.
And look how short the supply lines are.
Spazio, ultima frontiera. Eccovi i viaggi dell’astronave Enterprise durante la sua missione quinquennale diretta all’esplorazione di strani mondi alla ricerca di nuove forme di vita e di nuove civiltà arrivando là dove nessun uomo è mai giunto prima.
Israeli Elbit Contracted By Chertoff To Provide Technology For The Wall Against Mexico:
For possibly the first time ever, the words Israel and border are in the same sentence and it doesn’t have anything to do with its own borders. The talent and expertise that Elbit Systems (NASDAQ ELST) has employed for years in protecting Israel’s borders will now be put to use on US borders to keep Americans safe.
Kollsman Inc., an American-based subsidiary of Elbit, has been selected as a member of the winning consortium by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the Secure Border Initiative (SBI) to supply technology to identify threats, to deter and prevent crossings, and to apprehend intruders along the US borders with Canada and Mexico.
Kollsman, headquartered in Merrimack, New Hampshire, is a development, manufacturing and support organization providing advanced electro-optical and avionics systems to the commercial aerospace, military and homeland security markets. The company’s expertise includes enhanced vision systems, flight displays, head-up displays, thermal imaging systems, fire control systems, and advanced security and surveillance solutions.
The Secure Border Initiative is the latest attempt by the United States government to use technology to secure its borders, stop smuggling, and prevent illegal immigration. After September 11, illegal immigration is not just seen as a social problem, but also a national security issue. A unique aspect of this initiative was that Homeland Security gave the bidders total freedom to create new ideas of how to apply both new and old technology to secure the US borders.
The DHS awarded the SBI contract for the border security project to prime contractor Boeing over Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. In addition to Boeing and Elbit, the other members of the $2 billion program are telecommunication heavy-weights Lucent, L3 Communications, Perot Systems and Unisys Global Public Sector.
Elbit was selected because of its ability to bring together global resources with decades of technological experience and capabilities securing borders in extreme cold, mountainous regions, as well as hot, desert terrains.
Kollsman’s global parent, Elbit Systems Ltd. has extensive experience with operational border control and management systems combined with command, control and situational awareness for the Israeli government. Elbit’s Long Range Reconnaissance and Observation System (LORROS) and advanced turnkey unmanned aerial vehicle systems (UAV) are some of the products and technology that will be utilized.
President and CEO of Elbit Systems of America, Tim Taylor said he was proud of being part of the winning bid and is “motivated to provide the best border protection available.”
“US citizens and the federal government are very concerned about the vulnerabilities on the porous US northern and southern borders. The strategic and technological strengths that we bring to the project will help restore the safety and security that Americans have known for so long. Detecting threats along 6,000 miles of border in the US is not the place for experimentation. The experience of our family of companies, along with the substantial credentials of Boeing as a successful prime integrator in the homeland security market enables us to make a significant contribution to protecting the United States.”
Wayne Esser, head of the SBInet project for Boeing said: “We are very happy that Elbit is part of the team because there is not one-size-fits-all solution for 6,000 miles of border. Knollsman has the engineering and manufacturing capability to provide at short notice state-of-the-art solutions that will be integrated to support this challenging effort. The result will be a program that safeguards the freedoms that are a cornerstone of our nation.”
Based in Haifa, Elbit is the largest non-governmental defense company in Israel.
“Elbit Systems through its Ortek subsidiary is a major player in homeland security in Israel and throughout the world. The electronic deterrence system is key in providing customers in Israel and around the globe with comprehensive solutions for peripheral defense,” said Joseph Ackerman, president and CEO of Elbit.
Among its projects are defense systems for Israel’s land and sea borders, peripheral security systems of air force bases, major sections of the border security fence, and Jerusalem’s detour route.
Sixty percent of Elbit’s customers are international. The UK’s Ministry of Defense awarded the Watchkeeper program to a consortium that included Elbit Systems. The WK450 air vehicle that was designed, is based on Elbit Systems Hermes 450. The Hermes 450 is a proven system with over 20,000 flying hours. In 2003, the Elbit Hermes 450 system was accepted by the US Naval Air Station Fallon Joint UAV Test and Evaluation Center in Nevada for joint interoperability trials.
Elbit’s Peripheral Coastal Security was recently deployed by a country in Asia. It is based on Elbit’s advanced night vision sensors, daylight surveillance, and laser rangefinders.
Managing director Eli Venezia said: “Our Coastal Security system is unique in its ability to provide the customer with a comprehensive solution to meet the specific needs of defense against terrorist threats.”
For the SBInet project, the Boeing/Elbit consortium proposed the radical idea of 1,800 towers equipped with cameras and motion detectors stretched across the border. The data from the cameras and motion detectors is transmitted to border patrol agents in real time with no delay.
The exact value of this contract is not known yet. The US Congress is still debating the controversial question of whether or not to construct a fence along the Mexican border. Until that decision is made, it is unclear what the total costs for the SBI net will be. If the fence is built, the costs of the fence alone will be as high as $1 billion.
[L. Goldman October 15, 2006 israel21c.org]
Lot you folks thought calling the US the “new Gaza Strip” was just joshing, right?
Where has all the money gone, long time passing.
Do I think somebody lied to me? No, I don’t. I think it was just, you know, they analyzed the situation and came up with the wrong conclusion.
George W. Bush on pre-Gulf War II Intelligence.