TylerMC/journalism

In case you are wondering who the Mohamed is I write with, this is him pictured. Report reveals Israel's oppression of journalists. He's trying to get out of Gaza as I write to get the operation necessary to repair what the Shin Bet destroyed when they tortured him June 27. Israel AND Egypt are preventing the Dutch embassy from picking him up. The saga continues.

Although since the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan I've had issues with Russert for not being tough enough on the current administration and the neocons or questioning the falsehoods that became accepted wisdom in the United States, his passing will be missed. He was a good journalist and one of the few mainstream people who did go after the truth on many issues. My thoughts and prayers go out to wife and son.

He's got a lot of really good backup videos here on issues that affect us all. He's also a journalist. You can spend quite a bit of time here going through his various links. Well worth your time.

Now I think I got it right. Here's the slide show of yesterday's carnage in Gaza.

The last thing I got from Mohammed was this:

"power will go down any moment, 90% of gaza has no power, as no fuel. we are the only 10% left, which means we can run out any minute. people are screaming in the streets for help. this is serious."
M

What the photos say:
Palestinians collecting the dismembered body parts of men, women and children killed by Israeli Occupation Forces January 19, 2008

Look carefully at this photo and you'll notice body parts from three different people. A child's arm, the decapitated man with a blanket over him and the torn torso of another victim--sex and identity for the child and torso are unknown.

Another truck load of body parts is taken by civilian volunteers to be sorted and identified when possible. The Israelis have destroyed most of Gaza's infrastructure. Civilian vehicles are used to do what health authorities usually do. In 2007 the Israeli kill ratio of Palestinians was 27 Palestinians killed for every Israeli. Most Israeli deaths in 2007 were military. Most Palestinian deaths were civilian.

I'll let my letter to CBS say what I think:

Thank you for airing the segment on Iraq's Christians. I just filed a story last night on Gaza's Christian Community and was happy to see this segment given America's ignorance to the dynamics of the Middle East.

What I found missing in your story is the connection between the persecution of Christians in the Middle East by Muslims and the activities of the Christian Right in this nation. When our President says he's on a crusade. When Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Benny Hin call for the destruction of Islam. When the World Bible Society states on Radio that 1.6 million Muslims must die and when the Scofield Bible writes into the footnotes of Evangelical Bibles that Muslims are the eternal enemies of Christians, one has to wonder why anyone who is Muslim would trust Christians within their midst.. Especially when the nation responsible for the deaths of over 1 million people through concocted sanctions and at least one half million through bombing, invades their nation and does so under the battle cry of a `Christian Nation'..

This wasn't covered in your story. Based upon the interviews and research I've conducted in the Middle East, this is the root cause of the persecution of Christians by Muslims in countries where a 'Christian Nation' is attempting to overthrow them, politically protects and supplies the weapons that kill them or supports those persecuting them. Without this piece of information, it looks like the Muslims are doing this for no reason. And thou I disagree with their actions, I find it difficult to lay blame for a logical reaction given the policies and activities of the US Government coupled with the fanatical assertions of the blood thirsty so-called Christian Right.

Your story paints the persecution as irrational and without cause. There is a motivation. The motivation is immoral, wrong and it violates Islam, but people in war zones don't always think clearly, especially when they've been starved for nearly 15 years. Given what they've seen from the `Christian' USA, who wouldn't suspect a minority of loyalty? Don't we do the same thing here...with Arabs?

Israel Shamir turned me on to Silvia's new site. She is a Swiss journalist specializing in Palestine. Great articles and sources in English, French, Russian, Arabic, Spanish and Italian.

The deliberate shooting of journalist Imad Ghanem and the subsequent attack on the EMT's attempting to assist on July 5th by Israeli soldiers, (the young man now must have his legs amputated)is just another in a long line of atrocities this miltary-idolistic nation perpetrates on anyone who gets in their way. Unfortunately, my nation, the US is following in these highly immoral and unjust footsteps. Since we invaded Iraq without cause in 2003, nearly 190 journalists have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. We kicked off our shock and awe campaign by deliberately bombing the Al-Jazzera offices and a newspaper office, then tried to cover it up until a executive at CNN (I believe that was the station) accidently let it slip. He was later terminated for telling the truth.
When nations begin targeting journalists deliberately it is as blatant sign these nations are engaged in nepharious activities and attempting to prevent their actions from being seen. It means these nations have crossed the line of decency, no longer have a just cause and are following in the footsteps of other conquering nations including Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and even the Crusaders.
To my knowledge, a just war is only one fought in defense of invasion. The US has not been invaded in over a century.
Since 1941, and even that is debateable, neither the US in the over 200 military actions we've instigated on others around the world or Israel in its land grabs, subjugation, theft and deception have fought a single 'just' war. Israel specifically, whether 1948, 1967, 1973 or any of its hundreds of other little attacks on its neighbors over the years, has no justification. Even in 1948 and 1973, the Arab armies stopped at the borders given to Israel and fought only to get back what that rogue state took from them. Only recently, within the past ten years have Israeli officials admitted this, thou their hasbara continues full-boar in an attempt to perpetuate a myth of victimology.