_______________
D.
From: Jeff Blankfort :
Subject: More on the Liberty: The Wisconsin Library Wars
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007


As the late Prof. Israel Shahak used to remind us, history is important, and the consignment of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty to its shadows by the Jewish Zionist lobby, Congress, and "the Left,"  has caused the Palestinians, the Lebanese, as well as Iraqis and Americans to pay dearly for ignoring it. This article was written in 1988 by James Ennes, who survived the attack and wrote the first and definitive book about the attack, The Assault on the Liberty, which itself came under attack by the same lobby that controls Washington, that orchestrated the current war in Iraq and seeks to follow that up with an attack on Iran.-JB

The village of Grafton, Wisconsin, chose to honor the USS Liberty by  naming its new library after the ship.  The complaints that followed  filled the local newspapers and airwaves for months.  This is the  story of the USS Liberty Memorial Public Library and the controversy that  followed.      

THE WISCONSIN LIBRARY WARS 
by James M. Ennes, Jr.    
          
  (Ennes was a lieutenant on the bridge of the USS Liberty when the ship  was attacked.)      After a long pause to stop the flow of blood, 1988 marked the tenth year  of the great Wisconsin library wars.    The first blows were struck in 1979 when supporters of Israel in  Milwaukee decided to flex their political muscle.  In a test of  power (some would say to flaunt it), spokesmen for Israel renamed the  library at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee after an Israeli  political leader.    "Let this place be known forever as the Golda Meir Library,"  they proclaimed.    To no surprise, a great hew and cry developed almost overnight as  students, faculty, and local citizens recorded their outrage.      Golda Meir    Golda Meir, born Goldie Mabovitch in Poland in 1898, had lived in  Milwaukee between her 8th and 21st year.  She studied at the  Milwaukee Teachers Seminary  of Milwaukee, later taught school briefly in Milwaukee, and then moved to  Palestine in 1919 to join the growing Jewish community there.    Golda Meir was respected by her fans, not for charm, tact, or diplomatic  skill, but for her stubborn Israeli intransigence.    When she became prime minister in 1969, Time magazine said of her:  "The essence of the woman is conviction, without compromise, and  expressed    with all the subtlety of a Centurion tank.  She seldom loses an  argument...."    Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, himself a Jew, described her as  "a tough, obstinate, unintelligent woman, without discernment,  wisdom or poise."    Yet, among Arabs and many Americans, Golda Meir is best remembered and  often despised for her hard line against the Palestinian population, and  for her insistence that Israel had no "Palestinian problem"  because, she said, "It was not as though there was a Palestinian  people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from  them.  They did not exist."      The First Great Library War    Opponents of the Golda Meir name argued that this was a public  institution created with public money and should not be named by special  interests or for a foreign leader.  The existing name, "The  University of Wisconsin Library," was more suitable, they said, and  should be kept.  Otherwise it should be named for an American.    "The Golda Meir name should not be used because it is controversial  and offensive to a large segment of the population," they argued to  deaf ears.  "Golda Meir is a symbol of hate in the  Arab-American community and to many Americans," they said.    Others said privately that they were opposed to the name but were afraid  to speak out because the Israeli partisans were "powerful in the  community."    Arab students complained that the partisans lack sensitivity, ignore Arab  feelings, and regard Arabs as less than human.    Students picketed in protest.  A meeting of Regents held to  formalize the name was disrupted by student protesters, and at one point  a Jewish professor attacked the pickets, beating them with a cane.    The pro-Israel faction, however, withered their opponents with their  ultimate weapon.  "All opposition to the name comes from  anti-Semites," they said.  "Arabs and anti-Semites object  to the name," they said, "because of their hatred for Jews and  Israel.  We can never yield to anti-Semites."    The argument was picked up and echoed everywhere.  Soon everyone  opposed to the name became increasingly seen as zealots, racists, nazis,  and unthinking radical extremists.  The argument, though apparently  without substance, was effective.  It won the war.  The name  sticks.    Arab students report that they wince whenever they enter the building.      The Second War    Just 18 miles due north of the Milwaukee campus on the shore of Lake  Michigan the town of Grafton, population 8,500, decided recently to  replace the aging and overcrowded town library.  Jim Grant was  elected president of the town council on his pledge to work toward  creating the new library.    Unlike the Golda Meir library, the Grafton library was to be built almost  entirely with private donations.  Soon the new library committee had  pledges for well over half the $1-million cost, including an $83,000  federal contribution and a $250,000 pledge from the brothers Ted and Ben  Grob, who own a Grafton machine tool business.    Since the Grob's contribution was the largest single gift, the library  board offered the Grob brothers the opportunity to name the new  library--expecting them to name it "Grob."  But that  didn't happen.    The Grobs, who had recently read a book about the Liberty and a  transcript of a speech by a survivor, surprised everyone.    "Name it The USS Liberty Memorial Library," they said, "in  honor of the 34 Americans who died when Israel attacked the USS Liberty  in 1967."    Surprised, the town council and the town library board considered the  name.  Members who hesitated were asked to read the book that the  Grobs had read.  And soon both the council and the board gave their  unanimous approval to the new name.      Enter Israel    A few days later an angry letter arrived from one Gideon Goldenholz,  rabbi of the Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue in nearby Mequon.    Sharpening a weapon that had served well in the Golda Meir library  skirmishes, Goldenholz called the proposal "a cynical act"  which carries "a hint of anti-Semitism" and is therefore  "insulting to Jews."    "The USS Liberty incident has become a rallying point for  anti-Israel and anti-Semetic (sic) people and groups," wrote James  Fromstein for the Milwaukee Jewish Council, an umbrella group that  represents Goldenholz's synagogue and 21 other Milwaukee Jewish  organizations.  "As such, it is...considered offensive...to  Jewish people everywhere," he said, raising a trusted bludgeon from  previous wars.    A few days later Fromstein appeared at Grant's door with two television  trucks, three newsmen from Milwaukee, and an aide.  Grant, however,  would not be intimidated.  "We are very comfortable with the  name," he said.    "The name caters to Arabs and anti-Semites," Fromstein  insisted. After all, his aide added, Arabs are "only nomads,"  while anti-Semites must be opposed on principal.  After an hour of  fruitless argument, Fromstein departed amid promises of "further  action" and some lightly veiled threats of economic and other  sanctions.  "We can never yield to anti-Semites," he  insisted.    "The name sticks," Grant said.      A Combined Media Blitz    Soon Jim Grant discovered that someone was checking into his background,  erifying his military record, and otherwise searching for some fodder for  a scandal.  Librarian Kathy Kafka learned that persons unknown were  attempting to verify her academic record.    Almost immediately Grant learned that the $83,000 federal commitment had  been "postponed" because of complaints about the  "anti-Semitic"name.    Phone calls and letters from Israeli spokesmen in Milwaukee urged local  donors to withdraw their contributions because of the  "anti-Semitic" influence.    Next, a solid barrage of stories about the library appeared in five area  newspapers and the Chicago Tribune, along with frequent and highly  caustic mention on area television news and talk shows.    The Milwaukee Jewish Chronicle set the tone early with a headline that  proclaimed, "Jews battle extremists on library name."   "Rename the library," demanded a Chronicle editorial.   "New Library divides Wisconsin town," wrote the Tribune.   Milwaukee Magazine complained editorially about "The Gift of  Grob."    "Library name rightly condemned," editorialized the Milwaukee  Journal.  "Where is the outrage in Grafton?  Why is there  no outcry?" complained the Journal when the first editorial failed  to spark an outcry. "The Grafton library has aligned itself with the  bigots and hate-mongers," the Journal complained, recycling another  battered tool from the Golda Meir trenches.    "Why," survivors asked, "is it OK to have memorials for  USS Stark, Maine, Arizona, and a hundred other ships without protest from  the countries that attacked them, while any mention of the USS Liberty  brings an avalanche of organized protest from Israel?"  No one  could answer the question, but the protests continued without pause.    Journal reporter Michael Krenn, asked by town officials to interview a  survivor of the attack, declined.  "That is not my story,"  Krenn insisted.  Krenn was interested only in bashing devils.    Rarely did anything favoring the library become part of "Krenn's  story."  Supporting statements came in from Rabbi Elmer Berger,  Reverend Humphrey Walz and Admiral Thomas Moorer, among others, but none  of this ever made it into "Krenn's story."  Articles about  the Liberty by experts on the subject including Admiral Moorer were  submitted for publication, but none were printed or acknowledged.    When survivors Joe Meadors and John Hrankowski visited Grafton with  former congressman Pete McCloskey to answer townspeople's questions, the  Journal did not find the event worthy of coverage until forced to do so  days later when readers complained.  The well-attended event  displayed nearly total support for the new library name, and it was  covered by reporter Krenn, but this was "not his story" so he  chose not to write about it.    And the reports that did appear typically failed to mention the most  noteworthy details, such as public support for the library name by  Grafton's State Assemblywoman Susan Vergeront and McCloskey's spirited  denunciation of the "anti-Semite" charge.    "How can a memorial for American sailors who died in the service of  their country possibly be anti-Semitic?" McCloskey demanded to know  as the crowd roared its approval.    Even an account by the Journal's ombudsman, while acknowledging that  their coverage was badly done, continued to ignore Grafton's viewpoint  and reasserted the "anti-Semite" influence.    At last count the Journal was on record with nineteen heavily slanted  "news" stories, five angry editorials and one incomplete  ombudsman's report, all suggesting that the library, the ship, the town  council, and everyone involved is somehow allied with or unwitting  stooges of anti-Semites and other loonies.    "This is the most outrageous, egregious, biased, and unprofessional  reporting I have seen in 20 years in the business," remarked a  California editor of a major newspaper who was sufficiently moved to call  Krenn and tell him so.  But still the smears and innuendo continue.    When two spokesmen from Grafton responded to a request for a television  interview in Milwaukee, they were unexpectedly confronted on camera by  two spokesmen for Israel, prepared to debate.  Although Grafton  emerged victorious, it was a tense hour.    "You were set up," whispered a sympathetic station employee,  clearly pleased with the unexpected outcome.  "This was to have  been an ambush."    When library board chairman Carol Schneider agreed to a television  interview, she found herself confronted by a hostile interviewer who did  his professional best to humiliate her on camera.      Complaints Come From Outside    Most of the blitz, however, comes from outside the town.  For  instance, one of the first shots fired was a paid advertisement in the  Ozaukee County Guide signed by 17 clergymen, all from outside of Grafton,  which appealed to the fair minded citizens to rise up against their  leaders and demand a new name. The clergymen were concerned, they wrote,  about "harassment of minorities, hate letters and phone calls to  rabbis and desecration of synagogues" which, they said, "have  once again raised their ugly heads."  "Neo Nazis and other  hate groups use the symbol of the USS Liberty to promote their  cause," the clergymen wrote.      No matter that no harassment, hate letters, phone calls or desecration  had occurred.  No matter that no sign of anti-Semitism or  "extremist" influence had been uncovered.  No matter that  none of the clergymen knew anything about the case except what they had  been told by spokesmen for Israel who persuaded them to lend their  names.    In another attack from the hinterlands, two churches in nearby Mequon  circulated petitions in Grafton seeking opposition to the library name.  After several days work, they collected 79 signatures, including only  seven from Grafton.  Library supporters easily collected 616  signatures in an afternoon, all from Grafton.    In a rare protest from within the town, the pastor of the Grafton  Catholic Church issued a statement.  A new name must be found, he  said, because "the incident is used by extremists to further  anti-Semitism.  The USS Liberty has become a symbol of hate."    Asked later for his source of information, the good father confessed that  he knew only what he had read in the Journal and been told in a phone  call from an out-of-town Rabbi.  Without checking further, he urged  his parish to oppose the library because he felt he should respond to the  influence of "anti-Semites."    "I may have been hasty," he confessed later.    To the dismay of most Grafton schoolteachers, two teachers living outside  Grafton attempted on their own to cancel a teachers' commitment to raise  money for the library.  Two teachers then circulated questionnaires  to their classes asking, "Should nazis be allowed to name our new  library?"  No matter that no nazis could be found.      "No, no, no," chirped the cherubs.    Soon, prompted by guidance unknown, the Grafton High School Valedictorian  publicly articulated the reasons nazis and other weirdos should not be  allowed to name the town's temple of knowledge.      Phony Radicals, Phony Issues    These things are reported in all the area newspapers, usually in a way  that suggests that a small band of extremists controls city hall in  defiance of a majority who would, if they could, unseat the  radicals.  Despite their spirited search, however, no radical has  ever been identified.    That does not deter the opponents, however.  Anti-Semitism is the  most effective weapon in their arsenal, and it must be continually  dragged out and fired whether any proper targets can be seen or not.    In a frantic search for anti-Semites, one reporter learned that a  magazine that the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith considers  anti-Semitic sometimes writes about the USS Liberty.  Worse, he  learned that one of the Grob brothers has seen the magazine.    Proof at last!  To the Milwaukee Jewish Council, the magazine's  interest in the Liberty is enough to justify their entire campaign.   No matter that dozens of esteemed journalists, at least five Pulitzer  prizewinners, scores of leading newspapers, and at least 30 book authors  have also written sympathetically about the Liberty.  No matter that  Liberty survivors have no connection with the suspect magazine and  actively shun its attentions.  To spokesmen for Israel, the USS  Liberty has become a "symbol of hate" and "must be  opposed" because people they consider "anti-Semites" have  written about it.    Suddenly what looked like a "genuine" anti-Semite  appeared.  A man driving a car with Illinois license plates spent a  day marching at Grafton's main intersection with a large sign reading,  "Support the USS Liberty - Israel is America's enemy."   That evening the man went from door to door spouting offensive  anti-Jewish rhetoric and appealing to Grafton residents to support the  name because they shouldn't take any more guff "from the  Jews."    When Grafton citizens investigated, they found that the man was actually  opposed to the library.  The entire performance was a carefully  orchestrated charade designed to make library supporters appear to be  anti-Semitic radicals.    "They will never give up!"      The library now looks certain to go ahead on schedule.    "But they will never give up," warns a war-weary veteran of the  Golda Meir conflict.  "A year or five years or ten years from  now they will be back to try to change the name.  Sooner or later  they will win.  And if Grafton is not careful they will probably  change it to something like 'Menachem Begin' or 'Ariel Sharon.'"    "They persist in throwing stones from their glass house," he  said, "so the best defense is a counter-attack.  Start a drive  to change the Golda Meir Library back to its original name."      BIOGRAPHY:  Ennes was a lieutenant on the bridge of the USS Liberty  when the ship  was attacked.  His book about the attack, Assault on the Liberty  (Random  House, 1980; Ballantine, 1987) has been called the most important book of  the  year by two leading reviewers, and was named "editor's choice"  when reviewed  in the Washington Post.  It is routinely removed from bookshelves,  however,  when area spokesmen for Israel complain to booksellers that they have  stocked  a book that is "anti-Israel" and "offensive to Jewish  people everywhere."                  

_____________
E.
from Bertell Ollman :
Sent: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:36 pm
Subject: Help Distribute Press Release on Churchill

Francis -
    I think the press release below on the Ward Churchill  case is also very worth putting up on your site.
   Bertell
 

What follows ... is a press release on the CUs Presidents recommendation to fire Ward Churchill. We are sending this to media outlets Tuesday morning. We would like your help in distributing it further to newsmedia, blogs, etc., that you know about.

Please let us know where you send it, where the press release is published, and what responses you receive.

And let us know if you would like to add your name to the press release as a signatory and/or a press contact.


For the National Project
in Defense of Dissent and Critical Thinking in Academia,

Contact:
Reggie Dylan: (626) 319-1730
Matthew Abraham: (773) 682-9322
Email: criticalxthinking@yahoo.com
Website: www.defendcriticalthinking.org


--------------------------------------------------------

National Project in Defense of Dissent and Critical Thinking in Academia
 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 

  In a letter to the Board of Regents, University of Colorado President Hank Brown has called for the dismissal of tenured Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill. His recommendation goes beyond that of the faculty investigative committee that  examined charges of research misconduct; and of the faculty Privilege and Tenure (P&T) committee that recently heard Churchills  appeal. Gov. Bill Ritter of Colorado joined Brown in calling for the firing of Churchill, as his predecessor Bill Owens did two years earlier. The Board of Regents is expected to make a
  final decision in this case at a public hearing some time in July.

  A growing number of scholars see CUs   investigation of Churchills   scholarship as completely illegitimate and a dangerous precedent threatening dissent and critical thinking in the universities. The CU - Boulder chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has written that "we believe that the investigation now is widely perceived to be a pretext for firing Churchill when the real reason for dismissal is his politics." The investigation was launched in the wake of controversy provoked by an essay Churchill wrote after 9/11.

  Churchill noted in response to Browns  letter that "the University had received no formal or written complaints about my scholarship when it initiated this investigation. All of the allegations investigated were either solicited or brought directly by University administrators." He also noted that "The Investigative Committee charged with conducting a fact-finding, nonadversarial'd5 investigation was chaired by law professor Mimi Wesson, who - in February 2005 - had compared me to 'charismatic male celebrity wrongdoers' like O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson
  and Bill Clinton, and had already come up with the faulty 'traffic stop' analogy the Committee used to justify its conclusions." The committee included no American Indians or experts in American Indian Studies, and scholars that had used Churchills   research in their own work were removed from the committee.

  The report of the committee hearing Churchills  appeal found that Churchill proved by a preponderance of the Evidence that but for his exercise of his protected first amendment rights, the subsequent investigation of his scholarship would never have been initiated.

  In a recent open letter to colleagues around the country Dr. Margaret LeCompte, President of the Boulder AAUP Chapter, wrote: "What has happened at the University of Colorado makes a mockery of both due process and academic freedom protections, AND what faculty believe. It is a cruel violation ofthe delicate balancebetween facultyrights and administrative responsibilities'c9 The entire process was a sham---imitating the form, but not the intent, of due process and fair, objective, scholarly investigation."

 Two faculty groups that have examined the report of the investigative committee claim that the report is seriously flawed. In an unprecedented action, both have now filed formal charges of academic misconduct against the members of the faculty committee. The most recent group to do so, made up of principally Indigenous scholars from around the country and Canada, documented "many instances of fraud, fabrication, plagiarism and/or serious deviation from accepted scholarly practices" which "demonstrate a consistent pattern of deliberate misrepresentation intended to discredit Professor Churchills  larger body of scholarship." Eric Cheyfitz, Ernest I. White Professor of American Studies and Humane Letters at Cornell University, has found the Report turns what is a debate about controversial issues of identity and genocide in Indian studies into an indictment of one position in that debate.

 The implications of this case go beyond the threat to Churchills   reputation and career, as serious as those are. The attack on Churchill is seen by many in academia as part of a much broader attack on academic freedom and critical thinking and dissent. Dr. LeCompte notes, "It is not limited to Colorado. In fact, it is a test case by the US right wing to emasculate faculty rights in US universities."

  This is illustrated by the recent denial of tenure for DePaul University political scientist Norman Finkelstein. Though he was supported by his department, Finkelstein was denied tenure after an intense campaign spearheaded by Harvard Law Schools   Alan M. Dershowitz, who called Finkelstein "worse than Churchill." Many DePaul faculty and others were alarmed at Dershowitzs  heavy-handed tactics and saw them as an attempt to punish one side of a controversial debate. Finkelstein said that DePauls  decision was based on transparently political grounds and was an egregious violation of academic freedom.

  Churchill noted in his response to Browns  letter that President Brown, his new VP Michael Poliakoff, and Regent Tom Lucero, like Bill Owens, are key players in Lynne Cheneys  American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA). ACTA and similar neoconservative groups have received generous funding [from] Castle Rock (Coors), Scaife, Bradley and Olin foundations to eliminate Ethnic, Gender and Peace Studies Programs and to purge higher education of those who think critically, challenge historical orthodoxy, or otherwise threaten the status quo."

  Opposition to this impending firing has been increasing nationally, as more and more academics recognize the stakes involved in the Churchill case. An open letter signed by numerous prominent scholars, including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Derrick Bell and Immanuel Wallerstein was published in the New York Review of Books in April. Scores of others have written letters of support, and there was a recent Emergency National Forum in Boulder of academics and supporters. The Society of American Law Teachers has written a letter arguing against a firing.
 
  Richard Falk, visiting Distinguished Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara recently wrote: "All of us who value academic freedom should now stand in full solidarity with Ward Churchill. The outcome of his case at the University of Colorado is the best litmus test we have to tell whether the right-wings  assaults on learning and liberty will stifle campus life in this country. Never in my lifetime have we in America more needed the sort of vigorous debate and creative controversy that Ward Churchills   distinguished career epitomizes. We all stand to lose if his principled defense fails."

 
  Signed:

  Matthew Abraham - Department of English, De Paul University.
  William Ayers - Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar, University of Illinois at Chicago.
  Derrick A Bell - Visiting Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law.
  Timothy Brennan - Departments of English and Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota.
  Renate Bridenthal - Emerita Professor of History, Brooklyn College, The City University of New York.
  Bob Buzzanco - Department of History, University of Houston.
  Dana Cloud - Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas (Austin).
  Drucilla Cornell - Professor in the Departments of Law and Political Science at Rutgers University.
  Sandi E Cooper - Professor of History, College of Staten Island and the Graduate School, The City University of New York.
  Richard Delgado - University Distinguished Professor of Law and Derrick Bell Fellow, University of Pittsburgh.
  Richard A Falk - Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice at Princeton University; Visiting Distinguished Professor (since 2002), Global Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara.
  Ruth Hsu - Associate Professor of Engiish, University of Hawaii at Manoa
  Seth Kahn - Assistant Professor of English, West Chester University of PA.
  Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies, Middle East Institute, Columbia University.
  Vinay Lal - Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles.
  Gary Leupp - Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion.
  Henry Silverman - Professor and Chairperson Emeritus, Department of History, Michigan State University.
  Immanuel Wallerstein - Senior Research Scholar, Yale University.
  Tim Wise - Author of "White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son," and "Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White."


  For more information, contact us at:
  (626) 319-1730
" mailto:Criticalxthinking@yahoo.com"
" http://www.defendcriticalthinking.org/"


  Or contact any of the faculty listed below to arrange an interview:
  Matthew Abraham: matthew.mabraha2@gmail.com ; (773) 682-9322.
  Timothy Brennan - brenn032@umn.edu; (651) 228-0965.
  Dana Cloud - " mailto:dcloud@mail.utexas.edu"; (512) 471-1947.
  Drucilla Cornell - sgkcornell@aol.com; (212) 260-9730.
  Seth Kahn - skahn@wcupa.edu; (610) 436-2915.


______________
F.
from Edward Herman :
Subject:  VFP, VVAW Lobby Congress w/ Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange Dioxin Poisoning
Date: Sat, 16 Jun 2007
 

  Courageous VietNamese victims of Agent Orange Dioxin poisoning gather on steps  

of the Rayburn House Office Building
 

  Ms Nguyen Thi Hong slung a Kalishnikov AK 47 when she was a Viet Cong operative,
  in the same area of III Corps, War Zone C & D, between Bien Hoa and Nui Ba Den, that
  yours truly had operated in, when I was a Paratrooper-Rifleman during the Tet Offensive,
  in 1968, with the 101st Airborne Division.
  Agent Orange has caused her to have multiple miscarriages and stillbirths, and numerous
  life threatening diseases.

    Ms Hong shows U.S. Representative Jim McDermott (D-7th/Wash) the area of operations
  where she and I fought each other.  Congressman McDermott is a M.D., and he ran a
  Depleted Uranium ( DU ) workshop @ our Seattle Convention last summer.

 
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, and Delaware Valley Veterans
Executive Director Bill Perry pay rapt attention to more of the compelling narratives of
our Agent Orange Survivors.

 

  The next day, during a press conference at our Viet Nam Wall, VFP Prez Emeritus,
Dave Cline introduces the dude I have my arm around, Vo Thanh Hai.  He is from Hue,
and he suffers from Hodgkins Disease.
    The Brother next to Hai is Nguyen Van Quy, who served his country on the heavily
defoliated Ho Chi Minh Trail.  Quy HAS liver cancer, stomach cancer, and 3 other AO related
Cancers.  He is weeks away from an appointment with the Grim Reaper.
    The youngster on the far right is Nguyen Muoi.  His daddy was an ARVN ( Army of the
Republic of Viet Nam ) soldier, who fought along side of our U.S. Troops.  His daddy had
AO poisoning so bad, Muoi was born with Spina Bifida.

 
This brilliant young lady is perfectly healthy, and an expert on Dioxin related diseases,
including

• Chloracne
• Diabetes Mellitus, Type II
• Hodgkins disease.
• Multiple myeloma.
• Non-Hodgkins lymphoa. 
• Acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy.
• Porphyria cutanea tarda.
• Prostate cancer.
• Respiratory cancers (cancer of the lung, bronchus, larynx, or trachea). 
• Soft-tissue sarcoma
• & CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA

ALL OF WHICH ARE PROVEN & COMPENSATED for U.S.,

Austrailian, and New Zealand Troops with Viet Nam exposure.

 

One of the more moving moments over the last couple days was when Quy, ( with
the tie ) who weighs about 75 pounds, and can't walk without help, was arm and arm
with me as I was explaining the time frames of 23 of my peeps who died, from my Platoon,
between "WALL" panel 32 East, and 45 East ( Dec 19th, 1967 to March 18th, 1968 )
    A large crowd of "WALL" tourists had gathered around us, including two 'Nam Vets,
who are now GrandPops, and about 8 of their grandchildren.
    One of the precocious grandkids pipes up with " Mister, you mean that you and him
were enemies, and now, you're friends?"

     I answered, "No, son, now we're Brothers"...  And, simultaneously, BOTH GRANDPOPS

BURST INTO TEARS.

 
 
There were 15 different Herbicides used for defoliation in Viet Nam.  Agent Blue,
Agent Pink, Agent Purple, etc., including Agent Orange 1, and, in 1968 & 1969,
"Super Orange".  The different colors were simply the colors of the labels, reflecting
different additives to the basic dioxin poison.
    The VA and the IOM grant AO comp after it's shown empirically that these diseases
occur in American Vets at 600% to 800% greater than the American statistical average
per 1000.

    The folks in Viet Nam exceed 15,000% of U.S. G.I.'s numbers. 


    Ms Nguyen Thi Hong, the woman in photo #2, rode next to me in our 12 person van
for about 300 miles.  Her feet need to be elevated, so her ankles and calves don't get too big.
    She rested both her legs on my thighs.  Normal body temperature is in the 98 degree range.
I'd guess her inflamed areas to be in the 110 degree range.  SHE's ON FIRE!  It's a hell of a way to go through life.  All of us who've been to 'Nam have observed and learned the definition of  stoic.

 
    Iraq is costing us $2 Billion per week.  Could you imagine how far that could go in
treatment, and pain management in a country where $50 a month is enough to get by?

  http://vn-agentorange.org/
 

Please visit this website to learn about Saturday, June 16th, at SEIU, NYC

AND

US Court of Appeals Hearing June 18 2007, in Manhatten, @ NOON
Come out in support of the Vietnamese Agent Orange victims lawsuit against the U.S. chemical manufacturers
Thank you


Be Well, RAISE HELL !
Bill Perry 215-945-3350
Delaware Valley Veterans For America
Disabled American Veteran, VVAW, VFP, VFW, VVA

  http://www.Arlington-Libertybell.net/

  http://www.VFP144.org
 

_________________
G.
from Bertell Ollman :
Subject: The Pentagon v. Peak Oil
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174810


Francis -
    Here's an unusual take on our war(s) and the dreadful system behind it. A natural for the web site.
    bertell