Topic started by ezhil (@ kuma.gb.nrao.edu) on Sun Nov 5 10:15:33 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Has anyone here read the book?? If not, please do so and let me know what you think - this book is not exactly literature but it has shaped my thinking a great deal. This book is an absolute must for everyone wanting to keep minds sharp ...

Responses:

• From: Paraschos (@ lubcdwts.lub.lu.se) on: Thu Sep 6 06:34:11
  
  Hej!
  I read whatever I can come over by J. Pilger because I found his writings inspired by a social pathos whitch is very much needed nowadays.
  His book hidden agenda is another cry for social justice, human rights and against any kind of power abuse. He knows the mentality of Anglosaxon volgar kapitalism and helps nonanglosaxon people to understand their robery mentality and arogans.
  
  
• From: john pilger (@ ) on: Fri May 10 17:30:42
  
  thank you john pilger especially for your documentary entitled apartheid did not die which concerns south african history by the way iam a student from the university of zimbabwe write me using the following address e mudyazvivi new complex 1 p bag mp 167 mt pleasant harare zimbabwe purpose is that i want to keep in touch with you your writings are so passionate and inspiring thank you by e mudyazvivi
  
  
• From: john pilger (@ 196.4.80.89) on: Fri May 10 17:31:55
  
  thank you john pilger especially for your documentary entitled apartheid did not die which concerns south african history by the way iam a student from the university of zimbabwe write me using the following address e mudyazvivi new complex 1 p bag mp 167 mt pleasant harare zimbabwe purpose is that i want to keep in touch with you your writings are so passionate and inspiring thank you by e mudyazvivi
  
  
• From: Christopher Gott (@ spider-wn073.proxy.aol.com) on: Thu Jul 4 15:47:51
  
  John Pilger is little more than a pseudo-intellectual with anti-American views based on his envy of the united States of America, Americans, and the American way of life. I bet John Pilger cannot point to one single thing the United states government, or any US Citizen has done to hinder him in any way, take away from his lifestyle, make him feel unwelcome or even been rude to him. The Americans I know and love, are kind decent people who have a real desire to see the rest of the world do as well as the United states does, economicaly, socialy, and otherwise.
  His anti-American Views are based in his own hatred of self, he's projecting.
  Sour grapes, I say. Nothing more.
  
  
• From: Christopher Gott (@ spider-wn073.proxy.aol.com) on: Thu Jul 4 15:47:56
  
  John Pilger is little more than a pseudo-intellectual with anti-American views based on his envy of the united States of America, Americans, and the American way of life. I bet John Pilger cannot point to one single thing the United states government, or any US Citizen has done to hinder him in any way, take away from his lifestyle, make him feel unwelcome or even been rude to him. The Americans I know and love, are kind decent people who have a real desire to see the rest of the world do as well as the United states does, economicaly, socialy, and otherwise.
  His anti-American Views are based in his own hatred of self, he's projecting.
  Sour grapes, I say. Nothing more.
  
  
• From: :) (@ spider-wn073.proxy.aol.com) on: Thu Jul 4 15:50:05
  
  E-mail from above Reply
  Makethemthink@aol.com
  
  
• From: Courtenay Barnett (@ port0136-cvx-carl1.cwjamaica.com) on: Sun Mar 9 22:58:46
  
  
  WHY NOT INDICT THE FACILATORS AS WELL AS THE CULPRITS WHO ACT ONCE FACILITATED?
  
  “Criminal’s Accomplice”
  
  
  
  (A one act/one scene play with a potentially horrific end.)
  
  
  
  Setting: A War Crimes Tribunal, somewhere in Europe.
  
  
  
  Actors: Three Judges; an international war crimes Prosecutor; a Court Clerk; two armed court officers; Donald Rumsfeld
  
  
  
  Act 1
  
  
  Scene one. A black curtain is slowly drawn to reveal a somber setting. Three Judges ( A President of the Court; the Judge on the President’s right; The Judge on the President’s left); two armed guards; a Court Clerk who reads the charges; the Prosecutor; Donald Rumsfeld, standing as an accused before the Tribunal.
  
  
  
  President ( looking at Rumsfeld): Mr. Rumsfeld you have been brought before this Tribunal for reason that by international consensus, a vast majority of people in the world had petitioned for your trial for complicity in crimes against humanity. Should this Tribunal find you guilty, you can be sentenced to life imprisonment. Do you understand?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Yes I do.
  
  
  
  President: Is there anything you wish to say before the trial commences?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: I am an American citizen, and this court has no jurisdiction over me. I am American, I am above international law, and in fact I am a law unto myself.
  
  
  
  President: Precisely, and it is those misconceived notions which got you into this predicament in the first place. Commence with the charges.
  
  
  
  Court Clerk: Reads a long list of jurisprudential formalities, and then adds…
  
  
  
  “ facilitating the procurement of chemical weapons , namely bis- ( 2-cholorethyl) – sulfide ( more commonly known as mustard gas) for sale to the Government of Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein.”
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Is that supposed to be a charge?
  
  
  
  President: Mr. Rumsfeld the international law applicable to your alleged heinous conduct was read out to you previously. Would you care to have the passages repeated?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: What’s this international law, international law indeed! I told you already I don’t give a damn about any international law – I am an American citizen.
  
  
  
  President: ( looking at Prosecutor) : Please begin questioning.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: Mr. President there is one more charge.
  
  
  
  President: Clerk, please read the charge.
  
  
  
  Clerk: “Facilitating the procurement of chemical weapons , namely ethyl N, N-dimethylphosphoroamidocyanidate ( more commonly known as Tabun) for sale to the Government of Iraq under the rule of Saddam Hussein.”
  
  
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: And that’s what you call a charge? So I helped in getting and approving sales of chemical weapons, and a lot of other weapons for Saddam Hussein, and what of it? There is no crime in that. We sold him weapons because it was in the interest of the United States to sell weapons to him and his bunch of bandits in Iraq . Don’t you understand that he was conducting a war with Iran, and we needed to have a no win situation. It was in US interest. I did my law abiding duty to my country. ( Rumsfled turns from his focus on the President, looks slowly to the center of the court room, lowers his head, and almost sotto voce says) – and I don’t see why I am in this damn court for all the good that I have done for God and country.
  
  
  
  President: Mr. Prosecutor – you may begin questioning.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: Your name is Donald Rumsfeld, and you held office under President Reagan, and you have been Secretary of Defence for the United Stares of America?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Yes.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: During the period of the Iran- Iraq War – do you recall being an envoy to Baghdad?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Yes.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: And at the time you carried a hand-written letter and personally delivered it to Iraq’s President, Saddam Hussein?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Yes.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: It is also true to say that at the time of your visit to Iraq you were the highest ranking United States official to have visited Iraq in the previous six years.
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Probably.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: It was either so or it wasn’t. Are you able to name anyone in the preceding six years, prior to your visit to Baghdad, who held higher office than yourself who had visited Baghdad; or, more precisely had at all visited Iraq?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: No.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: So…
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Look, it’s all lawyers’ games, if this then that, so what ? O.K. yes I was the top guy who visited.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: Would you have a look at the three exhibits which I am about to hand up to you - listed “A” , “B” and “C’ for ease for reference.
  
  
  
  ( papers are handed to Rumsfeld)
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: Please look at “ A”. And you accept that in March 1984 you were in Baghdad.
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Yes.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: Now turn to “B”. From that United Press International report, you accept that it was reported internationally that, and I quote in part, “ Mustard gas laced with a nerve agent has been used on Iranian soldiers in the 43-month Persian Gulf War between Iran and Iraq….” And it goes on “ Meanwhile, in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, U.S. presidential envoy Donald Rumsfeld held talks with Foreign Minister Tarek Aziz on the Gulf War before leaving for an unspecified destination.” Do you accept that report as factually accurate?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Well I already told you that I was in Baghdad, but I wasn’t there doing the gassing.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: Do you have reason to doubt that at the time it was reported, you personally knew, and the day before your meeting with Tariq Aziz it had been reported that some 600 Iranian soldiers had been gassed with chemical weapons on the southern front.
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: I told you I wasn’t there gassing, so how am I to know?
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: Look at exhibit “C” Mr. Rumsfeld. By reference to that document, is it no less a person than US Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, who acknowledged, “ We think the use of chemical weapons is a very serious matter. We’ve made that clear in general and particular.” Now, do you deny that as a very senior US official you knew and were fully aware of the gassing with chemical weapons?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: O.K., you got me on that one.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: And on March 29, 1984, it was reported in the New York Times, “ American diplomats pronounce themselves satisfied with relations between Iraq and the United States and suggest that normal diplomatic ties have been restored in all but name.”
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Look, I am no dummy, my name is Donald, not George, you are going to go to some paper and ask this, and question the other , and therefore this, and all that lawyer bulls... Let me just tell you plain and straight. In May, 1984, I resigned. You want to suggest that I am the facilitator who gave support when Iraq was actively using chemical weapons. You are then going on to say that during my period Iraq was actively purchasing weapons and chemical agents from American firms. Well let me tell you something Buddy, that’s just how the world is. I did it for my country, The U.S. of A. which I love. Look, I am not some kind of Milosovic, or some criminal, who you put in some monkey cage and get away with it. We will bomb the s... out of this court before that is allowed to happen. You guys just don’t get it, yes we sold – yes I helped procure the weapons. I did what was right for my country at the time. I came back and I have loyally served George W. Yes, Saddam gassed the Kurds in 1988.Yes we sold him 60 Hughes helicopters and more stuff too.
  
  
  
  President: Mr. Rumsfeld, just a couple questions.
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Sure.
  
  
  
  President: Having just admitted as you did, you have been a great help to this Tribunal, and have probably shortened the trial considerably – however, just for the record, a couple points. Do you, personally, not feel any sense of remorse for the complicity in first facilitating the Iraqi government’s atrocities, and then never having done anything about it?
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: Look, under Clinton I signed a letter saying that we should get rid of Saddam.
  
  
  
  President: But when you were in a position to inform the world about the atrocities you were totally silent.
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: You just don’t get it. We sold him the stuff, and we needed him then, so why should I have said anything? It would not be logical. It would not have made sense. But when Geroge W. got back in we are focused on oil and we moved aggressively after him. The guy is a tyrant, so he had to be got rid of.
  
  
  
  Prosecutor: Mr. Rumsfeld…
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld: I have had enough of this court crap.
  
  
  
  Rumsfeld turns and walks towards the main doors of the court, and as he does so he is approached by the court’s two armed officers. Rumsfeld turns and says…
  
  
  
  “If one of you so much as puts a hand on me, the Marines will be here quicker than you can say ‘Saddam Hussein’ . I am out of here guys, back to God’s own country, the U.S.of A.”
  
  
  
  As he walks through the court’s doors a loud mocking laugh is heard.
  
  The End.
  Courtenay Barnett: barnett46@hotmail.com)
  
  
  
• From: Christopher (@ ip105-251.the-beach.net) on: Tue Jan 20 01:56:42
  
  Good thing we have Marines then eh?
  
  
• From: quake (@ 202.68.154.19) on: Tue Jan 20 19:48:13 EST 2004
  
  http://www.iomx.com/
  
  

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