Congressman Bill Delahunt and the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, held a hearing Nov. 15 on the case of Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban terrorist currently living in Miami. The hearing was to understand why Posada, unlike other accused terrorists, has so far been able to escape being held accountable for his crimes.
What did he do? His worst crime was the midair bombing of a civilian airliner in 1976 that resulted in the deaths of 73 civilians.
Peter Kombluh from the National Security Archive testified that declassified records show that Posada had foreknowledge of the bombing, was in possession of a surveillance report on Cuban targets (including the plane), received coded messages immediately after the plane crashed from men who had planted the bombs. He was also identified as one of the two masterminds of the attack.
But this story puts the US in a bad light (protecting, and even possibly paying for terror against other nations). The NY Times wouldn't touch it.
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The Madison Avenue jewelry store LEVIEV New York was again the site of protests by human rights activists angered by Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev's settlement construction in Palestine, and other abusive practices in Angola and New York City. Tuesday evening’s protest, on the second day the store was open to the public, followed a noisy, surprise protest at LEVIEV New York’s gala opening on November 13 which derailed the evening for the celebrities and socialites in attendance.
Riham Barghouti, a spokesperson for Adalah-NY, explained that “This new campaign is a strong local response to the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. It shows the willingness of more individuals in the US in general and in New York City in particular to carry out effective action to oppose the building of Israeli settlements on confiscated Palestinian land, and other Israeli human rights violations.”
The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has also reported that Leviev is a primary donor to the right-wing Israeli organization the Land Redemption Fund. The Fund spends its large budget to secure Palestinian land for Israeli settlement expansion, allegedly with the aid of deceit and strong arm- tactics.
The Israeli press can cover Leviev's misdeeds, but not the NY Times. In fact, what the NY Times covers is hard to stomach, a long article in the Magazine section applauding him as a self made man and "legendary philanthropist."
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2007/11/92915.shtml
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One of the curiosities of the New York Times is its habit, since George W. Bush took office, of assigning a gal reporter to the White House, apparently to generate warm and fuzzy puff pieces about the Commander in Chief.
The current Times ingénue assigned to this beat is Sheryl Gay Stolberg, whose latest softball was a Veterans Day feature entitled "Bush and Relatives of Fallen Lean on Each Other."
Stolberg’s story starts with Melissa Storey of Palmer, Mass. - whose husband, Army Staff Sgt. Clint Storey, "fell" after a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq. It then rambles on through 73 column inches, including two photos of the president hugging "folks," as Bush likes to call them, whose husbands, fathers, sons and daughters he has sent to their deaths. This is a lot of news space for meetings, according to White House staffers quoted by Stolberg, that are "deeply private" and never, ever publicized.
What went wrong here? How did these "deeply private" meetings with Mrs. Storey and so many other "folks" get exposed? Who leaked?
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/17/5291/
