(July 9) — After weeks of silence, the sister of one of the two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea finally got a phone call.
“It was only the first time I had heard her voice in weeks. … I was so relieved but I feel so helpless,” Lisa Ling, a CNN contributor, told affiliate KOVR in an interview Wednesday. “Because as an older sister, a best friend, a self-professed ‘doer,’ it’s just difficult to know I cannot do anything to bring her home.”
Ling said she spoke to her sister, Laura Ling, over the phone Tuesday night. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced in June to 12 years in prison on charges of illegally entering the country to conduct a smear campaign.
Lisa Ling is hoping the arrests will push the United States and the reclusive communist nation to engage in diplomatic talks.
“I know that our government has been working behind the scenes very hard trying to bring the girls back home,” she said. But she added, “Our countries don’t talk, and perhaps this could be a reason.”
She said her sister “was very specific about the message that she was communicating, and she said, ‘Look, we violated North Korean law and we need our government to help us. We are sorry about everything that has happened, but we need diplomacy.’”
Ling said that without being able to look at her sister, it was difficult to tell how she was doing. She described the past few weeks as being engulfed in a “terrifying and deafening” silence.
The two detainees — who are reporters for California-based Current TV, a media venture of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore — were arrested while reporting on the border between North Korea and China.
The North’s state media released a “detailed report” last month, saying that Ling and Lee entered the country illegally to record material for a “smear campaign” against the reclusive communist state.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the United States is seeking the immediate release of the two journalists on humanitarian grounds.
Ladies and gents – it’s been a long time coming, but I’m finally falling back into the fold.
I’ve been out of touch, out of whack, out of my mind for the past few months….and I’m just starting to get it back on track, and the right pieces in the right places. It’s been a long haul.
That being said – I’m back….so you can look forward to some new stuff, i.e. opinion based stuff and the music shit I’m known for. That’s the one thing I’ve been about to somewhat stay on top of – I can’t be without my tunes.
Anyways….good to be back. big, Big, BIG ups to my main man 50 grand – Dave aka Dirty aka (apparently) The Durham Agitator aka L’Enfant Terrible of the Carolinas aka “Take it to the Bridge(s) aka Mr. “I can’t smoke anymore…there’s no way I can get any higher than I am right now…” circa 1998…..lol.
Debbie Almontaser (also Dhaba Almontaser or Dhabah Almontaser) is a teacher[1] of Yemeni descent who was the founding principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, a New York Arab-themed public school, named after the Christian Arab poet, Khalil Gibran.
Almontaser was forced by the Department of Education and the Mayor of the City of New York to resign after a controversy arose over a T-shirt created by a group called “Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media”, an organization that used office space to run its youth program at Saba: Association of Yemeni American which Almontaser is a board member.[2] The T-shirt had the words, “Intifada NYC” on it, which, according to the New York Post, was “apparently a call for a Gaza-style uprising in the Big Apple“.[3] Bennet asked Almontaser for the Arabic root word of the word Intifada. Almontaser, who was accompanied on the phone by a Dept of Education press expert, explained that the word “comes from the root word that means ’shaking off’. That is the root word if you look it up in Arabic.” To a follow up question stating the girls at AWAAM are planning a Gaza-style uprising, Almontaser added that she understood that “it is developing a negative connotation due to the uprising in the Palestinian-Israeli areas” and that she does not “believe the intention is to have any of that kind of [violence] in New York City.” The Post quoted her as saying “I think it’s pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society . . . and shaking off oppression.” (ellipses in original)[3]. The “it’s” in her statement is referring to the training the girls were getting at this youth program.
Almontaser denied using the phrase “shaking off oppression,” and a federal appeals court ruled that the Post had quoted her “incorrectly and misleadingly.”[4]
The next day, the Board of Education issued a statement without her approval that said, “By minimizing the word’s historical associations I implied that I condone violence and threats of violence….That view is anathema to me and the very opposite of my life’s work.”[5]
On August 9, 2007 Randi Weingartend president of the New York City teacher’s union, wrote a letter to the Post agreeing with the editorial and calling for Almontaser’s head. New Visions for Public Schools, Chancellor Klein and Mayor Bloomber demanded Almontaser’s resignation by 8 AM the next morning threatening to nix the school if she didn’t resign. The full account was highlighted in the front page New York Times article “Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream Job”.
The New York Post immediately called Almontaser the “Intifada Principal” and published an editorial with the headline “What’s Arabic for ‘Shut It Down’?”[7]Randi Weingarten, president of the New York City teacher’s union, wrote a letter to the Post agreeing with the editorial.[8]
However, in a New York Times article, journalism professor Samuel G. Freedman wrote, “For anyone who bothered to look for it, Ms. Almontaser left a clear, public record of interfaith activism and outreach across the boundaries of race, ethnicity and religion. Her efforts, especially after the September 11 attacks, earned her honors, grants and fellowships. She has collaborated so often with Jewish organizations that an Arab-American newspaper, Aramica, castigated her earlier this summer for being too close to a ‘Zionist organization,’ meaning the Anti-Defamation League. Ms. Almontaser has twice been profiled on Voice of America as an accomplished Muslim American.”[9] Though media sources have sometimes misquoted Amontaser and misrepresented the facts, there have been numerous interviews directly with Almontaser which have allowed her to tell her story. Some examples are her recent interviews on National Public Radio’s the Brian Lehrer Show [10], and Democracy Now! [11]
Local politicians like Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz have expressed support for Almontaser, calling for her to be reinstated. Markowitz noted that Almontaser “was dumped on, and she doesn’t deserve it” and that he has “witnessed her work, bringing Muslims and Jews and other religions together.” [12] Additionally, Councilman John Liu noted that the Department of Education, “and this administration acted totally irresponsibly and violated the trust placed in them in what they allowed to happen to Debbie Almontaser.”[13]
Along with local politicians, there was an outpouring of community support for Almontaser, with hundreds of individuals and organizations signing statements in support of Almontaser and the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) [14][15][16][17][18] . A group called Communities in Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy formed in order to support the school as well as Almontaser. This group believes that KGIA needs better support from the Department of Education and New Visions in order to succeed, and has been a strong voice for Debbie Almontaser’s reinstatement throughout this controversy. This group organized press conferences and press releases in order to get the truth out. It also organized an event celebrating the original vision of the school on January 29,2008 where a few hundred people attended to support Debbie Almontaser’s and the school she envision with her design team who were honored that evening. [19], and maintains an informational website at http://kgia.wordpress.com/
On November 19, 2007, Almontaser brought a lawsuit claiming that, in forcing her to resign because of her interview with the New York Post, and denying her the opportunity to be considered for the position of permanent principal at the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the Department of Education violated her First Amendment rights.[20][21] On February 5, 2008, Almontaser requested that the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan grant a preliminary injunction to force the board of education to give her an interview for the job of principal.[22] On March 20, the Appeals court rejected her request and sent it back to the trial court.[23][24]
On March 3, she filed an amended complaint in her federal lawsuit and a charge with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, both of which assert that Department of Education (DOE) officials discriminated against her on the basis of race, religion, and national origin
According to the Jewish Week, Almontaser invited hundreds of Jews and Christians to her own home after the 9/11 attack. She had joined organizations to form social action groups, such as We Are All Brooklyn, an inter-ethnic initiative supported by the Jewish Community Relations Council, to combat hate crimes in Brooklyn. Almontaser also trained with the Anti-Defamation League’s anti-bias program, A World of Difference, as a facilitator for diversity training and inter-group dynamics in the public schools.[26]
She conducted sensitivity training and presentations in Churches, Synagogues and other houses of worship.[1] Almontaser has also worked as a liaison between the Muslim community and the NYPD.[27] Her son spent months at the World Trade Center site as a member of the Army National Guard and her cousins have served the US Military in Iraq.
Almontaser has also been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Pax Christi Metro New York 2008 Peacemaker Award [28], and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice’s annual Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer Risk-Taker Award in 2007
So who is Ward Churchill and why is his story important?
is an American writer and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1990 to 2007. The primary focus of his work is on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States. His work features controversial and provocative claims, written in a direct – often confrontational – style.
In January 2005, Churchill’s work attracted publicity, with the widespread circulation of a 2001 essay, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. In the essay, he claimed that the September 11, 2001 attacks were provoked by U.S. policy, and referred to some people working in the World Trade Center as “technocrats” and “little Eichmanns“.In March 2005 the University of Colorado began investigating allegations that Churchill had engaged in research misconduct; it reported in June 2006 that he had done so. Churchill was fired on July 24, 2007,leading to a claim from some scholars that he was fired over the ideas he expressed.Churchill filed a lawsuit against the University of Colorado for unlawful termination of employment. In April 2009 a Denver jury found that Churchill was wrongly fired, awarding him $1 in damages.
Glenn Beck nods and agrees with his guest Michael Scheuer that the only way to “save” the US (from illegal immigrants, of course) is for Osama bin Laden to succeed in detonating a weapon on America…
(11Alive.com) — A boat carrying aid to pro-Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip was surrounded and boarded by Israeli forces off the coast of the Gaza Strip Tuesday. Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was one of the 21 people on board who were taken into Israeli custody and held at the port of Ashrod in Israel.
McKinney is quoted as saying that the confrontation was “an outrageous violation of international law,” and she claimed the boat was on a humanitarian mission and was not in Israeli waters.
The Israeli military said the boat tried to violate Israel’s security blockade and enter Gaza illegally.
The 21 passengers and crew on the Greek-registered ship “Arion” was working for the U.S.-based “Free Gaza Movement.” Among them, besides McKinney, was 1977 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Mairead Maguire.
Israeli forces have maintained a blockade on the Palestinian territory since 2007, partly to prevent smugglers from delivering weapons and munitions to Gaza.
McKinney was involved in a similar incident exactly six months earlier, on December 30, 2008. She was on the S.S. Dignity, and it collided with an Israeli navy craft that was part of the same blockade as she and her group claimed they were attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Said McKinney then, “Our mission was a peaceful mission, to deliver medical supplies. And our mission was thwarted by the Israelis, the aggressiveness of the Israeli military.”
Now, as then, the Israeli government is accusing McKinney and her group of knowingly entering waters internationally recognized as under Israeli security and control.
The Israeli Consulate General of Israel in Atlanta e-mailed a statement to 11Alive News pointing out that humanitarian aid organizations are delivering supplies into Gaza every day — by land.
The statement said, “Once again, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and her fellow travelers have taken it upon themselves to disregard their own safety… by leading a boat into restricted waters. Ms. McKinney ignored the available and legal means for the delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip and instead chose to make a reckless political stunt.”
The “Free Gaza” website, freegaza.org, quotes McKinney as saying that she and her group are in the right.
“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us,” she was quoted as saying. “Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip. President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”
Israel is expected to deport McKinney and her group shortly, and promised to deliver, to Gaza, all of the humanitarian aid that was on their boat — by land.
