- Dr. Mohamed Khodr writes letter to New York Times that
hasn't been published, raising questions as to fair and honest coverage.
Is the Times protecting Israeli interests to the detrimnet of America,
leading to censorship of important stories like the motives behind the
Iraqi War, 9/11, the Patriot Act and NSA snooping on Americans.
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- By Greg Szymanski
12-25-5
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- The year is ending with a flurry of concern over President
Bush's direct order to spy on Americans, using the Pentagon and National
Security Agency (NSA) spooks to ration out the government's dirty work
on mostly innocent and unsuspecting Americans.
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- The story recently broke in the mainstream press as the
heated debate to renew the highly controversial Patriot Act took center
stage in the Senate, ending last Friday as lawmakers agreed to a Feb 3,
2006, extension before any real action is taken.
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- For years, critics of the Patriot Act have been screaming
about its direct infringement on cherished constitutional privacy and speech
rights, but without much luck in getting any significant changes.
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- In fact, the NSA snooping story is directly related to
the Patriot Act's illegality since it gives spooks an unbridled power to
wiretap and eavesdrop on "suspected domestic terrorists," using
mere suspicion, without a warrant, as the legal thresh hold instead of
showing probable cause a crime is being committed.
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- Relaxing the legal standard from probable cause to mere
suspicion has most fair-minded legal scholars up in arms. But academia
provides little consolation for the millions of Americans now living under
the umbrella of a fascist state, since newspaper follow-up reports recently
pointed out the 18,000 people on the Bush spy list in the recent NSA story
is only the "tip of the iceberg."
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- The extent and sheer numbers of those being spied on
by the NSA without court-approved warrants based on probable cause ? not
mere suspicion ? is now thought to be much, much larger.
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- And even The New York Times, who sat on the story for
18 months as a favor to the Bush administration, reported this fact in
a Saturday follow-up to the original NBC story.
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- However, media critics complain both new agencies are
out to lunch and "a day late and a dollar short" with their reporting
efforts since widespread NSA and Pentagon abuse, with White House acknowledgement,
has been documented by the alternative press and civil rights activists
as early as 2002.
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- In fact, after the Times was caught red-handed in suppressing
the NSA snooping story for more than 18 months, it provided just another
example of the many stories, including 9/11 and the motives behind the
war in Iraq, suppressed by Times management.
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- The year-end question arises: Why?
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- Many critics contend the Times is protecting the Bush
administration and its neo-con world order agenda. Others also contend
its policies favor and protect Israeli interests while turning a blind-eye
to the U.S. and the rest of the world.
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- But knowing the Bush administration will step up efforts
in 2006 to spy on more Americans and the Times will continue to censor
even more important stories, let's end this year with a letter sent to
the New York Times, sent by Mohamed Khodr, MD, which never was published
but illustrated what Dr. Khodr feels is a "deep Israeli bias"
resulting in the censorship of many important stories, including the truth
behind the war in Iraq, 9/11, the Patriot Act, the NSA snooping story and
many others.
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- In an effort to hear all views, the following is the
unedited letter sent by Dr. Khodr to the publisher of the Times, Arthur
Sulzberger, but not yet published:
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- Dear Mr. Sulzberger:
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- Happy Hanukah:
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- "Just a brief note to reiterate what I've written
you on several occasions, written your editors including your letter editor,
that your paper is unable to shake the influence and hold whether ideological,
financial, political or just pure fear of confrontation of a Pro-Israel
bias that has severely damaged the credibility of your paper. The once
glorious paper of record has now come a timid infotainment paper that knows
where its bread is buttered, and its not from any sense of justice or fairness
it once embodied.
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- "Your paper's scandals, Pro-Israel and Pro-Iraq
War will continue to bleed your credibility as the wars have bled the blood
of the innocent youth of America, Iraq, Palestine, and Israel. Your support
of Israel in the long run is a losing proposition and will only further
alienate Americans and the world not only from Israel but from the future
peace and stability of Jewish grandchildren who may pay a burdensome price
for what you and the Zionist cabals have done to destroy this nation and
the future of peace in the MidEast. "Never Again" should be
the standard for the suffering of all humans not just for Jews who suffered
expulsions from every European country and principality, an Inquisition,
pogroms, hate, persecution, murders, and finally a Holocaust at the hands
of Europe, not in Muslim countries and certainly not in Palestine. It
was Islam that took Jewish refugees in and protected them, in fact placed
them in honorable governmnet positions, as was the case of RamBam (for
your letter editor's sake: that's Moses Maimonedes).
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- "Unfortunately your editor is of a lightweight intellect
doing his "kosher" duty rather than seeking enlightenment on
Zionism and Israel'shistory. I'm sure he's not read any part of the Babylonian
Talmud nor of any United Nations report on Israel's terrorism --The Bunche
Report to better understand why most Europeans think Israel is the main
threat to world peace. Keeping such knowledge out of your paper will only
further allow the Internet to exponentially expose the machinations of
the media's silence when non-kosher blood is spilled as was the case when
your front page plastered a huge photo of a suicide bomber's aftermath
of an exploding bus with a young Israeli girl dead at the window.
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- "I've lived through the hell of Sharon's cluster
bombs, napalm, and white phosphours bombs along with asphyxiating unknown
chemical gas in 1982 Beirut, his raiding of
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- hospitals to take the wounded out and kill them, his
destruction of entire buildings based on a "rumo" that Arafat
maybe in it, his cutting off ofwater, food, and medicines fromentire cities
and villages, his supportive massacre for 3 days of 2000 Palestinian civilians
in two refugee camps------I don't see Bill Keller clamoring for the paper
to publish a photo of such murders today for a historical context of Palestinian
dead.
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- Incidentally, the United Nations Security Council (with
U.S. support) passed several Resolutions just during the summer of 1982
"urging" Israel to withdraw, stop the massacred, and allow food,
water, and medicines into Beirut, but as usual Israel can tell the world
to go to hell for all it cares. Compare that with one U.N. Security Council
Resolution against Syria to withdraw from Lebanon which it did, thus it
seems the U.N. implements Israel's wishes but is impotent to even tell
Israel "NO".
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- "I see your paper took issue with the Congress cutting
$40 Billion of spending from America's poor over the next five years.
Given that's about $8 Billion a year from America's children, your paper
"forgot" to mentionthat this amount is what Israel receives almost
annually from the American taxpayer when all funding from so many hidden
"amendments" in the federal budget is accounted for. So Congress
and your paper obviously support starving America's children but more than
willing to pay for Israel's illegal squatters to leave their U.S. subsidized
homes from Gaza.
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- "Thus the question here is: Who decides America's
priorities? It's obviously not the silent majority of Americans who are
kept in the dark by the media, such as yours, as to who's alienating this
grand nation from the world and why are its children paying for the benefit
of a rich nation, Israel, the 16th richest nations in the world and a nation
who takes America's taxes and gives loans to other governments and entities,
thus reaping aid and interest from the American taxpayer who can't pay
for his or her drugs.
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- "Perhaps your editors can answer this simple question:
what conference was held in 1949 in Europe on the Palestinian issue and
what was its result?
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- "It's tragic that you as the publisher worry more
about your bottom line than about the foundation of peace for Israel.
Your hiring of such a biased editor who publishes TWO letters supporting
Israel---to be fair he doesn't dare deny an Israeli counsel or an Abe Foxman
letter which are published on an auto-pilot basis---and only ONE letter
supporting Palestinian democracy is an outrage and a slap to the face of
the editorial page, especially a page that helped launch a war based on
known lies. America was pushed into war by your paper and others, by MILLER,
LIBBY, PERLE, WOLFOWITZ, FEITH, ZAKHEIM, ABRAMS et. al---none of whom are
Arabs or Muslims.
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- "Do remove the "all the news that FIT to print".
It's hypocritical and unbecoming given that men like your letter editor
decide what's "FIT" to print. Obviously your public editor whom
I've written on several occasions is unable to deal with this issue or
is supportive of the letter editor's bias.
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- Human beings are dying overseas while you and your staff
enjoy your peaceful and well paid life. As I've told you previously,
your Grandfather was an "Anti-Zionist" who loathed the pressure
placed on him by the Zionists.
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- Happy Hanukah and Merry Christmas to your Editors and
Staff.
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- Mohamed Khodr M.D.
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- For more informative articles, go to www.arcticbeacon.com
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