DC Dave's Challenge
David Martin
You can't make a living reporting the truth
In the year two thousand and two.
If you don't believe me, just give it a try,
And we'll see what happens to you.
DC Dave
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DC Dave
Author, "America's Dreyfus Affair, The Case of the Death of Vincent Foster"
"Upton Sinclair and Timothy McVeigh"
"Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression"
http://www.thebird.org/host/dcdave
News group: alt.thebird
Bongi
In America we have free-speech but only if Israel allows it.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/Mideast/Talk-Show_Host_Learns_Tough_Le/talk-show_host_learns_tough_le.html
Talk-Show Host Learns Tough Lesson About Mainstream Censorship, Free
Speech and Israel
Freedom of speech on talk radio is censored—no matter what the
major media pundits tell you. That’s the lesson that 41-year-old
radio talk show host Ira Hansen learned when he was fired from his job
at KKOH 780 AM Radio in Reno, Nev. A five-year broadcast veteran and a
columnist for a local newspaper, Hansen lost his job when he
criticized U.S. policy toward Israel and powerful pro-Israel
supporters forced the owners of his radio station to fire him.
Hansen’s story is a classic case study of how a sincere American
supporter of Israel (who previously believed media myths about Zionism
and Israel) came to new perspectives after taking the time to actually
study the history of the controversy and then paid the price for
publicly speaking out on the issue.
Fortunately, one of the few truly independent radio voices
broadcasting today—Radio Free America, hosted by Tom Valentine
and sponsored by American Free Press—has provided Hansen a radio
forum to respond to his critics. Hansen was the guest on the Dec. 9
broadcast of Radio Free America. What follows is an edited
transcription of that interview. Valentine’s questions are in
boldface. Hansen’s responses are in regular text.
You hosted a talk forum over KKOH 780 AM in Reno, Nev., for five years
discussing a wide range of controversial issues, but just recently you
were abruptly fired. Please tell us the remarkable story.
I was fired over the single issue of Israel. To be honest with you,
until about 1996 I would be a good representative example of the
typical American: that is, I knew nothing about the history of the
Middle East. The only thing I knew—and this is what I thought
was the whole situation—was that “The Arabs hated
Jews” and that was the basis for all the fighting in the Middle
East.
A good example of that point of view is nationally syndicated
columnist Cal Thomas. The guy is totally blinded on this issue. Even
though Thomas claims to be a devout Christian, he looks upon Arabs
[many of whom are Christians] as though they are somehow subhuman. My
understanding of Christianity is that all of us—Jew and Gentile
alike—are equal in the eyes of God. That would include Arabs, in
my book.
In any case, about a year ago when Ariel Sharon first went into
Jerusalem to the Temple Mount and provoked the Muslims, I did a show
on that topic. I had done some research on the issue, and based on
that, I blamed the troubles that erupted on Sharon. I started to try
to explain some of the background about Israel. Most Americans really
know nothing about it.
So I did that show on Ariel Sharon and said: “Look, the majority
of these problems, if not all of it, can be blamed on Israel and its
behavior toward the Palestinian people.” Almost immediately I
was attacked as “anti-Semitic” and called names. They
started calling my boss at the radio station, behind my back, and
threatening to boycott the station. By “they,” I mean some
local Jewish people.
In all honesty, I have nothing against Jews. That’s the absolute
truth. And I was kind of mystified by what was happening. So my boss
called me in and said, “We’re getting all kinds of heat
from people over this. Knock off talking about Israel.” What he
really meant was knock off talking about Israel in the manner in which
I was talking about Israel. If I had wanted to say something positive
about Israel, no problem. Well, because it was pretty much the sword
hanging over my head there, I stopped talking about Israel.
But after Sept. 11, I just couldn’t stop. Everybody was talking
about the Middle East and what’s going on over there. Everybody
in the major media was saying things like “It’s about
anti-democracy” or “It’s about
anti-Americanism” or “It’s about
anti-Westernism” and I got on the air and said: “The
reason these Muslims are mad at America is not because of
anti-democratic attitudes.” I pointed out that there are
democratic governments in the Middle East that are Muslim [contrary to
the popular myth that “Israel is the only democracy in the
Middle East”]. It’s not about
“anti-democracy.” And it is not, I pointed out,
necessarily even about “anti-Westernism,” however you
define it.
It is about the absolute blind allegiance of the United States to
Israel and how we give Israel carte blanche treatment. That is the
root cause of the entire hatred of the Muslim world toward the United
States.
Israel uses weapons against the Muslim people that have been given to
them by the United States and it is only understandable that those
people turn around and equate the behavior of Israel to the United
States.
That’s a very reasonable point of view and a valid one.
The problem is that it is valid, but only if you understand the big
picture. Unfortunately, the average person cannot find out
what’s going on because the national media totally downplays
anything Israel does that is negative.
Since the entire time I’ve been monitoring the national media
after Sept. 11, I’ve been absolutely amazed at how there has
been a virtual blackout of any discussion of Israel’s role in
the Middle East and how the U.S. relationship with Israel and its
activities relates to the Muslim attitude toward America. So for me it
has been a real eye-opener as to how the national media functions.
You see people on television saying, “Why do these people hate
us so much?” And it’s portrayed as some incredible mystery
that has no tangible explanation. They always throw out these vague
philosophical concepts: “Oh, they hate the Western way of
life.” Well, if that’s the case, why don’t they
attack Sweden or France or the Netherlands or Italy? No, it all has to
do with the blind allegiance of the United States to Israel.
There are people who might point out that all of the major media
voices are owned by tightly-knit families or financial groups who are
of the same ethnic group as the people of Israel. This includes: ABC,
CBS, NBC, Fox, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, The New York
Times and The Washington Post, for starters.
That’s right. There’s no question about that, I found,
after studying this and looking at who owns what. Even Citadel
Communications, which owns my former station, was recently purchased
(after I got fired) by billionaire investor Ted Forstmann, a Jewish
American who is a strong supporter of Israel. So there’s a
definite dominance there. Critics say that pointing this out is
“bigotry,” but it’s an absolute fact. If you look at
who owns all the national media outlets, it’s no surprise that
the media is totally in favor of Israel and totally biased against the
Arabs.
I can tell you this: if you and I talked about Jews on the radio like
nationally syndicated radio talk show host Mike Savage [who is
Jewish—Ed.] has been talking about Muslims, we would have been
censored as “horrible racist bigots.” But apparently
it’s okay to be a bigot against the Muslims.
After Sept. 11 when I addressed the issue of the U.S. role with Israel
and said that when we look at the big picture, we’ve got to
include Israel in the equation, that offended the local Jewish
community. The most prominent of those complaining was the owner of
the major gambling casino in Reno, the Atlantis Casino. His name is
John Farahi. He is an Iranian Jew and he was absolutely irate at what
I said.
I was sitting there in my boss’s office when Farahi called and
my boss was actually holding the phone six inches from his ear,
because Farahi was screaming at him. Farahi demanded a right to defend
Israel and said how he was pulling off all of his advertising.
However, when it came to high-dollar advertising or a local talk show
host, I got the axe. That’s how I got fired: for essentially
telling the truth.
It’s been interesting to see the reaction here in the Reno area.
As I said earlier, most people don’t really have an
understanding of the Israel-Palestinian situation, its history or what
is going on. So a lot of people were mystified by my
“take” on the subject. They know I’m a devout
Christian so they were saying, “Hey, wait a minute: I thought
Christians and Israel went together like bread and butter.”
But the biggest reaction has been that whether they agreed with my
opinion or not, people know that in America we have free speech and we
have a right to dissenting opinion without the fear of having someone
retaliate against us. So there’s been a real nice reaction here
in the community in support of me. Obviously, I won’t get back
on KKOH, but overall, the support has been there. People are saying:
“You have the right to disagree with Mr. Hansen’s opinion,
but he has the right to say it.”
I have difficulty thinking that there would be anyone with an ounce of
intelligence who would disagree with that.
I’m also a columnist with a local newspaper out here, so I had
two outlets. They were able to shut me up as far as the airwaves go,
but the small, local paper permits the opportunity to express my views
and I have actually challenged John Farahi to a public debate.
I’ve done it several times in the paper. He made it quite clear:
he wanted to defend Israel.
It’s kind of ironic, because I told him (through a newspaper
column) that I would have gladly had him as a guest on my radio show
and we could have discussed the issue. But instead he got me kicked
off the air.
So he has ignored my challenge, but now I’ve expanded it and
said that I’ll debate any leader from the local Jewish
community, in any forum they want, on radio, in a synagogue, wherever.
I want to debate the issue of whether it is in America’s best
interest for America to maintain its current foreign policy toward
Israel. I haven’t had a single taker.
There’s another small paper here and they had an article about
the controversy.
So I have had “zero” response from the local Jewish people
who are willing to go behind my back and boycott my radio station but
don’t have the guts to debate me in public on this issue.
It’s interesting: I’ve talked about America’s
relationship with Red China and have been critical of our policies,
asking how we have free trade with a communist dictatorship. But I was
never accused of being “anti-Asian.”
I’ve talked about all kinds of different foreign policy issues
relating to foreign nations, but never—except in this one
case—was I accused of being “anti” anything other
than the accusation of being “anti-Semitic” when I talked
about Israel. I’m not anti-anything. I’m pro-American.
The amount of money we give to Israel and what we get in return is
unjustifiable. You have the entire Muslim and Arab world—there
are one billion of them—and they have so much of the oil. This
versus five million plus people in Israel and we give virtually all of
our foreign aid to Israel.
And Israel was able to go and kill 34 American sailors on the U.S.S.
Liberty in June 1967 and our own government covered up for Israel.
This is a warped and bizarre relationship and harmful to the U.S. in
the long run.
I hadn’t even heard of Israel’s air and naval forces
attacking the U.S.S. Liberty until one of my callers brought it up on
the air. He recommended the book, Attack on the Liberty, by James
Ennes, one of the crew members. I got the book and was flabbergasted,
never having heard a thing about that. I read all kinds of
publications and listened to talk radio and read a lot and had never
heard about it. After I read about it, I was so mad.
It really bothered me: not so much that Israel killed 34 Americans and
wounded 171 others, but that our own U.S. government covered up for
them.
It was Liberty Lobby that first broke that story immediately after it
happened and then gave it major coverage after Liberty Lobby’s
weekly news paper, The Spotlight, was launched in 1975.
If it had been an Arab nation, such as Egypt, that had attacked the
U.S.S. Liberty, the United States would have declared war. And
rightfully so. It was an intentional attack on an American vessel,
flying an American flag in neutral waters. It was an act of war.
An American journalist, James Bamford, in a chapter in his new book,
Body of Secrets,* has told the full story of the attack on the U.S.S.
Liberty and the subsequent cover-up as it has never been told before.
Bamford’s book explains that the whole affair is much worse than
we had ever suspected. Bamford himself backs off in discussing the
Liberty when he is on television talking about his book. President
Johnson helped cover it up because he said we didn’t want to
“embarrass our ally.”
What kind of “ally” attacks and kills an unarmed flag
vessel? You must remember: up until recently I was a supporter of
Israel. I was the typical American Christian person trying to do what
was right. I thought this was just a situation where the Muslims hated
Israel and wanted to destroy that country. I knew nothing about the
background.
However, in 1996 I read a book by Jewish-American Professor Norman
Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors. His book was titled Image
Versus Reality and he laid the whole history of Israel on the line. I
had always been under the impression that all of the Middle East wars
involved the Arab countries attacking Israel and that, miraculously,
even though Israel was much, much weaker, that Israel, with the help
of God, survived the attacks of these hateful Arabs. In fact, Israel
was the aggressor and much more powerful than the Arab states. And
Israel is a nuclear power.
Everyone is going after Saddam Hussein because he is trying to build a
nuclear weapon, but our supposed “ally,” Israel, is a
nuclear power and they were not supposed to be doing that. Not only
that, Israel is selling its technology to the Chinese. At one point
we’re going to have some sort of conflict with the Chinese but
Israel is selling weapons to China.
My grandfather, who was a railroader in Nevada, used to tell me that
he often watched American trainloads of scrap metal destined for Japan
in the 1930s and he later wondered how many American boys were killed
with American steel during World War II. Well, I have four sons and at
some point we’re going to have a conflict with the Chinese. Will
it be American technology (supplied by Israel to China and by
Americans as well) used to kill Americans including perhaps my own
sons or grandsons?
I’ve also learned how the Jewish underground in Palestine, known
as the Haganah, was stealing arms from the British at the very time
the British, during World War II, were engaged in a fight-to-the-death
with Nazi Germany in North Africa. And now the Israelis are condemning
the Catholic Church and the Pope saying that they were pro-Nazi? What
did the Jewish Haganah do? They were hurting the military
effectiveness of the British in their struggle in North Africa.
If, in fact, we must have such tremendous hatred for everybody who is
a terrorist, in effect, the modern state of Israel is going to have to
renounce its own founding fathers since these founding fathers were
committing acts of terrorism against the British in Palestine in the
1940s. They also conducted acts of terrorism and violence against
whole villages of Arabs, the very kind of warfare we condemn the Arabs
for today.
I’m not a Muslim and have no connections with the Arabs, but
today when I watch the Israelis use tanks, jets and bombs to kill
innocent people, somehow nobody says much about that. However, when
one Arab kills himself and others in a suicide attack, all of a sudden
it is a horrible crime.
By law, the city of Jerusalem actually belongs to Jordan. And the
Golan Heights belongs to Syria. But today we have Israel occupying
this territory in violation of all sorts of international law. It is
completely flagrant. But here in the United States we are led to
believe that the indigenous people are “bad” because they
are fighting to get back their own land.
* Body of Secrets is available from TBR Book Club, P.O. Box 15877,
Washington D.C. 20003 for $29 minus 10% for TBR subscribers. Order
item #286. Add $5 shipping & handling inside the U.S.; $10 outside the
U.S. You may also call 1-877-773-9077 toll free and charge your
purchase to Visa or MasterCard.
David Martin
those blind supporters of Israel who is, of course, permitted to write as
much as he wants for public consumption. I have regularly taken offense at
his columns in The Washington Times. Other conservative columnists calling
themselves Christian have been banished from the Times' pages. These
include John Lofton, Sam Francis, Patrick Buchanan, and Joseph Sobran. What
they have in common is that they have been critical of Israel. You won't
find any columnists critical of Israel in the pages of The Times. Even the
old foreign affairs hand Georgia Anne Geyer, who was very close to my late
CIA acquaintance, Scott Runkle, is no longer printed in The Times, no doubt
because of her level headedness and evenhandedness with respect to the
Middle East.
And they say the Reverend Sun Myung Moon is the one pitching the millions
down the Times rat hole. Something tells me that he is only lending his
name to this big propaganda enterprise.
"Propaganda is the bread and butter of covert action."
--Gregory Treverton
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DC Dave
Author, "America's Dreyfus Affair, The Case of the Death of Vincent Foster"
"Upton Sinclair and Timothy McVeigh"
"Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression"
http://www.thebird.org/host/dcdave
News group: alt.thebird
"Bongi" <bo...@mecsc.net> wrote in message
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