Cynthia McKinney: Lebanon Rescued Us

Cynthia McKinney, former US Congresswoman, sends this dispatch from Lebanon after being onboard the Free Gaza ship rammed by Israel

We Lived to Tell the Story: Lebanon Rescued Us
by Cynthia McKinney
http://www.opednews.com/
January 1, 2009
Yesterday, we met with the President of Lebanon, the Chief of the Military, and the Interior Minister who all thanked us for responding and risking our lives on a mission of mercy; we profusely thanked them for rescuing us.
What would we have done, stranded out at sea, prohibited from reaching our destination, low on fuel, with a badly damaged boat if Lebanon had not accepted us? Lebanon sent their ships to find us. Lebanon rescued us. Lebanon welcomed us. And we are truly thankful.
It's official now. We've been told that the sturdy, wood construction of our boat, Dignity, is the reason we are still alive. Fiberglass would probably not have withstood the impact of the Israeli attack and under different circumstances, we might not be here to tell the story. Even at that, the report that came to us yesterday after the Captain and First Mate went back to Sour (Tyre) to inspect the boat was that it was sinking, the damage is extensive, and the boat will take, in their estimation, at least one month to repair. Tomorrow, we will bring the Dignity from Sour to Beirut. And now, we must decide what to do and from where we will do it and how we are to get back to wherever that might be.
My personal, and I know the group's, thanks must go to Al Jazeera, that allowed three of their reporters to be onboard with us on our voyage. As a result, Al Jazeera carried the story of the Dignity live, from castoff in Cyprus when our spirits were high, right up through the manacing maneuvers of the huge, super fast Israeli ships before they rammed us, the Israeli calls on the ship phone after the ramming calling us terrorists and subversives and telling us to return to Cyprus (even though the Israelis later claimed that they didn't know who we were, they knew enough about us to tell us where we had come from), and the fact that we didn't have enough fuel to follow their instructions, right up to their threat to fire at us if we didn't turn around, ending with our beaten-up boat limping into Sour harbor in Lebanon. Al Jazeera carried our story as "breaking news" and performed a real service to its audience and to us. Al Jazeera called the Israelis to inquire about the incident right as it was happening and I am sure the Israelis were prepared to leave none to tell the story. Al Jazeera told the story and documented it as it was happening.
One of those Al Jazeera reporters with us was Sami El-Haj, who was detained in Guantanamo by the United States for six incredibly long years. What an honor to even exchange glances with such a humble man who had endured so much pain at the hands of the U.S. government. I apologized to him that my tax dollars were being used in such a despicable way. And Sami's crime according to the U.S.? Born in Sudan, and reporting for Al Jazeera in Afghanistan, Sami was the wrong color, the wrong nationality, the wrong religion, reporting for the wrong news outfit, telling us the truth about a wrong war. And for that he survived incarceration for six long years. Sami El-Haj, Guantanamo prisoner number 345.
Another incredibly committed journalist who was with us was CNN's Karl Penhaul. Karl reported the truth even when his own station was repeating Israeli disinformation. The fact that we were traveling with these alert journalists added to the flat-footedness and obvious crudeness of the Israeli response. Sadly, Israel has changed its story too many times to count, and that's because they are not telling the truth.
We lived to tell the story. Karl's incredible reporting, just a portion of our story, can be seen on CNN at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/30/gaza.aid.boat/index.html
where there's also video and a photo of our damaged boat. A little more of the story and film of the extensive damage can be seen at:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/12/30/gaza.aid.boat/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
This video and the photos of Karl's report is particularly interesting given that Israel claims that our boat was only scratched and that, in actuality, our captain, while trying to outmaneuver them, damaged their warship.
I'm told that CNN only played my full statement once--and that's the time that it aired live. Of course, they cut the reference to the U.S.S. Liberty. What are they afraid of?
Last night I was on PressTV.com, along with others who were on the Dignity, and we debated a representative from WINEP, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. I reminded the audience that the Palestinians don't have nuclear weapons, depleted uranium munitions, white phosphorous, or F-16s, but the Israelis do. The facts, however, tend to get garbled after being processed by the "Grand Wurlitzer" organ of state-sponsored disinformation utilizing the world's press.
With the truth clearly on our side, Israel has been reduced to releasing the ridiculous bombast below, given to me by a reporter who came to our hotel in Beirut for a visit. With their multiple, conflicting stories, it is clear that the Israelis did not expect us to live to tell the truth.
On the drive from Sour through Saida to Beirut, we were welcomed like heroes because our ordeal had been seen by everyone on Al Jazeera. The mayor of Sour came to welcome us. The mayor of Saida insisted that we stop there, on our way to Beirut, for a special ceremony. But there was something else that was visible along our drive, and that is the devastation that Lebanon, itself, has received as a result of the Israeli war machine. The scars of the war are still evident everywhere. I will write more on that tomorrow.
And one final note, President-elect Obama roared like a mighty lion onto the political scene, but now he is as silent as a lamb in the face of the death and destruction that is happening in Gaza. As we approach the birthday celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. let us remember what Dr. King said:
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
And after five days of aerial bombardment by Israel, the carnage in Gaza continues.
Here is the palaver that the Israelis put out for public consumption. It is pitiful that a powerful and mighty country like Israel would be reduced to publishing something so petty and weak as the following press release dated December 30, 2008:
Press Release Office of Media Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12.30.2008
Israel continues to take its humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza seriously. Border crossings into Gaza remain open, and every effort is being made to deliver aid to the Palestinian people. Nearly 100 trucks carrying relief supplies entered Gaza on the 28th & 29th of December and additional shipments are arriving. Israel is working closely with UNSCO, UNRWA, the Red Cross, and WHO to ensure the entry of the required aid, especially food and medical equipment.Unfortunately, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney has taken it upon herself to commit an act of provocation, leading a small boat of supposed assistants into the conflict zone. She endangered herself, her assistants, and the vessel's crew. The Israeli navy hailed Ms. McKinney but the former Congresswoman failed to respond, thereby leading to the incident. We regret that during this time of crisis, while Israel is battling with the terrorist organization of Hamas and defending its citizens, that we are forced to deal with Ms. McKinney's irresponsible behavior.
Consulate General of Israel
to the Southeast 1100 Spring St NW, Ste 440 Atlanta, GA 30309-2823
Michael Printy ArthurDirector of Media Affairs 404.487.6511 media@atlanta.mfa.gov.il

Oppose the transfer of weapons to Israel.
Cynthia Ann McKinney (born March 17, 1955) is a former United States Representative and the 2008 Green Party nominee for President of the United States. McKinney served as a Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993–2003 and 2005–2007, first representing Georgia's 11th Congressional District and then Georgia's 4th Congressional District. She is the first African-American woman to have represented Georgia in the House.[1] In the 1992 election, McKinney was elected in the newly re-created 11th District,[2] and was re-elected in 1994. When her district was redrawn and renumbered due to the Supreme Court of the United States ruling in Miller v. Johnson,[3][1][4] McKinney was easily elected from the new 4th District in the 1996 election, and was re-elected twice without substantive opposition. McKinney was defeated by Denise Majette in the 2002 Democratic primary, in part due to Republican crossover voting in Georgia's open primary election, which permits anyone from any party to vote in any party primary,[5] and in part due to her "controversial profile, which included a suggestion that [George W.] Bush knew in advance of the September 11 attacks." (from wikipedia)
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The Worst Companies in the World: United States, Monsanto, Peabody Coal, Barrick Gold (2009)

The United States was voted the Worst Company in the World, followed by Monsanto, Peabody Energy Corp. and Barrick Gold

January 01, 2009
by Brenda Norrell

Sri Lanka Guardian

(January 01, Washington, Sri Lanka Guardian) The United States was voted the “Worst Company in the World,” by readers of the Censored News blog. Readers, primarily Indigenous Peoples, voted Monsanto as the second Worst Company in the World. Peabody Energy Corp., recently granted a life-of-mine permit to expand coal mining on Navajo and Hopi lands, was voted the third Worst Company in the World, in the readers’ poll.

Barrick Gold Corp., which began the destruction of the Western Shoshone’s Mount Tenabo region during Thanksgiving, was voted the fourth Worst Company in the World. Blackwater Worldwide, responsible for murders and brutality worldwide, was voted the fifth Worst Company in the World. GEO Group, Inc., formerly Wackenhut, profiteering from the misery of migrants and people of color in prisons, was voted the sixth Worst Company in the World.

Cameco uranium mining and Sithe Global/Navajo Nation, tied for the seventh Worst Company in the World. Israel’s Elbit Systems and Raytheon tied for eighth place. Boeing, constructing the US/Mexico Apartheid Border Wall, followed in ninth place. Newmont Mining was voted the 10th Worst Company in the World by the readers of Censored News blog, which focuses on the censored news of Indigenous Peoples and international human rights.

The readers’ poll ended on Dec. 30, 2008, as news reached the US that Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was on board the Free Gaza Ship which was rammed three times by Israel as those onboard attempted to deliver medicine to Palestine. Onboard were three doctors and news reporter Sami al-Haj, who was earlier imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.

During the Bush regime, the United States emerged in truth as one of the worst violators of international human rights, with torture, kidnappings and secret renditions in violation of the Geneva Conventions. The bogus war in Iraq resulted in the widespread murder and displacement of Iraqi people. Corporations seized the freefall of US democracy, with mercenaries, private prison profiteers and war manufacturers reveling in their profits. During the Bush regime, the United States ceased to be viewed as a democracy by many US citizens, who now view the United States as a company comprised of select individuals seeking corporate gain and control.

It was not just the US corporations that benefited. In the corporate get-rich schemes to construct the US/Mexico border wall, the contractor Boeing subcontracted Israel’s Apartheid border wall builder, Elbit Systems, for the multi-million dollar dysfunctional debacle of the US border spy towers. While xenophobia and racism toward migrants ruled in US television news, Wackenhut, owned by G4S in England and Denmark, seized the opportunity to profiteer from a Homeland Security contract for the transportation of migrants from the US/Mexico border.

Monsanto, in second place, continued to threaten the future of humanity with genetically altered seeds. Depleting the world of a rich diversity of seeds and crops, Monsanto continues to destroy sustainable systems of food production around the world. Monsanto was the primary supplier of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Even Prince Charles exposed Monsanto recently, revealing that thousands of farmers have committed suicide in India because of Monsanto’s promise of riches. Those promises only resulted in failed crops and a flood of debt in India’s “Suicide Belt” after switching to genetically modified seeds.

Navajos and Hopis united and protested a life of the mine permit for Peabody coal mining on Black Mesa. However, the US Office of Surface Mining approved the permit in December, continuing the US genocide on Black Mesa, where more than 14,000 Navajos have already been relocated to make way for coal mining. The so-called Navajo Hopi land dispute was orchestrated by Peabody Coal.

The Navajo Nation Council's 88 members receive their salaries and travel expenses primarily from energy leases, while many Navajos live without running water and electricity.

Klee Benally, Navajo, said the US permit was a blatant act of US genocide.

Calvin Johnson, Navajo, said, “Our local leaders, including the president of the Navajo Nation, continue to pursue this senseless plan to give Peabody a life of mine permit and continue using pristine water for coal operations without the impacted resident’s decision, which continues to be ignored. When will our leaders stand up and fight for us?”

Vernon Masayesva, Hopi, said the US permit, "The decision was announced during the Hopi Soyalung ceremonies throughout our villages. Soyalung is when Hopis plant their prayers for the coming year. It is a time the priests carry out sacred rituals to renew the earth, and pray for peace and harmony throughout the world. It is similar to the Jewish Chunaka observance, of bringing light to darkness. This is the ancient ritual the Office of Surface Mining has rudely interrupted. It is a blatant action sanctioning Peabody to exploit our natural resources for the benefit of its wealthy owners, officers and stockholders."

Barrick Gold, responsible for the deaths of Indigenous Peoples around the world, began its onslaught on the sacred lands of the Western Shoshone at Mount Tenabo during the Thanksgiving holidays. Before leaving office, President Bush Sr. made it possible for Barrick to lease lands for gold mining in Nevada. Once out of office, Bush Sr. went to work for Barrick as a senior consultant.
In Australia, DR Congo, Ghana, Tanzania and New Guinea, Indigenous Peoples are fighting Barrick’s destruction in solidarity with the Western Shoshone. They are fighting the coring out of mountains for minute particles of gold and the poisoning of water with cyanide leaching.

Carrie Dann and other Western Shoshone grandmothers said the United States is trespassing on Western Shoshone treaty land, destroying mountains, trees, food and medicine, while leaving dirty polluted water ponds for birds and animals.

“Why doesn’t the mining company go dig up the Vatican or the Mormon Tabernacle instead of Western Shoshone lands, I’m sure they will find gold there,” said Mary McCloud, Western Shoshone grandmother, mourning the bulldozing of the pines near the ceremonial grounds on Mount Tenabo in November.

Near the Porgera mine in New Guinea, Jethro Tulin of the Akali Tange Association, told Barrick Gold, “Your security guards have been shooting and killing our people and raping, even gang-raping, our women with impunity for years now."

Another Canadian gold mining corporation, Goldcorp Inc., is destroying communities in Guatemala. Antonio Morales, Maya Mam, Guatemalan indigenous leader was assassinated on August 7, 2008, as he returned to his home in Colotenango, Guatemala. Morales was a national leader in three of Guatemala's most important Indigenous organizations which have actively opposed large scale mining projects, including Montana Exploring, a subsidiary of Goldcorp.

GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut, and other private prisons continued to profiteer from the orchestrated hysteria against migrants and people of color at the southern border, gaining lucrative US and state prison and detention contracts from California to Texas. GEO was recently named in charges filed in Texas, in an attempt to prosecute Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for private prison profiteering, resulting in the death of at least one inmate.

A second private prison profiteer, Corrections Corp of America, imprisons and abuses migrant women and children at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas.

Cameco is the Canadian company that purchased the mysterious shipment of 500 tons of yellowcake uranium from Iraq, transported by the US to Montreal in July of 2008. Cameco continues to push for uranium mining on Lakota lands, resulting in the poorest of the poor struggling to fight the world’s largest uranium mining company in court in Nebraska. In Australia, Aboriginals at Alice Springs continued their protests of Cameco, while research studies in Port Hope, Canada, show the people are being poisoned by Cameco’s uranium mining.

“The result of testing conducted on a small group of residents of Port Hope has found contamination by uranium of military or industrial origin. Four of nine people tested had unusual types of uranium in their bodies, including one who carried measurable quantities of depleted uranium, which is used to make armour-piercing weapons, and another who had uranium at levels about three times higher than average concentrations of the element,” according to the Globe and Mail.

Sithe Global, in a relationship with the Navajo Nation elected government, is pushing to build a coal fired power plant, Desert Rock, on Navajo lands in New Mexico. Grassroots Navajos at Dooda Desert Rock continue to fight the power plant, which would be the third power plant in the area, where the air, land and water are already poisoned by unreclaimed uranium tailings from the Cold War and widespread oil and gas wells. Sithe Global financier is Blackstone Group, cofounded by Steve Schwarzman of the Bush elite Skull and Bones secret society based at Yale University.

Israel’s Elbit Systems, a producer of Apartheid spy and border wall systems in Israel, continued to gain US contracts, including Boeing’s subcontract for the border wall. Raytheon Missiles continued to be protested in Tucson for its weapons production and contamination. Raytheon has a manufacturing plant on the Navajo Nation’s commercial farm of Navajo Agricultural Products Industries, where potatoes, corn and other crops are produced with Monsanto’s genetically-modified seeds.

Boeing continued to build the US/Mexico border wall, as Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff waived all federal laws to build the border wall, including the laws designed to protect endangered species and the graves of Native Americans. On the Tohono O’odham Nation, Boeing dug up the graves of the Tohono O’odham ancestors in 2007. In Arizona, border wall construction endangered the jaguar, Sonoran pronghorn and other species in violation of all federal laws. Further, Indigenous Peoples traveling in their own territories on the border are harassed, threatened and treated as criminals by the US Border Patrol.

Tohono O’odham human rights activists continued to be targeted as they defined their homeland as an occupied militarized zone.
The poorest of the poor in America used their last dollars in 2008 to fight the United States construction of the US/Mexico border wall and seizure of their lands, including the Lipan Apache in Texas who are in court to protect their lands from seizure by Homeland Security for the border wall.

At the northern border, the United States pushed for more militarization of the region.

Kahentinetha Horn, publisher of Mohawk Nation News, is among the authors published in Censored News. Kahentinetha was beaten by Canadian border guards on June 14, 2008 and suffered a heart attack as border police tightened a stresshold. Mohawk Nation News editor Katenies was also beaten and jailed. Kahentinetha is recovering and the two Mohawk grandmothers have filed suit.
In recent articles, the Mohawk Nation News exposed the fact that carbon market scams seek the seizure of Indigenous Peoples forests for corporate profiteering and the fact that Canadian officers are being trained in Israel, where the border has become a militarized war zone. The carbon credit scam, profiteering for the World Bank and private corporations, is one of the most censored stories worldwide.

Throughout the United States, the poorest of the poor fought for justice during the Bush regime, often resulting in arrest or imprisonment. While the US and multi-national corporations received millions, billions and trillions in bailouts, widespread unemployment and hunger increased in the US.

While the US spy factory vaporized rights guaranteed by the US Constitution, the US media gave up the fight.
While the corporate seizures of lands were dismal during the Bush regime, Indigenous elders spoke of a time of cleansing and regeneration.

"We will outlive their ways. Our ways will outlive America's ways. It is because we regard the earth as sacred," said Floyd Red Crow Westerman said before his passing to the Spirit World.

In the Censored News poll, one-half of those voting chose the United States as the Worst Company in the World (50 percent.) The other percentages of total votes were: Monsanto (30 percent) Peabody Coal (26 percent) Barrick Gold (20 percent) Blackwater (17 percent) GEO (15 percent) Cameco and Sithe Global/Navajo Nation tied (14 percent) Raytheon and Israel’s Elbit Systems tied (12 percent) Boeing (11 percent) and Newmont Mining Corp (9 percent.)Censored News is on the web at: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com - Sri Lanka Guardian

2008 in Photos, Longest Walk

Special thanks to all the Long Walkers for their sacrifices in 2008 as they walked across America for Mother Earth and the sacred places. Special thanks to all those who supported the Long Walkers, and those of us on the Earthcycles radio bus, across America. Photo Longest Walk northern and southern routes unite at Greenbelt Park in Maryland in July 2008. Photo 2 Longest Walk in Washington DC. Photos Brenda Norrell
MORE PHOTOS
photos on Censored News are copyrighted by individual photographers.
Northern Route photos by Chris Jones, Euchee:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/07/euchees-photos-longest-walk-northern.html
Northern Route photo by Lisa Peake:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/06/on-northern-route-photo-by-lisa-peake.html
Northern Route photos by Chris Teves:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/04/longest-walk-chris-teves-photos.html
Longest Walk photos by Brita Brookes:
http://britabrookesphotgraphy.wordpress.com/
Northern route photos by Janice Trytten:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2008/10/longest-walk-photos-by-janice-trytten.html
LISTEN
Listen to the five month, Longest Walk Northern Route Talk Radio broadcasts at Earthcycles:
http://www.earthcycles.net
Blog Talk Radio, the Best of the Longest Walk series
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Brenda-Norrell

2008 in Photos: Remembering the migrants

Looking at 2008 in photos. Walkers remember the migrants who died in the Sonoran Desert walking to a better life. Special thanks to the Tohono O'odham -- Mike Wilson, Mike Flores, Ofelia Rivas, Angie and Irvin Ramon -- along with Jose Matus, Yaqui, and the Indigenous Alliance without Borders, O'odham Voice Against the Wall, Derechos Humanos, Humane Borders, Samaritans and No More Deaths for struggling to make a difference in 2008. Photo Brenda Norrell

2008 in photos, Leonard Peltier AIM West

A look at 2008 in photos. Portrait of Leonard Peltier onstage, as the Dr. Loco and the Rockin Jalapeno Band played in concert at the AIM West 40-Year Reunion in San Francisco in November 2008. Photo Brenda Norrell