Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been returned to their families after spending 5 months in a North Korean prison. Thank God!
Has anybody heard about the return of Cynthia McKinney, former Congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, who sits in an Israeli prison? She and other humanitarians were seeking to deliver goods to the Palestinians during the most recent Gaza conflict where 683 Palestinians were killed and some 3085 injured.
Here is a press release issued by McKinney:
We were in international waters on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to people in Gaza when the Israeli Navy ships surrounded us and illegally threatened us, dismantled our navigation equipment, boarded and confiscated the ship."Perhaps President Clinton should be dispatched to Israel.
Immigration officials in Israel said they did not want to keep us, but we remain imprisoned.
State Department and White House officials have not effected our release or taken a strong public stance to condemn the illegal actions of the Israeli Navy of enforcing a blockade of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza, a blockade that has been condemned by President Obama.
Here is McKinney on CNN after the incident. I think it might be clear why she still sits in prison. But should she remain in an Israeli prision because of her ideas?
If we sanction such, how will we ever grow as a nation? How will we ever grow as a community of nation states?
8 comments:
That's an outrage that she still sits in an Israeli prison today. Are there any groups actively petitioning our government for intervention on her behalf? I can't believe that our government could ignore this blatant affront to this woman's American and human rights. Judith, it scares me to think that people of good will, compassion and justice have to fear for their freedom, safety and lives when they are pursuing peaceful, humanitarian goals.
She was released in early July
http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=132416&catid=3
Kelly - As you will see, Anon has given us a link where Cynthia McKinney was released. The outrageous thing, however, is that she was even detained for that amount of time or perhaps any time at all by an ally who the citizens of the U.S. greatly support with tax dollars to seemingly maintain statehood and an ally in the region.
I'm not a Middle East expert by any means. But I must say that I'm getting rather annoyed at many so called experts. Most have agenda. Many of these agendas may not be beneficial to the whole internally and externally.
I believe ALL government policies should be up for constant review. The problem is that powerful lobbyists, whether on issues of healthcare or international policy, crowd out reason many times. This is what is called self-interest on the behalf of Congress and those who are being lobbied for to the detriment of many others.
Thanks, Anon. Much appreciated.
While digging around on the Internet, I discovered that what I had been led to believe about McKinney was wrong. I was under the impression she believed that the Bush adminstration staged 911. Instead she believes tthat they did not stage it, but when they obtained intellegence that indicated an attack was likely, they ignored it because an attack would serve thier purposes well. This seems plausable to me.
McKinney does not strike me as a conspiracy theorist. She is always thoughtful and articulate, and usually provocative, as the video shows--like her or not. But if I'm not mistaken there was an incident about her hair, lack of I.D., and subsequent refusal of admittance to the Capitol that, if I'm rememebering correctly, was a bit over the top. It seemed to me when I read the story that the security guard was justified in his actions. But again, I'm really not remembering the story completely.
Judith, thanks for always keeping us informed. This is a fascinating post. I think it's totally unfair how our government picks and chooses who to champion. The fact that Al Gore phoned Bill Clinton to go and appease a dictator seems a bit unfair to those who do not have such 'connections', but that's always been the way of the world. Sad, but true. Great post! Blessings!
Marion - I'm glad, as I know you are too, that these women are home. I think it was also very funny how the media chose to call these women girls. It is obvious that they are not such. Perhaps it had something to do with playing to sensitivites in order to secure their release. This I understand. But I would have to agree with you that there are many Americans who probably would not have gotten such attention. I think both journalists work or have worked for Al Gore.
Ling's sister is a noted journalist. Because of this the situation probably got the best coverage, not mention the current tenuous situation with North Korea. I did, however, chuckle that all Kim Jong-il wanted was to be seen photographed with former President Clinton for posterity's sake. (I gather he's also a big lover of Hollywood movied.) But when you look deeper it's really sad that Kim Jong-il is such an egotist. I guess all dictators are.
Another thing worth noting: I heard yesterday that when Kim Jong-il's father died that former President Clinton sent him a personal note of condolences. While not agreeing with his policies, Clinton still paid homage to Jong II's humanity. Some may think that because of the dictator's inhumane policies toward his own people that he's an animal. But at least this animal, if he is viewed as such, did not began to build nuclear capabilities until AFTER all ties were cut with the West and our former administration labeled his country in the "axis of evil." Clinton's note probably had some affect on the women's release.
Which policy worked best?
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