LETTERS
LETTER to the Editor Savages and Bleeding Hearts You have finally managed to do it. Your July issue managed to present not one but two articles by liberals who actually do live up to the...
...government...
...Aaron Bennett Las Vegas, Nevada Like Anne-Marie Cusac, I am frightened by the tools to be used against humans: the torturous stun belt...
...the super-sticky projectile...
...It is made more so by the vicious, evil nature of the savages incarcerated therein...
...The strong possibility thus raised that the bomber was an Argentine military/CIA operative explains the paradox of why the CIA—for whom no lie was too obscene or too Or-wellian for use in its relentless smear campaign against the Sandinista government— would not only let pass, but actively cover up an incident where there was any factual or evidentiary basis for scoring juicy propaganda points against the Sandinistas...
...Seriously, is this a joke article...
...Moreover, it must also be remembered that the United States bears total ultimate responsibility for the La Penca bombing on a broader fundamental level since the La Penca press conference itself—called by Eden Pastora to announce his opposition to having his Costa Rican-based contra force subordinate itself to the main contra force in Honduras—would never even have taken place if the United States had not waged the terrorist contra war against Nicaragua...
...Two years ago, I received a press package from the Conference on Law Enforcement and Technology for the twenty-first century, an event sponsored by the National Institute of Justice (an agency of the Department of Justice...
...When the marketing literature of a burgeoning industry calls us "urban hostiles," we should anticipate a new kind of terror in America—especially when coupled with the current erosion of our civil liberties and the broadening of police powers...
...As Tony Avirgan himself wrote in The Nation (September 13,1993), the E.R.P...
...which worked with, not for, Nicaraguan counterintelligence...
...Avirgan went on to acknowledge in his Nation article that "all the evidence" gathered by him and Honey, by Costa Rican authorities, and by other journalists and investigators, "points to the right" being responsible for the bombing...
...I'm glad Jordan had the chance to take her trip to Lebanon...
...But most chilling was the revelation that faceless, nameless individuals and groups of citizens are considered the "enemy...
...Perhaps Cusac could explain exactly what it is about the electric stun belt that makes it a more inhumane method of inmate control than the usual methods...
...None of this should come as a surprise to anyone bright enough to be reading...
...The basis for this conclusion, states Rothschild, is that Honey and Avirgan have "identified the bomber as a leftist Argentinean who was working for a unit of Tomas Borge's Interior Ministry...
...Given the general non-coed nature of our prison system, most prison rape is of the homosexual sort and it is conceivable that Professor Stein does not find this objectionable...
...Again, I am forced to wonder: How do these imperfections make the electric stun belt any different than using bullets...
...Prison is not affordable housing for the socially maladjusted...
...However, with such a onesided disregard for the bigger picture in the interest of promoting her admitted biases and dreary prose, I was sad to see that The Progressive chose to advertise her article on its cover...
...The prison system is intended to punish criminals and to keep them away from the rest of us...
...New York, New York Anti-Israel Zealotry...
...It is supposed to be unpleasant...
...Although I would not excuse Israel in any way for the atrocities it has committed in its continuing illegal occupation of southern Lebanon, it is obvious that, in her anti-Israel zealotry, June Jordan ("Eyewitness in Lebanon," August issue) ignores the fact that Syria used the cover of the Gulf War to advance its plans to essentially annex the majority of Lebanon not occupied by Israel...
...Jordan's touching story of her personal experiences in Lebanon is one of the few accounts that expressed the frustrations, sadness, and grief of the Lebanese people in the aftermath of Israel's air strikes and the ruthless massacre of more than 100 refugees in Qana—mostly women, children, and elderly...
...The double standards of the U.S...
...the sensitive acoustic listening module deployed over a grid of select city intersections (already piloted in Washington, D.C...
...But for sheer "bleeding-heart" silliness, the article by Bobbie Stein takes the prize...
...Christopher A. Litbienski Lansing, Michigan June Jordan's article highlighted the plight of the Lebanese people during and after Israel's blitz in April—a vicious attack that claimed the lives of more than 200 innocent civilians, wounded at least 500...
...Your July issue managed to present not one but two articles by liberals who actually do live up to the cartoonish caricature of liberalism that others love to paint...
...The evidence was so strong that a Costa Ri-can judge indicted two people linked to the CIA, John Hull and Felipe Vidal, for murder in connection with the bombing...
...You know: clubs, tear gas, bullets...
...Is it possible for an individual to become an adult in America, study law for that matter, and be shocked (shocked...
...arguably eyeball-damaging, immobilizing foam...
...A few crucial facts, unmen-tioned by Rothschild, serve both to explain this overarching paradox and to undermine the so-called case for Sandin-ista involvement...
...I will assume that you have verified this and take it as confirmation that any loon can not only get a law degree, but become a full professor of the subject...
...none of this should cause any law-abiding citizen much distress...
...the transmitter that can beam inaudible subliminal messages...
...Israeli human-rights abuses, continued occupation of Arab lands, and flagrant violations of international law and U.N...
...Even more sinister was a copy of the "Memo of Understanding" between the Departments of Justice and Defense, signed by Attorney General Janet Reno, seeking the transfer of defense technology to civilian law-enforcement for the stated purpose of aiding the lagging industry by making America's police "as well-armed as its military" (see "Guess Who's the Enemy," by Peter Cassidy, January issue...
...In fairness, perhaps it is only the heterosexual nature of the rapes in question that astounds the professor...
...Judy Kingman Petaluma, California La Penca Paradox Solved In his Editor's Note (June is-Isue), Matthew Rothschild writes that journalists Martha Honey's and Tony Avirgan's "search for truth" regarding the 1984 La Penca bombing "has led—uncomfortably for some on the American left— inside the door of the Sandin-ista government...
...Can any rational adult, thinking logically about the nature of the typical prison, considering the logistics of carrying out any of the wide array of illicit activities (rapes, drug-dealing, gambling, hits, etc...
...Then comes the moment of horrifying revelation: The prison guards are complicit in these events...
...Perhaps it's time to give longer vacations to the tired and stagnant ideas of your "big-name" celebrity columnists, and get some fresh, and perhaps more truthful, writing in your publication...
...Ghada Khottri, Publications Editor, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Washington, D.C...
...Although the U.S...
...Given that our prisons are in fact chock-full of vicious, violent career thugs with records of rapes, muggings, assaults, and worse, and considering that most prison guards are probably not any more sadistic than any other civil servant, I do not recommend losing any sleep over this...
...policy in the Middle East, and the rampant anti-Arab stereotypes in the media and among the public, continue to hamper the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East...
...She brings up the possibility of the belts being used by guards to torture inmates, presenting it as just a matter of common fact that virtually every prison guard is a sadist, eagerly awaiting his chance to fry the lost lambs, the victims of an unjust world, remanded to his care...
...Perhaps most absurd is the big deal Cusac makes over the likelihood of shocking the wrong inmate during a disturbance or the small number of these shocking incidents that may prove fatal...
...Lastly, do both of these authors fail to grasp the basic fact that our prisons have become cages for the violent, brutal, remorseless career thugs who have proven themselves to be a threat to the persons and property of decent, law-abiding people...
...Just how sheltered a life has Professor Stein lived...
...The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...The La Penca bomber was a member of an ultra-leftist faction of Argentina's People's Revolutionary Army (E.R.P...
...media paint a picture of Hezbollah fighters as "terrorists," the fact of the matter is that their actions are legitimate not only in the eyes of the Lebanese people, but in the eyes of the international community, as evident in U.N...
...resolutions are tolerated so long as the Palestinians, the Lebanese, and other Arabs are dehumanized in the minds of the American public...
...I'm afraid your own partisanship has blinded you to truth...
...commonly known to be occurring with depressing regularity in prison, somehow fail to come to the conclusion that some bribing and/or coercion of guards to secure collusion or at least silence is not a necessary part of the game...
...Resolution 425, which calls for immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon...
...That massacre was carried out with U.S.-made weapons and without a word of reproach from the U.S...
...and displaced about 500,000 people...
...I found a discussion of all these devices in the literature...
...Robert Siege...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...Jordan's piece provided thoughtful insight into the feelings and situation not only of the Lebanese, but also the Arabs and Arab Americans...
...Are the belts any less accurate or more fatal than a gun...
...I am referring to the laughable hand-wringing engaged in by Anne-Marie Cusac ("Stunning Technology") and Bobbie Stein ("Sexual Abuse") over the miseries endured by the sociopaths of our nation's prison population...
...This is news...
...was "highly infiltrated by informers and agents provocateurs of Argentine Army Intelligence, which had close ties to the CIA...
...to suddenly learn that rape occurs in prison...
...What she calls "the only democratic Arab government" was set up as a puppet of the brutal Syrian dictatorship...
...A few sentences later, and seemingly unaware of the massive paradox, Rothschild notes Honey's statement that "the CIA was certainly involved in the cover-up" of the bombing...
...It also helped promote a greater understanding of the resistance in southern Lebanon, which has been illegally occupied by Israel since 1978...
...Jordan's account of her visit to Lebanon helped present a human perspective to "Operation Grapes of Wrath...
...the laser that heats a suspect's innards to 107 degrees...
...mega-lights that nauseate "unfriendly" crowds...
...You claim that Stein is a college law professor in the little biography at the bottom of the article...
Vol. 60 • September 1996 • No. 9
