Riverbend is leaving
The girl blogger from Baghdad, known around the world as Riverbend has been off-line since February 20th 2007.
Many prayed for her as she has provided many of us with the deep insight of a family caught up in the Iraqi turmoil.
Today, she was back at the blog with an excellent explanation into the cement wall in Baghdad, the American apologist politicians in her country and the dramatic news that she is planning to leave Baghdad and Iraq.
Of all the blogs operating out of Baghdad, hers has been the only one which had a true face of a faceless Iraqi.
I am sure that all of you will join me in praying that Riverbend and her family will find safe haven somewhere so as to be able to return to their beloved country, Iraq, when it is free from the illegal occupation, and so that Iraqis can start to rebuild their country in the way they want!
Keep safe Riverbend.
The wall in Baghdad
I posted this on The Washington Note:
Could someone answer some simple questions.
The wall (first stage) is 5 km in length, 3.5 metres high and a average of 0.75 metres thick. (13125 cubic metres, Cement Density is 3120 kg per cubic metre = 41000 tonnes of cement!)
1. How much cement was used to produce this wall? (Theoretical value is 41000 tonnes)
2. Where did this cement come from?
3. Who transported this cement and from where to where?
3. Who was given the contract to produce each component?
4. How much was charged to build the components?
5. Who was given the contract to erect the wall?
6. How much was the value of this contract?
6. How many reconstruction projects suffered from this diversion of cement and steel?
7. From which budget was this money for this project obtained from?
Answers to these questions will lead you to what the US invasion and occupation of Iraq is all about!
Lastly - Did anyone think of those words uttered a few years ago which made all Americans feel so proud?
"Tear down that wall, Mr. Gorbachev!"
Has that wall been rebuilt in Baghdad making all Americans feel so proud of their Administration?
Wow! That was fast!
(Cross-posted on my Liberal Talk Show Ratings Blog.)After listening to the Mike Malloy Show today, I stayed tuned to Nova M Radio and there is a show called
the John Loftus Show.
While listening to it, I wrote an email to Mike and sent copies to several people including Anita and Shelby Drobny, the founders of Nova M Radio, as well a Mike Newcomb, the CEO of the station. (I had listened to this guy for several times and each time it was worse than the previous time.)
Subject: Some musings from Finland
From: "Jacob Matthan"
Date: 04/21/2007 5:05 AM
Dear Mike,
I think it was on Thursday, when you did that show about the Alberto Gonzales hearings, I was thinking how great it was that you had a producer who was really the very best - Kathy. She tuned in some of the best and appropriate music and that show, in my opinion, rates one of the very best in your many years on the air.
It was wonderful that you complimented her on air that evening. I am sure most of us listeners appreciated what a great team you make.
You have held the No. 1 Spot on my Liberal Talk Show Ratings. 50% of the credit, undoubtedly, goes to Kathy!
The reason I write is not to pay compliments only, but to respond to your question as to why some of us may not be Radio as Founders. (I do not know whether a non US citizen. non resident of the US can in fact contribute, but that is not the issue.)
When Nova M Radio airs the rabid one-sided conservative views of John Loftus, immediately after your show, although I support liberal radio, I do not support hate-mongering the way John Loftus does on his program.
So far I thought Bill Wartenburg of KGO was the most professional hate-monger on the air as he uses his intelligence in such a morbid manner. John Loftus does it more subtly than Dr. Bill.
The other day I heard him bring on air the "Chalabi of Iran"!
I realised that he does not have just one Chalabi, but "a Chalabi for every viewpoint that he holds".
Today, he was promoting how good setting up walls to separate people were - of course he did not mention Ronald Regan's cry "Tear down that wall, Mr. Gorbachov!"). Also, he has spent his time readying the world for Israel to launch another horrible attack on the innocent people of Lebanon!
The way, in my humble opinion, he promotes the "fascist Zionist" agenda certainly does not merit my supporting the radio station that pushes these views, even though that station gives you the airtime.
John Loftus is the Judith Miller of Talk Radio. It is a shame that he shares the same air space as you. The only thing missing from his programme these days is the "three cheers" for the war criminals, Bush and Blair.
I hope you understand my point of view. This may be part of the answer to your question why some of us have not supported Nova M Radio.
I have copied Mike Newcomb, Anita and Shelby Drobny and John Loftus on this email as also some major Liberal Talk Show Hosts (as Bccs).
Very best to Kathy, Molly and you.
--
Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland
Within five hours I had this email from Shelby Drobny.
The Loftus show will be cancelled. Tonight was his last show. Thanks for the feedback.
I do not know whether I was responsible, but I am glad Liberal Talk Radio listeners do not have to listen to fabricated hate-speech. I think the appreciation of listeners views is the reason Anita and Shelby Drobny are successful in launching truly Liberal Talk Radio. How I wish Air America would cast aside its ridiculous ways.
Thank you Mr. Drobny.
A different viewpoint about Baghdad Parliament Bomb
This was posted by me on the DemocraticUnderground.com Forum:
All the news media are pointing to...
Posted by jmatthan in Latest Breaking News
Thu Apr 12th 2007, 04:07 PM
All the news media are pointing to the insurgents having carried out this attack.
I do not doubt the freedom fighters had much to gain to show that security in Baghdad does not exist.
I listened to BBC and CNN terrorist experts and they all cluster around one thinking. The western viewpoint!
However, who had most to gain from this attack.
The Iraqi Parliament had just refused to authorise the gross profiteering (of 70%) by the Oil Companies of Iraq's oil resources.
So the best strategy was to shut down the Parliament and ensure that the collaborators clamour for more US involvement in security.
To achieve this, the best way was to attack and destroy the operation of the Parliament. (The Parliament building has collapsed!)
In my mind this was an inside job beautifully organised by the Negroponte type disruptive "insurgent". (Conspiracy theory?)
No problem of getting the explosive stuff into the Green Zone (as it was probably there already), assembling it and causing the detonations (so that no Americans are affected).
Maybe someone should look at this angle of continuing the "chaos" as no one benefits more with this incident than the US Oil Giants and the US Contractors.
In short, oil profits guaranteed for some considerable more time!
Remember - John Perkins "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" - a simple job for these people to organise this!
Jacob Matthan
Oulu, Finland
Genocide
Steve Clemons of The Washington Note wrote that Darfur is labelled as the first genocide of the 21st century.
I posted this in his comments:
Steve, what is the meaning of genocide?
As john sonner wrote:
"Sad as the situation in Darfur is, the toll in Iraq is worse: UNHCR reports 4 million refugees vs. 2.5 million in Darfur; 655,000 killed in Iraq (dated Lancet data) vs. 400,000 in Darfur. And the US government (and by extension American taxpayers) is directly responsible for what happened in Iraq."
But because it is carried out by the US and its criminal allies - it does not get rated as "genocide"?
The rest of the world judges US as the mass killer rogue nation.
If Bush had not been "re-elected" one could give the US citizens a pass on this one. But, whatever your election system, the re-election got every US citizen labelled as a complicit war criminal.
Posted by Jacob Matthan at April 12, 2007 12:18 AM
And this is only in the 21st century.
Does anyone remember how the Secretary of State in Bill Clinton's administration, Madeline Albright, casually said on the programme
60 minutes that the half a million or more children and innocent human beings killed as a result of US sactions on Iraq was "worth it" collateral damage? (Emphasis below is mine,)
Lesley Stahl on U.S. sanctions against Iraq: We have heard that a half million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: I think this is a very hard choice, but the price--we think the price is worth it.
--60 Minutes (5/12/96)
I would like to know who was the
WE that she meant in her statement - Clinton, Blair,....?
Does Madeline Albright believe that the killing of three of her grandparents in Holocaust was "worth it"
since she became the Secretary of State in the US?
This is from the entry about Madeline Albright in Wikipedia:
In 1939 the Korbel family fled to London after Bohemia and Moravia were annexed by Germany. That may have saved her life, as many of her Jewish relatives in Czechoslovakia were killed in the Holocaust, including three of her grandparents.
Double standards - that is the norm in the American Way!
Harri Hursti?...
(Cross-posted on Jacob's Blog.)Who is Harri Hursti?
Anyone interested in Internet Security and especially about safety in elections should know about the world expert on the subject.
In the article
"Hackin' Harri Hursti a Hit in Riverside County, California" that appears on Brad Blog, where Brad Friedman has been a tireless campaigner despite all odds, to get the US Election System to become more realistic so that the frauds that occurred in 2000 and 2004 and got George W. Bush annointed (totally illegally) as pResident does not happen again.
Harri is a Finn and is, like Brad, a tireless campaigner, although his interest has been the subject of Security, a field in which the Finns lead the world! (Remember our very own Codenomicon Oy headed by CEO Isaac Sundarajan and headquartered here in Oulu.)
Harri will appear in a documentary released in the US on 17th March 2007 and to be released in the UK on 20th April 2007 called
"Hacking Democracy (or Votergate)" directed by Simon Ardizzone and Russell Michaels.
