US Court Acquits Salah / Ashqar

By Andy Martin

(CHICAGO)(February 2, 2007) The Israeli government has been trying to achieve in Chicago’s federal courts what it could not on the battlefield: a victory over Hamas. And Thursday Israel lost, again.

Earlier this week, I wrote to U. S. Attorney General Roberto Gonzales and asked him to release Palestinian freedom fighter (and friend) Sami Al-Arian. Gonzales should take my advice. The Salah/Ashqar defeat is a stinging indictment of Israeli government and a massive worldwide embarrassment for the Bush Administration and former Attorney General and Media-Clown-In-Chief John Ashcroft.

Guess who won? The American people.

We showed once more that while these malicious cases conjured up by pro-Israel American prosecutors are difficult to defend against: [1] we have brave lawyers who will labor for their clients and the truth; kudos to Michael Deutsch and William Moffit. [2] We still have honest jurors, ordinary Americans who can penetrate Israel’s lies and the Bush’s Administration’s despicable and demented Middle East politics.

America may not be perfect, but we beat anything that’s in second place. Thank you, jurors!

The Chicago trial was the most devastating defeat for Israel because during the trial Israeli torture was documented in detail. For that we have to thank the hapless former N. Y. Times reporter Judith Miller, who calmly watched torture-in-progress in Israel and testified at the trial.

We had the obscene spectacle, permitted by a pliant federal judge, of Israeli torturers putting on a secret show in Chicago, with secret courtroom, and secret identities. And the Israelis still couldn’t con the American people.

What does that tell you about Israel and the torturing thugs in control of that nation’s destiny?

I got a negative response to my “Free Sami Al-Arian” letter to the Attorney General from a Republican county chairman and I responded politely and respectfully of course.

What I have to say to my friend the chairman is that I’ll try to manage the politics in Washington if you’ll manage the politics in your county (which I shan’t name). In foreign policy there is no place for on-the-job training (George Bush take notice).

Foreign policy and diplomacy are devilishly complex, confusing, and contradictory. Illinois needs a U. S. Senator who speaks for Illinois, and not Dick Durbin, who speaks for the Knesset. I may not always be right in my views, but I will always speak from my heart, on behalf of the people of Illinois, instead of Senator Dick Durbin, who speaks from his pocketbook on behalf of his campaign contributors.

Many well-intentioned Americans have unfortunately swallowed the relentless Israeli propaganda in the United States (former President Jimmy Carter take notice) that Arabs are bad and evil, and Israelis are paragons of virtue and justice and the “only democracy” in the Middle East. In the wake of the Salah/Ashqar verdict, we can now brand Israel a “Tortureocracy, not a Democracy.”

That nation could not survive without a national policy of crimes against humanity and torture, as well as other obscene practices. Israel has been lying to the United States and the American people for almost 60 years, and the American people—when given the impartial truth in an American courtroom—are fully capable of sorting our Israel’s lies.

Senator Durbin, let’s debate these issues during the campaign.

So am I anti-Israel? Not at all. I wish the Israeli people–the warm, loving, caring genuinely generous Israeli people I have encountered there–life and love in peace and harmony with all the people of the Middle East. If Israelis would start treating Palestinians as brothers and sisters, as neighbors and valued colleagues, instead of as sworn enemies, peace would descend on the Middle East overnight. Yes, overnight.

The myth that Israelis and Arabs are locked in perpetual tribal wars that require endless blood sacrifice on both sides is sheer poppycock. Both Israelis and Palestinians want to live in peace and prosperity.

I have been a contributor to a group, Givat Haviva, which works to bring young Israelis and Palestinians together. Those kids get along fine. Now if only we could get their parents to behave themselves.

My hero Daniel Barenboim does the same with the Palestine Youth Orchestra. People of good will on both sides can and someday will prevail.

In Chicago on Thursday, justice prevailed.

The U.S. Constitution prevailed, after a vicious assault by mendacious prosecutors, malicious Israeli agents and a supine federal judge.

And the American people prevailed. We will not allow our courts to be used as an extension of Israeli torture chambers more reminiscent of Saddam Hussein and Adolph Hitler.

If there was the will in Washington to do justice in the Middle East, instead of only Israeli justice, we could solve the problems there this weekend. Why won’t Condo Rice and George Bush try? Why?

The jurors probably asked themselves the same question. And voted to a acquit.

Chicago-based Internet journalist, broadcaster and critic Andy Martin is the Executive Editor and publisher of ContrarianCommentary.com. © Copyright by Andy Martin 2007.

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