syed writes "THE DRUM BEATS louder among the policy makers in the US against Saddam Hussein. And the reason? His refusal to sanction the visit of UN inspectors to Iraq is a defiance of United Nations resolutions, exhort these political pundits.

And yet a few hundred miles away sits another country which possesses weapons of mass destruction, and upon whom the UN has passed resolution upon resolution without any success. And surprisingly, those very policy makers in Washington seem very reticent even to broach the subject of UN defiance. It is indeed very odd.


Joining the bandwagon of worldly politicians is the majority of the media in the US. I have to smile sanguinely when I read how the media there constantly refer to those of us who write here as a mouthpiece of a "state controlled press." Let me assure my readers that no "state sponsored" censor was overlooking my back and shoulders with a pair of snippets as I wrote this column or any other piece in the past.


It is glaringly evident today that what the average American reads back home is a hackneyed product of a controlled press, not "state controlled" and certainly not a "free press" but more sinisterly, one that is controlled by those whose intent is to justify and make more palatable the continuing atrocities committed by the Israeli Army. This is indeed a current day holocaust, one that evokes painful memories of Auswitz and Dachau!


Therefore one does not have to wonder why there has not been the outpouring of outrage in the US against Israel’s refusal to allow UN inspectors to investigate the genocide that has been taking place against innocent civilians in the West Bank. Why ethnic cleansing continues while UN inspectors and investigators are refused entry into these towns under a charade of excuses?


Or why Israel has continued to prevent journalists, medics, rescue teams and humanitarian aid convoys from reaching Jenin and other cities of carnage and slaughter? Is this the way of "protecting the truth" inside from the outside world which may expose Israel’s unrestricted incursions and massacres as morally revolting?


In the words of the UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, what took place in Jenin was "horrific beyond belief" and "morally repugnant" in that Israel continued to block humanitarian aid workers from entering the town while they continued with the carnage.


And why is the US press mostly silent on Israel’s long time refusal to allow American forces to commit legions of impartial peacekeepers and set up a security buffer zone? Would that not restore some sense of safety for the good citizens of Israel and Palestine? Or would that simply disrupt the bloodthirsty goals of a butcher no less evil than Adolf Hitler, and let the Americans witness this blood thirst firsthand?


And once again, the US media not surprisingly skip over such minor matters. Is the truth such a terrible weapon? I suppose it is OK for Israel to possess nuclear weapons and Apache helicopters paid for by some very decent and God-fearing Americans. And it is OK for the Israelis to control all the land — land that does not belong to them. All the while, the Palestinians having none.


No, what do the so called "free US media" seize upon? Suicide bombers! Singular inhabitants who are the mutant flowers of a brutal and oppressive intruder; an illegal occupier who has spread evil with his dehumanization of a people. These mutants are the harvest of brutality and deliberate destruction.


But the truth does exist indeed. It lies beneath the dirt hurriedly bulldozed to bury the evidence. Evidence of mass graves of innocent people; of women and children gunned down brutally and without cause. But the truth shall one day be set free. The decomposing stench of innocence seeping to the surface from beneath will simply not allow it to dissipate. Nor will the moral conscience of good people everywhere.

- clsencounters@hotmail.com

"