Studies show that US coverage is Israeli-centric. The main bureaus for CNN, Associated Press, Time, etc. are located in Israel and often staffed by Israelis. The son of the NY Times bureau chief is in the Israeli army;"pundit" Jeffrey Goldberg served in the IDF; Wolf Blitzer worked for AIPAC. Because the U.S. gives Israel over $8 million/day - more than to any other nation - we feel it is essential that we be fully informed on this region. Below are news reports to augment mainstream coverage.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Prosecuting thought crimes

TO: Distinguished Recipients
FM: John Whitbeck
Transmitted below is a news article in today's ARAB NEWS (Jeddah) on one of the draconian sentences for thought crimes now being handed down, with depressing frequency, by American courts.
As both a lawyer and a human being, the following aspects of this case appear to me worthy of note:
1. The prosecution never asserted that Mr. Abu Ali ever actually DID anything.
2. "Prosecutors offered no evidence to indicate he ever took steps" to actually DO anything.
3. The re-sentencing judge explicitly explained his decision to increase Mr. Abu Ali's sentence from 30 years to life imprisonment on the basis that "There is no way to know what his mental state would be after 30 years of solitary confinement" -- i.e., if Mr. Abu Ali still had a mind left after 30 years of solitary confinement, he might be REALLY bitter and might finally actually DO something, so it is better to keep him in solitary confinement until the day he dies.
It is difficult to imagine that, even in America, someone named Cohen, O'Reilly or (one hopes) Whitbeck would be sentenced to life imprisonment in solitary confinement for harboring bad thoughts and dreaming bad dreams. However, any Muslim, anywhere in the world, would be well advised to keep his private fantasies strictly private. Today's America does not only practice "preventive" war. It also practices preventive "law enforcement".

Arab News
... The US-born Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was convicted here in 2005 of conspiring with the terrorist group, but prosecutors offered no evidence to indicate he ever took steps to follow through...

Background info on David H. Laufman