Posted on 04/08/2004 5:55:24 AM PDT by SJackson
We have it from King Solomon that "a crooked thing cannot be made straight." I am beginning to understand.
Take the United Nations. (Please?) Who knew that so many of them were crooks, those who sit plushly in security councils and general assemblies? There was always the chance (some thought) that their twice-weekly Israel-trashing was motivated not so much by pure bigotry as by an honest difference of opinion.
Not so. They're crooks. It's that simple. Read all about it from William Safire in the New York Times (and several other sources) - how this UN/Iraq oil-for-food program crookedly enriched not only Saddam, but dozens, perhaps hundreds of those scofflaw "dignitaries" who represent virtually all the nations of the world. As one scribe (not Safire) put it: Oil for UN Bribes.
Millions of dollars, even billions, that were supposed to feed the people of Iraq went instead to feed the pockets of the people who run our world.
These people, these crooks, sit in judgment over Israel and the United States. These crooks run our world as Al Capone once ran Chicago.
From these we expect justice?
How far have we come? America once stood still when it was revealed that Vice President Spiro Agnew had stuffed envelopes delivered to him in the White House. Of course, we've had Watergate and a vicuna coat scandal, and even this minute, home runs are hit by steroids; all of which should be dwarfed by U.N.-GATE if the truth ever comes out.
How high does this crookedness go? The name Kojo Annan keeps popping up in these reports that detail a kickback scheme that may set records. Kojo is Kofi's son.
Can this be made straight? I don't think so. Do the math. (190, to one Israel.)
(No surprise, then, that during the 1970s a certified Nazi, Kurt Waldheim, ran the UN.)
Next time one of them wags his finger against Israel's "occupation," or America's sacrifice and selflessness in Iraq, ask yourself how much this guy bagged in kickbacks.
Word is that godfather Kofi is calling for an independent investigation. The hope is that the books will be opened.
Yeah, right. Already, it's being noted that this scandal is the most underreported story of the 21st century.
Can we trust journalism to dig in and tell the story? Maybe. But is the news media any less corrupt? We live in an age that produced Jayson Blair, Jack Kelley, Stephen Glass and who knows how many others who are accused or suspected of toying with facts and truth. As in the legend of Diogenes, we search in vain for an honest man.
On my first visit to Israel, as a journalist, I was introduced to journalism Middle-East style. All they wanted, these reporters from all over the United States and around the world, was the dirt against Israel, and they dished it out, all right. I saw how they provoked Arab women to weep for the cameras and cued the men to bristle.
They wanted no part of Jewish Israel, and in fact, they wanted no part of the Arab Israelis who were prospering. Along the bus rides, they yawned and nearly mutinied when Shlomo pointed out the glory of the Jewish State; yes, the synagogues, but also the mosques and the churches, the freedom to speak, the freedom to worship. Shlomo, our guide, finally had it and quit, right there in Bethlehem. I saw him turn, call in for a substitute, and I also saw him in tears, this captain in the IDF.
(When the bus stopped at the Weizmann Institute of Science, where world-class researchers were developing medicines to save Jews and Arabs and humanity in total, the reporter behind me got up and, speaking for his group, shouted: "We want the villages where Arabs are suffering. We need quotes.")
These days, as in those days when I was there, reporting from the territories must first be approved by Editor-in-Chief, Yasser Arafat.
(If this is how they twist Israel, who knows what other news is being manipulated?)
So I'm the wrong guy to ask about truth in journalism, never mind the uprightness of the nations. Do they all lie? No, but a single Jayson Blair nearly brought down the entire New York Times, the House that Ochs built. Today we know that Jenin, Jenin is Lies, Lies, but meantime, what a party they had over that fabricated massacre at ABC, NPR and the BBC.
The crooks at the UN joined the crooks of journalism in feasting on Israel over Jenin, as they previously tried to devour Israel over Mohammed Al-Dura, another hoax.
Are they in cahoots? No, but rascals cleave even in the dark.
Can this be made straight? I hope so. I don't think so. No wonder Solomon first named it futility, Erasmus later named it folly, Salinger named the world a pack of phonies.
The saying has it that "truth will prevail." Starting when?
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