21536: Fenton: Democracy Now! Tom Griffin... (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Anthony Fenton <apfenton@ualberta.ca>

"Very strange, then, that he didn't see fit to include those dramatic
details in his own report, the seeing of this with his own eyes.."

Chamberlain's right, and as Esser pointed out: Griffin does not in fact
state that *he* saw the 800 corpses during his telephone interview with
Goodman. I will correct for this minor detail in the revised version of the
article. I might also note the pettiness that informed the criticism in the
first place. Griffin spoke to the director of the morgue who told him how
many bodies had been dumped: 800 one week after the coup; 200 more
two weeks later. This is a morgue that usually averages 100 bodies per
month. Griffin states that *he* witnessed [and photographed] the
smoldering ashes of a reported 60 bodies, presumed to be Lavalas
supporters. Pigs were still eating flesh "off human bones that didn't burn".
The fuel for the fire was 'misprinted government currency'.

Griffin, like the subsequent report that was just posted on the List by the
second NLG delegation, emphasizes that the dreaded Army has returned,
and they are dispensing "justice" with impunity.

>>The attempted fraud about personally seeing 800 bodies remains.<<

This repugnance scarcely merits a response, but is a telling example of
the level and extent of denial that exists on the part of apologists for war
crimes and other atrocities. Why haven't the AP or Reuters interviewed this
morgue director? Don't they have his phone number? Can't the front desk
at the Montana or Olaffson get it for them?

I don't know anybody who honestly challenges the corporate owned
media that has reduced its problem to one of "innaccuracy". Ironically, one
of the fundamental practices of the corporate controlled media is to itself
*narrow* the parameters of discourse so as to avoid or preclude genuine
criticism and an honest framing of events. A complete lack of appreciation
for history is also crucial to corporate media survival. Might it occur to a
journalist to raise critical questions concerning the events in Haiti, given
an appreciative knowledge of the 24 previous US Military and/or CIA
interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean? Thus far,
corporate-bred journalists refuse to investigate the atrocities that are
taking place in Haiti. This refusal is adding fuel to the fires that are
burning these people, who are being executed for their belief in
democracy and freedom. What will it take to remedy this pathology of
denial that has such devastating consequences for human beings in
Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Columbia...?