Pro-Freedom Artists

Chief DeWayne Browning

2006-11-16T05:06:00.000-08:00

Chief DeWayne Browning in Iraq

Old guys in a new Army

The difference between Vietnam and Iraq from Vietnam veterans working in Iraq.

In Iraq, "no such thing as POW". The enemey has "absolutely no value" for life.
Iraqi civilians near the base are growing "more positive toward U.S. forces".
"...the people in the United States respect what the soldiers are doing,"
"At its peak the Vietnam War had more than three times as many on the ground as the roughly 140,000 in Iraq today. The new Army that these vets serve in is all volunteer. There are women in uniform all around, as pilots, MPs, mechanics and nearly all other jobs except for infantry and armor units."

One Vietnam vet's Iraqi mission
By Patrick Jackson,
BBC News -November 15, 2006

DeWayne Browning is one of a small number of Americans uniquely qualified to compare the Vietnam and Iraq conflicts, having served in both as a helicopter pilot.

With George W Bush visiting Vietnam for the first time this week, the recently retired pilot spoke to the BBC News website about his efforts, second time around, to bring some humanity to the horror of war.

Mr Browning got drafted - but not for Vietnam. Ironically, his combat call-up only came in 2004 when he was asked to go to Iraq as a 55-year-old reservist in the California Army National Guard.

Back in 1969, he had pre-empted the draft by signing up for helicopter training, seeing it as a more interesting prospect than the regular army.

Serving in Vietnam with the Americal Division, he flew Huey troop carriers and occasionally Cobra gunships.

He went to Iraq theoretically as a higher staff officer but was soon transporting soldiers on a Black Hawk, the Huey's successor.

And his commanders had another, more unorthodox job for Chief Browning which indirectly led to a humanitarian mission of his own.

"...Why?"

Vietnam vets in Iraq see 'entirely different war'
By Steven Komarow,
USA TODAY - June 20, 2005

TIKRIT, Iraq — Before dawn, the pilots digest their intelligence briefing with coffee. The sun rises as they start preflight checks. Just after 7:30, they start rotors turning on their UH-60A Black Hawk, and ease it smoothly into the desert sky ...Read it all.

Chicago - Desire No Shackles

2006-10-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

Edited.

Even in the Age of Information, it would seem that not all information is created equal. We have seen this in the closing of a successful 3-year-old production of Mozart's opera 'Idomeneo', because as Berlin police said, it posed 'incalculable risk' of inciting Islamic fundamentalists to violence. These and other acts of cultural and artistic intimidation are a stark reminder that censorship throbs with power while the lifeblood of art is wrung dry.

Last year, outrage from Muslim students led Harper College, located just outside Chicago, to remove an exhibition of works by Amir Normandi depicting the oppression women suffer in many Islamic countries. Partly in response, Normandi, an Iranian-born Muslim, has curated a new exhibition of works by local and international artists entitled, 'Desire No Shackles, / 'Imagine No Borders', to examine oppression, and the notion of borders in Islam and other contexts.

Featured artists: Amir Normandi, Maryam Hashemi, Marcia Middleton Kaplan, Tim Arroyo, Diane Carriere, Rosy Torres.

Please help us strike a blow to censorship and promote freedom of expression and artistic integrity by posting this event on your blog.

For more info on the events and on the artists, see 'Desire No Shackles / 'Imagine No Borders'

The Price of Freedom

2006-09-11T06:39:00.000-07:00

Image: Cox & Forkum Steven Vincent -August 05,2005

August 02, 2006 was the first anniversary of Steven's brutal death

Steven Vincent: Bloggers remember one of their own

In New York last week, I had the privilege to meet with Lisa Ramaci-Vincent. We talked about the wonderful man Steven was, the profound marks he left behind and the recognition he received during his life and after his tragic death. He was an honest and gifted writer known to be attentive to those he met. He was a successful art critic in New York but touched by the horrors of September 11, exactly five years ago today, Steven Vincent decided to leave for Iraq. He devoted his time to follow the reconstruction but was savagely murdered in Basra during his third trip on August 02, 2005.

Admired by many, Steven always maintained a dignified humility in life. He will always be deeply missed.

***

A few days ago, Iraqi journalist Ali Fadhil gave a brief TV interview on one of the major news broadcaster. I think it was on CNN.

Most of the content of this interview can be found in an article Mr. Fadhil published on September 6, 2006. Iraq’s Endangered Journalists

During the interview, Mr. Fadhil describes the perils that Iraqi journalists are facing every day. He is genuinely and quite understandingly concerned for the safety of Iraqi journalists and for the freedom of the press.

While, in his article in The New York time, he recognizes that "building a free press in Iraq was one of America’s greatest achievements" he explains how the situation has been dangerously degrading since. He also reports that American soldiers are responsible for the death of 14 Iraqi journalists.

Towards the end of the TV interview Fadhil is asked to comment on freedom of speech during Saddam's reign. Visibly relieved, he strongly admits that freedom of the press and freedom of movement have hugely improved since the fall of the regime.

Ali Fadhil's devotion to his country is commendable and his worries regarding the freedom of the press are quite understandable but I wished that during his TV interview he had found something to say about the enormous efforts that brought him the new freedoms he so wants to keep.

We hear too little on the price we must pay to guarantee our liberties and we hear hardly nothing on the sacrifices America made to this day to free Iraq from its decades of violence and nightmarish regime. We are however constantly reminded of the growing discontent with American policies in Iraq and elsewhere and America's "mistakes".

We all know that the difficulties in Iraq are mostly due to terrorism of internal and external origins and to the struggle between Iraqis themselves. Meanwhile the Arab media and MSM have been consistently leading a dishonest coverage of the war. All this goes well with this blind hatred for Bush's administration but surely does not help Iraq's future and everyone's interest. The challenge is to overcome all this together.

Lisa Ramaci-Vincent had something to say on one of Ali Fadhil's observation and reminded us all that Steven Vincent paid with his life for reporting a story.

Forwarded by Lisa Ramaci-Vincent

The New York Time
A Journalist’s Death
To the Editor:
September 9, 2006

While reading “Iraq’s Endangered Journalists,” by Ali Fadhil (Op-Ed, Sept. 6), I was shocked by his claim that “foreign reporters ... have the advantage of being considered untouchable by the Iraqi police and security forces.”

Might I remind Mr. Fadhil that on Aug. 2, 2005, my husband, Steven Vincent, an American journalist living in and writing from Basra, was kidnapped and killed by five men in police uniforms?

Two days before Steven’s murder, The New York Times ran an Op-Ed article he wrote in which he disclosed how the British Army was ignoring both the infiltration of the Basra police force by Iranian-backed Shiite militias, and the resulting spike in fundamentalist violence. He specifically mentioned the white police vehicles used to abduct and kill an ever increasing number of people; two days later, one of those vehicles came for him.

Steven thus has the dubious distinction of being one of the few foreign journalists in this Iraq conflict specifically targeted for execution.

Lisa Ramaci-Vincent
New York, Sept. 7, 2006

Photo taken a couple weeks ago at ground zero.

Diane

Life, Love, LIberty and Pluralism - Clarity & Resolve

2006-06-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

[Workout]

Patrick Kafir is the team leader of Clarity & Resolve. A site with a fun and straight to the point approach. C & R has a lot to offer: beautiful writing, original images and insightful commentaries on the war launched by Islamo-fascism againts freedom. One can also find at the C&R website, Clarity & Resolve Kafir Gear, a little shop fearturing items with the cool C & R logo, Kafir FOR Infidel in Arabic.

Patrick has kindly agreed to answer a few questions for Pro-Freedom Artists.

Your craft and blogging.

1- Patrick Kafir, you are an artist, a musician and a devoted dog owner and you seem animated by the passion to write. Could you comment on the source of that passion?

I don't know if I'd call myself an artist, Diane. I don't mind being called a graphic artist, but I'm no Michaelangelo. I love to create, and I've always done so throughout my life, whether with pen and paper, music, writing, and now using digital media.

I've found myself spectacularly inspired in the creation of graphics and with web design - perhaps more so than ever in my life. It's definitely something that I find myself doing more and more these days. The possibilities are virtually (pun semi-intended) endless right now for digital arts. It's yet another benefit of a free society and the wondrous innovations that are inevitable when people are able to pursue excellence in an open and competitive environment.

- What is your approach and what do you hope to communicate through your work, whether it is music, writing or images?

At C&R, I also try to communicate a sense of "Yeah, the situation we currently face in handling those who oppose freedom - those who are demonstrably willing and ready to kill us - is pretty messed up, but ultimately, we're going to win." "We" being anyone, anywhere who loves freedom.

[Happy Easter, Infidels]

More than anything, I want to convey a message of hope. I can't say that I always succeed in this at Clarity & Resolve since the subject I cover there is so often grave and horrible. But in my day-to-day life, I try to stress that life is beautiful - that we are beautiful. I want people to feel wonder and awe and I want them to feel love. Not just the love of family or nation or religion, but a universal love which recognizes goodness wherever it exists, and which also recognizes the inseverable ties that bind us all.

2- Open publishing via the web is a powerful incentive for creating: what do you think is behind your own creativity?

I think the single most powerful factor in publishing today is its accessibility. Virtually anyone with a computer and an internet connection can write, create art, make music, etc., and then publish it to the world. Of course the downside to this is a lot of drivel, unwanted attention, and negativity, but more freedom is always better when it comes to expression, I think. This innovation of linking the world and empowering people to be heard and to share ideas is enormously powerful. That's why totalitarian states and ideologies don't like it.
[The Peaceful Religion of Mushroom Clouds]

At the foundation of this awesome technological creative boon is the same ancient human spirit that's always driven us to create and to share. We've always loved to create, to tell stories, to impress others, to reach for the sublime, and to challenge ourselves. I'm sure we always will.

The primary impetus behind my own creativity is the simple fact that I love being alive. I'm grateful for every breath I draw, and I'm grateful to enjoy the freedom to express myself as I see fit. Creativity is selfish in that it is often purely a matter of satisfying ones own personal drive for excellence and gratification. But when we share the fruits of our creative efforts with others, sometimes the magic of communion happens, and we find a deeper meaning. This is grand and exalting, I think.

3- From reading your blog, we see that words, music, and visual arts are clearly important to you. Which artist, and what specific works in these fields have captivated your imagination?

When I was younger, my favorite author was Dostoevsky. I read all of his novels. He made me look at humanity in a way I'd hitherto not thought of. Pity, he was apparently an antisemite. I also loved Steinbeck, Herman Hesse, and Honore de Balzac. And Gabriel Garcia Marquez, whose prose is poetic, even in English. I haven't read any fiction in years, though. I find Oriana Fallaci's writing to be very impressive - what a cool woman. Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel is pretty amazing, and I wish more people would read it. I really like science writing too. I usually have a few books going at once, and I don't know how I get through any of them.
[Surface to Air Dog Snow]

I love all music. I'm primarily a drummer, but I've been known to play guitar on occasion. Growing up I loved the Beatles because my Dad had all their stuff. As a teenager, I was into the Grateful Dead, Metallica, and Public Enemy. Now I listen to practically all genres. Yesterday I listened to Maria Callas, Erik Satie, and the Dave Matthews Band.
[Uncle Sociopath Rocks the Courthouse]

I've always been fond of impressionist paintings, especially Van Gogh's, and I've always admired graphic artwork as well. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention cartoon hero, Tex Avery, a true artistic genius. Art is everywhere because art is simply a depiction of the human experience. The only art I truly dislike - in all its forms - is postmodernist stuff. My favorite visual artwork these days is a brilliantly planned and skillfully rendered Flash site. I love Flash - it's truly an amazing artistic tool. Computers are giving more and more people the power to create stunning artwork.
[Van Gogh, Wikipedia]

4- Patrick, what does the name Clarity and Resolve stand for?

.......

It signifies using ones ability to see what is good and what is bad around us, so that we can stand up for the former and against the latter.

[Islamic Family Values]

5- Your website is quite rich in content. Could you describe it for us?

I would describe it as one man's attempt to frame a highly dynamic and sometimes overwhelming world in which the space between the forces of good and evil have been drastically reduced - the two collide far more frequently and dramatically these days. In my mind, we have some huge issues to tackle in this century: famine, disease, environmental decimation, and degraded biodiversity, to name a few. Before we can get to these issues, we need to first conquer the "little" issues, like jihad, communism, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. Clarity & Resolve is a way station on this journey, I guess. It's also a place for anyone who is frustrated with the persistence of anti-freedom/anti-human forces, and those who support them. [Iranian Shia Islamocrat: Near Future Will Be in the Hands of Islam]

It's a place for those who are thoroughly frustrated with the "peaceful inner struggle" of jihad and the inscrutable penchant of the West to whitewash it. [Yet More Shocking Crimes Against Quranity™]

It's also a place to laugh, because frankly, that's sometimes the only way to deal with the wretched lunacy I traffic in for my writing. So, there's a lot of sarcasm, black humor, and of course, Photoshops that mock jihad. Good ol' Photoshop.

Truth be told, Clarity & Resolve isn't half as rich as I might like it to be. I just don't have as much time as I'd like to spend on it. Hamza vs. Hamza]

6- Do you have any favorite posts? What do you look for in the posts you read?

I don't know what to tell you regarding which of my posts are my favorites. There are many that I've felt satisfied with once finished, sometimes even laughing out loud, but I never remember which ones. Like my imagery, I leave it to the beholder to choose which, if any, is of great merit. Writing is something magical to me. It is familiar and almost pedestrian to me, but a consummate joy each time I do it - like taking the same pleasant route to work or to the market each day. You forget which day was which - they blend - but it's always a wonderful walk because you smell wet earth or the new grass and flowers. The airbites your face or just lightly touches it. You notice new things that make you appreciate the moment and your part in it. You feel the sun and the rain on your skin - you feel intensely alive. You see old friends and you make new ones. You learn. Just like yesterday and just like tomorrow.

[K-9DF R & R, New England Style]

7- Many bloggers have said blogging is a wonderful tool. Could you share some of your own experiences as a blogger with us?

I love blogging. I studied (and continue to study) Islam in great depth after 9/11. I was alarmed, saddened, and outraged by what I learned and what I see happening every day to Muslims and infidels alike in the name of Allah. I became acquainted with the 9/11 every day lifestyle of the average Israeli. This new awareness started to weigh on me to the point of depression, so I said, "To heck with it - I'll start a blog." I figured if nothing else, I'd be able to vent and lay out my ideas and conclusions in a concrete way.
[Mass Moonbat Epiphany]

Overall, it's been vastly rewarding. I hear from people all the time who say they read Clarity & Resolve every day, and that they're grateful for the work I do. That's kind of humbling. These are intelligent people who make a point of taking the time each day to read my analysis and perhaps to share a laugh with me. They appreciate the time and effort I put into this blog. I'm extremely pleased that people are seeking out information about the free world's war against jihad/sharia and other totalitarian ideologies, but I'm genuinely touched and thankful that some of them are seeking it at C&R.

I've been mentioned in an Australian newspaper article about blogging and traditional news media. I've been contacted by a foreign embassy official in Washington D.C., and I've gotten email from around the world - most of it positive. Blogs are bringing people together, and that's a great thing. It's part of the first step in a global phenomenon which I feel will increase our awareness that we have far more in common than we have in opposition.

[Kadafi Kafir]

I'd like to mention briefly how important it is for bloggers to police themselves. You should have your facts straight and corroborated, and you should refrain from a purely ad hominem line of criticism. You should admit when you're wrong and learn from your mistakes. I think that accountability and honesty are two vital ingredients for a good blog.

8- There are so many good websites; could you name a few favorites? Which ones do you read daily?

Yeah, there are a lot. It's really hard to keep up. The only sites I religiously go to each day are news sites like Google News, Yahoo! News, and Jpost.com and Ynetnews.com to get information and news on what's happening in Israel. I get a lot of my news right in my Safari browser with the built in RSS reader. I love it. Never has so much information been available on demand in all of mankind's history.

Believe it or not, I very rarely read blogs. I don't really have the time, unfortunately. I always make a point of reading Robert Spencer's blogs because as far as I'm concerned, he's the preeminent infidel authority online (and off) when it comes to Islam and Islamic terror. I try to get to Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs when I can, because there's such a huge community there, which always results in copious amounts of information. Plus, Charles is a smart, funny guy and he has great taste in music.

One of my favorite sites is Best Flash Animation Site.com. You'll always find mind-blowing work there. It's also fun to go to Photoshopping contest sites like Fark and Worth1000. I check out a lot of graphic arts sites to see how far the envelope's been pushed since I last checked, which is usually a good deal.

For science sites, I like NASA, Edge.org, and Ray Kurzweil's AI site (KurzweilAI.net).

9- Could you tell us about your companions, the canine squad and the other members at C & R?

For reasons of security, I can't say all that much about my human companions. I do write about the Religion of Peace, after all, and I speak freely. Suffice it to say that I've been blessed by a wonderful family which has helped me to get through all of the difficult times in my life, and they mean the world to me.

[Kafir Time Constraints]

The Canine Defense Forces is a scrappy group of dogs who were all assembled from previously failed dog combat units, but who have gotten their act together to perform like true pros for the elite C&R team. Maggie (Agent Choco) came from the mean streets of Tacoma, Washington. Action Jack escaped from a puppy mill in Minnesota. Specialist Rudy (who resides with some dear infidel friends of mine) - I don't even know his background story. He's kind of a shadowy figure. Friendly too. He also has a new partner, whom I'll be introducing soon. Watch for upcoming K-9DF news! These dogs are lean, mean infidel-protecting canine machines, and I'm proud of all of them.

As far as other members go, I consider everyone who comes by to read or comment at Clarity & Resolve as part of the team. Some people bring up points I've missed, some disagree with my commentary, some are downright hilarious. All are welcome and appreciated. They inspire me.

10- What is behind the burqa car?

The burqa car is nice because it kind of illustrates the absurdity and misogyny inherent in Islam. As decent and reasonable people, we must question an ideology which is so dreadfully insecure about its women's autonomy that it imposes a portable means of confinement on them when they leave the home, and as is the case on the great Muhammadan peninsula, actually denies them the simple mobility of a car. [Burka car]

I explain it the way I explain all of the anachronistic, anti-human attitudes found in Islam: It's a politicoreligious ideology which was formulated in a barbaric place at a barbaric time, and it was designed to remain unchanged. Add to this the fact that Muslims believe that the Koran is the inerrant word of God, and one begins to understand why the Islamic world struggles so desperately with the concept of progress.

[Iran, Where a Vote Isn't a Vote]

Fallacious arguments from Islamic apologists notwithstanding, Islam has always been anti-woman. It attaches a pathologically shameful stigma to the feminine sex that is borne out in the Koran and sunna. This has ruined the dreams and hopes - and human rights - of countless little Muslim girls.

When you have the putative word of God (the Koran) prescribing oppression of women and the account of the ideal Muslim man (Muhammad, in the sunna) fulfilling and expanding upon such prescriptions, you have a disaster of colossal proportions for Muslim women. It's not right.

[Nice Jewish Girls With Assault Rifles]

Incidentally, I've long suspected that if Islam is to stand a chance at reform - indeed at survival - it will likely be because of its women.

11- What does Christianity mean to you? How do you describe or imagine God? Do you think God really exists?

Christianity is the faith I was brought up in. It was instrumental in providing me with the ethical foundation upon which I've built my moral sense. Christianity shaped Western civilization, and made it better. It gave us "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar and unto God the things that are GodÃ¢â‚â„¢s," which left us plenty of room to eventually eschew theocracy during the enlightenment and to embrace democracy. This stands in stark contrast to Islam's rigid insistence that God's law be imposed upon all men of all times in all places.
[Iraq: Avian Defense Forces]

The beneficial Judeo-Christian contribution to mankind cannot be overstated in my opinion.

I'm an atheist/agnostic (I don't really care which label people use to describe me), Diane, so what God may be like is of little concern to me. I don't meant that in an arrogant way, and I sincerely respect the profound and poignant relationship that most of us have with our Creator. I just don't believe in supernatural agency or phenomena, so it's really a non-issue for me.

That being said, I still consider myself to be a Christian on many levels. Much of the codified Christian moral precepts are simply self-evident guidelines to being a good human being, I think.

12- Do you think those values we cherish in the free world are universal to humanity or are they somehow exclusive to Christianity? Do we find values similar to our Christian values in other major world religions?

I think that all humans have the same moral template, which is used uniquely from one culture to the next. There are certainly universal morals and values, but the extent to which they are developed depends on the culture they occur in. Western civilization has emerged - largely by accident - as the best social environment to nurture the concepts of freedom and pluralism. Again, I feel that Christianity was an essential influence in this process.
[American Infidel Cowboys Love Kids]

Life, love, freedom, and plurality are just, more or less, my favorite things. Or rather, these things make all other good things possible, in my opinion. These are values that the West and Christianity have imbued us with. They are invaluable. I try to accentuate their value at Clarity & Resolve, and I also try to show how bad it is when and where they are absent.

[West and Est]

13- For about three decades in the West, God has not been a regular subject of our public debate. Since 9/11 and the Islamic assault on the West, religion and its role, if any, in determining the norms of our civic society has returned full force. Just think of the recent Danish cartoon debate. As a consequence, God or more generally speaking, religion with all its emotional baggage seems to have returned to claim a place in our public lives. For example, we now hear Americans often referring to Europeans as being Godless. What do you think our American friends mean by this?

I think it's mostly people on the right who worry about the degree of religiosity among the average European. However, I feel a case can be made that secularism can be taken to the same unhealthy, dangerous extreme that religion sometimes is. I would venture to guess that Americans and Europeans both are no more or less religious than they have been in recent history. But (and I'm speaking in general terms here) the former is comfortable with publicly expressing religious sentiments, while the latter appears to have adopted the notion that open satisfaction with ones Christian faith is somehow shameful.
[Rock of Ages]

Europeans, for whatever reason, have largely been more receptive than Americans to the fuzzy thinking found in ideas like the noble savage and the innately, irremediably flawed white European. Such thinking does have the superficial glow of progressivism and enlightenment. However, it only muddies the water more because it ignores the fact that all peoples have been, at one time or another, good and bad. It is popular among the intelligentsia in Europe (and America) to claim that Europeans (and Americans) have more to be ashamed of than proud of in their heritage. Christianity appears to have been bundled into this package.
[Gloria In Excelsis]

At the end of the day, I think that the supposed divide between Europeans and Americans is mostly insubstantial, and exists more in political circles than social ones.

Finally, I'm not in Europe, and I haven't spent much time there (I really loved it, though), so I'm probably not qualified to make any sort of conclusive assessment of the European soul. I just hope that they don't sell it out to Islam.
[Scoring Halaal Goals for God]

14- We can certainly understand that many Europeans are still traumatized from the horrors of WWI and WWII. Before these terribly conflicts, so costly in treasure and human life, they went through centuries of the religious wars. Do you see a relationship between their past and what appears to be a real reluctance to face the threat of Islam both from within and from outside their own societies?

European leaders made some egregiously foolhardy decisions in the seventies which have resulted in a large, prolific, and hostile Muslim citizenry today. I think that's where the reluctance to confront jihad and dawa (the non-military, missionary spread of Islam) come from. Europe has a very big problem now, and I don't know if it's reversible.
[The Multicultural Misery]

15- The left has always viewed and prided itself as the real defender of human rights. Yet in the current context, they are vigorously opposed to almost any forceful action designed to put an end to dictatorships. How is it that the left excuses these dictators, who are the worst offenders of the very human rights the left purports to defend? How you explain this?

Something malicious and tragic happened to the left while no one was paying attention. There's a new left that, through naivete or design, has forgotten what the word liberal means and how it relates to liberty and individual rights - to freedom of conscience. This departure from classical liberal values is very similar to Islam, fascism, and communism. I guess that a surfeit of freedom and rights breeds a particular form of collective idiocy that, sadly, ends up getting people killed and supporting the most vile acts and actors.
[Genocide Intervention Fund]

I'd like to say that it's only the fringe of the left that hates Israel, hates America, and loves Castro and Hamas. You know, the same way that only the fringe of the right supports the KKK or David Duke. I don't know if that's true, though. It seems that an increasingly large contingent of the center left are allowing themselves to be pulled down by the lunatics who are clamoring to offer up the West's neck to Islamofascism.
[Hamas: Mass Murder of Civilians OK]

These people are the new useful idiots, and this time they're furthering the agenda of jihad as well as communism. Ironically, they themselves would go under the sword or the burden of jizya if the Religion of Peace was somehow able to vanquish those of us who unabashedly defend the West and Western values. Also ironically, we defend these idiots from their own idiocy. Maybe that's one of God's little jokes!

16- Recently in the United States, some retired Generals were critical of the Sec of Defence for his handling of the Iraq War. The strong left lobby and the powerful news media (MSM - NYT) locked on to this issue, fanning the flames in a major offensive to get rid of Donald Rumsfeld. In effect, an effort by them to decapitate the civil leadership of the US military. As a Democrat, what do think of this?

[Heroes Then, Now & Always]

I think it's case study #whatever of a leftist bias in big media. It may be part of what we will later realize was big media's last gasp. Blogs are here now, and people are tired of being insulted by a rank partisan, disdainful media elite.

But yeah, these people hate George W. Bush with a passion that I've seldom seen equaled. They'll sink to any level if they think it'll hurt Bush. Sadly, it just hurts our ability to effectively address and combat the forces that threaten us. It's really a shame because it fosters an environment of petty divisiveness at a time when America - and the world - need unity more than ever.

I think that is probably one course of action that is being pursued right now. We certainly know who to contact inside Iran and we certainly have C.I.A. and special ops guys on the ground as well. I don't think that there will be any way to avoid armed conflict when all is said and done, though. Ahmadinejad - or "Armageddonjihad," as I call him - wants holy war, he wants Israel destroyed, and he wants the Islamic rapture. Unfortunately, a disturbingly large number of influential voices are providing him with the cover of legitimacy.

[Yeah, That's a Hoot]

I just hope that when we hit them, it will be fast, overwhelming, and decisive. Like any American, I'm sick of watching our guys die. As a human being, I'm sick of watching bloggers imprisoned and young girls and gay men being murdered by the despicable mullahs in Iran.

17- What are your thoughts on the future of democracy and capitalism?

It's mankind's only hope. No other form of governance and economy has thus far been devised which so closely mirrors man's nature and serves our needs and desires. With the proper resolve and support, it will proceed to its natural end of wiping out most human suffering. We're in a bottle neck right now - a crucial one - and we need all the hope and tenacity we can muster to get through it intact.

Media, communication, information

18- The image provided by the MSM is quite different in reality from that of the real world, which is reported, discussed, and analyzed in the vast blogosphere, 24/7. Which media source - traditional or the net - will be the most persuasive in the short and medium term?

Mainstream media (in its present form) still has the upper hand, because people are familiar with it, and the saturation of the masses with the computer isn't yet complete. This is about to change, though. Within the space of a couple of decades, we've gone from a few geeks building the internet as we know it on clunky, slow, and expensive machines to the common person having access to the internet - and participating in its evolution - at lightning speeds on cheap, well-running machines. The TV revolution that built modern media and the telegraph/telephone/radio and printing press revolutions before that took centuries to bear their fruits.
[It's the Jihad, Stupid]

The phenomenon of blogging was bound to happen. The good blogs were bound to stand out. Traditional media will be absorbed by the new media, which will then become mainstream. The difference will be that people will have more choices about where to get their information and analysis, which is, of course, a very good thing.

18- Do you think the explosion of information in the blogosphere will have a definitive impact on way the MSM determines what is news and how it will cover, what it traditionally calls, "the story"?

It already has. The big guys read the little guys, and in some cases, the little guys are now big guys. Mainstream media is now being fact-checked and analyzed in real time in a milieu freely available to millions on demand. It makes sense for big media to pay attention to what is being discussed on blogs because, after all, people are paying attention too.

When I saw myself being quoted on MSNBC last year, it really hit me how mainstream citizen journalism has become in such a short amount of time. It was really an eye-opener, because I'm not famous by any stretch of the imagination. I'm quite anonymous, in fact. Nevertheless, there were the words I'd written in the privacy of my home, being broadcast to millions on the television. Incredible.

19 - What are your thoughts on the Mainstream Media's coverage of Jihad?

It usually falls into two categories: Woefully ignorant or shamefully dishonest. I suppose that ignorance in journalism is to be expected to some degree when covering exotic and complex topics like Islamic jihad, but that excuse is wearing pretty thin these days. Pick up the Koran, pay attention to the news wires, and stop the uncritical acceptance of what CAIR and agenda-driven academics are peddling.
[HIGHWAY SA]

The dishonesty is worse. It's a deliberate choice to mislead and it justifies the horrendous acts carried out by the mujahideen. It enables them. The willful distortion of simple facts, especially when it comes to Israel and the undeniable connection between mainstream Islam and Islamic terror, is disgraceful. Calling them "militants" or "activists" is disgraceful and insulting to their victims.

This is a serious matter, and the media is letting the public down in a big way. Thankfully, there is internet media to help fill in the moral, psychological, and factual gaps.
[Dar al-Gitmo Times]

20- What are your observations on the cartoon madness? What do you think is the real story behind the MSM refusing to publish these cartoons?

It's fear. Everyone knows what happened to Theo van Gogh. Salman Rushdie or Ibn Warraq or Ayaan Hirsi Ali. They're afraid of Muslims coming after them and their family to redeem the "honor" of their religion's founder. I was afraid too. I still am. These people - not all of them, mind you, but enough of them - kill when they feel their faith has been insulted.

Where's the guy who gave us "Piss Christ"? Where are the actors from The Last Temptation of Christ and The Passion of the Christ? I'll tell you where they aren't: In front of a mob of enraged Christians or Jews whipped up into a murderous fury, running for their lives.

Leftists are fond of the canard that we have surrendered our freedoms out of unwarranted fear through our adoption of the Patriot Act and our construction of Camp X-Ray in Gunatanamo Bay. They don't seem to mind accommodating the barbarians who kill over cartoons, though.

21- What are your thoughts on the fairness and balance - or lack there of - in the MSM coverage of Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

I'd like to see how these people would react to their neighbors, family members, and loved ones being blown to bloody pieces and bone fragments in their streets. They should be ashamed of their hypocrisy. When their jihadis friends came to America, they were terrorists. When they came to Madrid and London, they were terrorists. In Bali and Beslan, they are Islamic terrorist killers. In Israel, they are equated with the IDF who are struggling to protect Israeli sovereignty and security, while preserving the lives of Palestinian Arab civilians. There is no moral equivalence here, but that's what so many in the mainstream media are trying to feed us.

[One More Light Goes Out]

Alan Dershowitz said in The Case for Israel that Israel is the Jew of the world. That is, among nations, it is simply accepted that it's all right to unfairly criticize Israel for spurious faults while ignoring the glaring wickedness being perpetrated by so many others. Where does this unethical and stupid prejudice come from?
[Culture of Death: PA, Terrorists & Kids]

There's definitely some antisemitism to it, but there's also the element of a pervasive leftist slant in the media. I think it goes back to what we were talking about earlier regarding the leftist penchant for self-effacement and inflated veneration for the supposed victims who kill the innocent because we force them to. It sounds simplistic, but I think a lot of these people in MSM see Israelis - as per their distorted worldview - as the soulless white imperialists living off the suffering of aggrieved, noble brown people.

I don't know how else to explain it, but I will say this: It's intellectually lazy and ethically reckless.

22- Who are your favorite observers / columnists and who stands out as being particularly awful?

I really like Robert Spencer, because he's a veritable repository of information on the Religion of Peace. Oriana Fallaci is unparalleled for her keen sense and fiery conviction. There's a radio talk show host from Boston named Howie Carr who I like because he makes me laugh. I don't always agree with his politics, but he's very entertaining. I listen to him sometimes when I'm in the car.

For the moment, I think I'll decline mentioning by name the scoundrels whose print gets under my skin.

23. Patrick, what are some of the projects you wish to complete, "before the bones", as an old Muslim friend of ours says?

Ha! That's a cool expression. Well, my aim is to not get to that point at all, or at least to choose when I do. I want to live long enough to see the time when we can choose whether or not we want to die. It may seem like science fiction, but we are quickly approaching the era where what once seemed miraculous will become commonplace - all through technology and our integration with it, or rather, its integration with us.
[Smiles Are Universal]

This is all contingent on whether we can get over the stupid stuff like jihad and other forms of tyranny over mankind's body, mind, and soul.

In the meantime, I just want to become a better person and to keep learning. I want to improve my artistic skills. If I can, I want to help others. I want to raise awareness of the suffering of people and animals. I want to have a lot of fun, and make life fun for those around me.

About life

24. What are your thoughts on life, what matters and what does not really matter?

Life matters. We matter. Whether you are a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, or an atheist, you matter and you deserve peace, security, and happiness. No one matters more than others by virtue of their religion, race, or other nominal distinction. Those things matter to us as individuals within discrete groups, but they shouldn't matter one whit when it comes to how we treat each other as a whole. Whatever we believe comes after this life, one thing is certain: right now we're all here together and it is wholly possible to be good to each other, no matter where we come from. Life itself matters, and I think we should honor it across its broad spectrum.
[American Infidel Crusaders Love Kids]

Science matters, and I don't think enough of us appreciate that. Faith is sustenance for man's spirit, but science is what makes life better in a practical sense. It has lifted us out of barbarism and, along with art, has transformed us into something better. It is also truly exhilarating to apprehend how it all works, and our part in it.

[Smiles Are Universal]

What doesn't really matter is the meaningless divisions we construct between ourselves as people. They shouldn't matter, at least. They mainly serve to hurt us and inhibit our progress toward unity and peace.

Life is precious, and whether you believe in God or not, you are a lost soul when you discount the inestimable value of life. You are then throwing away the most priceless gift we have. To do so in God's name is unutterably vile, in my view.

Many thanks to Patrick Kafir for his fun and thoughful commentaries.

- Additional interesting links from C&R -

About Clarity & Resolve and Ethical/Editorial Standards Summary

Clarity & Resolve Kafir Gear

Kafir: Arabic for "infidel"—one who refuses to submit to the Islamic God (Allah) and the Islamic faith, and who denies that Muhammad was God's messenger. We use the lovely Arabic calligraphic script for "kafir" as our logo, with the English "infidel" below.

Terror:
DJ al-Qaradawi Rocks the Mosque
Peaceful Inner Struggle Watch
Justice Matters... In a Relative, Conditional Sort of Way - Anti-Semite art
Pink Jihad: The Camouflage Burqa Brigades of Hamas
Saudi Death Cultists Make Token Gesture
Iran: Killing Gay Kids for Allah
Allah: The Angry, Violent Deity With No Sense of Humor - Norway

Iraq:
CDF Iraq, Canine Defense Force in Iraq
We Love Life
Can't Sleep... Freedom on the March...
Strangely Unlike a Quagmire

Hockey:
C&R Sports Desk

Diane, Pro-freedom Artitsts

June 12, 2006 Women’s Freedom Rally in Tehran

2006-06-11T15:41:00.000-07:00

Protection of women’s right, prevails democracy in Iran.

The Steven Vincent Foundation

2006-05-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

Updated:

Slain journalists honoured
By Elizabeth White
Associated Press
May 4, 2006

Honoring martyrs who died for a free press
Pam Platt
Courrier-Journal.com
April 30, 2006

In the past few months since the brutal murder of her husband in Iraq, Lisa Ramaci has been managing the beautiful Steven Vincent Foundation.
It's noble purposes honour in meaningful terms, Steven, her life companion. Many have read entirely The Red Zone. It is soulfully written, it is done with simplicity along with a keen sense of observation. It goes "au coeur des choses", right at the heart of things. Vincent was a dynamic, generous and honest communicator. The Red Zone is now a precious reference for students in journalism and for the rest of us who beneficiate from their journeys.

The Steven Vincent Foundation has two objectives.
It provides help to their families of journalists, photographers, stringers and translators who lost their lives for doing their work.
It also supports Muslim women confronting oppression on Islamic ground.

These two causes are dear to AFD, Arts For Democracy.

Here is an important interview with Lisa conducted by antimedia, Media Lies.

The price of war

War exacts an awful cost from many people. Not least among those costs is the loss of personalities, of names, of lives that had meaning and purpose and significance. Often those names, those people, melt away in the awful toll that turns individual losses into ever-growing statistics that dull our senses and harden us to the persons behind those statistics.

Rarely do those losses rise to our consciousness and cause us to reflect on the terrible price that war exacts from us all. In Iraq, many journalists have been killed. One American journalist was murdered in cold blood. He didn't work for a major news agency. He wasn't a famous journalist or a household name. He paid his way in to Iraq and lived on the stories he wrote. He was brutally murdered for writing the truth.

His name was Steven Vincent, and he was a writer extraordinaire. His words brought to life the dusty recesses of a world so foreign that few of us could imagine it. Yet, through Steven we could live vicariously, sensing the danger, wondering what was around the next corner, worrying about the troubling signs Steven gave us that all was not right in southern Iraq.

Recently I interviewed Lisa Ramaci, Steven's widow, to find out how the Steven Vincent Foundation was progressing. Lisa started the foundation to honor Steven's memory, to provide aid and comfort to families of slain journalists and others who lost their lives because they tried to bring us the news and to assist women standing up for their rights while living in countries where shariah law makes them second class citizens.

These are my questions and Lisa's answers... Read the rest.

Excepts:

[...What do you think Steven would say to you on the day of the official launch of the Foundation?

I WOULD HOPE THAT HE WOULD SAY "GOOD JOB", THAT HE WAS PROUD OF ME AND PROUD TO HAVE A FOUNDATION NAMED AFTER HIM THAT WILL HELP BOTH THE FAMILIES OF MURDERED JOURNALISTS/PHOTOGRAPHERS/STRINGERS/TRANSLATORS, AS WELL AS MUSLIM WOMEN TRYING TO MAKE A BETTER LIFE FOR WOMEN IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD...]

[... One of the purposes of the Foundation is to support women who are in jeopardy either because they reported events that put them in jeopardy or they attempted to help other women in trouble. Were you and Steven involved or interested in similar issues before he left for Iraq?

TRUTHFULLY? NOT REALLY. WE WERE SO USED TO THE FACT THAT WOMEN IN THE WEST HAVE, FOR THE MOST PART, FULL EQUALITY WITH MEN, AND HAD NO CONCEPTION WHATSOEVER OF THE REALITIES OF DAILY LIFE FOR WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EAST. SUCH THINGS AS SHARI'A, TRIBAL LAW, "HONOR" KILLINGS - I USE THAT TERM EXTREMELY SARCASTICALLY - WERE ALIEN AND UNBELIEVABLE CONCEPTS TO US. IT WAS NOT UNTIL WE STARTED TRAVELING IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES, BEGINNING WITH A TRIP TO IRAN IN 2000, THAT WE BEGAN TO SEE THE BARBAROUS WAY THE "RELIGION OF PEACE AND TOLERANCE" TREATS ITS WOMEN. THEN, WHEN STEVEN SPENT MONTHS IN IRAQ AND GOT TO SEE FIRSTHAND THE DAILY REPRESSION AND MISERIES THEY HAD TO ENDURE, IT TURNED HIM INTO A STAUNCH FEMINIST, AS HE RECOUNTED IN "IN THE RED ZONE"...]

[... Steven's prose was so vivid that, reading his articles, you felt as though you were there with him. He obviously cared about the place and the people that kept drawing him back to the danger he finally succumbed to. If Steven could tell the American people one thing about Iraq, what do you think he would say?

I THINK HE WOULD ASK THE AMERICAN PEOPLE NOT TO GIVE UP ON IRAQ. BIRTH IS ALWAYS A PAINFUL AND BLOODY PROCESS, BE IT A CHILD OR A DEMOCRACY, BUT HOPEFULLY WHAT IS BORN WILL TURN OUT TO BE A VALUABLE AND WORTHWHILE ADDITION TO THE WORLD FAMILY.

I CANNOT PRETEND TO UNDERSTAND STEVEN'S FATAL FASCINATION WITH THE PLACE THAT KILLED HIM, BUT MUST HONOR HIS FEELINGS. SO I WILL CONTINUE TO HOLD FAITH THAT SOMEDAY, SOMEHOW, IRAQ WILL MAKE IT THROUGH ITS CURRENT GROWING PAINS AND BECOME A FUNCTIONING, MATURE, RESPONSIBLE, ADULT COUNTRY...]

[...JUST BEFORE I CLOSE, I WOULD LIKE TO MAKE AN APPEAL TO YOUR READERS. IF ANYONE, AFTER HAVING READ WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN, WOULD LIKE TO DONATE TO THE FOUNDATION, I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT LITERALLY 100% OF YOUR MONIES WILL BE SENT TO A FAMILY WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN SHATTERED BY MINDLESS VIOLENCE, OR TO A WOMAN FIGHTING AGAINST THE BRUTALITIES OF SHARIA. EVERY DONOR WILL RECEIVE A RECEIPT, AND ANY DONATION, REGARDLESS OF THE AMOUNT, WILL BE GRATEFULLY RECEIVED. CHECKS CAN BE MADE OUT TO "THE STEVEN VINCENT FOUNDATION" AND SENT TO:

THE STEVEN VINCENT FOUNDATION
534 EAST 11TH STREET SUITE 17-18
NEW YORK, NY 10009

OR DONATIONS CAN BE MADE VIA PAYPAL (WWW.PAYPAL.COM) TO THE EMAIL ADDRESS STEVENVINCENTFOUNDATION@YAHOO.COM .

THANK YOU, PAUL, AND THANKS TO ALL OF YOU PATIENT ENOUGH TO PLOW THROUGH THIS LENGTHY POST. I APPRECIATE YOUR GIVING ME THE CHANCE TO TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT STEVEN, AND THE WORK I AM TRYING TO DO TO HONOR HIM. GOD BLESS - .]

Steven Vincent's blog was named In the Red Zone. His book, In The Red Zone, is for sale at his publisher's website.

Our thanks to antimedia at Media Lies on Thursday April 27, 2006 at 11:48pm

To read as well: The Steven Vincent Foundation by Robert J. Avrech at April 30, 2006 at Seraphic Secret.

Last week was a difficult time for Lisa Ramaci.
It was a year ago, on April 24, that Lisa last hugged her husband Steven Vincent goodbye and watched as he went off to seek truth in Iraq. There, this good and talented man was kidnapped with his translator, Nour Weidi. Steven was horribly tortured for over five long hours and finally murdered in cold blood. Nour, a lively and poetic young woman, survived--but just barely. Steven's book, In the Red Zone, is the best summation of post-war Iraq I have yet to read.
Lisa and I speak to one another by e-mail. I have told her of my grief for Ariel and she has told me about Steven. We have prayed alone and together for those we have lost...

The Steven Vincent Foundation

2006-05-07T11:00:00.000-07:00

About Steven Vincent

Steven Vincent (December 31, 1955 - August 2, 2005) was a respected New-York based writer and critic specializing in stories of art and archaeological theft, fraud and forgery, but a decade of covering the insular art world left him yearning for new and more meaningful challenges.

On September 11, 2001, from the roof of his East Village co-p, Vincent saw United Flight 175 strike the South Tower, watched the collapse of the World Trade Center, and knew the world had forever changed. Determined to be in the forefront of cataloguing America's new path, he gave up writing about art and methodically set about turning himself into a political journalist, covering the Iraq war and its aftermath. In September 2003, and again in January 2004, he went to Iraq as a freelancer, paying his own way, sans body armor, cell phone or hired security, unwilling to be beholden to any organization, and wanting the ability to freely report on the things he saw, heard, felt. These trips resulted in the well-received book In the Red Zone, published by Spence in November 2004.

In April 2005, Vincent set out on what would be his final trip to Iraq. This time he was planning to spend 3 months in the southern city of Basra, his intention being to write a history of the city. Basra, under British control, was universally considered to be much safer than Baghdad. Once he got there, however, Vincent discovered that, contrary to the generally-accepted view, and with the disengaged complicity of the British, Basra was, in fact, becoming a radical Shiite state falling under the influence of Iran, in which women were forced to wear full chador, Christians were persecuted, alcohol sellers were killed on the streets and operators of music and/or video stores had their establishments firebombed.

On July 31, 2005, The New York Times printed what would be Vincent's last piece, "Switched Off in Basra," in which he accused the British of turning a blind eye as the Basran police force was systematically infiltrated by Iranian-backed insurgents, Shia extremists and followers of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, and documented how elements of the three groups had set up "assassination squads" within the police department, operating unchecked, driving a white "death car" and killing their victims with impunity.

Two days later, on August 2, 3 months to the day he had arrived in the city, Vincent and his female translator were abducted off the streets of Basra in broad daylight by men in police uniforms, driving a white police truck, bound, gagged, beaten, driven to the outskirts of town, and shot in the back. The translator, Nour al-Khal, survived; Vincent died.

Six weeks later his friend and fellow journalist, Fakher Haider, a Basran stringer for the New York Times, wrote an article that built upon Steven's final op-ed piece. Several days later, men in police uniforms and driving police cars went to his house, and with his wife and three children watching, bound him, gagged him, took him away, drove him to the outskirts of town, and shot him in the head.

The Mission of the Foundation

Since the Iraq war began in April 2003, some 45 journalists and photographers have been killed while reporting in-country, as well as an undetermined number of translators and ‘fixers’. Some were Westerners affiliated with Western organizations, and their families would have received some kind of compensation, but those like Fakher Haider have no health insurance, life insurance, benefits of any kind. They rely on the paychecks they receive from the organizations they work for to support their families; when they are killed those paychecks stop, and the family is bereft of not only a son, brother, husband and/or father, but what is for many doubtless the main, if not the sole, means of support.

The initial purpose of the Foundation will be to see that the families of those fixers, translators, photographers and journalists killed while trying to do their jobs receive financial aid to help them through a time of shock and devastating grief. In addition to providing somewhat of a safety net, it will also send an important message to the recipient(s), namely, that the sacrifice both they and their loved one made has not gone unnoticed, that there are people in the West who appreciate, mourn and honor their loss, and who want to acknowledge the danger these brave men and women put themselves in while attempting to report the truth for our benefit. Financial aid will not be limited to one particular country, region or conflict, but will be provided on a worldwide basis as needed and as is feasible. With that purpose in mind, the first grant made by the infant Foundation was a donation of one thousand dollars to Fakher Haider's widow.

Another, and equally worthwhile purpose, will be to support women in volatile regions who are risking their lives to report on what they see happening in their countries, who try and change local policies, or who work to better the lives of their fellow women, and then find themselves in jeopardy for doing so. The women below, both 2005 'Courage in Journalism' award winners from the International Women's Media Foundation (www.iwmf.org) were the first of many that the Steven Vincent Foundation will be assisting, with each receiving one thousand dollars each in Steven's name:

Sumi Khan, 34, a reporter with Shaptahik 2000 (Weekly 2000) in Dhaka. Khan reports on politics, crime and corruption in one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world. Since 2000, nine journalists have been killed in Bangladesh and reporters are routinely harassed and beaten while trying to do their work. In 2004, Khan began receiving threatening phone calls after she published an article about local politicians and religious organizations and their ties to attacks on minority groups. The phone calls were followed by an attack against her during which she was stabbed and beaten by three unknown assailants. Khan was injured so severely that she was unable to work for three months. Most recently, she received a death threat from the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami fundamentalist party after her reporting tied the group to gang activity.

Shahla Sherkat, 49, editorial director of Zanan (Women) in Tehran. Sherkat founded the monthly magazine in 1991, after she was dismissed from her position as editorial director at Zan-e Rouz, a government-owned weekly women’s magazine because she wanted to change the way it depicted women. The Iranian government has threatened to close Zanan many times because of the daring way the magazine covers women’s rights and feminism. Zanan faces continuing financial difficulties because it is privately owned and funded. It has also been attacked by fundamentalist gangs and Sherkat has been repeatedly summoned to court to defend the articles she chooses to publish in Zanan. In January 2001, she was fined and sentenced to prison for four months after attending a conference in Berlin where discussions on the future of political change in Iran took place. She was not required to serve the prison sentence, but was forced to pay a fine equivalent to her two-months salary.

Women's rights were extremely important to Steven; he wrote in Red Zone that without such rights, there could be no true democracy in Iraq, let alone anywhere in the world. The Foundation will channel financial aid to women at risk, thereby allowing them, for instance, the wherewithal to hire a security guard, or, as in Shahla Sherkat's case, the ability to continue publishing.

As time goes by and the Steven Vincent Foundation grows, we want to expand our outreach and programs, but for now, we think these two initial programs would be a vital use of donations, and send a valid and much-needed message. Within two years, the Foundation also plans to institute the yearly Steven Vincent Award for Excellence in War Correspondence, which initially will award $5,000.00 to the journalist who produces the most compelling and important piece of reporting on a military conflict within a 12-month period, and $1,000.00 each to three semi-finalists, although in time those amounts will increase.

Egypt's grand mufti issues fatwa: no sculpture

2006-04-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

CAIRO – More than 1,300 years after the Muslim conquest swept through Iran Dokht News

CAIRO – More than 1,300 years after the Muslim conquest swept through Egypt, one of the country's highest religious authorities has declared that its ancient sculptures are forbidden by Islam.
In his fatwa - or religious ruling - issued earlier this month, Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa quoted a saying of the prophet Muhammad that sculptors will be among those receiving the harshest punishment on Judgment Day.

Artists and intellectuals here say the edict, whose ban on producing and displaying sculptures overturns a century-old fatwa, runs counter to Islam. They also worry that extremists may use the ruling as a pretense for destroying Egypt's ancient relics, which form a pillar of the country's multibillion-dollar tourist industry.

I'm sure Egypt will not allow the wholesale destruction of all art in the land of the Pharaohs since they rely very heavily on tourism and the sale of these 'idols in danger of corrupting minds to worship them". Best to issue a fatwa against blowing up other Egyptians and tourists first.

Leap Frog

Image, Diane, AFD

No relenting, the struggling women of Iran need our continued support.

2006-04-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

After empowering the nation with destructive nuclear technology, these days Islamic Regime is busy empowering Iranian women with mobile solitary cells (Compulsory Hejab) to battle the infidels’ democratic diversions. No relenting, the struggling women of Iran need our continued support.

HELP SAVE FATEMEH - URGENT - IMMINENT EXECUTION

2006-04-07T04:27:00.000-07:00

HELP SAVE FATEMEH - SIGN PETITION HERE

Photo Faith Freedom

Excerpts-

UA: IRAN

28 March 2006

More news on UA 281 /04

Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh is reportedly scheduled to be executed on or before 1 April 2006. She was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband.

IMMINENT EXECUTION

IRAN

* FATEMEH HAGHIGHAT-PAJOUH'S TRAGIC STORY

"The stay of execution granted to Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh on 12 October 2004 was rescinded by the Supreme Court. Her execution has been reportedly scheduled to take place on or before 1 April 2006.

Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh was sentenced to death for the murder of her husband.

She alleged that her husband was a drug addict who had tried to rape her daughter from a previous marriage, who was 15 years old at the time.

Apparently he had previously told her that he had lost the girl in a gambling match. Amnesty International does not know when she was arrested, but she may have been tried in 2002.

The Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, had stayed Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh's execution after reading a letter written to him by her daughter, entitled "Don’t render my hopes hopeless", in which she appealed for clemency for her mother.

Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh was then held in Evin prison in the capital, Tehran, whilst her case was sent to the second Division of the Supreme Court for review.

According to a report in the Iranian newspaper Hamshahri on 15 March 2006, the Court has confirmed the death sentence against Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh and has reportedly approved the execution.

Her lawyer was reported to be intending to ask the Head of the Judiciary to use his powers to issue another stay of execution."

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Persian, English, French or your own language:

- expressing concern that the stay of execution granted to Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouh has been rescinded after almost 18 months;

- urging that the death sentence imposed on Fatemeh Haghighat-Pajouhbe commuted immediately;

- urging the authorities to ensure that the victim’s family is made aware of its right, under Islamic law, to pardon the condemned;

- reminding the Iranian authorities of their commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular Article 3A: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee

Read our friend Kat - Islam, Freedom and Democracy

Islam, I'm staying free

2006-03-30T13:06:00.000-08:00

12 post cards for Muharram - Amir Normandi

Amir Normandi is the one of the very few Muslim artists I know who speaks out against oppression in the face of the oppressors. Perhaps it is because he lives in America and enjoys the freedoms of that democracy.

But, some days the crevasse between Islam and the West seems so wide, it feels impossible to bridge. How can we, creators and writers from the West, meet our peers in Islam and talk freely, without fear?

From an historical and artistic point of view, the passion and the warmth of the culture in the Arabian Peninsula is part of our collective heritage. Unfortunately today, radical Islam stands between Muslims in Islamic lands and the rest of us. Radical Islam forces silence. Honest feelings expressed against the religious and civilian Islamist authorities are denied. Fear of the physical consequences commands submission.

Effectively, all in the Muslim world live in a world of doublethink: say one thing, but deep inside, is something else. It is not by chance that the word, “Inshallah” functions as the verbal cream that absolves believers of personal responsibility for anything.

All Muslims are separated from Christians and Jews, because radical-Islam hates anyone who does not submit to Islam as determined by the radical vanguard. Witness the apostate in Afghanistan sentenced to death for insulting Allah. The judge has now ruled “insufficient evidence” against this man but how long will it take for local religious fanaticism to kill him?

Walfa Sultan brilliantly says, "I don't hate Islam as much as Islam hates me." So far I feel that Islam hates me more than I am - yet - scared of Islam.

What is the meaning of this sickness that is dividing our world and killing in its name everyday? Muslims in Islamic nations cannot speak out or scream because the radical Islamic authorities do not tolerate confrontation.

So what can we do other than just watch the violence and ignore the threats?

Do we not believe in “We the people…?”, or at least, “Peace, order and good government…?” We certainly believe that all authorities must be confronted when necessary.

After long and bitter experience, we base our civil society and discourse on a secular rule book. Neither religion nor religious beliefs hold any power or authority over or are allowed to dictate to our civil or religious lives or the lives of our friends.

This Islamic sickness is a serious threat that neither our Muslim neighbours nor we can ignore. We need to fix that.

From a spiritual perspective our belief systems treasure humanity and all forms of life: from the beauty and necessity of the nature of stars to insignificant microbes. All from a creator or, who knows, perhaps not from a creator.

After months of observing the cartoon story developing and as an artist, standing with my Danish peers for freedom, it has been extraordinary watching frenzy unfold.

It is now well documented that this "frenzy" was fraudulently created with command and control out of SA and Egypt. This is part of the operational phase of radical Islam: the process of Western intimidation through violent terrorist acts and threats in the West.

The Danish imam who was the leader behind the cartoon operation, Abu Laban has close ties with terrorist groups, and was also a collaborator with Al Zawahari / Gamaa Islamiya. He was working on pamphlets for him in early nineties. Zawahari, al Qaeda # 2 now, was chased out of Egypt when the government cracked down hard on the Muslim Brotherhood radical elements such. They worked together in Denmark.

The spokesperson for the Abu Laban team was terminated from his teaching assignment when he was in training, because he had violently beaten a ten-year-old boy who was playing innocently with a little girl. This is a serious criminal offense. Thanks to the Danish justice system and ‘other factors’, he is today still teaching in Denmark not far from the school where the crime was committed.

The Abu Laban's group and likely all the other activist cells have ties with terrorists, whether with Hamas or the Islamic leadership in Egypt and Saudi Arabia or others.

Is it possible that the blogsphere dialogue between the West and the East, particularly with the Middle Eastern bloggers and writers can so expose those who would intimidate believers and non-believers alike that we can again use our hard-won rules for a democratic civil society to eliminate those 7th C zealots from our midst?

Unfortunately, this dialogue is still limited: religion and fear seem to stand firmly in the way.

We live in a dangerous world when religion trumps the politics and values of our civil life. We need to fix that too.

Diane

More: French Journalist: Danish Imams are Extremists

“The man behind the controversial French documentary thinks that Abu Laban and Ahmed Akkari are extremists disguised as moderates.”
By Thomas Lauritzen, Paris

He is rather reluctant to say the words because he has the greatest respect for the Danes - but Mohammed Sifaoui feels that it is necessary to tell us that we are “naive”.
“All you good and well-meaning people at Politiken, in the rest of Denmark and Europe, you hurt your and moderate Moslems’ cause when you let extremists call the tune,” he says.
“They’re not bombers - they’re worse”
And for Sifaoui there’s no doubt the Danish Imams such as Ahmed Akkari and Abu Laban are just that, extremists but disguised as moderates.
“Actually, I was sort of seduced by Abu Laban the first day. He seemed both friendly and tolerant. But it was lucky that I stayed with them for some days, because then all of the extremist ideology was revealed,” Sifaoui says about his travels in Denmark this February which, i.a., revealed Ahmed Akkari’s famous ‘bomb threat’ against the Social Liberal politician Naser Khader…”. Read the rest here.

Many Thanks to Agora

Help save Mohammed Al-Asadi's life

2006-03-12T10:35:00.000-08:00

Mohammed Al-Asadi, editor-in-chief of the Yemen Observer, in jail. YO Photo
An Appeal from Jail from Mohammed al-Asadi, Editor-in-Chief. By Mohammed Al-Asadi
Feb 14, 2006

Report: Press Climate Deteriorating in Yemen
By Observer Staff,
Mar 12, 2006

"SANA'A - In a new report, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) warns of a “dangerous escalation” in the government’s suppression of independent and opposition media in Yemen.
In the report, “Attacks, Censorship, and Dirty Tricks,” the CPJ says that at least two dozen journalists have been assaulted, jailed or sued over the past two years. And in the past year, Yemeni authorities shut down at least seven newspapers..."

SIGN the Petition

'Of Course I’m Afraid’, an Interview with Mohammed Al-Asadi
By Rod Nordland - Newsweek magazine
Feb 19, 2006

SANA'A – Mohammed Al-Asadi, the Editor-in-Chief of the Yemen Observer, remains in jail concerning accusations related to the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH).

In an interview from his jail cell Al-Asadi spoke to reporter Rod Nordland from the US-based Newsweek magazine, discussing press freedom, religion and calls for his execution. The transcript from Newsweek follows below.

NEWSWEEK: Is this your first time in jail?
Mohammed al-Asadi: It's the first time ever I've been a prisoner, or even in front of a judge.

How are the accommodations?
I'm in a temporary prison, awaiting a hearing, so it's not so bad. It's a basement, and we have to buy everything we need, even bottled water. There are 15 of us sharing one big room and one toilet, but the others aren't common criminals. A couple are journalists, because it's the prison of the prosecutor for press and publications...

Yemen Exploits Cartoon Controversy to Close the Yemen Observer
JAWA
February 09, 2006
Fighting the Wrong War: Not in the Prophet’s Name
By YemenObserver Staff
March 11, 2006
Lawyers Wrangle and Yemen Observer Demanded to Compensate for Insults
By Sanaa, NewsYemen
March 8, 2006

"SANA’A – Yemen is focusing on the wrong people in targeting Mohammed Al-Asadi and the Yemen Observer in the accusations of insulting the Prophet (PBUH), according to a leading academic.
Dr Abdullah Al-Faqih, Professor of Politics at Sana’a University and head of the Change Forum, an independent NGO working to promote political dialogue, appealed to they Yemeni people arguing that they are “fighting the wrong war” in targeting the newspaper.

"Yemen’s battle is not with Al-Asadi but with poverty, illiteracy, underdevelopment, and diseases," he said.
Dr Al-Faqih, in an interview with the Observer, wrote an appeal for real justice to be made, calling the trial a ‘witch hunt.’
His statement follows below.
“It is inconceivable to think that a newspaper like the Yemen Observer would intentionally seek to insult Muslims or their Prophet (PBUH) in any manner..."

FREE MUHAMMAD AL-ASADI
By Michelle Malkin ·
March 10, 2006

Yemeni Lawyrers demands death penalty
By Sandmonkey,
March 10, 2006

Campain to save a life
By Blueslord - Infidel Bloggers Alliance
March 09, 2006

Help Save A Man's Life: Yemen editor faces capital punishment for printing cartoons. (Updated)
Freedom Zone
March 09, 2006

Yemen editor 'faces death calls' The trial adjourned until 22 March.
BBC -March 8, 2006

Knowing the Defender from the Offender
By Shaker Lashuel*, YemenObserver
March 6, 2006
* Shaker Lashuel is a freelance Yemeni writer based in the U.S. He has written on the Yemeni-American community and Yemen related issues. He is a teacher working for the New York City Department of Education.

Danish Cartoons International
Hjörtur Gudmundsson - The Brussels Journal
March 2, 2006

"According to the Danish online newspaper eJour, 143 newspapers in 56 countries around the globe, including Christian and Muslim ones, have so far republished one or more of the Muhammad cartoons, first published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in September. (See the twelve cartoons here, halfway the page) A list of the countries can be found here. 13 newspapers in 9 countries, including Egypt, had published one or more of the cartoons before the Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet republished them on January 10.
Editors have either been sacked or jailed for publishing the cartoons. In Algeria two editors have been jailed and in Indonesia a number of them were fired...

Journalists in Yemen and Algeria arrested over prophet cartoons
CPJ - Committee to Protect Journalists -New York
February 13, 2006

Brilliant Flemming Rose

2006-02-20T14:17:00.000-08:00

Why I Published the cartoons
By Flemming Rose
Feb. 19, 2006
Washington Post

"Childish. Irresponsible. Hate speech. A provocation just for the sake of provocation. A PR stunt. Critics of 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad I decided to publish in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have not minced their words. They say that freedom of expression does not imply an endorsement of insulting people's religious feelings, and besides, they add, the media censor themselves every day. So, please do not teach us a lesson about limitless freedom of speech.

I agree that the freedom to publish things doesn't mean you publish everything. Jyllands-Posten would not publish pornographic images or graphic details of dead bodies; swear words rarely make it into our pages. So we are not fundamentalists in our support for freedom of expression.

Those examples have to do with exercising restraint because of ethical standards and taste; call it editing. By contrast, I commissioned the cartoons in response to several incidents of self-censorship in Europe caused by widening fears and feelings of intimidation in dealing with issues related to Islam. And I still believe that this is a topic that we Europeans must confront, challenging moderate Muslims to speak out. The idea wasn't to provoke gratuitously -- and we certainly didn't intend to trigger violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world. Our goal was simply to push back self-imposed limits on expression that seemed to be closing in tighter.

At the end of September, a Danish standup comedian said in an interview with Jyllands-Posten that he had no problem urinating on the Bible in front of a camera, but he dared not do the same thing with the Koran.

This was the culmination of a series of disturbing instances of self-censorship. Last September, a Danish children's writer had trouble finding an illustrator for a book about the life of Muhammad. Three people turned down the job for fear of consequences. The person who finally accepted insisted on anonymity, which in my book is a form of self-censorship. European translators of a critical book about Islam also did not want their names to appear on the book cover beside the name of the author, a Somalia-born Dutch politician who has herself been in hiding.

Around the same time, the Tate gallery in London withdrew an installation by the avant-garde artist John Latham depicting the Koran, Bible and Talmud torn to pieces. The museum explained that it did not want to stir things up after the London bombings. (A few months earlier, to avoid offending Muslims, a museum in Goteborg, Sweden, had removed a painting with a sexual motif and a quotation from the Koran.)

Finally, at the end of September, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen met with a group of imams, one of whom called on the prime minister to interfere with the press in order to get more positive coverage of Islam.

So, over two weeks we witnessed a half-dozen cases of self-censorship, pitting freedom of speech against the fear of confronting issues about Islam. This was a legitimate news story to cover, and Jyllands-Posten decided to do it by adopting the well-known journalistic principle: Show, don't tell. I wrote to members of the association of Danish cartoonists asking them "to draw Muhammad as you see him." We certainly did not ask them to make fun of the prophet. Twelve out of 25 active members responded ... Read the rest here.

Hat tip CMARR II Iraqi Blogers central
Weakend reading
***

Brilliant Rose

In a comprehensive article in the Sunday Washington Post, Editor Flemming Rose gives us a brilliant rendering of the context within which the decision was made to publish the 12 cartoons that appeared in his newspaper, the Jyllands-Posten on 30 Sept 2005.

For any reader of his article, it will now be clear that between the initial act of publishing and today, the entire cartoon event has morphed from its avowed pre-publication intent - to stimulate debate in the Danish community on the issue of self-censorship with respect to Islam and Muslims - as declared by Mr. Rose, to something quite difference.

He assists our understanding of the whole set of events by dividing it into two narratives – one European and one Middle Eastern.

The trail of evidence shows that the Islamic leaders in the Middle East deliberately created the pan-Islamic outrage and riots for particular political purposes. These issues he puts in the Middle East narrative not the European narrative of this story.

Of the Middle East part he says this.

“The narrative in the Middle East is more complex, but that has very little to do with the cartoons.”

As for the European narrative, writing 19 Feb 2006 in the Sunday article with the insight of a critical witness, Mr. Rose observes and comments on the current face of Danish reaction.

“The Muslim face of Denmark has changed, and it is becoming clear that this is not a debate between "them" and "us," but between those committed to democracy in Denmark and those who are not.”

On the larger issue of freedom of speech as seen through the prism of our western secular democracies, Mr. Rose uses the words of Karl Popper to frame the debate. Popper in his seminal work "The Open Society and Its Enemies," insisted that one should not be tolerant with the intolerant.

For himself and for anyone suffering the intolerance caused by a religious belief, Mr. Rose puts down this red line:

“But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.”

As a good newspaper person, Rose chooses to educate readers with this little reality check.

“Nowhere do so many religions coexist peacefully as in a democracy where freedom of expression is a fundamental right. In Saudi Arabia, you can get arrested for wearing a cross or having a Bible in your suitcase, while Muslims in secular Denmark can have their own mosques, cemeteries, schools, and TV and radio stations.”

cn

For Danish Imam Laban's terrorist connections, see articles in Jihad ready or are we "tooned" out ?

The lie and the images.
Anatomy of an outrage - Cartoon : Aug 2005 - mid-February 2006

Chronology

January 10 - February 20, 2006 by Reuters
Chronology Protest by Reuters
Protests over Prophet Mohammad cartoons

September 2005 - February 2006 from Wikipedia
Timeline of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy
- This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.-

September
September:
Flemming Rose, the cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, commissioned twelve cartoonists to draw cartoons in response to the difficulty that Danish writer Kåre Bluitgen had finding artists to illustrate his children's book about Muhammad, because the artists feared violent attacks by extremist Muslims.
September 30:
The cartoons of Islamic prophet Muhammad are printed in the Danish daily newspaper, Jyllands-Posten.

October
October 9:
The Islamic Society in Denmark demands that Jyllands-Posten apologise to all Muslims and withdraw the cartoons.
October 14:
3,500 people stage a peaceful demonstration outside the Copenhagen office of Jyllands-Posten.
Two of the cartoonists are advised to go into hiding after receiving death threats[3].
October 17:
Egyptian Newspaper El Fagr publishes six of the cartoons during Ramadan along with an article strongly denouncing them, but the publication of the images did not engender any known protests from either Egyptian religious authorities nor the Egyptian government.[4][5]
October 19:
Eleven ambassadors request a meeting with the Prime Minister of Denmark, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and want him to distance himself from the cartoons in Jyllands-Posten as well as various other allegedly derogatory comments about Islam in the Danish media. The Prime Minister refused to meet the ambassadors, on the grounds that he cannot infringe on the freedom of the press.
October 28:
Danish police are notified by a number of Muslim organizations, claiming that the intention of the publication of the cartoons has been to "mock and deride" the Muslim faith, something the Danish penal code prohibits (§ 140)... find it here.

Latest positions today February 20

Russia
Putin - Totalitarian regime is being reinstalledl in Russia.
Loosing everything for publishing cartoons.
Volgograd newspaper's license withdrawn after religious cartoon
VOLGOGRAD,
Feb 20

(RIA Novosti) - " A local media and culture watchdog has annulled the license of a newspaper in the southern Russian city of Volgograd embroiled in a controversy over the publication of a cartoon depicting religious figures, the paper's founder company said Monday.
The head of the municipal company Volgograd Inform, Konstantin Karkachev, said that as of February 21, Gorodskye Vesti newspaper would be banned from publishing. ..."

Pakistan
Wahhabist maddras world center
Pakistan Islamists target "Bush and Mush" on cartoons
By Raja Asghar - Reuters
Feb. 20, 2006

"ISLAMABAD, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Pakistani Islamists vowed on Monday to broaden a campaign against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad to target the Pakistani and U.S. presidents.

But they failed in an attempt to have parliament debate how the authorities have tried to clamp down on the unrest..."

Iran
Positioning itself for the control of the Islamic anger and fanatism, a prized power switch.
Iran Official: End Cartoon Riots
Fox. AP
Feb 20, 2006

Iranian Urges End to Violence Over Drawings
By CONSTANT BRAND
Feb. 20, 2006.
Globe and Mail

Interesting commentaries

YOUR HONEY OR YOUR LYIN' EYES?
The myth of a vibrant "moderate Islam."
By Andrew C. McCarthy
NRO
Feb. 20, 2006
Benador Associated

"So here we are again, a dazed planet brushing ourselves off and surveying the wreckage from the worst spree of Islam-inspired rioting, bombing, murder, and mayhem since ... well, since the last one. And the one before that... Here."

Must also read Because They Hate
By Brigitte Gabriel
FrontPageMagazine.com
Feb. 20, 2006

Selected excerpts from Brigitte Gabriel's speech delivered at the Intelligence Summit in Washington DC, February 18, 2006.

"We gather here today to share information and knowledge. Intelligence is not merely cold hard data about numerical strength or armament or disposition of military forces. The most important element of intelligence has to be understanding the mindset and intention of the enemy. The West has been wallowing in a state of ignorance and denial for thirty years as Muslim extremist perpetrated evil against innocent victims in the name of Allah.

I was ten years old when my home exploded around me, burying me under the rubble and leaving me to drink my blood to survive, as the perpetrators shouted “Allah Akbar!” My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town. At 10 years old, I learned the meaning of the word "infidel."

Brigitte Gabriel - Expert on the Middle East conflict and lectures nationally and internationally on the subject. She's the former news anchor of World News for Middle East television and the founder of AmericanCongressforTruth.com.

Islam’s Torture of Lebanon
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com
August 11, 2005

"Frontpage Interview guest today is Brigitte Gabriel, a survivor of Islam's Jihad against Lebanese Christians..."

Photo source for map of South West Asia Ablongman.com

"In a free state, tongues too should be free"

2006-02-08T11:26:00.000-08:00

Supporting artists for freedom
Don't touch my freedom AFD
No Prophet - Vision 3 Search

"In a free state, tongues too should be free." Erasmus, The Education of a Christian Prince (1516).

Western Dhimmitude

February 07, 2006
By Cox and Forkum

"NOTE: The Danish cartoons and caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed can be seen at MohammedCartoons.com. Our other related cartoons are: Image Problem and A Right to Blasphemy.

CNN continues to add a caveat to its coverage of the Cartoon Jihad: "CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam." You can see the admission at the end of this story: More deaths as riots spread... " All here.

"The principle of free thought is not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought we hate." US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in United States v. Schwimmer (1929).Bonfire of the Pieties
By Amir Taheri
Wall Street Journal
February 8, 2006

Benador Associates

"The Muslim Fury," one newspaper headline screamed. "The rage of Islam sweeps Europe," said another. "The clash of civilizations is coming," warned one commentator. All this refers to the row provoked by the publication of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in a Danish newspaper four months ago. Since then a number of demonstrations have been held, mostly -- though not exclusively -- in the West, and Scandinavian embassies and consulates have been besieged.

But how representative of Islam are all those demonstrators? The "rage machine" was set in motion when the Muslim Brotherhood -- a political, not a religious, organization -- called on sympathizers in the Middle East and Europe to take the field. A fatwa was issued by Yussuf al-Qaradawi, a Brotherhood sheikh with his own program on al-Jazeera. Not to be left behind, the Brotherhood's rivals, Hizb al-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party) and the Movement of the Exiles (Ghuraba), joined the fray. Believing that there might be something in it for themselves, the Syrian Baathist leaders abandoned their party's 60-year-old secular pretensions and organized attacks on the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus and Beirut... " Read it here.

Amir Normandi - Self-worth & human desire for all women

2006-02-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

Amir Normandi and MG give us a wonderful interview No Veil Is Required.

Kat in the MidWest very kindly shared her clear insights and thoughful observations.

Iranian-American photographer Amir Normandi took the Blogosphere
by storm in 2005, when his No Veil Is Required show at Harper College in Illinois was cancelled after a few Muslim students protested the inclusion of nudity in the exhibition.

Normandi, 57, who escaped Iran at the height of the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and emigrated to the United States, has been captivated by the visual image his entire life, taking more than One Million photographs in his long career as a professional photographer, which he continues to this day, at his d'Last Studios in Chicago.

MG: Amir Normandi, Welcome to the In T View. Could provide a description of yourself?

Amir Normandi: I am just another person with fascination of my surroundings, but lucky to have access to still cameras, enabling me to capture scenes and acts of my life theater.

MG: Amir, you were born in the beautiful Iranian city of Rasht on the edge of the Caspian Sea. A nice place? Would like to return to it? Did growing up in Rasht have any influence on your life's work?

Amir Normandi: Yes, Rasht is a very beautiful city and I would love to go back there. Unfortunately I did not grow up in Rasht. But, I was brought up under the influence of Rasht culture in Tehran, culture of respect for humanity and their habitats.

MG: You left your native Iran in 1979 right at the time of Revolution. What was your main reason for leaving? And was it a perilous escape?

Amir Normandi: I left my native land after casting a no vote for the Islamic Republic Regime. I left after witnessing my euphoric nation being cheated by a group of Religious Merchants, Mercenaries, Opportunists, and Traitors whom aided the re-invasion of Iran by the Islamic Sword.

MG: Amir, you've commented in the past, that your Great-Grandfather was, "revered as a saint with (a) blood line linked to Prophet Mohammad..." Can you go in to more detail about who your great-grandfather was?

Amir Normandi: Allegedly he was a -- holy/wise and learned man -- great-grand child of Prophet Mohammad. The Forefathers Shrine ( Jaad-Khaneh) where my great, great grandfather is buried, was declared a domain of Holy Centers and Religious Foundations in 1970. Even the brook that passes through my ancestor's land and his grave site was named -Tahir Goorab- (Chaste grave side-water). One of the legends about him is that his sandals use to come together after he took them off after entering a home. The lays still visit his shrine on Thursdays' eve of Islamic Sabbath day Friday.

MG: Amir, you became somewhat of a cause celebre in the Blogosphere and Media in 2005 when Harper College cancelled your No Veil Is Required photo exhibition, after Muslim students complained that the photographs were offensive. Even if the photographs were "Offensive" to Muslims, should they as a very small minority, have had the power to force Harper College to curtail your exhibition?

Amir Normandi: No, they should not have or be given the power, nor should a large majority have the power, to silence any member of society because of that member's thinking and stands.

MG: Harper College's International Studies Coordinator Richard Johnson, who was responsible for bringing No Veil Is Required to Harper College and closing the exhibition down, claimed in a 2005 Chicago Reader article, that your post-exhibition actions -- such as issuing a press release and having Chicago televison stations show up at your forum -- were a "'huge puiblciity stunt...'" How do you respond to these charges?

Amir Normandi: No matter how they spin it, Harper College gave democracy and freedom of expression a black eye by shutting down the "No Veil is Required Exhibit" . Even with my extensive effort in publicizing that dark day in Harper's history, reporters Alex Perez of NBC-5 and Ben Bradly of ABC-7 failed to see beyond the lawyers line which was put out by Harper's spokesperson. What was amazing that NBC-5 put out an on line survey that polled over 600 visitor of their internet site and 72% of them disagreed with Harper's action is shutting down my exhibition. In short: No it was not a stunt; it was a civil act to show the ugly face of censorship.

MG: Why did you file a Censorship Lawsuit against Harper College for cancelling your exhibition and then decide to drop the case?

Amir Normandi: I did not file any lawsuit. The American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU) -- as an advocate of civil liberties -- wrote a letter of inquiry with regards to rules governing the display of art work inside the Harper's campus inline with the Illinois and the United States Freedom of Information Act. Since Harper hired a law firm that charged hundreds of dollars per hour to defend them instead of simply furnishing the data and being transparent, they went in to legal advisories mode by mailing irrelevant emails in duplicates and hiding themselves behind a different kind of veil. I did not want taxpayers money to be spent on defense of a grossly wrong decision.

MG: Was it necessarily a bad thing that your exhibit was cancelled, as it drew much more attention to your work and subject matter?

Amir Normandi: No, it was a good outcome in spite of Harper's misguided reaction in removing my exhibit.

MG: And what was the central theme of No Veil Is Required?

Amire Normandi: Self determination and defiance of gender-specific dress code.

MG: Amir, you are anti-Hejab or Hijab. Can you explain for those who don't know, what a hijab is, and why you're against it?

Amir Normandi: Hejab is the general term for the compulsory dress code for women in Islamic societies. This Hejab is the same covering known as ABAYA in Saudi Arabia, Burqua in Afghanistan, and Chador in Iran. I am against forced Hejab which is a gender specific dress code and a tool for domination of women. It is almost always enforced by men and it is a segregation method which ends up making a woman a half human.

MG: If you portrayed Christian women in robes exhibiting some nudity would there have been any sort of outcry, and would Harper College have allegedly caved in like they did?

Amir Normandi: I do not have an answer to this Q, but that gives me an idea for future projects.

MG: Why is Academia so intimidated by Islam?

Amir Normandi: Academia is suffering from many phobias. It is not Islam-o-phobia only. I think as a matter of policy the academia needs to learn bravery and honesty from their student body, which have been inspiring through out recent history.

MG: Can you tell us why No Veil Is Required was dedicated to Zahra Kazemi and Theo Van Gogh?

Amir Normandi: Because they too have hoped with their images, giving the world another jolt in opening their eyes to the traditional oppression of women!

MG: What would you say was the most powerful image in your exhibition and why?

Amir Normandi: First, "No Veil is Required - Tahira." That image was inspred from the life story of "Tahira Qurat-al_an" whose (self) unveiling about 100 years ago caused a few hardliners to slit their own throat in Badakh-sh.

Second is "Defiance in Red Burqua" which sympathizes with the struggle of Afghani women and their home grown brand of Islam and the recent version imported by Saudi brand of Islam: WAHABI's courtesy of Osama Bin Laden.

Third is "Safe in Saudi Arabia" which tells the world that the Saudi's are holding the people inside and out side of their borders at gun-point!

MG: Did you think of vieling some Muslim men or placing them in burkhas, and entitling the image, "How Do You Like This?"

Amir Normandi: As a matter of fact I have and I will.

MG: There certainly is an element of Sexuality and Eroticism in the No Veil Is Required images. Was that purposely done on your part?

Amir Normandi: Yes, purposely and by design. For a show of defiance in response to those who consider women child bearers -incubator for men- and by denying women any sense of self-worth or human desire.

MG: In your introduction to No Veil Is Required, you state, "women's rights IS human rights, women's freedom is equality for everyone." You obviously see a linkage between veiling women and a loss of women's rights. Can you expound on this?

Amir Normandi: When you subjugate children with specific gender to a dress code when they reach the age of 7 and start segregating them, and then considering them (worth) half of the other gender by giving them half of inheritance rights, and half the restitution if they were dismembered by accident or because of a criminal act. Deny them divorce rights, child custody rights, travel rights, and many other inequalities that began with forced veiling. To me this is the most tangible form of gender apartheid and discrimination, which is a human rights issue.

MG: One of the criticisms levelled at No Veil is Required is that you didn't use Muslim women as models for the photographs. Why didn't you use Muslim women?

Amir Normandi: I have featured Muslim women in my photographs protesting the gender specific compulsory dress code, but the issue of gender apartheid goes beyond Islamic practice. In some place it is adopted by Islam from a region and proliferated by Muslims to other faiths, such as: Christian women in Jordan, Palestine, and other countries which suffer under the same
mistreatments.

MG: Do you worry that Radical Moslims will target your livelihood in the US because of the nature of your work?

Amir Normandi: I am not worried about radicals in USA - They are not here because they advocate a strong faith. They are here to get wealthy - this bunch usually talks, they only talk when they know their wealth is secured otherwise, they keep quiet.

MG: Have you been allegedly threatened by CAIR yet?

Amir Normandi: I have been threatened; but, I do not know their affiliations.

MG: Andres Serrano's controversial work Piss Christ was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts - Do you think your No Veil Is Required should have been similarly entitled?

Amir Normandi: I need financial support for my campaign/projects; but I don't feel I am entitled to that.

MG: Amir, in a response to comments made about your exhibition, you are quoted as saying, "I believe most of the anger and rage in my region of the world is a direct result of oppression of women." Amir, the question to ask then is, "Why are Women being Oppressed in the Middle East?" Is it the misogynistic nature of Islam, for Islam is the prevailing religious and cultural force in your region of the world?

Amir Normandi: No, it is not Islam only; in my region there are Christians and followers of other faiths that oppress their women. I know Assyrian and Armenian Christians of my region do oppress their women. I even know of cases of oppression in the United States.

MG: Do you personally know of any women who were mistreated by the Iranian authorities and can you tell us about them?

Amir Normandi: More than one. Fortunately, they are here in the USA or Europe. But, many, many are still in Iran like Shahrnoosh Parsi Pour, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ezzat Goshehgir, among the well knows to name a few. But, I came to know quite a few more through my other job as an interpreter/translator for asylum seekers, which I served between 1981 to '90. I came in close contact with many victims who may volunteer to be the subject of my future projects.

MG: Amir, The Middle East: Dictators, death, and despair, explosions, endless wars, poverty, subjugation and hostility towards women, honor killings, genital mutilation, suicide bombings, the fury of the Arab Street, pollution, human trafficking, ignorance, ignorance, ignorance...Should a two hundred-foot fence be built around the entire Middle East and anyone attempting to escape be shot? Should not we try to contain the Madness within before it affects us all?

Amir Normandi: The madness is affecting billions already. No walls my friend, walls and veils are to be brought down. We should demand openess and compel industrial democratic governments to stop aiding and abetting corrupt dictators in the region. We can not sell democracy; we need to expand democracy, not only to create a new market for industrial nations; we can do that for the sake of humanity. By promoting democracy all parties are bound to gain.

MG: Amir, are you worried about family members and friends back in Iran?

Amir Normandi Yes I am worried for my family and friends. Their wellbeing is one of my biggest concerns.

MG: If there's a regime change in Iran to a more democratic state, will you be returning to your homeland?

Amir Normandi: Yes, my friend, I want the right of return to my birth land. I have been in the States too long to let go. I have deep roots here; my adult children do not know any other city as home. Chicago is home now.

MG: Would you be in favor of an American attack against the Iranian nuclear facilties to prevent the current regime in Iran from developing a Nuclear Weapon?

Amir Normandi: I do not want the current regime of Iran to gain any additional power. As far as nuclear weapons, I would like to see every country's nuclear weapon de-activated. Bombing Iranian territory to punish the Islamic regime is NOT PRUDENT.

MG: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" or alternatively moved to Europe or Alaska. What is the Iranian's regime fascination for Israel?

Amir Normandi: The Islamic Republic's platform has been anti US/Israel since its inception, for many contradictory reasons coming from US resentment. But, the Iranian people historically have shown respect and kindness toward followers of Moses and so are the followers of Islam, I do not know about this goon?

MG: And why does the existense of Israel burden the Islamic world so?

Amir Normandi: I do not have an answer for that, personally I am for live and let live and do not support any destruction.

MG: Most artists have voiced their opposition to the U.S. intervention in Iraq. Are you one of them?

Amir Normandi: Since mostly innocent people of Iraq along with the young soldiers of the Coalition Forces are paying the tolls with their lives, I could not have been supportive of the initial action. But now after this huge scarifies I want unwavering stand in installation of a secular government.

MG: Photography is your art, your love, and your life, an all encompassing mistress: Is this ever a burden to you?

Amir Normandi: No, never, I have never regretted becoming a photographer.

MG: Portraiture, Figure, Landscape, Abstraction, Sports, Surrealism, Post Modernism, New Wave: Is there a specific photographic genre that suits your being more than others?

Amir Normandi: Life pictography with a mission is my genre.

MG: Do you feel you can express everything you want to say through photography?

Amir Normandi: Yes, but there are only two minor obstacles, Money/Time;
otherwise, any thing can be expressed by photography.

MG: Is there an act of creation involved in taking a photograph?

Amir Normandi: In my projects the answer is a resounding YES. My frames are freeze shot of life as it happens or by re-enactment.

MG: Photographic Mission Impossible: In 2001, you smuggled out of Iran some 500 images taken by Iranian students, putting yourself at risk of imprisonment and torture by the Iranian authorities, since it is illegal to take photographs there without official permission. What possessed you to smuggle the images out of Iran?

Amir Normandi: For some reason I was very confident that I'll be fine. The only worry I had was losing the prints, negatives and CDs in transit to US. So, I did not think of the risks till I was taken in to the special interview room.

MG: And how did you react to criticism by local Iranians in your area that you put the Iranian students in Iran at risk?

Amir Normandi: The students were not at risk because we used measures to protect them. About the local Iranians, they ought to learn some gallantry from those students and perhaps instead of smuggling antiques and valuables out of Iran to add to their personal wealth, they could help in other similarendeavors for democracy in Iran.

MG: Where can we find out more information about your photography and you?

Amir Normandi: With the help of human right activist Diane Carriere a site is coming soon.

- MG says: The sites have arrived. Amir and Diane have collaborated on the following Blogs:

Amir's Bio

Amir's Human Rights
Portfolio & Statements

Amir's Links - Blog & Media Response
to Amir's Works - Photographs -

MG: Amir, if there's one thing you could do in your life that you haven't done already, what would it be?

Amir Normandi: To abolish borders and create a true world citizenship. And then work on the details later.

MG: Thanks Very Much Amir for a nice In T View and final question: Have you ever photographed a Ghost?

Amir Normandi: Not yet, but I'll be very interested.

In T View By MG
Layout & additional research: Diane - AFD

David Olère - Artist of a Death Camp

2006-01-17T13:07:00.000-08:00

Tribute to a Very Brave Man - David Olère, 1902 - 1985

The Food of the Dead for the Living by David Olère. 102x76 cm, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, New York.
Olère collects food, abandoned near the undressing rooms of crematorium III at Birkenau, so he can throw it over the fence to the prisoners at the women's camp.

Text and main Resource:

David Olère at A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology.
Inmate Art from Auschwitz and Birkenauat A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust

David Olère - Drawings & Paintings

"The documentary value of the sketches and paintings of David Olère is tremendous. No actual photographs were taken of what went on within the crematoriums; only the hands and eyes of David Olère reproduce the horrible reality. David Olère did not sketch for pleasure. He sketched in testimony to all those who never came back. The lone witness (Olère himself) is often present. The ghostly face observes with pain the inhuman scenes that cannot be erased from his photographic memory.
The book, David Olère--The Eyes of a Witness, published by The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation in Paris in 1989, contains a three page summary of David Olère's life and one hundred pages of his artwork. All of the text appears in both English and French. Olère's pencil sketches and color paintings capture the everyday events in the concentration camps during the Holocaust. There are also portraits of some of the Nazi soldiers and layouts of the crematoriums.

A more recent book, Witness: Images of Auschwitz, combines Olère's artwork with text by his son, Alexandre Oler. Olère's artistry is truly one of the best and most important representations of the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Biography

David Olère is well-known as an artist whose work testifies to the enormity of the Holocaust. A survivor of Auschwitz, his drawings, paintings, and sculpture have helped considerably to reveal the truth about the atrocities suffered by Jews and other Nazi victims at this notorious death camp.

David Olère was born in Warsaw, Poland, on January 19, 1902. At a young age, he was accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts, and remained in Poland until he was sixteen. During his teenage years he exhibited woodcuts at museums and art houses in Danzig and Berlin. He was later hired by the Europäische Film Allianz as a painter, sculptor, and architect. So began his short career as a set designer in the film industry. Olère even worked briefly for Paramount Pictures in Europe, and befriended the company's president. In 1930 Olère was married to Juliette Ventura, and the couple moved to a French suburb. They had a son, Alexandre. Once war was declared in Europe, Olère was drafted into the infantry regiment at Lons-le-Saunier. On February 20, 1943, he was arrested by French police during a round up of Jews at Seine-et-Oise. Olère was detained at Drancy, then deported to Auschwitz.

From March 2, 1943, to January 19, 1945, David Olère was interned at Auschwitz. There he worked as a Sonderkommando, part of a special labor unit responsible for emptying the remains from the ovens of the crematory and for removing the bodies from the gas chambers. The horrors he witnessed there are incomprehensible to anyone who did not personally experience the Holocaust. He saw the victims of the gas chamber undress in the cloakroom, paralyzed with fear and the knowledge of certain death.

He saw the incineration of countless bodies. He saw the so-called medical experiments performed on the weak and the sick and the old. He saw the SS rape and torture young Jewish girls. He saw prisoners suffer terrible cruelties while living under the most deplorable of conditions. And on a regular basis, he saw disease, despair, and death. David Olère was one of the few laborers to penetrate the dark interiors of the crematoria and the gas chambers of Auschwitz and to emerge alive. He took part in the evacuation death march of Auschwitz in January of 1945 and was finally liberated by the Americans at Ebensee in May of that year.

The work of David Olère has exceptional documentary value. No photographs were taken at Auschwitz of what went on in the gas chambers and crematoria. Only the memories of Olère, reproduced as art in his drawings and paintings, give an account of the horrible reality. He was the first to draw the plans and cross-sections of the crematories in order to explain exactly how the Nazis ran their death factory. He did not sketch for pleasure while at Auschwitz; there he was forced to work as an illustrator and to write and decorate letters for the SS. One of his paintings shows Olère painting designs on a lampshade. The works of art he produced after his release were created out of an obligation he felt to those who did not survive. He believed he had to tell the true story of their fate, and he did so in the best way he could, through his art.

In his paintings he himself is sometimes present as a ghostly face, floating in the background, a silent, pained witness observing the inhuman scenes that could not ever be erased from his memory.

In 1962, David Olère retired from his work as an artist. In 1985, he died. His widow and son have continued his twofold quest of informing the world of the truth about Auschwitz and honoring the victims by remembering their pain. Olère's paintings and drawings have been exhibited at several museums, but spreading his message presents a challenge. The paintings are frequently graphic and repulsive--the gruesome scenes seem to repel the audience rather than attract it. Yet his work only represents the truth, a goal the best of artists aspire to achieve.

SOURCE: Serge Klarsfeld, David Olère: L'Oeil du Témoin/The Eyes of a Witness. New York: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989."

The Book:

David Olère: Witness: Images of Auschwitz L'Oeil du Témoin/The Eyes of a Witness. New York: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1989

The Art Works:

Selection for Gas Chambers by David Olère. 1947, 41x51 cm, Ghetto Fighters House, Israel

My First Dialogue by David Olère. 1949, 36x38 cm, Olère Family.
Subtitled: "They also are responsible for the war." "Yes, that's war.

Leaving for Work by David Olère. 1946, 43x33 cm, Ghetto Fighters House, Israel.
Camp inmates are marched out to work past victims of Nazi camp discipline.

The Oven Room by David Olère. 1945, 58x38 cm, Ghetto Fighters House, Israel.
A freight elevator in the background brought bodies up from the basement gassing chamber of Crematorium III at Birkenau. The wet trough at the right facilitated the dragging of bodies to the ovens.

Gassing by David Olère. 131x162 cm, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, New York. The container in the lower right is labeled Zyklon B.

David Olère Burying the Remains of Children by David Olère. 32x40 cm, Olère Family.
Olère's first assignment at Auschwitz was as a grave digger of bunker 2. His prisoner number, 106144, is seen both on his shirt and as a tattoo on his left arm.

Arrival of a Convoy by David Olère. 65x50 cm, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, New York.
A new convoy arrives in the background as inmates struggle with a cart carrying away cadavers from a previous convoy.

For a Crust of Bread by David Olère. 1946, 21x27 cm, Olère Family.
David Olère depicts himself writing letters for the SS and decorating them with flowers in exchange for a crust of bread. Olère's talents as an artist and translator (he spoke Polish, Russian, Yiddish, French, English, and German) made him useful to the SS.

Their Last Steps by David Olère. 73x54 cm, Ghetto Fighters House, Israel.

Text and main Resource:

David Olère at A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology.
Inmate Art from Auschwitz and Birkenauat A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust

More resources:
* Karsfled Foundation
David Olère - More Drawings & Paintings
Biography
A Holocaust Art Exhibit - Powerful Exibit at Modern American Peotry
The Last Jews - The Concentration Camp Universe and the Death Marches The New Museum
Yad Vashem - The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority
David Olère and Alexander Olère
Art and the Holocaust
Mémorial de la Shoah - Selection du Mois - SCÉRÉN - CNDP
Memoire de Shoah - France
Images from Auschwitz-Birkenau
Auschwitz-Birkenau, then and now at Holocaust Info
Warsaw Virtual Jewish Library
Drancy - USHMM
Auschiwitz Memorial Musuem
Auschwitz - Camp Of Death Holocaust Teacher Resource Center

All Dissidents and Victims of Tyranny Want to Live in a Free Society

Steven Vincent - 50 years old on December 31, 2005

2006-01-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

updated:

Reuters honors Steven VincentMarch
By MaryKCone in Vincent, Steven
Cold Type - Spence Publishing Company
March 15, 2006

"This month Reuters is paying special tribute to the 67 journalists slain in Iraq. Editor & Publisher reports that the journalists' names are listed continuously on Reuter's big screen in Times Square. Steven Vincent is among them..."

To accompany Steven Vincent on his journey, a few momentos were placed in his coffin: Frank Sinatra CD’s, a cigar, Bombay Sapphire gin, books by Nietzsche and Jung, a Spider-man comic, flash cards — like the ones he had been using to work on his French, Arabic and Latin.

Steven Vincent would have been 50 years old on December 31, 2005.
He has been terribly missed since his tragic departure but his passage and his legacy will be treasured for many years ahead.

We are saluting 2005 by bringing back Steven Vincent's strong spirit through this moving exchange between Lisa Ramaci and Fayrouz Hancock. Many Thanks to You both for this wonderful interview.

Interviewing Lisa Ramaci was one of the most beautiful and powerful tributes which was recently published by Fayrouz Hancock - An Iraqi In America on December 07, 2005.

The Steven Vincent Foundation.

In The Red Zone

Lisa lives in New York and Fayrouz , originally from Basra - Iraq, now; lives in Beaumont, Texas.

***

Rest In Peace 2005

"Steven Vincent was murdered in Iraq in August 2005. He died doing precisely what he wanted to do. I think that’s the most anyone can say." Jeff Harrell The Shape of Days

Full interview with Lisa Ramaci-Vincent, Steven Vincent’s wife For Open Source

Steve Vincent
By Arthur Chrenkoff
August 03, 2005

Freedom’s Reporter
Steven Vincent is murdered in pursuit of truth...
By Kathryn Jean Lopez - Editor of NRO
August 03, 2005

Steven Vincent Murdered in Basra - Cursed Souls and Murderers
By Kat Missouri The Middle Ground
August 03, 2005

STEVEN VINCENT, R.I.P.
By Michelle Malkin
August 03, 2005

Who Killed Steven Vincent?
By Greyhawk MudVille Gazette
August 04, 2005

Remembering Steven Vincent
By Jacob Laksin For The Spectator
August 04, 2005

U.S. Writer Critical of Militias Is Found Shot Dead in Basra
By Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 4, 2005

Steven Vincent, RIP - The murdered journalist's work transcends ideology
By Nick Gillespie For Reasononline
August 4, 2005

Remembering Steven Vincent
By Bruce Wolmer - Editor in Chief
Art+Auction / Louise T Blouin Foundation

Steven Vincent’s Final Days - Dealing with threats in Iraq
By Dave Enders
LAweekly
August 12 - 18, 2005

Steven Vincent - Observer - Art Crtic, Journalist, Writer, Blogger. True to him self.
Pro-Freedom Artists

***
Steven Vincent 2005

In The Red Zone
By
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com
December 09, 2004

"Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Steven Vincent, the author of the new book, In the Red Zone: A Journey Into The Soul Of Iraq.

Photo by Leap Frog

You can visit his blog at www.redzoneblog.com.

FP: Steven Vincent, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Vincent: Thanks for the opportunity to be here, Jamie.

FP: You went to Iraq in the fall of 2003, and the winter and spring of 2004, traveling on your own, with no bodyguards or security of any kind. Are you courageous, noble or crazy? Or a bit of all three?

Vincent: I’ll defer notions of courage and nobility to our soldiers in Iraq—as for being crazy, that’s what my friends thought. But in truth, I managed to stay safe by slipping below the radar screen, so to speak, blending in with the Iraqi people, sometimes disguising myself, keeping as low-profile as presence as possible. Nowadays, I’m afraid that even that incognito approach would prove impossible, with terrorists paying criminals to find and kidnap foreigners ..." Read the rest.

Interview with Steven Vincent
By Jeff Harrell The Shape of Days
December 21, 2004

"...Jeff Harrell: Let’s start at the beginning. In your book, In the Red Zone, you talk about your decision to go to Iraq in terms that make it sound almost like a calling or a personal imperative. “When the Administration launched Operation Iraqi Freedom, I felt strangely excited. I wanted to join the conflict.” You also use the words “moral fervor” — seemingly without irony — to describe your state of mind. Is that how it happened? Did you feel drawn to go to Iraq?

Steven Vincent: Absolutely, to both questions. My trips to Iraq were a complicated response to 9/11. As I wrote in my book, I stood that morning on my rooftop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and watched United Airlines Flight 175 fly into the World Trade Center. That was the initial shock. Afterwards came a sense of mourning as people all over Manhattan created makeshift shrines of candles and plastered bus stops with photocopied images of the “missing” (for we could not yet admit to ourselves that the 9/11 victims were dead) ..." Read more.

***

Other Online Publications

Faith, Shame, and Insurgency - Life in occupied Iraq
By Steven Vincent for Reasononline
March 2004

All Articles By Steven Vincent
FrontPageMagazine.com

Steven Vincent - Publications - Art Critic

***

"Steven Vincent (December 31, 1955 - August 2, 2005) was an American freelance journalist in Basra, Iraq, reporting for the ,Christian Science Monitor, National Review, Mother Jones, Reason, Front Page and American Enterprise, among other publications. On August 2, 2005 he and his translator Nour Itais were kidnapped off the street in Basra by men in police uniforms, driving white police trucks, bound, gagged, taken to the outskirts of town and and shot. They were found by Iraqi police, but Vincent was dead, shot in the back at close range. Itais survived. It is generally believed he was killed because of his criticism of religious extremism in that country, expressed three days before his murder in a July 31 op-ed essay[1] for the New York Times, in which Vincent noted the increasing infiltration of the Basran police force by Islamic extremists loyal to Moqtada al Sadr. Vincent first went to Iraq in the fall of 2003. An art critic, he had changed professions after watching United Flight 175 crash into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and the subsequent collapse of the towers. After his first two trips he wrote In the Red Zone: A Journey Into the Soul of Iraq and maintained a blog, In the Red Zone, about his experiences in southern Iraq."

Sources Steven Vincent - Wikipedia

"Oppression is our past. This is about democracy, I must continue." Muayed Naima

2005-12-12T06:37:00.000-08:00

Muayed Naima, 1951 - 2005

Iraq The Model pays tribute to Muayed Naima.
December 06, 2005
Omar

"A week ago Iraqi lost a great talent and a true patriot; Mo’ayad N’ima the great prolific cartoonist passed away of a heart attack at the age of 54 leaving us a rich heritage of artwork that had always touched our feelings and discussed our life, problems, and dreams in the most brief yet frank and telling way. (...) "

After Saddam's fall, Naima was free to depict in his work, the brutality of Saddam Hussein's regime. One of his cartoons Naima shows Saddam as a butcher chopping meat, a sign reading, "We specialise in mass graves."

"Now you are a nation of democracy and freedom, so would you kindly, if you don’t mind…please, I beg you to let me out so that I can kill some Iraqis again."

"It shows that killing is the only concern of these people, when you mock the people who are undertaking these acts, you are making others aware that these acts are illegal and immoral."

"Beheadings, killings and mutilation. No nation would accept that, so I had to concentrate my ideas around this subject. " Muayed Naima

Intellectuals in all fields (scientists, teachers, artists, writers...) had no choice but remain silent if they did not support Saddam's regime. If they were caught or suspected of disagreeing, they would face at the minimum, harassment and blackmail. More common were incarcerations, tortures and executions, often their family members and friends were also punished. Naima was imprisoned in 1979 for membership of the Iraqi Communist Party.

"There was a policeman in the mind of every Iraqi"
Muayed Naima

ITM - Omar,
June 16, 2005

"(...) Was the change in Iraq worth our sacrifices?
Are we ready to give more for the sake of freedom and democracy?
What's the highest price that we would pay to get our freedom?
Is it possible to keep the smiles on our faces while we bleed?
Is there something more valuable than freedom?
I believe this image has all the answers." Read it all at Iraq The Model

Happy id for everyone.
ITM - Omar
November 27, 2003

"This is the first id after Saddam's gone. I’d like you my brothers of all religions and convictions to share my happiness with me.
This is the first time I choose my id.
I can not tell you exactly how I feel but I believe the true feelings will find their way to the hearts of the good.
In the past and with every id we used to repeat an old Arabic verse that expresses our grieve, a verse that you would have heard from most of the Iraqis, it goes:
Oh id, With what sorrow you have come!
Oh id, (...)"

"Iraqi cartoonist Muayed Naima had to wait 35 years before he could draw what was on his mind.
But since Saddam Hussein was toppled, he has faced new pressure from Islamist militants who have threatened him because his work mocks their violence. He is not put off. (...)"
In "Iraqi cartoonists mock militants and America alike"
by Tom Perry
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - September 27, 2005

United Nations - Cairo conference
With all transperancy and clarity brother...
- Iraq The Model, by Mohammed

"I never had doubts in the hidden intentions of those in Iraq who keep saying that multinational troops must leave Iraq soon; they say their demands are essential for national sovereignty coming out of their patriotic feelings for Iraq while I see them as far as they could be from patriotism.

If those people put Iraq’s and Iraqis’ interests first, they wouldn’t have asked the US to leave Iraq while the troops missions are yet to be accomplished and the Iraqi national forces are still not capable of protecting the country and the citizens.(...)"

"A cartoon by Iraqi artist Muayed Naima shows a militant measuring the neck of his captive before beheading him with one of his knives. Naima had to wait 35 years before he could become a cartoonist once again."(Reuters)

From Sadr no to polls if US stays
Baghdad, Sept. 27

Many Thanks to our Friend Omar at ITM , for introducing Muyaed Naima to us, his readers, and for providing most of Naima powerful art works published in this tribute .
Muyaed Naima will be greatly missed.

Amir Normandi - Photographer

2005-11-12T09:04:00.000-08:00

There is no justification for the oppression of human beings by other human beings, let alone under the name of God.

Human wisdom and passion have excelled to such a level that laws which protect our environment and its inhabitants have shape the core of our humanity. Yet, in many areas of the world, gender inequality is reaching the extent of gender apartheid. It is unconscionable to still tolerate in our time, oppressive inequalities between men and women as traditional norms of life.

As my sisters and their daughters demonstrated courageously outside the Tehran University’s main gate on March 08, 2005: Women’s Rights ARE Human Rights, Women's Freedom is Equality for Everyone.

This multi media presentation is dedicated to the women of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Jordan, Egypt, and is a tribute to the Iranian/Canadian photographer Zahra ZIBA Kazemi and the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh both of whom lost their lives in defense of human rights.

Amir Normandi,

Curator

InContention, Amir Normandi

Please See the entire collection through all links provided.

Iranian.com : Amir Normandi

Women’s Rights ARE Human Rights, Women's Freedom is Equality for Everyone.

A powerful art display that was to highlight human rights abuse, turned into a freedom of speech issue and went around the world. This is a success in my view.

Just hours after the opening, in Palantine Chicago, Harper College officials took down an photograph exhibit.

Amir Normand's beautiful work is aimed at denouncing the oppression, Muslim women suffer in Islam. However some Muslim students protested about the pieces on display which included nudity. A nombre of students were apparently offended by the content of the photopgraphs in which Muslim women appreared free and assertive. One of the pieces showed a young Muslim man holding a machine gun, an image we are all too familar with.

Hussein Ali, a 23 year old student , said Muslim students at Harper were thinking about leaving or boycotting the institution. Ahmad Basalat, 21, said the exhibit expressed hatred toward Muslims... Salma Habed, 20, said some of the pieces continued with the stereotype that Muslim women are oppressed. “We go to school. We have careers. It’s not like we’re oppressed like some people feel for some reason.”

Harper College had invited Chicago photographer Amir Normandi to exhibit his works depicting Muslim women in Iran defying the wearing of the jilbab. Johnson said he thought the exhibit would be an interesting topic because it deals with human rights.

Obviously, these students did not understand the statement in Normandi's art works, or they just chose to ignore it. They need to think more profoundly about Islam and oppression in general. There seem to be confusion in their mind, they perhaps don't realize the diffrences between democratic and theocratic regimes lead by Islam.
These men will be confronted by reality if they date woman who are not interested in becoming their possession. As for the Muslim women who complained about the art works, they are not fully aware of the faith of their Sisters in Islamic nations or they don't really care.

Dhimmi Watch : Jihad Watch: Normandi, who is of Iranian descent, told a group of about 100 attendees — many Muslim Harper students — that he did not intend to offend anyone in his exhibit titled “No Veil Is Required.”Normandi said his aim was to draw attention to the plight some Muslim women face in countries where they are required to wear a hijab. “If it is chosen by a person, that is democracy. If it is forced on somebody, it is oppression,” said Normandi, who runs d’Last Studio in Chicago...

Among the numerous reactions from the blogsphere:

Miss Mabrouk of Egypt: There is no justification for this

Exikt Zero, Salon de Refuse

Tongue Tied, Artistic License

Sondra K

Jack and Hill

Right Nation US

In ABC Chicago.com: Photo exhibit of Muslim women causes stir, Some students offended by artist's work by Ben Bradley

Expected reactions from Islam Online

It takes courage and vision to denounce injustices and abuses when it goes against the current of one's own roots. An admirable disposition we wish more of us would display. Amir Normandi is amoung those important creators and thinkers of our time.

Vasili Vasilyevich Vereshchagin , 1842 - 1904

2005-10-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

Wikipedia: Vasili Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (Russian: Василий Василиевич Верещагин 1842 - 1904) was the most famous Russian battle painter and the first Russian artist to be widely recognized abroad. The graphic nature of his realist scenes led many of them to never be printed or exhibited...Read more here.

Roman Kramsztyk - Artist in Getto

2005-10-11T11:45:00.000-07:00

Artworks by Ghetto Artists, A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust

Roman Kramsztyk (1885-1942) Old Jew with Children.This drawing was made in the Warsaw ghetto. Kramsztyk was murdered by the Nazis in 1942.

Photo credit: Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 172.

Gela Seksztajn - Artist in Getto

2005-10-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

Artworks by Ghetto Artists, A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust

Gela Seksztajn (1907-1942) Self-Portrait. Seksztajn lived and painted in the Warsaw ghetto. In her will, which was preserved along with her watercolors in the underground archives of the Warsaw ghetto, she wrote, "...I am now standing at the boundary between life and death. I already know for certain that I must die and that is why I want to bid farewell to my friends and to my work. Farewell, comrades and friends.

Jews! Do everything that such a tragedy will never be repeated!" She died in Treblinka in August of 1942.

Photo credit: Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945. Poland. No. 172.

Iraqi Children - Recycled Tank

2005-10-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

From the article

Tank Is Canvas For Iraqi Kids, By Neal Rubin
The Detroit News, June 8, 2003

"The canvas weighs 44 tons and it used to fire shells. Until early April it was a tank, a Russian-made t55. Iraqi soldiers used it to defend a city called Kirkuk, in their own inept and overmatched way, and our guys turned it into a paperweight.

Then, three or four weeks ago, a small army of kids went after it with paintbrushes. Now, John Gattorn will tell you, it's a piece of art and a fragment of hope -- a charred and rusty fragment, sure, but in a war zone you don't always get to polish your symbols.

Gattorn, 33, grew up in Grosse Pointe Shores. In more placid times, he was an art student, and he liked to drive into Detroit to keep tabs on the Heidelberg Project.

The Heidelberg Project was artist Tyree Guyton's attempt to drive out a pack of drug dealers and turn a raggedy east side block into something fresh and optimistic, one polka dot at a time. Slapping anything from swirls of paint to dolls or shoes onto houses, garages and trees, he inadvertently made himself and Heidelberg Street famous.

A decade later, with the original Heidelberg largely bulldozed and Gattorn working for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), he came across something near the northern Iraqi oil fields that reminded him of home:

The tank.

He stopped and took pictures, then loaded them into his computer and sent them to the director of the Heidelberg Project, Jenenne Whitfield. She forwarded them to someone who gave them to me, and because the world has become a minuscule place, I was able to tap a few words into my computer and pester Gattorn for details.

The t55 sits outside Kirkuk, an Arab city before the war, at the entrance you'd use if you were driving from Suleymania, a Kurdish city..."

Read the rest here.

Nuha Asad: Faces with One Feature

2005-09-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

Contemporary Art from the Islamic world
from Universes in Universe - World of Art

Nuha Asad: Faces with One Feature
By Mahita El Bacha Urieta

"At the 7th Sharjah Biennial in 2005, marking the second time she ever participated in an exhibition, Nuha Asad showed a continuation of Faces with One Feature, a project initiated the previous year.

It includes photographs of heads wrapped in undulating, red satin cloth, and craned back as though trying to see the sky in spite of their faces being veiled. In other photographs are groups of people with veiled torsos. The visible parts of their bodies (clothing, hands, footwear) hint at what kind of people are hidden under the cloth: local couples and everyday workers, usually recognized as immigrant workers that came to the Emirates from poor countries.
I n reference to this, Nuha Asad says: "Essentially the people are equal, although they might differ regarding their origins, culture, economic situation, or social status. My work is about the humanity in us all, even though I don't aspire to erase the differences between us. Difference is a basic attribute of nature, and something that I accept while focussing on the thin line which separates our common humanity from our cultural and social differences." ...
Mahita El Bacha Urieta is a London based curator and arts/culture projects producer. Recent work includes coordinating the Sharjah Biennial 7, 2005."

"We knew how to deal with the secret agencies"

2005-09-29T11:36:00.000-07:00

BAGHDAD, 25 Sep 2003 (IRIN) - "After years of being shunned by the regime of former president Saddam Hussein, Hassin Bresen's songs are popular once again – they are played on the radio and sung by children on the streets of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

“I was shunned because I was the only singer in Iraq who didn’t sing the songs praising Saddam as a hero,” Bresen told IRIN, as he remembered how he was treated. “Uday (Saddam Hussein’s son) controlled the TV station, and he pushed me aside. I was not allowed there.”

These days, the professional singer is just one of the many artists gathering at Hewar Art Gallery in Baghdad to discuss how things are going in Iraq. Painters, poets, sculptors, novelists and playwrights gather in chairs in the garden to talk.

In the restaurant next door, a famous barbecued fish dish is the special on the menu and crowds gather to sample it and Bresen’s latest song, which tells the story of what happened to Iraqi people over the past few months after former president Saddam Hussein's regime fell. Iraqi residents are not “Ali Baba” (thieves), Bresen sings.

"The people just want to correct the wrongs of 35 years under the dictator when they take things from government offices to their homes. Iraqis should be proud of their heritage," he sings.

Bresen wasn’t the only one persecuted for his work under the regime. Almost all of the paintings at Hewar Art Gallery are colorful, abstract pieces. Sculptures are abstract bronzes - mostly of human forms. The realistic paintings are stylised settings of families relaxing, or still life paintings.

Painters did mostly abstract work so that the government wouldn’t be able to criticize them, says Maher al Samarrai, a painter who worked and taught in the United States for many years to escape from the oppressive Iraqi government. He said he felt he had to leave the country after showing a painting of a fish with a chain in its mouth. Government officials questioned him strongly, but didn't jail him.

“When they asked, I said, ‘it’s general, it’s not about the government.' I said there are places all over the world where people cannot breathe,” Al Samarrai told IRIN. “We knew how to deal with the secret agencies. We talked about different subjects, but covered the idea.”

Gallery owner Qasim Alsabti, who creates plastic art, says artists who exhibited at his gallery tried to stay out of politics. But paintings and sculptures still caught the attention of the minister of information, who told the artists they had to paint in a realist style. One artist was jailed for a year after speaking against the government, but the others continued in whatever style they chose, Alsabti said, adding that his plastic sculpture was not political.

“We had a lot of problems with the government, but we established ourselves and sold many paintings," Alsabti told IRIN. “We decided to do just pure art.”

But Thikra Mohammed Nader was so afraid that police would take her or her family members prisoner, she published her novel “Before the End of the Century” in Egypt in 2000, rather than in Iraq. Even then, she said, she was constantly looking over her shoulder. “I wanted to tell people outside what we were experiencing, before Saddam Hussein and during his reign,” she told IRIN. “But I was very scared about my family.”

Alsabti started the gallery in 1992 in honour of soldiers who died in the Iran-Iraq war. He has mounted more than 100 exhibitions in the last 10 years. The government let the gallery stay open, mainly because it was fashionable for many of the people with money in Iraq to collect art, Alsabti says. In recent years, however, many of those families fled the country, leaving the artists without much means of support.

The gallery owner said he looked down on people willing to serve Saddam’s “propaganda centre” as he calls it - referring to those willing to work on Saddam paintings and statues for money.

But for Abdul Jabar, who was chosen in a competition to create a public art project to commemorate children killed during the Iran-Iraq war when a rocket fell on an elementary school, there were also some good things that came out of government recognition. After doing a monument to the children, for example, Jabar was commissioned to do a piece in Italy.

In the aftermath of the war this spring, much of Jabar’s monument has been destroyed - he believes by looters looking to sell some of the bronze as scrap. “They can’t take it all away, so it’s damaged,” he told IRIN. “I’m afraid they will destroy it. Nobody has given me help to protect it, neither American soldiers nor Iraqi police."

Steven Vincent - Observer - Art Crtic, Journalist, Writer, Blogger. True to him self.

2005-09-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

His beautiful Blog - In The Red Zone

Remembering Steven Vincent By Jacob Laksin
Excerpts-

"It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one." So wrote Azar Nafisi in Reading Lolita in Tehran, her heartrending memoir of life in Islamist Iran. Unyieldingly modest, Steven Vincent would have questioned the pertinence of that insight to his own circumstances. Yet it aptly captures the legacy of the indomitable journalist who was brutally murdered in southern Iraq this week."...

"Most stirring of all, perhaps, was Vincent's eye for the little things -- the unremarked though by no means unremarkable snapshots of civilian life in free Iraq. An art critic in his former life, Vincent had a painterly knack for detail. Savor this image, from a report he filed during a January 2004 visit to Baghdad:

Once a rare delicacy -- Saddam prohibited many imported foodstuffs -- the fruits have flooded the country since liberation and the Iraqis can't get enough of them. Yesterday, while we were stuck in a traffic jam, my cabbie purchased two from a vendor walking between the immobilized cars. "Once bananas were just a dream," he laughed, handing me one. "Now, praise God, we can buy them on the street!"...

"Vincent harbored no illusions about the speed of democratic progress. "The transition from slave to citizen usually takes generations," he cautioned. But neither did he doubt that with the right mix of ingredients -- the courage of American troops, the determination of Iraqi democrats and reformers, and the steadfastness and good faith of the American people -- a free and placid Iraq was well within the realm of possibility. "We didn't start this fight, but by the grace of God, the power of the U.S. Constitution and the strength of the American people, we will finish it," he once remarked. Steven Vincent lived and died for that noble cause."

Steve Mumford - New York Artist - Observations in Iraq.

2005-09-11T09:53:00.000-07:00

Baghdad Journal by Steve Mumford

Paper Tiger
The war has been very good to Steve Mumford.
by Jerry Saltz for the The Village Voice - Art
September 9th, 2005.

"And Steve Mumford has been very good to humanity through his art."
DC

Stephen Mumford has been showing in New York since the mid 1990s. Until recently he specialized in highly colored, semi-sensationalist, quasi-apocalyptic depictions of underwater nudes, submerged cars, and the like. Often these canvases resembled adventure posters or paintings you see on the sides of vans. They were jazzy and weird, but little else.

Around 2003 something changed. Up until two years ago, he was collaging images and depicting what he imagined, but he wasn't painting what he saw. This must have concerned Mumford because that year, during the Bush administration's relentless ramp-up to war, Mumford decided he wanted to go to Iraq to become what he calls "a war artist." After he tried unsuccessfully to obtain press credentials from several sources, the online magazine Artnet gave him the paperwork he needed and soon he was in Iraq.

There, Mumford was immediately embedded with the army's Third Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart, Georgia. He was with the troops in Basra, Baghdad, Tikrit, and Kirkuk. By his own account he was scared, thrilled, and bored. He was also incredibly productive. Equipped with a camera, brushes, and other tools, over 11 months and four visits he made hundreds of ink drawings and watercolors. Scores have been posted on Artnet as the visual component of his Baghdad Journal, his hardscrabble, to my ear monotonous and jargon-filled but undeniably thorough, 16-part, 75,000-word record of his and the troops' actions.

Not to be glib or impugn his motives, but the war has been very good to Steve Mumford. His Iraq work has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the U.S. and is on display until September 26 as part of P.S.1's "Greater New York" show. Last December, The New York Times ran a splashy feature on him. He was named "Person of the Week" by ABC News and interviewed by no less than the late Peter Jennings, who deemed him "part of a great wartime tradition."

Mumford did become a better, more observant draftsman in Iraq. He learned to work fast and in tight spaces. Nevertheless, however much his work is compared to Winslow Homer, Otto Dix, and Kathe Kollwitz, his Iraq work comes off as little more than courtroom drawing or generic illustration. Really, it's not that different from news photos you see of soldiers relaxing, Humvees smoldering, or locals milling about. He almost could have done them from home. There's little of what Susan Sontag, referring to photojournalism's relationship to war, called "the photography of conscience." There's no Goya, nothing wrenching or ravishing. Mumford obviously cares about the troops, but his drawings have an academic, bleached-out detachment. The work is attentive but not insightful, detailed but not affecting. You never get the feeling he's examined the moral ambiguity of war, the guilt, adrenaline rush, deprivation, or self-gratification of it. The pictures are proficient but impersonal.

Good "war art" now would probably be what it's always been: more than just "war art." It would stand on its own, connect up to other art, and be both universal and specific. We would be able to look at it without knowing what war this is but still see the suffering, insanity, humor, dreariness, or the harsh beauty of combat. The superb war photographer Don McCullin said he wanted his work to "break the hearts and spirits of secure people." Mumford essentially lulls the eye.

Mumford maintains he went overseas "thinking the war was a huge blunder." Now he says he's "in favor of the mission," and that he "began to understand the invasion differently after spending time with Iraqis." That's fine. There's ample evidence of his commitment and passion in the written part of the journal. Unfortunately, it's not in the visual part.

Mumford should go back to Iraq and paint and draw this passion. He should really reveal himself, show us why the mission is right. His friend, the writer Steven Vincent, went to Iraq (at the same time as Mumford) and made his pro-war position clear in his book on Iraq. Sadly, Vincent was killed there last month by kidnappers days after writing a New York Times editorial critical of the Basra police. Mumford needn't risk his life. He should just put his beliefs into his visual work. I totally disagree with his position. However, if he truly painted his conscience, Mumford could really test the system. We would see if an artist who openly believes in the war would be embraced by an art world that insists it is open-minded and tolerant of divergent opinions. Mumford is obviously filled with the rage, desire, and the need for redemption that going to war seems to require. He just needs to get this on paper.

jsaltz@villagevoice.com

Iraq and Pearl Harbour Veterans / For Valour-IT

2005-09-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

LOOKING FOR ARTISTS for Project Valour-IT

2005-09-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

Portraits on commission can be a tool for fund raising. I am working on one for a town councilor. This is for a fund raising organized by an art gallery with which I am associated with.

It is a great idea. They ask a dozen of professional artists to produce a portrait for a benefactor. The benefactor gives $900 to the gallery and $300 to the artists. The gallery produce the show--big exposure with media and such, because those benefactors are public figures or active in the community. Every body wins.

Anybody out there have contacts you think could make this happen in your local community?

You want to get involved?

Contact FBL at Valour-IT: Voice-Activated Laptops for OUR Injured Troops

Project Valour-IT - draft for logo

2005-09-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

Project Valour IT
Project Valour IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse. The experience of CPT Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important this voice-controlled software can be to a wounded servicemember's recovery.

This logo is only a test for this site.