As part of its massive love letter to the left-over hippies and their anti-war march in D.C. yesterday, the Washington Post left out some pretty laughable details. While one Style section piece called protester Cindy Sheehan “the Rosa Parks of this generation,” the Post ignored the true nature of the event, evident to those who tuned in to the speakers on C-Span.
Viewers of the C-Span broadcast got to see the wide range of wackos that filled the stage protesting virtually everything except the war in Iraq -- from Israel, to Puerto Rico to Haiti, racism and Katrina. Toward the end, the speakers nearly outnumbered the audience, outraging lefties watching from their homes who filled the Internet with complaints about their own protest. Finding mention of the organizing group A.N.S.W.E.R. and its true anti-U.S. and anti-Israel agenda was hard to do if you relied on the Post.
Virginia readers of the Post didn’t receive the main story about A.N.S.W.E.R. and, even if they had, it was a complete whitewash headlined: “Antiwar Sentiment Galvanizes Thousands.” That piece, written by Evelyn Nieves, wasn’t even datelined from D.C., it came out of the A.N.S.W.E.R. operation in San Francisco.
Fans of A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) were treated to this bit of propaganda: “The marchers on a day reminiscent of late spring represented a cross-section of the nation, from World War II to Gulf War veterans, baby boomers and their children, teenagers and many older citizens. The Green Party brought a contingent, as did the American Indian Movement and many other groups.”
“Many other groups,” what an understatement. Now the truth of the matter: A.N.S.W.E.R. had promoted the event as a way to “Fund People’s Needs Not The War Machine.” The event poster presented the following goals along with many others. The poster didn’t even highlight its anti-war sentiments first:
“Support the Palestinian People’s Right of Return” – That’s where Palestinians move into Israel and take it over and treat Israeli Jews like they were in the rest of the Arab world, with ethnic cleansing at best.
· “Stop the Threats Against Venezuela, Cuba, Iran & North Korea” – That comment ignores the threats those nations have made in the past including trying to build nuclear weapons, invading countries, persecuting their own citizens and threatening the U.S. with nuclear fire.
There was a lot more. Check out this partial list of speakers and their random affiliations from an A.N.S.W.E.R.’s own Web site:
* Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder, United Farm Workers of America
* Malik Rahim, New Orleans community activist who survived Hurricane Katrina
* Mahdi Bray, Exec. Dir., Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation
* Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, attorney/co-founder, Partnership for Civil Justice, National Lawyers Guild
* Clayola Brown, President of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, Vice President of UNITE HERE
* Ben Dupuy, Former Ambassador At Large for the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
* Jos Williams, President, President of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO
* Christine Araquel, Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines
* Michel Shehadeh, L.A-8 defendant, a Palestinian activist framed COINTELPRO-style
* Nancy Wolforth, Executive Vice President, AFL-CIO
* Mounzer Sleiman, National Council of Arab Americans
* Gloria La Riva, National Committee to Free the Five
* Riya Ortiz, Network in Solidarity with the People of the Philippines, Campaign for Justice Not War
* Chuck Kaufman, Nicaragua Network
* Representative of Bayan USA
