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<DIV>"I hope that Jeremy comes to San Francisco - I really would like to put him
on the spot."</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I would pay money to see you TRY to put
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Jeremy Scahill " on the spot " !</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>David Johnson</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=rwhelbig@gmail.com href="mailto:rwhelbig@gmail.com">Roger Helbig</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=davidjohnson1451@comcast.net
href="mailto:davidjohnson1451@comcast.net">David Johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A
title='"Undisclosed-Recipient:,"@mail0.frost.chambana.net'
href='mailto:"Undisclosed-Recipient:,"@mail0.frost.chambana.net'>"Undisclosed-Recipient:,"@mail0.frost.chambana.net</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, June 06, 2013 4:21
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Peace-discuss] An Anti-War
Blockbuster</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV>this part sounds pretty phony to me - but Al Jazeera has said so, so it
must be so - I hope that Jeremy comes to San Francisco - I really would like
to put him on the spot. Just because something wins a cinematography
award does not make it a good documentary - rigorous pursuit of the facts and
rigorous exclusion of the fiction makes a good documentary. I would
really like to see the facts on the supposed Tomahawk strikes and incendiary
cluster bombs. Neither makes any sense but it does make great film if
you don't bother to fact check and I strongly suspect that Jeremy does not do
that particularly well. I am sure you don't.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Roger</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>One of the stories told in the film and the book of <I>Dirty
Wars</I> is the story of the destruction of al Majala. On December 17, 2009,
U.S. Tomahawk missiles and incendiary cluster bombs rained down on the tiny
Yemeni village of al Majala, killing 21 children, 14 women, and 6 men, and
burning all the homes and their contents. The government of Yemen falsely
claimed responsibility. </FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=gmail_extra><BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Wed, Jun 5, 2013 at 2:26 PM, David Johnson <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:davidjohnson1451@comcast.net"
target=_blank>davidjohnson1451@comcast.net</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
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class=gmail_quote><U></U>
<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=4>Organizations that would like to help
promote this film and organize around it in U.S. cities should
</FONT><A><FONT size=4>contact me</FONT></A><FONT size=4>.
</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Date: Thu, May 30, 2013 at 8:35 AM<BR>Subject: An
Anti-War Blockbuster<BR>To: <A>shelly@veteransforpeace.org</A><BR>Cc:
<A>media@lists.mayfirst.org</A><BR><BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<H1>An Anti-War Blockbuster</H1><FONT size=4>By David
Swanson<BR></FONT><A><FONT
size=4>http://warisacrime.org/content/anti-war-blockbuster</FONT></A><BR>
<DIV><FONT size=4><IMG alt="">There's no end to the<I> pro-war</I> movies
we're subjected to: countless celebrations of bombs, guns, and
torture. They come in the form of cartoons, science-fiction,
historical fiction, dramas, and reenactments pre-censored </FONT><A><FONT
size=4>by the CIA</FONT></A><FONT size=4>. Movies show us the
excitement without the suffering. War in our theaters resembles almost
anything else more than it resembles war.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Journalists appear in our movies too, usually as comic
figures, talking-head air-heads, numskulls, and sycophants. In this
case, the depiction is much more accurate, at least of much of what passes
for journalism.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>But, starting in June, a remarkable anti-war /
pro-journalism film will be showing -- even more remarkably -- in big
mainstream movie theaters. <I>Dirty Wars</I> (I've read
</FONT><A><FONT size=4>the book </FONT></A><FONT size=4>and seen
</FONT><A><FONT size=4>the movie</FONT></A><FONT size=4> and highly
recommend both) may be one of the best educational outreach opportunities
the peace movement has had in a long time. The film, starring Jeremy
Scahill, is about secretive aspects of U.S. wars: imprisonment, torture,
night raids, drone kills.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><I>Dirty Wars</I> won the Cinematography Award for U.S.
Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival 2013 and, recently, the Grand Jury
Prize at the Boston Independent Film Festival.
<I>Variety </I>calls it "jaw-dropping ... [with] the power to pry open
government lockboxes." The Sundance jury said it is "one of the most
stunning looking documentaries [we've] ever seen." I
agree.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Typically, information that does not support our
government's war agenda appears only on the printed page, or perhaps in a
power-point presented to the usual heroic crowd of aging white activists
gathered outside the range of corporate radar. But stroll through an
airport and you'll see hardcopies of <I>Dirty Wars</I> displayed at the
front of the bookstores. Check out the </FONT><A><FONT size=4>movie
listings</FONT></A><FONT size=4> in June and July, and you're likely to see
<I>Dirty Wars</I> listed right alongside the latest super-hero, murderfest,
sequel of a sequel of some predictable Hollywood hackery.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>I wrote a </FONT><A><FONT size=4>review of the
book</FONT></A><FONT size=4> some time back, after which I picked up a job
helping to promote the film. But I'm promoting the film because it's a
great film, which is different from calling it a great film because I'm paid
to promote it. And my interest remains less in selling the film
tickets than in recruiting those who see the film into an active movement to
change the reality on which the film reports.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>This is not <I>Zero Dark Thirty.</I> You can't walk
into <I>Dirty Wars</I> supporting drone strikes, night raids, and cluster
bombs and walk out with your beliefs reinforced. Most viewers of
<I>Dirty Wars</I> will leave the theater believing that U.S. wars make the
United States less safe. In that moment, when people who are usually
otherwise engaged have come to realize that the Department of So-Called
Defense endangers us (on top of impoverishing us) is when we should sign
those people up to take part in activities the following week and month and
year.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The film opens by contrasting embedded war journalism --
the regurgitation of spoon-fed propaganda -- with what the viewer is about
to see. And what we see is investigative journalism. The film
begins by providing us with an understanding of night raids, including from
the point of view of family members who have survived them. We see the
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff tell Scahill that night raids that
kills civilians should not be investigated. And then we see Scahill
investigate them, his search leading him to secretive branches of the U.S.
military involved in a variety of dirty tactics in various
countries.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The film does have a failing. It doesn't tell people
anything they can do about the horrors they're exposed to. But, of
course, activism is possible and far more effective than any journalism --
good or bad -- will tell you. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>One of the stories told in the film and the book of
<I>Dirty Wars</I> is the story of the destruction of al Majala. On
December 17, 2009, U.S. Tomahawk missiles and incendiary cluster bombs
rained down on the tiny Yemeni village of al Majala, killing 21 children, 14
women, and 6 men, and burning all the homes and their contents. The
government of Yemen falsely claimed responsibility. Yemeni journalist
Abdulelah Haider Shaye disproved that claim.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Shaye reported on the carnage, including photographing
missile parts labeled "Made in the United States." He reported on
subsequent U.S. strikes in Yemen, working with the <I>Washington Post,
</I>ABC News, Al Jazeera, and other outlets.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Shaye is in prison in Yemen for the crime of journalism,
at the insistence of President Obama. A coalition has launched
</FONT><A><FONT size=4>a petition today urging Obama and Yemen to set Shaye
free</FONT></A><FONT size=4>. Fans of <I>Dirty Wars </I>who want to
begin to do something to end the crimes committed in their names can be sent
to RootsAction.org.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>While the United States was searching for its citizen
Anwar Awlaki to kill him, Shaye repeatedly tracked him down and interviewed
him. These were tough and serious interviews, with Shaye asking Awlaki
how he could possibly support acts of violence. Awlaki's image was not
helped. But the U.S. government began warning media outlets not to
work with Shaye, falsely accusing him of supporting al Qaeda. The
Yemeni government kidnapped Shaye, threatened and released him, then
snatched him again and gave him a one-sided "trial," universally denounced
as a sham by human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and
Amnesty International.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>On February 2, 2011, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh,
under public pressure, had drawn up, printed out, and was prepared to sign a
pardon of Shaye. But Saleh received a phone call from President Barack
Obama, who opposed release of the journalist. Saleh ripped up the
pardon.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>The White House is feeling a little pressure over recent
revelations of government spying on and seeking the prosecution of U.S.
journalists. It took the targeting of a U.S. journalist for
prosecution to start people like Chuck Todd and Dana Milbank </FONT><A><FONT
size=4>chattering</FONT></A><FONT size=4> about Obama treating journalism as
a crime. But have you heard U.S. media outlets raising concerns over
the imprisonment of a Yemeni journalist at the instruction of the U.S.
president? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>There is much else that we are not regularly told to be
found in <I>Dirty Wars.</I> Organizations that would like to help
promote this film and organize around it in U.S. cities should
</FONT><A><FONT size=4>contact me</FONT></A><FONT size=4>. With any
luck, together we'll change the conversation to one aware of and unaccepting
of acts of murder anywhere on earth.</FONT></DIV><SPAN><FONT
color=#888888><BR
clear=all><BR></FONT></SPAN></DIV></DIV><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Peace-discuss
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