steve
Aargh to use a Reaganism, ironically, "There you go again, " w/ the sarcasm.
I ask you, what I asked Chris Doss, did you read any of the pdf report http://www.hrnk.org/HiddenGulag.pdf , I once again, tell you of, that does not rely on former DPRK diplomats, but, just hungry peasants and workers tired of foraging for grass to eat, or hunting rats in the camps to eat.
You are gonna get a blast from me, for the zillionith time if you wanna play that, "You are overlooking/apologizing for the crimes of US Imperialism in Chile, Guatemala, Vietnam, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Columbia, " if you harp on the crimes of the Stalinists, Maoists and assorted "anti- imperialist" regimes...which, were primarily crimes against socialist and communist and working class/peasant cadres which, 'er, "objectively, " and even more so, subjectively destroyed the democratic and libertarian bases of the marxist and socialist/communist movements of the last century. As one, like alot of us here, originally radicalized by seeing, for example, in Life magazine, the photos of the slaughtered and raped My Lai massacre victims, and later on hearing from Iranian friends of the crimes of the Shah's regime SAVAK agency, such as closing all the doors of a movie theater where hundreds of Iranian leftists and other Shah opponents, and then setting it afire, killing all, I don't need any snide lectures on the crimes of the USG and its client regimes. What, I do find really flabbergasting, in 2004, is that Steve and Chris and others continue to lean on the tropes of apologia, well eastablished in the 30's, by the more cynical in the CPUSA, which I am familiar w/ via numerous copies of such publications as The New Masses, which I co9llect, and reading way too many texts like Alan Wald's, "The NY Intellectuals, " , Daniel Aaron's, "Writers on the Left, ", David Caute's, "The Fellow Travelers: A Postscript to the Enlightenment, " and Tony Judt's, "Past Imperfect, " on the French Left intelligentsia.
244 Die In Stampede Saudi officials say hundreds more also hurt in stoning ritual during annual pilgramage. AP
Twin Bombings Kill at Least 57 in Iraq ABC News - 5 hours ago IRBIL, Iraq Feb. 1 Two suicide bombers struck the offices of two rival Kurdish parties in near-simultaneous attacks Sunday as hundreds of Iraqis gathered to celebrate a Muslim holiday. At least 57 people were killed and more than 235 were wounded, ... Michael Pugliese P.S. Implicit in the Stephen Schwartz, C. Hitchens, Berman, "islamo- fascist, " labelling (though like Chip, I prefer to call 'em, "clerical fascists, " see his debate w/ Ed Herman http://www.google.com/search?q=Berlet+Herman ) is the recognition, that there are, in the main, many more millions of moderate and liberal (even a Canadian lesbian left-liberal muslim whose new book is getting good reviews) and left muslims, both "ordinary" people, scholars and imams.