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Post by Fender on Feb 11, 2008 20:44:18 GMT -5
Rep. Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, dead at 80 By Lisa Fernandez and Mark Gomez Mercury News Article Launched: 02/11/2008 06:37:15 AM PST
Click photo to enlarge Rep. Tom Lantos died Monday after a six-week battle with... (Rachael Strecher / Associated Press)«1» Guest book Share condolences for Rep. Tom Lantos
Related Stories Feb 11: TOM LANTOS: 1928-2008Rep. Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, died early Monday after a six-week fight with cancer, his spokeswoman said. Spokeswoman Lynne Weil said this morning that the 80-year-old Lantos died at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in suburban Maryland. He was surrounded by his wife Annette Lantos, daughters Annette and Katrina, and many of his 18 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
His wife said in a statement that her husband's life was "defined by courage, optimism, and unwavering dedication to his principles and to his family."
After being diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus in late December, the San Mateo Democrat announced he would not seek re-election in his district, which takes in the southwest portion of San Francisco and suburbs to the south including Lantos' home of San Mateo. Lantos, who became chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee last year, intended to finish his 14th two-year term while undergoing treatment.
"It is only in the United States that a penniless survivor of the Holocaust and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground could have received an education, raised a family, and had the privilege of serving the last three decades of his life as a Member of Congress," Lantos said earlier this year. "I will never be able to express fully my profoundly felt gratitude to this great country."
Earlier this year, former state Senator Jackie Speier launched her campaign to run for Lantos'
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- seat, apparently, the only serious Democratic contender for the spot at this point. In a statement, House speaker Nancy Pelosi said: "The passing of Tom Lantos is a profound loss for the Congress and for the nation and a terrible loss for me personally." "As the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress, Tom Lantos devoted his life to shining a bright light on dark corners of oppression. . . . Having lived through the worst evil known to mankind, Tom Lantos translated the experience into a lifetime commitment to the fight against anti-Semitism, Holocaust education, and a commitment to the state of Israel."
Many Jewish groups mourned the death of a congressman who helped champion causes dear to their hearts.
"For years people have looked to Congressman Tom Lantos as the conscience of the United States Congress," said Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director for the the New York-based Jewish Council for Public Affairs. "He rose from the ashes of the Holocaust to the hallowed halls of Congress."
Two years ago, Gutow and Lantos were both in Washington, D.C. protesting outside the Sudanese embassy against the current genocide in Darfur. Both were arrested for trespassing, handcuffed, put into a van, and taken to jail for a few hours.
"I looked at his face, and saw something deep, sort of haunting," Gutow said in a phone interview today. "I remember the depths of emotion I was feeling about him. Here's a man who suffered so greatly and now was so willing to open himself up, and in some ways, relive what had happened to him during the Holocaust, you know, shoved into a van like that. He was one of a kind. He was truly an important figure, his kind won't come for a long time, maybe ever again."
Even those who had once challenged him for his political seat had only praise for him, too.
Ro Khanna, 31, ran against the veteran congressman in the 2004 Democratic primary, even though the young San Francisco attorney knew it'd be a "longshot" to unseat the popular politician. At the time, Khanna was driven by the desire of the larger Indo-American community in Silicon Valley to have one of their own representing them in Washington.
"The day after Tom Lantos won, he invited me for breakfast and said, 'Young man, you ran a very spirited campaign," Khanna recalled Lantos saying. "You have a bright future. Don't quit on yourself. Keep building your Indo-American base.' He became a mentor. He just had such graciousness that spoke volumes. He's one of the most brilliant people I've met, and among the most substantive. He had a statesmanship that very few politicians have in today's day and age. It was one of biggest privileges in my life to have run against him." The last time Khanna saw Lantos face to face was a few months ago in San Francisco at a fundraiser for Pelosi.
The timing of Lantos' diagnosis was a particular blow because he had assumed his committee chairmanship just a year earlier, when Democrats retook control of Congress. He said then that in a sense his whole life had been a preparation for the job.
Born Feb. 1, 1928 in Budapest to a middle-class Jewish family, Lantos was 16 when the Nazis occupied Hungary and sent him to a labor camp. He escaped twice and eventually made it to a safe house run by Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. With most of his family killed by the Nazis, Lantos joined the resistance. He arrived in the United States in 1947 on a college scholarship, earned a master's degree in economics at the University of Washington and a doctorate in economics at the University of California-Berkeley. Lantos taught for 30 years at San Francisco State University before winning a congressional seat in 1980.
In Congress, Lantos has spoken out for civil liberties, based on his commanding knowledge of world affairs. Lantos co-founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1983. In early 2004 he led the first congressional delegation to Libya in more than 30 years, meeting personally with Moammar Gadhafi and urging the Bush administration to show "good faith" to the North African leader in his pledge to abandon his nuclear weapons programs. Later that year, President Bush lifted sanctions against Libya.
Since becoming chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs a year ago, he has advocated tirelessly for human rights in China, Russia, Burma and Darfur. Late last year, he assailed Yahoo executives for handing over the identity of a Chinese activist, telling them in not quite politically correct fashion: "Morally, you are pygmies."
The date for a public memorial service has not yet been set.
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Fender
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Post by Fender on Feb 11, 2008 20:45:06 GMT -5
Tom Lantos, Warmonger The pious old hypocrite wants to gin up a war with Iran by Justin Raimondo While the American people pine for peace, our leaders are intent on war: that's the anomaly of American "democracy," one that speaks ill of the effort to export our system at gunpoint. Adopt "democracy," and you, too, can be ruled by a warmongering oligarchy.
Americans oppose an attack on Iran 2-to-1. By almost every measure, they want negotiations, rather than confrontation, with Tehran. Yet the House Foreign Affairs Committee recently gave its approval to a bill that, in effect, would fire the first shot at the Iranians, imposing draconian sanctions similar to those enacted against Iraq in the run-up to the invasion and occupation of that country. Similarly, this new sanctions regime sets the stage for the coming war with Iran.
The Iran Counter-Proliferation Act [.pdf], so-called, doesn't bother targeting goods and services that Iran might put to military use. Instead, it takes a broad-brush approach and openly seeks to strangle Iran economically. The legislation, written by champion warmonger Tom Lantos, would prohibit the import of any and all items from Iran, ban dealings with Iranian banks, stop the export of items having to do with civil aviation, and ratchet up the pressure on other countries to impose similar restrictions. Furthermore, Lantos wants a report from the White House every six months on the "progress" being made to tighten the chokehold on Iran.
Looking at this from the Iranian side, it is clearly an act of war, especially in the context of the Iran Freedom and Support Act, which provided millions to fund "regime change" in the land of the mullahs The Lantos bill is a naked provocation that stops just short of an all-out attack – and paves the way for military action, in spite of a proviso that reads "Nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the use of force or the use of the United States Armed Forces against Iran." Having already declared our intention to bring down the regime by funding opposition groups, this latest vow by the U.S. Congress to destroy the Iranian economy is the equivalent of the Wicked Witch of the West skywriting "Surrender Dorothy" in the skies above Tehran.
With Lantos and the anti-Iran Democrats leading the charge on the political front, the Bush administration is moving on the military front. Recent developments are ominous: namely, the addition of another aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise, to the two already looming off the Iranian coast. (Yes, I know that last link is to Debka.com, hardly a fountainhead of journalistic accuracy, but this Newsweek report prefigured it.) What amounts to a Republican-Democratic pincer movement is evidence that a real consensus has developed in our nation's capital that war with Iran is inevitable.
True, there are some minor disagreements along the way, with the Democrats, led by the sickening hypocrite Lantos, demanding these draconian sanctions, and the White House opposing them on the grounds that new sanctions undermine our multilateral diplomatic effort to isolate Tehran. Lantos, that pious old fraud, inserted language in his bill that pays minimal lip service to the idea of resolving this dispute through diplomacy – while the rest of his bill is clearly designed to sink diplomatic initiatives that are bound to run aground on the rocks of sanctions.
Lantos really is a piece of work. Here he is insulting Jacques Chirac and calling former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder a "political prostitute" for having the foresight to oppose our disastrous Iraqi adventure. Of Schroeder, Lantos barked:
"I referred to him as a political prostitute, now that he's taking big checks from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. But the sex workers in my district objected, so I will no longer use that phrase."
The respectful use of the term "sex workers" indicates Lantos really has no moral objections to prostitution, he merely objects to the nationality of Schroeder's customers. Yet Schroeder's employment in an oil-gas venture that is 51 percent owned by Gazprom no more makes Schroeder a Russian prostitute than big campaign contributions to Lantos from the Washington PAC make him a whore for Israel. Presumably, Schroeder believes trade with Russia is in Germany's (and Europe's) interests, just as Lantos thinks America's current policy of unconditional support for Israel is good for America.
As for Chirac, Lantos was at his most bombastic. The former French president, said Lantos,
"should go down to the Normandy beaches. He should see those endless rows of white marble crosses and stars of David representing young Americans who gave their lives for the freedom of France."
Lantos should go down to Walter Reed Army Hospital and see those endless rows of wounded soldiers maimed in an unwinnable, futile war that he voted to authorize and continues to support. He should go visit this guy and come back and tell us that he was right about Iraq, just as he is about Iran.
The coming war with Iran is brought to you by the Dick Cheney wing of the Democratic Party, in collaboration, of course, with the Dick Cheney wing of the GOP. With Lantos one of their chief spokesmen and Hillary Clinton their designated presidential candidate, the Demo-Cheneyites are determined to pull off what their Republican counterparts lack the political capital to accomplish. If the shooting starts under Bush's watch – as is very likely – then the Democrats can blame the Republicans even as they pave the way for war politically, diplomatically, and in every other way possible.
As the Democratic presidential candidates dither over Iraq, pretending to oppose the war while continuing the funding without conditions or meaningful oversight, they all agree that a U.S. attack on Iran is "on the table" as long as Tehran maintains its right to develop nuclear power for ostensibly peaceful purposes. Furthermore, the Iraq war and the looming possibility of a conflict with Iran are no longer separable. As I have said numerous times in this space, the Iraq war cannot be contained within Iraq's borders, and the "spillover effect" is bound to result in a border incident that could spark a wider conflict. As Rep. Ron Paul has warned, a Gulf-of-Tonkin-like incident in the Persian Gulf or on the Iran-Iraq border could easily be manufactured by an administration hell-bent on war – and perhaps we are seeing the first signs of it here.
The conflict, once initiated, will not be restricted to the Persian Gulf region and the long Iran-Iraq border but will break out all over the Middle East, erupting in Lebanon and rippling outward all the way to Pakistan in a seismic wave that could topple every regime in the region. In this way, the administration's goal of "regime change" throughout the Middle East will be accomplished and the neocons' "domino theory" confirmed – albeit not in a way they ever intended.
You'll note that the White House and its pet generals are nowadays referring to the Iraqi insurgency as "al-Qaeda," a neat rhetorical sleight-of-hand that prefigures what may happen once a regional war – the neocons' vaunted "World War IV" – gets started: the ultimate empowerment of America's deadliest enemies. With a pro-al-Qaeda regime ensconced in Islamabad, the prospect of nuclear-armed terrorists – the ultimate bogeyman conjured up by the War Party – will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In the end, we are confronted with the utter craziness of the War Party and its agenda in the Middle East. This pathological condition was recently reconfirmed by Johann Hari's account of a National Review-sponsored cruise to Puerto Vallarta featuring Norman Podhoretz and Bill Buckley, along with a boatload of neocons and well-heeled red-state-fascist types on board. The Pod Man and Buckley nearly came to blows over the war question, when Buckley asked Poddy if it didn't bother him that the famed "weapons of mass destruction" were nowhere to be found in Iraq. "There were WMD, and they were shipped to Syria," snapped the Pod Man.
Syria? Is he serious? I'm afraid he is…
Continuing his rant, the Pod Man avers: "This picture of a country in total chaos with no security is false. It has been a triumph. It couldn't have gone better."
Better – for whom? Well, for Israeli hardliners, to start with, who now have 150,000 American soldiers in the Middle East to set against another of their mortal enemies. Better for the neocons, who still control the commanding heights of U.S. policymaking centers in Washington and who are now within reach of their goal of "regime change" throughout the region. As for the rest of us, including poor Buckley, who's had his own magazine (and movement) hijacked by the Pod Man and the neocon pod-people – "I have lots of ex-friends on the left; it looks like I'm going to have some ex-friends on the right, too" – if you're sick of war, you're no friend of the Pod Man's. If you're sick of the Pod Man – who is engaged in a friendly competition with Joshua Muravchik for the title of warmonger-in-chief of the bomb-Iran crowd – then get in line, because even the most hard-core conservatives, who once supported the president's relentless policy of aggression in the Middle East, are now having second thoughts.
Buckley's face-off with Podhoretz dramatizes, in concentrated form, the slow burn of Republican members of Congress who fear for their seats and the future of the GOP as the neocons drag them down to political oblivion. How long will Republicans, and conservatives in general, consent to carry the millstone of neoconservatism around their necks?
Make no mistake about it: we are headed straight for another war in the Middle East, and it is going to be a doozy. The Democrats will protest that they never wanted it, even as they facilitate the war plans of this administration to the nth degree. Don't dare imagine that a change of administrations will avert the coming war with Iran: a Democratic administration in power will just mean that we'll have Cheneyism without Cheney, at least when it comes to Iran.
The Iranians claim they aren't building weapons, only developing nuclear power for peaceful purposes because they want to export more of their oil. Yet who could blame them if they were building nukes – after being denounced as the main spoke on the "axis of evil" by the president of the United States and threatened with a heavy U.S. military buildup in Iraq and the Gulf? They once did offer to negotiate over not only their nuclear program but also their support for Hezbollah and radical Palestinian factions – but this offer was rudely rejected at the behest of Cheney and his cohorts. This offer should be reexamined and revived: it could and should provide the basis for a negotiated settlement of all outstanding issues between Washington and Tehran.
The United States lived with Soviet nukes aimed at American cities for 50-plus years: we can live with Iranian nukes aimed at Israeli cities (and Israeli nukes targeting Iranian cities). The alternative is war – and a regional conflagration that will have economic and geopolitical consequences that can only be catastrophic for America.
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Fender
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Post by Fender on Feb 11, 2008 20:45:48 GMT -5
The Lies of Tom Lantos The Bela Lugosi of the House By WAYNE MADSEN
He is a fake, a phony and a complete fraud. He constantly stresses his victimhood: first as a Holocaust survivor in Nazi-run Hungary and then as a refugee when the Communists took power. He fancies himself as the leading human rights specialist on Capitol Hill. In fact, this odious so-called Democrat is a master of deception and propaganda and a wallower in corrupt campaign money.
Meet California Congressman Tom Lantos. The Gollum-like Lantos has launched his latest string of invectives at France, Germany, and Belgium. He said "the failure of these three states to honor their commitments is beneath contempt" and that he is "particularly disgusted by the blind intransigence and utter ingratitude" of America's three NATO allies.
Lantos, who represents California's 12th District (San Mateo), has a history of just plain lying and intimidating others in order to push his sordid agenda.
He once told Clinton White House security chief Craig Livingstone, who was testifying before a House committee on the so-called "Travelgate" matter, that he should think about committing suicide. Lantos, who sounds a lot like Bela Lugosi, told the beleaguered aide, "At least Admiral Boorda had the decency to commit suicide," a reprehensible reference to the tragic suicide of the Chief of Naval Operations.
And who can forget the last time Lantos shilled for a Bush war on Iraq? On October 10, 1990, Lantos, who laughably chaired the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, held a meeting during which a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl who only went by the name Nayirah told a sobbing hearing room that as a volunteer for a Kuwait hospital she personally witnessed Iraqi soldiers yank new born babies from their incubators, steal the incubators, and leave the infants on the cold floors to die. Lantos, it turns out, was in on a little scam he cooked up with Citizens for a Free Kuwait and an entity Lantos chaired called the Congressional Human Rights Foundation. In fact, both organizations were rump entities set up by the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, the same company that is now shilling for the Saudis to fend off all criticism of Osama bin Laden's true paymasters.
Lantos, the consummate prevaricator, said that poor Nayirah's last name had to be kept confidential or otherwise her family in Kuwait might face reprisals from Iraqi occupiers. Nice try, but soon it was revealed that Nayirah's actual last name was Al Sabah and that she was the daughter of Kuwait's ambassador to the United States. But the disinformation soon caught on. George H. W. Bush traveled around the country condemning the Brute of Baghdad for throwing newborn babies on to the floors of Kuwaiti hospitals. Support for Bush's war skyrocketed as a result.
Now, as another President Bush hones his plans to control Iraq through pro-consul and fellow Texan, General Tommy Franks, Lantos is bleating forth more disinformation about the "treacherous" French, Germans, and Belgians for not jumping into Bush's lap in the same manner as Britain's Tony Blair and Australia's John Howard.
Lantos' venomous brand of politics has earned him scorn from many of his House colleagues, especially those in the Congressional Black Caucus. Always quick to accuse those who don't stand with Israel of being anti-Semitic, Lantos is intolerant of African-American members who have accused the international diamond industry of responsibility for a large share of Africa's bloody civil wars and torment. Lantos has, in some cases, made no secret of his disdain for people of color who dare question his competency to lord over human rights issues from his Capitol Hill perch. The relationship between Lantos and Hill and Knowlton, the agents of past brutal dictatorships in Indonesia and Turkey, makes Lantos's congressional monopoly on human rights advocacy an outrageous fraud.
In 1992, high tech entrepreneur Glenn Tenney challenged Lantos in the Democratic primary. Although Lantos is well-known for his arrogance in Washington, Tenney and his supporters pointed out that this haughtiness extended to the constituents of the 12th District as well. But Lantos, who is propped up partly with the infusion of campaign funds from mob-controlled unions at San Francisco International Airport, remained invulnerable to the challenge.
Although Lantos's biography says he is the only Holocaust survivor to have ever served in Congress, it glosses over the fact that his wife, also a Holocaust survivor, and two daughters left the Jewish faith and are practicing Mormons. And it is also a well-known fact that the Latter Day Saints Church remains a prime backer of the Republican Party and George W. Bush. Nonetheless, Lantos was quick to hurl his hackneyed anti-Semitism charges at his two last challengers, Republican Michael Moloney, who favored cutting off all U.S. aid to Israel and Libertarian Maad Abu Ghazalah, a Palestinian refugee from the West Bank, who called for a more even-handed American foreign policy in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
As eloquent Democrats like West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold call into question Bush's Iraq adventure and his creeping totalitarianism at home, Lantos, to coin a phrase, remains, as always, "beneath contempt."
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and columnist. He wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth.
Madsen can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com
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Fender
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Post by Fender on Feb 11, 2008 20:54:45 GMT -5
Beyond lies in American food aid: the dead bodies ARTICLE: "As Africa Hungers, U.S. Policy Slows the Delivery of Food Aid," by Celia W. Dugger, New York Times, 7 April 2007, p. A1. I've written before about this Congress-protected iron triangle of food producers, food transporters and aid groups.
This story just makes you want to scream at the greed of it all.
For two years Bush and Co. try to change this insane law that says only food grown by Americans and shipped by American vessels with American crews and distributed by American charities can be used for foreign food aid.
So despite the people going hungry right now in Zambia and USAID being more than happy to buy food aid locally--as in, right in Zambia when the harvest was bountiful this year--USAID cannot do so because of this law.
Also because of this law, our food aid will likely be held up in terms of delivery for as long as six months. So people will die needlessly, according to Oxfam. Maybe 50,000 in the next half year alone.
The Bush administration says American taxpayers could feed an additional million more Africans if Congress just changes this idiotic law.
But Bush's efforts to change the law the last two years were thwarted quietly by Congress and the iron triangle's lobbyists.
Tom Lantos is a key villian, calling any attempt to change the law "beyond insane," because it will kill domestic support for food aid by harming our farmers.
Move beyond your lies, Mr. Lantos.
James Kunder, acting USAID deputy is quoted in the piece as saying less than one-half of one percent of US ag exports would be affected by the law being changed.
Sound like it might be worth it to feed one milliion and prevent 50k deaths in Africa in the next six months?
And don't even get me started on how this insane law retards agricultural markets in Africa and ensures steady death tolls over the years.
Guess who gets to die first, Mr. Lantos? The orphans of AIDS victims.
Please, somebody get Willie Nelson to wail on that one.
This is Lantos and others caving in to lobbying from Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Bunge and Cal Western, which sell "more than half the $2.2 billion in food for Food for Peace, the largest food aid program, and two smaller programs," according to USDA.
Bush should go on national TV to shame Lantos and his fat-cat ag biz allies and the greedy American shipping companies and the scummy nonprofit aid groups who are all in cahoots on this moneymaker.
This is all so amazingly dishonest and immoral, it just makes me sick.
And the bit about support for food aid withering from lack of support if this iron triangle isn't served is really indefensible.
Lantos should be ashamed of himself. He needs to go on this basis alone. He's been in for so long he can peddle crap like this and still get touted by DC types as some great man on foreign policy.
Because if Lantos was half the leader he imagines himself to be, he'd both change the law and boost Congressional support for such rapid-fire response aid.
But Lantos doesn't because he's more interested in credit than actually saving lives.
And I find that shameful indeed.
Posted by Thomas P.M. Barnett on April 7, 2007 10:40 PM | Permalink
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Post by vinjak on Feb 11, 2008 21:06:03 GMT -5
Exactly which is why I wrote that this disgusting skeleton of a human being hid behind his jewry while he was paid blood money and I would not be suprised if the Mutt has the pillow in his coffin stuffed with blood money.
Good riddance.
And I got deleted over my opinion on this mutt ??
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Post by slvsdied4you on Feb 11, 2008 21:08:01 GMT -5
Lets talk about the Milosevic clans $20 billion that they raped from Serbia
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Post by vinjak on Feb 11, 2008 21:09:07 GMT -5
This isnt about Milosevic ...duh, read the title
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Post by slvsdied4you on Feb 11, 2008 21:11:20 GMT -5
Maybe I should make it a new thread here then .
Thanks and I apologies.
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Fender
Commanding Moderator
Hardarse
Posts: 2,653
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Post by Fender on Feb 11, 2008 21:15:33 GMT -5
Tom Lantos: Fighting Evil with Lies By Will
Washington DC is one of the only places I know where being terrible at what you do can get you promoted. Congressman Tom Lantos of California survived the anti-Bush voting tide handily, and will now be the ranking member of the International Relations Committee. ADC reported that Republican "Congressman Henry Hyde, a vocal supporter of Palestinian Christians will retire from Congress." Congressman Hyde headed the committee previously. Since his party lost, he would have lost the chairmanship anyways.
Lantos, a Holocaust survivor, is obnoxiously pro-Israel and hawkish in the use of military force against Arabs. He is so supportive of aggression, he is willing to use deception to further his goals. He was a pro-war hawk working to further President Bush's war plan, but kept a distance by criticizing teh "conduct" of the war. He will now chair the House International Relations committee -- even though the Republicans lost because of the same policies Lantos advocated.
In August, Lantos told Israel’s Foreign Ministry he will block aid promised by President George W. Bush to Lebanon. he would only free the funds only when Beirut agreed to the deployment of international troops on the border with Syria. He was meeting at the time with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He was an accomplice in the destruction of Lebanon.
This bold-faced hypocrite got arrested protesting at the Sudanese embassy last April. It's funny how he will stand up to black African Arab regimes, but utterly supports Israel killing Arabs. I support the fight for justice in Darfur -- but those using it to feign moral universality or deflect from Israel's atrocities disgust me.
Wayne Madsen wrote about the bed of lies he sleeps in. Madsen also touched on his ability to warm up to human rights abusers, even though he claims to be the Congressional don of human rights. From Indonesia, to Turkey, to the blood diamond industry, this Congressman has courted some of the worst.
Unsurprisingly, he is pushing for maximum measures against Iran -- which happens to be number one on Israel and AIPAC's regional to-do list at the moment.
What surprises me about his chairmanship of the IR Committee is that he was one of the most vocal Democrats supporting the zany pre-emptive war in Iraq. He told an Israeli official the US would get rid of Saddam Hussein. Ben Terrall wrote that Ha'aretz reported that in 2002 Lantos told Knesset member Colette Avital the following: "My dear Colette, you won't have any problem with Saddam. We'll be rid of the bastard soon enough. And in his place we'll install a pro-Western dictator, who will be good for us and for you."
Terrall contacted Avital after Lantos called it a "total fabrication". MK Avital confirmed "that the story is accurate."
Like the slime he is, Lantos downplays his past support for the war on Iraq. A statement put out by the party in September reads, "Tom Lantos has long criticized the conduct of the war in Iraq -- starting with questions about the Administration's use of intelligence to justify the conflict -- and the failing U.S. commitment to lasting and real reconstruction there." Yet, it is clear he was one of the first Democrats to jump on board.
Back in 2002, when Lantos was beating the war drums, Alpesh Patel was leading protests at Lantos' San Mateo, CA office, the Washington Post reported. Patel said he found:
almost unanimous opposition to war in the district. "With the vote done, we are not done one bit," he said. "We will be back in front of Lantos's office. We want to make it abundantly clear that everybody in this district who speaks for anybody is opposed to Lantos's war." Lantos has a long, greasy record of truth-stretching to advance war against Arabs. In his push to promote the 1991 Gulf War, he played a vitally dishonest role in an important PR charade. He was a member of the ad hoc Human Rights Caucus which worked with the PR firm of Hill & Knowlton to drum up public support for the war. He was instrumental in creating and spreading the myth that Iraqi soldiers were stealing baby incubators and leaving the babies to die.
The public heard this in a moving testimony from a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, known only by her first name of Nayirah. The Caucus hid Nayirah's full name to obstensibly prevent Iraqi reprisals against her family in occupied Kuwait. Later it was revealed that: Nayirah was a member of the Kuwaiti Royal Family. Her father, in fact, was Saud Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to the US, who sat listening in the hearing room during her testimony. The Caucus also failed to reveal that H&K vice president Lauri Fitz-Pegado had coached Nayirah in what even the Kuwaitis' own investigators later confirmed was false testimony. Even in the non-political realm, his utter creepiness shines through. Wikipedia featured a story that exposes his pompous callousness: On May 3, 2000, Congressman Lantos was involved in a traffic accident while leaving the Congressional Parking Lot on Capitol Hill. The Boston Globe reported that Lantos ran over a young boy's foot and then failed to stop. According to the report, Laura Friend, who was chaperoning a group of students that included the boy, "screamed at Lantos through the half-open window". She reported, "I was saying, `Stop, stop, stop! Back up, back up, back up!' He didn't look at me. He didn't even take his hands off the wheel or anything.". According to the report, "He was assessed a $25 fine for "failure to pay full time and attention" and claimed a misunderstanding regarding a Capitol Policeman's order to pull forward. Lantos said he had no idea the boy had been hurt. ...I was driving to my office. ... There was a typical spring mob of tourists and kids and so on, Lantos said yesterday in an interview. One of the kids, horsing around, not looking or something, jumped in front of the car, stumbled, then got up and walked away. Lantos said he was then ushered forward by a Capitol Police officer, and he drove off — thinking nothing had happened. Learning yesterday that the boy had been injured, Lantos said he would invite Owen's parents to Washington for lunch.
According to several adult chaperones, the school principal attempted to step in front of the car, causing the Capitol Police officer to request twice that he move out of the way or be arrested.
The officer said, `Look at his license plates. He's a congressman. If we need to get in touch with him, we can find him if need be,' Friend recalled." (I laughed outloud when I read he invited the kid's parents to lunch. Wow.)
With little to no scrutiny, and only the guiding light of abetting Israel's agenda, Congressman Lantos will continue to be a negative force -- a now, as Chair of the committee, a more influential one. He will continue to promote the same idiotic policies and practices that fuel the increasingly violent downward spiral.
Lantos' ability to lie to promote warfare is not actually a controversial point. As Terrall observed, "Lantos worked equally hard in recent hearings to sell the younger Bush's insane 'pre-emptive' war, seeming physically unable to stop making overheated references to Nazi Germany and World War II on a daily basis." If Lantos firmly believed that Iraq and Al-Qaeda are like Nazi Germany, then lying to push their destruction only flows naturally. He survived genocide, after all. One can only be morally at ease with such deceptive tactics if he or she is fully convinced evil is on the receiving side of bombs and missiles.
The problem is, and the reason he supports such doomed policy all the time, is that his trauma-shaped worldview is fundamentally inapplicable to current affairs. We are not reliving World War II. Saddam was not Adolf. Iraq had the GDP of Kentucky; Nazi Germany was a world power. We are not all good, and they are not all evil. Oil, money, the arms industry, lobbies, and stolen land add a bit of nuance to the simple-minded good vs. evil scheme Lantos and George W. Bush share. He's like the crazy old mountain man except that his craziness isn't harmless.
Lantos has almost no critical bone towards Israel, at all. Lantos showed no hesitance backing Israel's now disasterous unilateral measures against Gaza. He stated he "personally will support and stand by it (Israel) as it implements its courageous policy of furthering peace by disengaging in Gaza." This again reflects how his myopic reflex to back Israel no matter how absurd their plan leads to bad policy.
Even after a Jewish extremist shot and killed four Palestinian citizens last year, he still found a way to spin it to boost Ariel Sharon, the most violent extremist Arabs have suffered from: "I commend Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Israeli government for their strong denunciation of the attack as well as for their continuous and genuine efforts to thwart attacks on the part of all extremists, Israeli and Palestinian." Yeah, Israel does so much to stop the extremist settlers, like the thugs who roam Hebron armed with machine guns.
With Lantos playing an important role in Democratic foreign policy quarters, the Democrats will have a big obstacle to promoting sensible policy in the Middle East.
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Post by Beach Police on Feb 11, 2008 21:35:17 GMT -5
and two daughters left the Jewish faith and are practicing Mormons.
He was a stealth jew.I read where he has 18 grandchildren. Mormons have lots of kids.
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Post by tripwire on Feb 11, 2008 21:36:34 GMT -5
Good thing you posted this garbage here, where it truly belongs...to those who won't let go of hate.
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Fender
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Post by Fender on Feb 11, 2008 21:57:04 GMT -5
Friday, April 20, 2007 Jihadists, take note The indomitable Julia Gorin reports that Tom Lantos (D-Ca.), sponsor of the latest House resolution supporting the independence of "Kosova," uttered the following words at last week's hearing:
(addressing Nicholas Burns of the State Department):
Let me just raise a few items, Mr. Secretary. The first one: just a reminder to the predominantly Muslim-led governments in this world that here is yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe. This should be noted by both responsible leaders of Islamic governments, such as Indonesia, and also for jihadists of all color and hue. The United States’ principles are universal, and in this instance, the United States stands foursquare for the creation of an overwhelmingly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe.
There is no hint of "principle" anywhere here. It's pure politics. Like many others before him, Lantos is trying to appease the jihadists (he actually uses the term!) by throwing them a bone in the Balkans.
It is interesting, to say the least, that Albanians suddenly become Muslims when it's convenient to make this sort of "argument," but quickly become "secular" and "moderate" when critics try to point out the systematic destruction of Serb churches and construction of Saudi mosques. Same with the so-called Bosniaks - one day they are "moderate" and "secular," the next they are "Muslims in the heart of Europe."
And please - what heart? Kosovo is the historical heartland of Serbia, and the Balkans in general is very much at the periphery of Europe. Or was Lantos maybe thinking of the Netherlands?
In any case, the whole effort to placate the world's Muslims by supporting Islamic causes in the Balkans has been proven ineffective repeatedly; not just in the countries like Indonesia, but among the Balkans Muslims as well. For example, far from appreciating Western help in claiming a state in the "heart of Europe," the Bosnian Muslims have come to believe that was the very least the West owed them, and have engaged in mockery of Western assistance.
Certainly, Pristina may have streets named after Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright now, and Lantos and Nicholas Burns may exchange friendly quips about how their own names, and that of George W. Bush, ought to be among them. But already the Albanians of Kosovo believe that independence is the very least they are due, and don't hesitate to attack UN officials or NATO troops that are perceived to stand in the way.
So much for the gratitude of your Muslim "allies," Mr. Lantos.
Posted by Gray Falcon at 09:43
Labels: jihad, Kosovo, Lantos
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Fender
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Post by Fender on Feb 11, 2008 21:59:25 GMT -5
So Long 'Kosovo Tom' History; Posted on: 2008-01-03 14:22:05 [ Printer friendly / Instant flyer ] "The United States stands foursquare for the creation of an overwhelmingly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe."
Tom Lantos, Warmonger
From Western Voices correspondents
Representative Tom Lantos, the California Democrat, Zionist extremist and champion of Kosovo independence who rules the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced that he would not seek re-election because he has been diagnosed with esophagus cancer.
Lantos is the only self-styled Jewish Holocaust survivor in the Congress. Lantos, praising himself, noted he is a "Holocaust survivor and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground." Budapest born Lantos claims to have been deported to a labor camp in 1944, from which he promptly escaped. He then came to the United States in 1947 on a segregated Jews-only affirmative action academic scholarship.
The next in line to control the committee is Representative Howard Berman (D, California), who is also Jewish; if Republicans win control of the House, the position would fall to Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R, Florida). Havana born Ros-Lehtinen, who has championed the cause of the Scientology "cult," Bush's Iraq war, "gay rights" and "hate" laws, comes partly from a family of Cuban conversos, Jews who converted to Catholicism. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised Lantos for his "experience, intelligence and compassion."
The "compassion" of Tom Lantos even extends to the Muslim jihadis of Kosovo, who have ethnically cleansed thousands of Serb civilians and desecrated Serb churches and other historical sites. Addressing Nicholas Burns of the State Department Lantos said: "Let me just raise a few items, Mr. Secretary. The first one: just a reminder to the predominantly Muslim-led governments in this world that here is yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe. This should be noted by both responsible leaders of Islamic governments, such as Indonesia, and also for jihadists of all color and hue. The United States' principles are universal, and in this instance, the United States stands foursquare for the creation of an overwhelmingly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe." Despite appearances, Zionism and Islamism often share similar agendas.
Many politicians will likely greet the Lantos departure with quiet thanksgiving. The Holocaust to Lantos was what 9/11 is to Rudy Giuliani, used to bully and berate opponents from a morally superior height, and embarrassing the United States in the process. His latest gaffe came in October of 2007 when Lantos, a diehard fan of Bush's war on Iraq, snapped at a visiting delegation of lawmakers from the Netherlands that "Europe was not as outraged by Auschwitz as by Guantanamo Bay." Raving, he added that "You have to help us, because if it was not for us you would now be a province of Nazi Germany." Understandably, the Dutch were stunned by the boorish outburst, calling it "insulting and counterproductive."
Displays of contempt and breathtaking hubris from Lantos are legend. In 2000, he was fined for "inattentive driving" for leaving the scene after running over the foot of a child on Capitol Hill. But Lantos is best known for his loud mouth. At a Congressional "Filegate" hearing in 1996, Lantos seemed to suggest that one witness kill himself: "with an infinitely more distinguished public record than yours, Admiral Boorda committed suicide when he may have committed a minor mistake."
In June 2007 Lantos shamed America by calling former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder "a political prostitute," an accurate enough assessment, but hardly appropriate given the circumstances, the public dedication of Washington's Victims of Communism Memorial. At the same event, Lantos blasted former French President Jacques Chirac, dragging out the European "war guilt" he seems to be obsessed with, even if the victims of his ranting, like the Dutch and the French, were occupied by the Germans. Chirac, said Lantos, "should go down to the Normandy beaches. He should see those endless rows of white marble crosses and stars of David representing young Americans who gave their lives for the freedom of France." It may well be that "Holocaust survivor and a fighter in the anti-Nazi underground" Tom Lantos was expressing sour grapes because non-Jewish people were being recognized as historical victims. Similar responses were seen from the Anti-Defamation League, which launched transparent attempts to derail recognition of the Armenian Holocaust.
He also seemed to let the cat out of the bag about his pet issue, Iraq, and its real goals, which certainly have nothing to do with "democracy." In 2002 he said to Colette Avital, a member of the Israeli Knesset, "My dear Colette, don't worry. You won't have any problem with Saddam. We'll be rid of the bastard soon enough. And in his place we'll install a pro-Western dictator, who will be good for us and for you." News Source: Western Voices
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Post by tripwire on Feb 11, 2008 22:02:13 GMT -5
Yes, nothing but pure garbage, just like those who cannot beat Lantos's achievements in Kosova alone.
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Fender
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Post by Fender on Feb 11, 2008 22:13:52 GMT -5
Saturday, December 08, 2007 Tom Lantos Congressman Tom Lantos has been quoted as saying some interesting stuff prior to the Iraq war:
This is the same Tom Lantos, you'll recall, who gleefully told Colette Avital, a Labor party member of the Israeli Knesset, "My dear Colette, don't worry. You won't have any problem with Saddam. We'll be rid of the bastard soon enough. And in his place we'll install a pro-Western dictator, who will be good for us and for you." (Lantos denied saying that, but Ms. Avital confirmed it: the man's a liar as well as a hypocrite.)
Very damning stuff.
Also, see this:
As Chairman of the Human Rights Caucus in 1990, Lantos helped organize hearings at which the infamous "baby incubator" invention was peddled to the U.S. congress and public. Lantos introduced a Kuwaiti woman who claimed to have witnessed Iraqi soldiers killing babies by ripping them from incubators in a Kuwait hospital. He neglected to mention that the young woman was the Kuwaiti Ambassador'S daughter and her testimony had been manufactured by public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, under contract to the Kuwaiti Royal Family.
Mr. Lantos seems to have got us into lots of wars.
Link posted by Brian at 11:43 AM
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tyson
Amicus
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Post by tyson on Feb 11, 2008 22:25:23 GMT -5
tom lantos is another reason which solidifies the stereotypes of jews as a rubbish nation.
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Post by tripwire on Feb 12, 2008 0:07:18 GMT -5
^and you wonder why Bush sr and the congress in 91 didn't bother with your group's request to Washington, to recognize your nation's independence?
Lantos was in the foreign relations committee, I guess he understood the methods of backstabbing people like you, and the difference between a Gen Ceku and Tudjman...
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Fender
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Post by Fender on Feb 12, 2008 0:10:32 GMT -5
^^Lantos's claim to fame was how to lie to his constituants.
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Post by tripwire on Feb 12, 2008 0:14:17 GMT -5
Lantos's claim is his survival of nazi camps and the experience, knowledge and wisdom to recognize the difference between a milosevic, Tudjman and Ceku. You know where 100% of his support went. Along with his best friend Sen. McCain.
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Fender
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Post by Fender on Feb 12, 2008 0:17:38 GMT -5
Lantos will now be buried with his lies, never to surface again.
This must be killing the K-Albs when their mouthpiece is now dead.
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