It's amazing how dumb Americans and all the worldly can be, but such is their habit, for they have eyes to see but cannot see.

Jay

> CNN using 1991 footage of

> Palestinians

> celebrating the invasion of Kuwait

> Brazil

> By Márcio A. V. Carvalho

> All around the world we are subjected to 3
> or 4 huge news

> distributors, and one of them - as you well
> know - is CNN.

> Very well, I guess all of you have been
> seeing (just as I've

> been) images from this company. In
> particular, one set of

> images called my attention: the Palestinians
> celebrating the

> bombing, out on the streets, eating some
> cake and making

> funny faces for the camera.

> Well, those images were shot back in 1991.
> Those are

> images of Palestinians celebrating the
> invasion of Kuwait!

> It's simply unacceptable that a super-power
> of

> communications as CNN uses images which do
> not

> correspond to the reality in talking about
> so serious an

> issue.

> A teacher of mine, here in Brazil, has
> videotapes recorded

> in 1991, with the very same images; he's
> been sending

> e-mails to CNN, Globo (the major TV network
> in Brazil) and

> newspapers, denouncing what I myself
> classify as a crime

> against the public opinion.

> But now, think for a moment about the impact
> of such

> images. Your people are hurt, emotionally
> fragile, and this

> kind broadcast have very high possibility of
> causing waves

> of anger and rage against Palestinians. It's
> simply

> irresponsible to show images such as those.

> Finally, I'd like to say that we all regret
> and condemn all that

> has happened in the last days; but Nikos has
> a point here. I

> really don't want to be misunderstood here,
> but the truth is

> that US government had shown no respect for
> other

> countries in the last decades.

> In the 60s and 70s they had halped lots of
> military coups

> throughout the world (including Brazil in
> 64). Later, with

> Reagan and Bush Father, the Washington
> Consensus have

> been demolishing the bases of our economies,
> making us

> more and more dependant (and, many of us,
> preoccupied

> with this situation).

> Your current president quickly made things
> worse: Kioto

> Protocol, Star Wars, Colombia Plan, the
> exchange of rain

> forest for pieces of external debt, tha
> abandonment of the

> position of third party in negotiations
> between IRA and

> England, and between Palestinians and
> Israel. All those

> mistakes in US external politics made your
> country more

> hatred than before, and, of course, more
> vulnerable.

> Listen, I'm NOT justifying the terrorist
> actions that took

> place in your country; but it seems to me
> that, if your

> leaders had come along another path of
> thoughts and

> actions, you wouldn't be suffering what you
> are now.

> Best regards, and the hope that everything
> is resolved for

> the best of all of us.

> Márcio A. V. Carvalho

> State University of Campinas - Brazil