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From: orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Reagan gets "tough" with Libya
Message-ID: <484@whuts.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-Jan-86 10:14:39 EST
Article-I.D.: whuts.484
Posted: Tue Jan 14 10:14:39 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jan-86 03:31:54 EST
References: <673@cylixd.UUCP>, <570@ittvax.ATC.ITT.UUCP> <1118@homxb.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 38

> The US is doing a "job" for themselves. Remember, US citizens
> are killed by the terrorists, and the US has the right and obligation
> to protect their citizens.
> 
 
Funny, I didn't see any calls to bomb El Salvador when four nuns were
killed by death squads there.  Nor has there even been any *mention*
save the back pages of the NYTimes (and probably Washington Post) of
the American journalist who has been missing in Guatemala for months
now.  One of the thousands of "missing" in Guatemala over the past
few years.  When some people said enough was enough they finally
banded together to form a Committee for Missing Persons to publicize
such cases.  Curious thing was in a matter of months two of the
four founders of this Committee were also "missing".  The other two
got the message and decided if they valued their lives they had
better disband the Committee before they wound up "missing".
So in fear for their lives they did disband this Committee.
Needless to say, their friends never returned from the "missing".
 
The point is that the US govt *decides* when it is politically
convenient for it to "protect citizens" and likewise to publicize
such events.  The media follows the government's lead.
 
When the Witness for Peace group was taken hostage for a short time
in Nicaragua the media was decidedly unsympathetic.  First off it
was called an "alleged kidnapping" (did you ever see "alleged" attached
to any other hostage taking?).  Then the headlines in the paper here
said, "Discrepancies in Kidnap Account" or some such planting the
suggestion that the Witness for Peace group staged the kidnapping
themselves (I know one of them, he is a Quaker who would do no such
thing) and their story was somehow fabricated.  In fact the
"discrepancies" were whether 3 shots were fired or one and whether there
were 15  journalists present or 13 - i.e. insignificant discrepancies
to say the least.
However it was embarrassing for the US to lose control of its
terrorists and having them kidnap Americans as well as Nicaraguans.
 
          tim sevener   whuxn!orb