email from tech boy in london, im passing it on
I spent part of last Saturday with the so-called "antiwar" marchers in London in
the company of some Iraqi
friends. Our aim had been to persuade the organizers to let at least one Iraqi
voice to be heard. Soon, however,
it became clear that the organizers were as anxious to stifle the voice of the
Iraqis in exile as was Saddam
Hussein in Iraq.
The Iraqis had come with placards reading "Freedom for Iraq" and "American rule,
a hundred thousand times
better than Takriti tyranny!"
But the tough guys who supervised the march would have none of that. Only
official placards, manufactured in
thousands and distributed among the "spontaneous" marchers, were allowed. These
read "Bush and Blair,
baby-killers," "Not in my name," "Freedom for Palestine" and "Indict Bush and Sharon."
Not one placard demanded that Saddam should disarm to avoid war.
The goons also confiscated photographs showing the tragedy of Halabja, the
Kurdish town where Saddam's
forces gassed 5,000 people to death in 1988.
A 78-year-old Iraqi grandmother managed to reach featured speaker Jesse Jackson
and asked if she could
"have the microphone for one minute to tell the people about my life." Jackson's
response: "Today is not about
Saddam Hussein. Today is about Bush and Blair and the massacre they plan in
Iraq." [WSJ]
God Bless Jesse. He is such a caring person.