Chuck Mertz’s guests on this week’s This is Hell follows the articles.

Freedom Rider: Pope Benedict Go Home “His beneficence he ain’t. Pope Benedict XVI, a former Hitler Youth whose persona fits better with his given name, Joseph Ratzinger, transports his malevolent, rightwing presence to the United States next which, where he will doubtless do mischief with his political allies in the Bush regime. Benedict/Ratzinger soon proved himself one of the most obnoxious and historically ignorant top Catholics in modern times. The former Inquisitor told survivors of the world’s worst holocaust, Native Americans “secretly longed” to be brought under Christian rule – which wound up killing 19 out of every 20 of them. Muslims, said Benedict, were the source of all things ‘evil and inhuman.’ Under such circumstances, infallibility is terrifying.” Black Agenda Report (4/9/08)

Obama and Hillary Spin a ‘Big Lie’ About Iraq “On the campaign trail, the two candidates often speak of bringing the troops home and ending the war, and Democratic primary voters, 80 percent of whom want U.S. troops out of Iraq within 12 months, reward them with boisterous applause. It’s a Big Lie, and everyone who follows the debates over U.S. policy towards Iraq knows it, but refuses to call the candidates on it. Both Clinton and Obama (PDF) have been very clear – in the fine print – about the fact that they will leave a significant number of ‘residual forces’ in Iraq, albeit with a more limited mission than the Bush administration has pursued. They would protect U.S. infrastructure and personnel – Obama says ‘the U.S. embassy’ – train Iraqi forces and retain a rapid-response force to conduct ‘limited counter-terrorism’ missions. Although the candidates refuse to specify the exact scope and length of that mission, independent analysts say that it would require at least 440,000 and as many as 75,000 soldiers and marines.” AlterNet (4/5/08)

The Torture Drawings the Pentagon Doesn’t Want You to See “Sami al-Haj is a journalist, but one unlike any other. For over six years since December 15, 2001 – when he was seized by Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border while on assignment as a cameraman for the Qatar-based broadcaster al-Jazeera – he has been in a disturbing but unique position: a trained journalist held as an ‘enemy combatant’ on the frontline of the Bush administration’s ‘War on Terror,’ first in Afghanistan, and then in Guantánamo. … Since January 7, 2007 (the fifth anniversary of his detention without trial by the US), Sami has been on a hunger strike. Although he is strapped into a restraint chair twice a day and force-fed against his will and despite the fact that he is ‘very thin’ and ‘[h]is memory is disintegrating,’ according to Stafford Smith, Sami continues to seek ways to publicize the plight of his fellow prisoners. During the most recent visit from his lawyers in February – with Cori Crider of Reprieve – he produced a number of morbid, and almost hallucinatory sketches illustrating his take on conditions in Guantánamo, which he described as ‘Sketches of My Nightmare.’” AlterNet (4/11/08)

1 in every 350 Americans is considered a possible ‘terrorist’ “This really makes you ask, am I one of them? Of course not… right? Do not be so sure… The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act redefines what a terrorist is. The Act’s definition of a terrorist is so broad that an protester, for just about anything, could be labeled a terrorist. Also do not fly in and out of the country more than a few times… they may suspect you. Almost 1 million people will be put on the “watch list” by years end. This is incredible and utterly insane. How can the government expect us as citizens to believe that 1 in every 350 people need to be watched.” Political Lore (12/6/07)

Student probed by FBI for looking Middle Eastern “It sounds like the start of a joke, but one University student found nothing to laugh about. A University student, a history professor, a reporter and an FBI agent met at Gumby’s Pizza on Thursday morning. It was there that FBI agent William J.H. Filson came to confirm that junior Jim Diffly was, in fact, a student working on a class project – and not a terrorist seeking to destroy North Georgia’s chicken plants. … This investigation began during spring break, when Diffly went to Gainesville to take pictures of poultry plants as a part of a project for a Georgia history course.” Redandblack.com (4/7/08) Duffy and his professor may want to be careful, their history project could violate the Patriot Act; “the bill defines another ‘terrorist’ action to be photographing or videotaping animal abuse in a facility such as a factory farm or slaughterhouse.” (Impact Press)

Syria: Saudis behind slain Hezbollah commander’s death say Iranian sources “Saudi Arabia is believed to be behind the death of a top commander with Lebanon’s militant Shia group Hezbollah, Imad Mughniyeh, according to well-informed sources cited in a report on the Iranian news agency Fars. Mughniyeh was killed on 12 February in a car bombing in Syria. … One of the sources cited by Fars also pointed the finger at the Saudis and suggested that Riyadh was behind Mughniyeh’s death. ‘Through a Syrian woman, a Saudi secret service agent who works in Damascus acquired two cars that were used by Israeli secret service agents to kill the commander Haj Imad Mughniyeh,’ said the Fars report. According to the Iranian news agency, the people involved in organising the attack which killed the military leader of Hezbollah, were Palestinian, Jordanian and Syrian citizens. … According to this source, the Palestinians and Jordanians who gathered in Damascus to kill Mughniyeh, lived with their family members in certain apartments in the Kafr Sousa quarter of the city, so as not to raise suspicion. The Fars report said the former US ambassador to Washington, Banda al-Sultan, ordered the killing of Mughniyeh and that the Saudis did so to avenge the attack against a US military base in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. A car bomb attack on 25 June 1996 at the Abdul Aziz airbase in Khobar, near Dhahran, killed 19 US soldiers and injured 446 people, including 173 Americans.” Adnkronos International (4/8/08)

East Timor: Horta’s Assailants Scot-Free Thanks to Politics “If the renegade soldiers who attempted to assassinate East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta on Feb. 11 remain scot-free, it has more to do with the complex politics of this fledgling country than a failure of the armed forces, domestic or international, that protect it. While rebel leader Alfredo Reinado and one of his men were killed in the shooting outside the President’s house on Feb. 11, his second-in-command, Gastao Salsinha, walked away with a large number of rebels. Horta, who is still in Australia recovering from nearly fatal gunshot injuries, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), last week, that but for the indecision of United Nations’ peacekeepers the rebels could have been captured soon after he was attacked.” Inter Press Service (4/3/08)

Afghan Taliban say attack Dutch over anti-Islam film “In a communique posted on Web sites used by militants dated April 1, the Taliban said its Shura Council Leadership announced reprisal operations against Dutch forces because ‘one of the members of the Dutch parliament produced a film that hurts Islam, and he published it with bad intentions’. Dutch MP Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, launched the anti-Koran film ‘Fitna’ — an Arabic term that can mean ‘strife’ — last Thursday on the Internet. The film urges Muslims to tear out ‘hate-filled’ verses from the Koran, and starts and ends with a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb under his turban, accompanied by the sound of ticking.” Reuters (4/1/08) Film turns out to be a dud. Fitna’s Hateful Crusade “Feared, condemned sight-unseen and praised as a celebration of free speech, Fitna, a seventeen-minute film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, appeared on the Internet in late March. Fitna is a bombastic, bloody montage linking terrorist violence to Koranic texts. It resembles the videos Iraqi insurgents use to fete and cultivate suicide bombers. This convergence of visual vocabularies is no accident. Like insurgent propaganda, Fitna aims to embolden the extremes to the detriment of the moderate middle. It seeks to affirm Samuel Huntington’s pernicious vision of clashing civilizations by inviting violent responses from radicals, by forcing moderate Muslims into unpleasant choices between national loyalties and religious beliefs, and by reinforcing prejudicial views of Islam as unfit for civilized living.” The Nation (4/7/08)

Humane claims by Canadian delegation in Europe refuted by new video evidence from seal hunt “As Canadian government officials continue a European tour in attempt to forestall an EU ban on seal products, IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare – www.ifaw.org) released new video evidence refuting the government’s claims that the humaneness of Canada’s commercial seal hunt has improved. Unacceptable cruelty, including the hooking and hoisting of a live seal into a boat has been documented at the hunt this week, at the very same time Canadian officials overseas are heralding this year to be the most humane seal hunt ever.” International Fund for Animal Welfare (4/4/08)

The Pack Is Back “When the Bush administration decided recently to terminate federal protection for wolves throughout the northern Rocky Mountains by the end of this month, one Interior Department official said it was because the animals have become so numerous that they no longer need Uncle Sam to watch over them. In fact, the decision had nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with politics. Transferring the responsibility for managing wolves to Idaho, Montana and Wyoming now is a farewell gift from the outgoing president to his staunch supporters in a part of the country where hating wolves is the code of the hills. As ranchers see it, the wolf’s special status is a symbol of the Washington bureaucrats who exist primarily to shove onerous regulations down their throats. So the wolf handoff can be easily viewed as the settling of an old score. Idaho’s Republican governor, C.L. ‘Butch’ Otter, has vowed to ‘bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself.’ Wyoming’s Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, goes Otter one better: “In terms of reducing the packs, that’s always been a state objective from the outset.’ Together, the three states are determined to whack back the 1,500 wolves currently occupying the Rocky Mountain region by as much as 80 percent, to a barely sustainable minimum of 300, even though dozens of distinguished scientists believe that assuring the future of this still-recovering species would require a population of somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000.” The Daily Camera (4/6/08)

Notes
If you knew… grew out of my efforts to provide content for This is Hell’s Headlines from Hell. It has always been my intent to eventually concentrate on just one site. That day has finally come. ‘If You Knew … ‘ will become the unique content for This is Hell beginning Monday, April 21.

This Saturday, April 12th, 9 AM CMT, on WNUR 89.3 FM Evanston/Chicago, This is Hell broadcasts live for four hours or listen live online via WNUR’s web site.

On Saturday, April 12th, This is Hell‘s guests will include:

• Loretta Napoleoni, author of “Rogue Economics” (Seven Stories) returns to This is Hell! In 2003 she wrote, “Terror, Inc.: Tracing the Money Behind Global Terrorism.” Loretta is one of the world’s leading experts on money laundering and terror financing.
• William Polk, a member of the Policy Planning Council responsible for North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia from 1961 to 1965 and then professor of history at the University of Chicago where he founded the Middle Eastern Studies Center. His most recent book is “Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism & Guerrilla Warfare from the American Revolution to Iraq” (HarperCollins). He recently wrote, Iran: Danger and Opportunity at Juan Cole’s Informed Comment web site.
• Janet Redman, researcher for the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network at the Institute for Policy Studies. Her recent writing includes World Bank: Climate Profiteer and The World Bank’s Carbon Deals
• Nikolas Kozloff, author of “Hugo Chávez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the U.S.” (Palgrave Macmillan), and the just-released “Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left” (Palgrave Macmillan) and the Counterpunch story, The Clintons and Their Sordid Colombia Advocacy

And thie week’s irregular correspondents will be:

• Dan ‘The Auto Man’ Litchfield gives his wheel report
• Jeff Dorchen delivers a Moment of Truth

Check out these excellent roundups; for the recent news from all points east, check out Isaac Oommens East is East, Nathan Coes brand new Labor News Roundup and for the latest in rebel uprisings, read Alfonzo Torrezs The Rebel Communiqué.

If you knew is posted as an article on Fridays. There is an archive of over 400 blogs that were posted over the last two years. Any comments, suggestions, critiques or leads to articles, are welcomed. Along with articles, Headlines from Hell now includes commentary from contributors to This is Hell, including yours truly.

Click here to see more articles