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Hussein was offering a $60,000 stipend to families of Palestinian suicide bombers hitting Isreali targets

For decades, the US has been giving billions of dollars to Israel every year. A large part of that is used to buy guns. Those guns are used to oppress the Palestinians and violate their human rights. The Checkpoint Syndrome chronicles some of the crimes that are committed (many of which are clearly terrorist acts, as they are intended to intimidate and scare the Palestinians).

Furthermore, you shouldn't forget that Saddam's money went to the family of the suicide bomber, who have lost their home because of a crime they didn't commit (and this happens without a trial). It's not being given to Hamas to buy explosives with.

Pot. Kettle. Black.
Without Sin. First Stone.

Is this the same Indymedia which consists of "stories" posted by raving lunatics that try to pass their most rabid conspiracy theories as legitimate news items?

Sounds kind of like Slashdot.

If that's independent news media, give me my biased greedy coporate controlled news anyday.

1) The open newswire you blast is handled differently on different IMCs. Some sites have an iron-fisted editorial policy, while others are practically free-for-alls. Since the newswire clerks tend to be activists familiar with being ignored and shouted down, the topic of censorship and editorial control is always sensitive. I've argued for a looser editorial policy in some cases, and I've argued for a harder line on crap in others. Read the mailing lists sometime--a lot of people who spend time working on an IMC or two share similar concerns about the unsourced, unsubstantiated crap that some people post as news. Unfortunately, it's hard to argue that such stuff should be immediately hidden when corporate and state media sources post similarly unsourced or half-cocked news with a hardline editorial policy.

2) One person's wacko conspiracy theory is another person's reality. Mind you, this does not excuse some of the greater excesses of the tinfoil hat crowd (the whole "plane didn't hit the Pentagon" crap is so blatantly factless I have to wonder if it's someone's idea of a joke, or a lame COINTELPRO plant, for one example). However, the term "conspiracy theory" seems to be aimed at practically any argument that challenges conventional wisdom, instead of being reserved for the truly raving shit. I actually feel better letting those we view as nutters present their case, so it can be judged on the merits (or lack thereof), instead of having someone else decide for me before the info/crap can even reach my eyes.

3) Some reactionaries like to refer to Indymedia as "Nazimedia" because some of the morons from the neo-Nazi crowd think they've found a place where they can post freely and get away with it. Going back to my first point, many (ok, practically all) IMCs have editorial policies that explicitly ban racism, sexism, or other forms of hatred based upon intrinsic, immutable characteristics. We hate the Nazi fuckers just as much as you do--even more, perhaps. The Jewish-world-conspiracy morons get the same reaction from real progressive and radical activists that I imagine many of you would have upon reading the crap, and if it can't be hidden due to an extremely loose editorial policy, the imbeciles can at least get slapped down in comments.

Finally...

4) The open newswires found on most sites are a fluke of history. The original newswire, on the Seattle IMC, dates from the 1999 "Battle of Seattle". It was intended solely as an experiment in relatively unfiltered, frontline reporting from any observer who could get to a computer. It's rather amazing that many IMCs haven't cracked down and just rid themselves of the often-criticized and -abused open wires, but perhaps it speaks to the committment of most volunteers to ideals of freedom of information and debate.

"You are your own journalist."--English tagline of Indymedia Israel.

On their front page and links off of it, I find evidence of seriously anti-capitalist, anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiment.

Anti-capitalist... what's wrong with having a strong political opinion?

Anti-Semitic? Yeah, the open wires get abuse from real racists and Jew-haters, but there's also a lot of criticism strictly related Israeli government policy (sometimes too much, spammed across newswires, as if it's the only thing going on around the world), which only a die-hard Israel supporter would consider anti-Semitic. Heck, Israel has its own IMC, run by Israelis...

Anti-American? God forbid someone question U.S. government policy.

Indymedia is only moderately left wing.

It's imprecise to pin Indymedia down to a single viewpoint. Many of the volunteers are either anarchists; some are Marxists, a few are libertarian in the American sense, some are trade unionists, single-issue activists, et al. The viewpoints expressed generally range from moderately left-wing, to way off the political fringe (like myself). Occasionally, abuse of the open publishing system crops up when racists and Jew-haters try to recruit. Most readers see right through it.

Indymedia's pretty varied. It may seem like a bunch of whiny college kiddies in North America at first glance, but many IMCs such as the ones in Argentina, SF, NYC, and Israel are doing some spectacular coverage of events and issues you'd never hear about via mainstream media.

Perhaps I should link to the number of israeli soldiers (about equivelent to the amount of israeli dead) that refuse to fight against the palestinians because of the abuses and attroticities percieved by them on the front lines of this battle.

This will be my new sig perhaps one day.
How many soldiers does it take to stop a war?

And sometimes the video shown isn't what it seems.

Some of the footage is from 1991!

Now: Who do you believe? CNN? Indymedia? Slashdot?

A shout out to the /. who posted this one 1st.
How the celebrating 'arabs' was shot in 1991!

And you can't beat a line like this

Operations that include diarrhea as a way of life don't happen.
And the same quote, but different info here

Think about this: The tallest building in NYC is now the Woolworth building. Yup a defunct company is the highest. The 2 biggest signs of capitolism are gone, and for 3 days we saw no ads on national television. When calls for blood to be spilled, are we going to spill it for America, or for Big Corporations?

http://www.indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/dis play.php3?article_id=6946