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Bobby Fischer FBI Files Released Under FOIA
An anonymous reader writes: "Philidelphia Inquirer has a stroy detailing the results of a FOIA request for chess great Bobby Fischer." Turns out they thought the anti-semitic chess grandmaster(and his mother) was a soviet spy.
I hope they don't release my FBI file about me watching TV and on the computer all day.
Free Instant Site Inclusion
Have they finally confirmed that he's playing on the internet? :)
I think Laurence Fishburn needs to pull the non-existant spoon out of the ass of the FBI
Just in case anyone was wondering whether the FBI were getting this guy all wrong here's Bobby Fischer's radio call-in on 9/11 applauding the terrorists [mp3] [Newspaper report on Bobby Fischer's 9/11 radio call].
--Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
> that chinese dude
Who? Are you talking about Wen-ho Li? The guy from LANL? That guy was railroaded by the Justice and Energy depts. They basically ruined the guy because he [allegedly] mishandled information on obselete data that although officially classified, was known by everyone anyway. And the guy was in prison for a year before his case was dropped. That's right. The charges were dismissed. So obviously he's a pretty big spy if his case is thrown out. Or you could be talking about someone else... at least I hope so...
Andy
Yes, you caught us. America is a military dictatorship. You found us out. Our military state is run by those pesky Jews, who go around making up things like the Holocaust, and running Hollywood, and exterminating the Palestinians, and running the FBI and the CIA and all the black ops agencies I can't tell you about because the Zionist Conspiracy told me not to.
You and the nutty, paranoid anti-semites like yourself should grow up and grow a sack. Jews are people like any other people, some are violent and hawkish, some are pacifist doves, some are in between. Many are selfish, many are selfless. Some are brilliant, some are morons, most are just somewhat above average (typical for those from a culture that values learning and intellectual accomplishment).
Why do Jews have a lot of influence in America? Because Jews work hard and achieve success in academia, business and other areas at a higher rate than the rest of the population. Some other ethnic groups have achieved similar sorts of success in America. Do Jews control the US? Give me a break. That's as likely as your implicit claim that all those Palestinians are entirely innocent and are just getting slaughtered like hogs. Granted, lots of innocent blood has been shed on both sides (no, telling me that 4 times as many Palestinians have died doesn't make a fuck bit of a difference to me as in no way makes for a moral argument) in Israel and the occupied territories, but implying that somebody is turning a blind eye to some mysterious atrocities is ridiculous.
they didn't let that "chinese dude" go. they jailed him the harassed him because fucktards like you thought that just because he is of Chinese heritage he must be spying for the Chinease.
Also, the judge in the case, as well as then president clinton, apologised for his treatment.
No kidding.
As an American citizen I am totally disgusted with our double-standards regarding the Jews / Arabs. The Jews' 'mission from God' to reclaim the land of their legends no matter what the cost to the people who actually live there now must be ended in the name of humanity, but I doubt that America will make a move to right the wrongs unless they come under intense terrorist attack - which unfortunately is quite likely so we will see.
You would be surprised at how many Americans are willing to sweep the issue under the carpet because the current situation works out well for the US economically.
How did that dude get so fucked up.
For someone who is capable of such incredible reasoning you would think he would turn out much different than a southern white trash redneck.
I'm not totally informed on all of the details but when I hear him say "dirty jew" and other nasty things about the Israelis I just wanna slap him and say "WTF happened to you?!?!"
Wen Ho Lee was not a spy. He was railroaded for political reasons, and released with a presidential apology, after those reasons were no longer important.
I find that it's frquently the case that naturalized citizens are more profoundly loyal to their country than those born to citizenship.
If you are going to post something stupid, at least do us the courtesy of making it appear factual.
-- Terry
"Bobby Fischer got underneath it like no one before and found at its center, art. I spent my life trying to play like him. Most of these guys have. But we're like forgers. We're competent fakes. His successor wasn't here tonight. He wasn't here. He is asleep in his room in your house. Your son creates like Fischer. He sees like him, inside."
And in the words of Homeless Fishburne, "COME ON GRANDMASTER.. All right, CHECK to his majesty, no, no, no, no, check yourself before you wreck yourself, you can't have it, HELLO! That's right, run, run, somebody call the police, this man is loitering!"
Fischer's anti-semitism and his apparent approval of the attack on the World Trade Center might make him an asshole, but it doesn't make him a terrorist, and it certainly doesn't retroactively make him a Soviet spy in the 1970's or vindicate any of the FBI's suspicions.
As explained in the article, the FBI had a long-running investigation of Fischer and his mother back in the 70's and earlier. It's just another illustration that the US govt has been spying on its own citizens for decades, long before there was any sort of terrorist rationalization.
I concur. They are making it seem like a crime to hold a certain attitude towards a certain population, the jewish people.
... even if unsubstantiated. With freedom of speech, people will be able to distinguish truth from falsity. When restrictions are placed and a portion of the population is given special untouchable-from-criticism status, the people are not given this opportunity to guage truth from falsehood and suspicion and corruption of truth will brew even more so.
Case in point. John McCain has more than once voiced his anti-Vietnamese attitude. You don't see the press calling him the Anti-Vietnamese Senater.
Of course if Joe Smoe says anything negative about jewish people, IMMEDIATELY everyone (like a reflex action) labels him an antismetic and it's like he is a pedophile and they discount everything that he says, even the truthful elements.
I find this behavior troubling because: 1. it creates restriction on freedom of speech and thought for the general population. 2. It creates white/non-jewish backlash against minority groups.
Both of these troubling, growing situations can be prevented by BEING FAIR and not trying to make the jewish population untouchable from public comments, even if the comments happen to be negative
Of course, I'm sure I will be labeled anti-semetic after this post by the ignorant and by pro-censors. But, please think about it. I'm advocating freedom of speech, an essential pillar of our democratic society that is being chiseled away at for the past decade or so.
"long before there was any sort of terrorist rationalization. "
Actually terrorism has been around in the mainstream American sense, since the 1950's, which is why Kennedy formed the U.S. Navy SEAL's in 1962. Their aim was specifically targeted at terrorism, Yasser Arafat in particular.
We have just become complacent because since the mid 80's the American media has been more focused on what happens within our borders rather than outside them. This is what 911 changed, the American medias focus, and in affect ours.
Its been going on for a long time.
I miss quickies!
I do too. I got all excited when I saw that mini-hoover icon...
Millions of people getting burned and treated like animals called a sham or a conspiracy is awful, despicable, and just down right inhumane
Like when turkey denies the 1.5 million armenians that were killed in the armenian holocaust? Nobody seems to flich.
GoatPigSheep, the 3 most important food groups
1. A conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image.
Actually, I don't think that word applies here. It's not a stereotype, because it's not an opinion or an image. It's just a statement of fact. Look at any elite university in the country and you will probably find that Jews represent a greater proportion of the student population than they do of the population at large. Does this mean that "Jews are smarter than other people" or "all Jews are smart" or some other clearly fallacious bullshit? Of course not, that's crazy, as crazy as saying "all Blacks are thieves". Do more Black people, proportionally, commit certain kinds of crimes than White people? Yes - statement of fact, you can back it up by pretty solid statistics.
Prejudice is "an adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts." according to the American Heritage dictionary. I don't believe that observing cultural behavior patterns among certain ethnic groups and their statistically verifiable results amounts to prejudice. Saying that "Jews are dirty cheats" or "Asians are passive little math nerds" or "all Blacks are thieves" are all fundamentally opinion-laden, overly broad statements that are not verifiable (the first or second) or just plain not true (the third). The only opinion-laden part of my statement was the phrase "work hard", and while there are certainly other ways to explain some of the observable consequences, many others can be explained by no other means.
If you want facts and figures and so forth, go to Google, I am sure you can find some. And of course, note that according to the definition of the word, noting positive accomplishments of certain groups is NOT prejudice, and if it consists primarily of facts rather than opinions, it is not a stereotype either.
Bobby Fischer's wild paranoid anti-semitic rants really make him come across as a total asshole.
Some time after he was locked out of the USA by the state department, he would go onto foreign radio shows and say the most outrageous things.
In his own opinion, he did more for the image of the US during the cold war than any other individual. Indeed.
And they fucked his family and him over. Instead of respect he got suspicion and hounding.
So perhaps in his own opinion, he can do more to damage the image of the USA by spouting off. Retracting and degrading everything he did for the US image.
Trying to take back what he gave them.
"stoy" (noun) comes from russian (verb) "stroyit'" "to build"; in the context of "kommunsticheskiy stroy" "communist regime"
Pure hate spews out of this guys mouth. Listen to the audio MP3. Unreal.
One of his final gems: "The Jews made up the Holocaust". How nice, and a pure lie. What a horrible thing to say, from any angle, whatever his past was like. This guy is in the same league as the Timothy Mcveighs of the world. NUTS.
Either you mean what you say or not. This has nothing to do with PCness. This guy is insane and filled with rage. We need less of those people around.
Violent talks just lead to violent acts. USA doesn't need someone like him. They've got enough of those to deal with already
Because it shows the scum fuck for what he really is. A hate breeding mongrel.
It's who he is, you don't write about someone and neglect who they are. Do you write about hitler and not mention he hated jews?
No, you most certainly do write about someone and neglect some details, given the topic at hand. It's completely appropriate to neglect the fact that Hitler hated Jews when discussing his economic policies or military decisions in the same way that it's appropriate to neglect the fact that Fischer is an anti-Semite when discussing chess strategies or one of many other topics.
Now, this article is a historical summary and the anti-Semitism is rather pertinent. I probably would have been upset if the authors had left it out but only because that detail pertains to the topic at hand--not because I think Fischer is a "hate-breeding mongrel."
I can probably find a point of disagreement with anybody I know. Does that mean I have to mention that fact every time I write about them?
Disclaimer: I don't agree with Fischer's views on Jews, either. That doesn't mean that I get to slap "ANTI-SEMITE" across anything he's said/done and subsequently ignore it.
" How come Israelis and JEws who call for the murder and ethnic cleansing of palestinians are never called "Anti-arab"or "Anti-muslim"?"
They are
"Then just 30 years later pol pot is commit genocide of an unprecedented scale in combodia but no one gives a good god damn cuase they are just some broke ass asians."
Because we got our asses kicked in that part of the world trying to do them a favor (we entered vietnam at south vietnams request).
Check your history, America isn't the worlds police. We don't go around saving everyone, it's their job to save themselves. We don't have to "give a shit", but if you would like us too then I suggest you give us a reason to "give a shit" by not strapping bombs to your chest and going kamakazi through grocery stores and bus stations.
Is it near Philadelphia?
It's completely appropriate to neglect the fact that Hitler hated Jews when discussing his economic policies...
Given that a huge part of the sudden return to economic prosperity Germany achieved after 1933 was from Hitler's seizures of Jewish property and bank accounts, no, I don't think you can neglect the fact that Hitler hated Jews when discussing his economic policies.
I see your point; it just happens that these two particular things are not independent.
There is actually a lot more to it than that. John McCain takes issue with the VC (VietCong) who were notoriously evil in combat. These were mostly 12-18 year old boys and girls in black pajams who setup traps using their own women and children as bait. They frequently slaughtered entire villages of their own people by purposely putting them in the line of fire so they could get the liberal Jane Fondas of the world to say "LOOK AMERICA IS KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE".
Men like McCain who had to fight them now just how evil they were. Ad to that his stay in the POW camps, the deaths of close friends, etc and you have a recipe for a life times worth of anger hate and general anxiety.
That part of the world is not a good place. No matter what the liberals would like us to believe, the south east asain governments do not respect life. However the vietnamese people as well as cambodians etc are generally good people.
Well, no one wants to hear about what happened in vietnam. It was one of the ugliest wars in history. Its a vast and complex issue that brings up a lot of feelings, good and bad.
Ultimately, both sides were wrong. However there are a lot of people that just wanna beat America down, for a multitude of personal reasons, so America is the bad guy.
No one wants to hear about how South and North Vietnam were at war long before we came into the picture. That we were asked to help because of our minor success in Korea.
I think a true testament of what we are made of as a country is the fact we came together after vietname. Russie fell apart after its war in Afghanistan, literally. America learned a lot of lessons in the 60's and 70's and so far hasn't repeated any of those same mistakes.
Blah, whatever, no matter what we say in a slashdot thread, the world still hates the top dog. Just part of life I suppose.
ECONOMICALLY? How so? We alienate the arab nations, which control half the world's oil supply, in order to support a nation that has no oil whatsoever. We support Israel so much, in fact, that fully 1/3rd of their GDP is in the form of American aid. That's right, essentially one in three Israelis is living off of American handouts. How does this provide the USA with an economic benefit?
No, there are reasons that we support Israel, but money ain't one of them. We support Israel because of the holocaust. After WWII, the Allies decided that because of the horrors the Jewish people had endured (not only at the hands of the Nazis, but throughout their history), Israel would be turned over to them. Because we made that commitment, we back them. The second reason is suicide bombing. The Israelis may commit military actions which are of dubious morality (at best), but they've never sent in suicide bombers, or taken actions with no strategic value whatsoever. The third reason is historical. The arab nations in the middle east attacked Israel repeatedly without provocation. Each defeat has made them more and more hostile. Between terrorist actions like the slaughter of the Israeli Olympic team and wars of agression from the First Arab-Israeli War onward, it's easy to be sympathetic to Israel.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
" Before Bobby Fischer left for Russia in the summer of 1958, an agent posed as a college journalist to interview producers of the TV show I've Got a Secret. Bobby had been a guest on the show and won plane tickets to Russia. (Fischer's "secret?" He was U.S. chess champion. The panel was stumped.) "
I'm stumped too. Stumped how a gameshow in America, in 1958, could give away air tickets to Russia?! What else did you win, bug detector so you could tell when the feds were watching?
The us also tried to ruin Osama Bin Laden's life, and according to Frontline on PBS tried to assasinate him twice in the 1990s but failed (I assume his Allah protected him).
Like Saddam Hussain OBL is a former US puppet who turned on his "masters".
Then Osama could not take it anymore and may have tried to participate in destroyingh the world trade centers.
Maybe Castro is less easily upset, considering the number of botched US assasination attempts he has faced. Though if OBL wanted revenge why not target the CIA HQ?
The US gove BANS chess people from playing overseas. EVEN in 2002!!!!! Its true, certain chess experts are banned from international competition if the contests are in certain countries that embarrass the US.
Does the US actually need other countries to embarrass it, all too often the US can manage without anyone elses help...
Given that a huge part of the sudden return to economic prosperity Germany achieved after 1933 was from Hitler's seizures of Jewish property and bank accounts, no, I don't think you can neglect the fact that Hitler hated Jews
You might want to go and check your history books again. The German economic recovery of the 1930's was brought about by deficit spending and huge public works schemes like the autobahns. Very similar to Roosevelts policies in the US. The difference was that much of the Reich's spending went on military equipment, which doesn't provide for long term growth.
Ultimately, the seized property of Jews was totally insignificant to German economic recovery. In fact, the loss of Jewish capital and professionals was more likely a hindrance to economic recovery.
Chris
Because we got our asses kicked in that part of the world trying to do them a favor (we entered vietnam at south vietnams request).
Hahahahahah, dream on dude.
Check your history, America isn't the worlds police. We don't go around saving everyone, it's their job to save themselves.
LOL, you speak as if you personally went to sort out things in Afghanistan (at their request of course). We don't go around saving everyone, we go around saving ourselves and protecting our interests. Anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or incredibly naieve.
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
When attempting to win his country's independence from the authoritarian French colonists, Ho Chi Min wrote a declaration of independence, patterned after the USA's, and appealed to the USA for help. Rebuffed, he decided that maybe the USA's system of government wasn't so great after all and maybe he'd just go communist. At this point, the USA said "Oh no you don't!" and decided it was appropriate to intervene in the region.
Some help.
TO BUY A NEW CAR WOULD MAKE YOU SEXUALLY ATTRACTIVE.
The FBI did have a legitimate national security interest in the Fischers. His mother lived and attended medical school in the Soviet Union. The KGB and GRU recruited agents from foreign students attending schools in the Soviet Union. His father fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. That in itself isn't a problem, but it puts him in a group that was heavily infiltrated and influenced by the Communist Party and Soviet intelligence operations. The FBI didn't have the right to harass the Fischers, but I think they had a legitimate national security interest in investigating their activities to see if they were involved in espionage or other crimes. The CPUSA (Communist Party USA) was heavily involved in Soviet espionage operations.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I guess that's like losing a chess championship, and then yelling "Best two out of three! Best two out of three!".
The leadership of the U.S. has changed 8 times since 1970, when Nixon was in office.
If, in fact, this is his motivation, he's fighting against an administration that's been out of power for a quarter of a century, and whose leadership, even if he could legitimately blame them, is already dead.
Perhaps his time would be better spent elsewhere?
-- Terry
I agree... the label of anti-semite is overused, even when conceivably on-topic (as in confusing anti-Zionism or anti-Jewish-Supremicism with anti-semitism.) As used here it is at best a lame troll.
At worst it is an example of hate.
Is this truly the only Earth I can live on?
Godwin's Law.
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
Downloading While Chinese.
While I think the WTC attacks were totally fucked up, and that the people who did it are assholes, and should be killed; Its not as if they weren't provoked. Palestine and Israel have been fighting with each other for a long long time. We support Israel. Israel was created in 1948. We, the USA, and other allied powers / league of nations, put the israelis there, in palestine! Check up on some WW1, WW2 history. This and our continued support for israel is the reason for the WTC attacks, and for the turmoil in the middle east as I understand it. How long was palestine there before we decided to just make part of the country israel? Long long long before the USA was ever created. The first arab-israeli war was in 1948. 1948 they have been fighting for half a century. For some reason no one seems to have a perspective of the ammount of chaos and killing we helped to bring about in their part of the world. Israel and Palestine do the same shit to each other. But we label attacks by Palestine terrorism. BS. Both countries engage in it, we just support one of them.
Now, as for him hating the USA? How about this line of the story: He resurfaced in 1992 to beat Spassky again, in Yugoslavia. That got Fischer indicted: The Justice Department alleged he had violated U.N. sanctions imposed on Yugoslavia. If Fischer reenters the United States, prosecutors say, he faces arrest. Add that up with our FBI thinking his mother was a soviet spy, and I'd say they just wanted to fuck with the guy. We all think we're free until we do something the government doesn't want us to do. If I were him, I'd be pissed at the USA also. The USA is a great place to live, the best in the world. And I love the USA. But that doesn't mean we're always right, or that someone doesn't have a legit reason to hate our country/government. Unfortunately/sadly, in this democracy for the people by the people, the people aren't always the ones who are to blame for the wrong doings, but are usually the ones who pay the price. Its to bad we can't all just get along.
from the article
"He described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards. They made up the Holocaust."
The irony is clear: His mother was Jewish and so was Nemenyi, the man described by some as his father."
He certainly seems racist -no i'm not going to use the special word that some people like to use just for those of semtic descent - racism is racism.
no sig.
It takes too long to qualify your attacks when you have to accurately represent things. Understanding a complex world is hard. It is much easier to make ridiculous generalizations that support your preconceptions. You burn too many cycles trying to see what is really there, so prejudice serves as a sort of blurring filter on reality. You don't see the details, just the colours.
Hence, bigots are just being more efficient with their brains. Not more effective, mind. Just quicker to come to conclusions, and then stop thinking. Leaves more time to watch TV.
I've got a bad attitude and karma to burn. Go ahead. Mod me down.
Note for example that he is still being hounded for the sin of visiting Yugoslavia!
Bobby Fischer is a jerk and always was one, and his remark is typical. But I can see why he hates the American government.
As to "anti-semitic", its a word people like to throw around a lot. In this case it says more about the accuser than the accused. Even Arabs are often referred to as "anti-semitic"! I guess that's why they become suicide bombers... they hate themselves.
I bragged about my Karma at a job interview but I didn't get the job.
Except J Edger Hoover. They thought HE was straight...
It's Christmas everyday with BitTorrent.
"The second reason is suicide bombing. The Israelis may commit military actions which are of dubious morality (at best), but they've never sent in suicide bombers, or taken actions with no strategic value whatsoever."
Isreal doesn't use suicide bombers. Why send suicide bombers when you can send armed helicopters? On the other hand, if you lack the helicopters and pretty much any other means of modern warfare, suicide bombers are cheap and reliable means of getting at your targets. There is nothing inherantly evil about suicide bombers.
It's probably the bad choice of targets of these suicide bombers, that you want to point out as one of the reasons for supporting Israel. Well, both sides are guilty there: when Israel sends its helicopters against a town that supposedly harbors terrorists, and fires missiles into their homes, innocent civilians die. These aren't precision military bombings as some would suggest. The town is chosen for harboring terrorists but the people wounded and killed in these raids are not picked off carefully. In my opinion that is just as bad as a suicide bombing.
". Between terrorist actions like the slaughter of the Israeli Olympic team and wars of agression from the First Arab-Israeli War onward, it's easy to be sympathetic to Israel."
I'd rather say that it makes it easy to dislike the Arab states and the Palestines; it hasn't changed my dislike for certain Israeli practices. Israel (their current government and a large part of their people) has the same problem that the Palestine terrorists have: they are fanatics; i.e. they are bent on achieving their goals by whatever means necessary.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
It is more a strategic rather than an economic benefit. Having a well armed and dependent ally in the middle east is useful to America.
> We support Israel because of the holocaust.
Partially true, but why not support Armenia too, Rawanda or whatever.
> The arab nations in the middle east attacked Israel repeatedly without provocation.... it's easy to be sympathetic to Israel.
Well, it is if you have a one sided viewpoint. Read Chomsky, I'm not saying he's right, but there are other sides to it http://www.zmag.org
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
Maybe not, I was told by a member of the CIA that Kennedy was killed in reaction to attempts on Castro's life.
This must rank amongst the daftest of the JFK theories. If any small nation had managed to kill a superpower leader don't you think they would have claimed responsibility and used David vs Goliath symbolism?
Ho Chi Minh was a nationalist. Read about him and you'll realize that he was using the Soviets and Chinese. He never let N. Vietnam become dependent on them, because he wanted his country to be free. S. Vietnam was completely dependent on the USA.
But the US likes countries being dependent on them. Thus to the US government Ho Chi Minh as a nationlist was even more frightening than the idea of Ho Chi Minh dependent on the USSR or China.
i find it interesting that the article chooses to talk about how he has voiced these anti-semetic and anti-american ideas, but then not go to any length to explain why.
Of course not, politically incorrect ideas should only be opposed. Why if you asked why someone held such ideas you might discover that some things aren't so simple or black & white as commonly believed. Best be a good little sheep instead, don't examine, question or rock the boat...
actually i thinks he's right. People in america seem to have history written from a white bread point of view. Now that just Sucks. Somebody needs to do more than what they did on 9/11 to really put us in our place.
Except that 9/11 didn't do much to change US foreign policy. The result was simply more of the same.
Im sorry, but we are certified bona-fide assholes. We fight terrorism from other countries, but yet we are the terrorist in some other countries.
Or more likely US backed and trained terrorists, which gives "plausable deniability". Only the most supid or most arrogant nation states don't want this, in case things to wrong.
We act like big bad america and one day, someone is gonna drop a nuke
If someone did explode a nuke in the US now then within minutes there would be land based or sub launched missiles on course for Iraq.
However, the seized Jews were not an insignificant contribution to the German economic recovery as a large portion of them were used as slave labor for many corporations.
Slave labour didn't become large scale until the mid war years. The whole German economy was ill prepared for war in 1939, gearing up for hostilities to commmence four or five years later. This is why it took the "total war" plan and Speers reorganisation to get German production upto its peak in late 1944. Remarkable considering the damage wrought by Allied bombing at this point, but less so when you know how much spare capacity there had been.
As Hitler's economic chief Speer constantly pointed out, the slave labour was utterly inefficient and only suited to menial tasks. Much of the work done in concentration camps was making uniforms and insignia, very few people were put into things like producing bullets as the scope for sabotage was too great.
Think about it, how efficient is a slave labour force going to be, especially when it's being worked to death? Many outside the SS could see the folly in this, but by then the SS was a state within a state and outside conventional government control. Elite troops were even kept from the front line simply to concentrate on the Final Solution, despite the desperate need for them to stop the Soviet advance.
The illusion of a well organised Nazi state is one myth that has been disproved time and time again. If the Nazi's had been thoroughly organised and a little more pragmatic (like playing upto Ukrainian nationalism and hatred of Bolshevism during the first stages of occupation), then the USSR would most likely have asked for an armistice in 1942.
Chris
And it is easy to make generalizations if one is unknowledgeable about the history of Palestine. I think you should read this in order to understand the roots of the present Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Keep this in mind: In the beginning of the 20th century only one person in 10 living in Palestine is a Jew. Now it is exactly reversed.
Put yourself in the shoes of the Palestinians: you have no american supplied F-16s, no Merkava tanks, no way of waging a Geneva Convention type war. How are you going to fight for your beliefs, your people and your history? Is it a wonder that the only way a desperate people can fight is through suicide bombings?
Please do not immediately label me an anti-semitic. I do not hate Jews, but I do deplore how the Israeli (and specially the Sharon) government's treatment of the Palestinian problem seems to mirror the way Hitler treated the Jewish problem. One has only to read Israeli newspapers to realize that many Israelis themselves are aware of these and actually criticize their own government.
I know many Jews here will agree with me. The problem with Israel is that it is not a nation of Israelis but a Jewish state. For as long as the Israeli government refuses to make itself into a truly representative, truly non-discriminatory nation it will continue to hold the entire world hostage to its ailment.
I'm going to stay out of the politics and take this time to discuss another aspect of Bobby Fisher's many methods of winning...
I read Bobby Fisher's book on chess as well as the NY Times account of his famous match against Spassky. He was brilliant. And devious. He totally psyched out Boris Spassky. According to my recollection, Spassky had the first move. But Fisher didn't show up right away. So Spassky made his move and then had to wait. And wait. And wait... A full half-hour later Fisher shows up and makes his move. The psychological impact of showing up half-hour late was worth losing the time on the clock.
In his rematch, he did something very similar. He argued and argued the terms of the rematch. He fought and fought and fought to get TV coverage and media and the location and and and... He got everything he requested...then when time began for the match to happen, the set up which was to his exacting demands was the very thing he complained about. The TV camera was killing his concentration. Move it back. No move it farther. No, out of the room altogether. Put it in the next room filming through the glass in the door!
Caveat, this is from my recollection of the events I read about, so I may have a detail or two off, but it's correct in the general outline...
Because we got our asses kicked in that part of the world trying to do them a favor (we entered vietnam at south vietnams request).
Defining dropping tons of ordinance on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia brings to mind the phrase "with friends like this who needs enemies".
The US bombing of Cambodia played a part in bringing Pol Pot to power. He was brought down by the Vietnamese, too late unfortunatly to prevent ethnic cleansing. Did the US consider them heros or did it object to their invading Cambodia?
Check your history, America isn't the worlds police.
History makes the US look like a major league colonial thug.
We don't go around saving everyone, it's their job to save themselves.
All too often they need saving from the US. Indeed now that Britain, France & Spain have lost their empires and the USSR is consigned to history, about the only imperial power anyone is likely to need saving from is the US.
We don't have to "give a shit"
Maybe then the US could try withdrawing to it's borders for a decade or so?
but if you would like us too then I suggest you give us a reason to "give a shit" by not strapping bombs to your chest and going kamakazi through grocery stores and bus stations.
When did this happen in the US?
We don't go around saving everyone, we go around saving ourselves and protecting our interests.
Note that the "we" in this context is the US federal government (well Congress and Executive) and US based transnational corporations. Tough luck for the few hundred million people who just hold US citizenship...
Anyone who says otherwise is either misinformed or incredibly naieve.
Misinformed comes as standard with the majority of the US population who's only source of information is the mainstream media.
I was going to make a nazi analogon, but you will invoke Godwin on me so I will do the same with one of your more personal friends. Suppose Ossama bin Laden...
Bahahaha! Thank you for making my morning!
"I am not going to let you invoke Godwin on me by bring up an over-used, emotionally provocative subject like Nazi's, so instead I'm going to bring up Bin Laden instead!"
The differences between these suicide bombers and Palestinian suicide bombers are that Israelis suicide bombers don't die because they are stronger, partly because of your American money.
The difference between Israeli soldiers and palastinian suicide bombers is that Palastinian (and many other Islamic radical militant) fighters are told by their leaders that by blowing themselves up in public, they will be sent directly to heaven where they will be given a harem of a thousand (or is it ten-thousand) virgins.
The vast majority of the Israeli military is made up by secular citizens (mostly Jews, some Arabs and Christians). In fact, most Israeli citizens are secular.
Further, decisions about giving strategic portions of land (the West Bank) to a militaristic group who is funded mostly by surrounding neighbours who have active delarations of war against them can make perfect sense without delving into religion and claims that 'God gave us this land'.
I can't claim to agree with the way the Israeli government has handled new settlements in disputed territories, but somehow claiming that being part of a settlement makes you a fair military target is outrageous. And suggesting that there is somehow a circumstance when walking into a public shopping area with no military presense in sight and blowing up yourself and a few dozen bystanders can somehow be justified?
Have I been trolled?
The leadership of the U.S. has changed 8 times since 1970, when Nixon was in office.
If, in fact, this is his motivation, he's fighting against an administration that's been out of power for a quarter of a century, and whose leadership, even if he could legitimately blame them, is already dead.
You honestly believe that the current administration is totally distinct to those of the past? Christ on a bike, Daddy Bush was head of the CIA, Cheney was Ford's assistant and Chief of Staff. Your current administration is chock-a-block with the same crooks and cronies as Bush Sr's 10 years ago, which was stuffed with Regan-era and earlier muppets. And now, to top it off, here comes Poindexter eager to set up his new Stasi. It's unbelievable.
No, the story is always that "Israel retaliates." It's never "The Palestinians retaliate." It's always "Israel retaliates", the subtle suggestion being that it is the Palestinians who are the aggressors, and that is simply not the case.
Or how 12 dead soldiers and armed militiamen somehow become 12 civilian worshipers.
Since the fat man took his crap on the Temple Mount the ratio of dead has been 1,665 Palestinians vs. 639 Israelis. It is the Israelis who are invading what should be Palestine, not the other way around.
Has been for quite a while. The original 1948 plan divided the country more or less in half between "Israel" and "Palestine". Except that this wasn't an equal deal, since the Palestinians were losing half of what had been their country.
And we pay for it
Around $185 billion is the cost to the US taxpayer so far.
... that they just gave this file to someone?
Yes, I fully support FOIA. But if the FBI had a file on ME, I'm not sure I would feel comfortable with them just handing it over to anyone because someone asked nicely through the mail.
Actually, a very good argument can be made that the Israeli government is a sort of suicide bomber. It does consistently take actions that increase the chances of its own people dying, for political reasons.
It is. And I think most americans misunderstand the situation so far as what palestinians target as well. Because Israel is a state that practices compulsory military service, when they target busses or nightclubs they are targetting military targets in a sense; the busses are primarily transportation for military personnel, and of course the nightclub patrons are in large majority military personnel, because they are of the age where that is compulsory. The argument is a double edged sword - the palestinians inflict civilian casualties - but the Israeli government uses those civilians as human shields, making it nearly impossible to attack military targets without inflicting civilian casualties. Both the US and Israel routinely inflict casualties on civilians and excuse it as 'collateral damage' - whatever validity that argument has (I am extremely skeptical of it) it has for the palestinians just as much as for others.
Disagreeing with the Israeli government is not anti-semitism, although there are all too many who will cheapen that word by slurring with it as if that were so. The Israeli government, and its overzealous defenders, in fact, are manufacturing anti-semitism with such misuse.
As a footnote to those readers who now think I'm anti-semitic, note that both of my links are to articles written by Jews whose forthright dedication to truth and justice I hold up as shining examples to be emulated by all people. The Jewish people are not identical to the Israeli government, either individually or collectively, and it's quite possible to criticise one without any prejudice towards the other. Take a minute, read the links, and think instead of reacting for once, please.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
A word means whatever general usage says it means. It's generally understood that the expression "ant-semitic" means "One who discriminates against or who is hostile toward or prejudiced against Jews." The etymology of the word may imply something else, but that's irrelevant.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
Please note, I am not advocating either side. I am merely pointing out some additional facts and correcting some statements made.
How long was palestine there before we decided to just make part of the country israel?
Well, actually, at the time of the creation of Israel, that entire area was under British control. There was not a separate palestinian state.
The Israelis and the Palestinians have been fighting for almost 2000 years. The might have been using different labels (Hebrew, Jew, Arab, various tribal names), but they have been fighting amongst themselves (and over Jerusalem) for almost 2000 years. It is naive to state that the creation of the Israli state is the cause of the fighting.
Israel and Palestine do the same shit to each other. But we label attacks by Palestine terrorism. BS. Both countries engage in it, we just support one of them.
I agree. Neither side is in the right here. Both sides do despicable things. One could argue that Israel has used the holocaust and other anti-Jewish actions to gain sympathy in order that they not get punished as severely for their actions. I don't know if that last statement is accurate, but it is a possibility.
If I were him, I'd be pissed at the USA also.
I don't think that is the case. He broke the law by violating the sanctions (I am judging the sanctions btw), and so he must face the consequences. The FBI investigation seems to be excessive and unjustified, but I don't know much other than what was in the article.
I think his hate for the US mostly stems from his inflated view of himself. In his phone call to the radio station after 9/11 he states that he gave the US our recognition for intellectualism. Judging from what he said during the phone call, he feels like he has been screwed by the US because he wasn't glorified and made rich as a result of his World Champion status. There is more evidence for this in the comments made about what he would do if he won a world championship (last quote in the comment). I don't think he got what he wanted, and as a result, he feels bitter again the US because he thinks we owe him something.
neurostarThe attacks were based upon the fact that the US as a military base in the country that is considered most sacred. For a small number of radicals, a non-muslim nation (the US or any orther western country) having a military base there, is a problem to them (even though the reigning Saudia government has asked the US to be on their land). This was the reason why Sept 11 occured, the Palestine and Israeli conflict was never really even mentioned by AlQueda. When AlQueda realized that the US actually capable of taking out large chunks of their system, did they put support behind Palestine to bring in other Muslims that were not as offended by having a western military base in Saudi Arabia.
Flag me as a troll, but I have the feeling that a lot of anger from 95% of the world towawrd USA is just because the good old USA are putting their "paw" in various country where they are not welcome or called for,
Or where the US has put their "paw" in sometime in fairly recent history. Examples here would be Iran and Chilie.
but qwhere they have economics or political interrest.
It's sometimes difficult to separate economic and political interests. e.g. removal of a left leaning nationalist government, under the banner of "removing communism". Which just happened to enable a US owned business to come in and exploit natural resources and/or labour.
Maybe you should give a shit by either dropping support for dictatorial or opressing regime, and TOTALLY retract from world interraction or TOTALLY use your power to correct all stuff with a bit of ethics. No an half way thru.
The former, which is effectivly a decolonialisation is likely to be the easier option. Colonial powers are rarely much good at cleaning up their own messes. Past US attempts at "nation building", e.g. Afganistan, don't give much cause for optimism.
Palestinians are ARABS, they have always been ARABS and just because Arabs set up camp in a area and name themselves after it doesn't make it a nation. They're nothing more than squatters, and never did a thing to preserve or grow the area in culture or wealth. Samuel Clemens- who I'd dare to call an impartial observer in this case- bravely visited the area once and called it a desolate wasteland in need of people.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
John McCain takes issue with the VC (VietCong) who were notoriously evil in combat. These were mostly 12- 18 year old boys and girls in black pajams who setup traps using their own women and children as bait. They frequently slaughtered entire villages of their own people by purposely putting them in the line of fire... Men like McCain who had to fight them [k]now just how evil they were
John McCain was a navy pilot. He never fought the Vietcong at close quarters.
Newton was a classic Victorian prude and mysogynist-- and probably a closet homosexual. He was quite proud of his 'virginity' and proclaimed upon his death bed that no woman had soiled him. (I need to look up the exact quote.)
After his landmark physics theories, Newton spent an unreasonable amount of time trying to use numerology to calculate the end of the world based on passages in the Bible. Despite his intelligence, he had many unreasonable fears hatreds.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
"Palestine" has never been a nation, and you know it. Calling it a nation is like calling a random selection of MP3 on a script kiddie's computer a cross-section of popular music. Palestine was a name given to a land reduced to desolation after the fall of the Roman Empire, and there has never been a nation of Palestinians. If you'd bothered to look it up, the West Bank and Jordan were all part of a British mandate called "Trans-Jordan".
Plenty of borders were made up by colonials, by drawing lines on a map. Yet somehow this is only a big issue with Palestine.
Palestinians are ARABS, they have always been ARABS and just because Arabs set up camp in a area and name themselves after it doesn't make it a nation.
But if a group of Europeans set up camp in an area then it suddenly becomes a nation? Sounds rather a racist position.
Fischer is the greatest chess player who ever lived, and several pegs above the likes of Kramnick and Kasparov. The idea that he's a Russian spy is absurd. Fischer hates the Russians. He accused them of conspiring to keep the chess champion a Russian. He said the games between Kramnick and Kasparov were pre-determined. He is certainly not a Russian spy.
The other ridiculous thing that the US gov't has done to Fischer is threatned to arrest him should he ever return to the US, because he played a chess tournament in a nation which was under "sanctions" by the US. Fischer tore up a letter from the US gov't demanding that he not play in that nation. He has the right to play chess where-ever the fuck he wants to. He shouldn't face punishment for carrying out his livelihood in a nation the US "doesn't approve of". He could play fucking Chess in Iraq and make millions for the Iraq government. That's his fucking right.
Yes, Fischer has some obnoxious views, and has said some cruel and hateful things about the Jews, and has said some outrageous things about 9/11. Again, that's his right. He has the right to say whatever the fuck he wants to. Quite frankly, I can understand him for hating the US. He is the only US citizen who has brought honor to the US in the chess arena -- the only American who's ever been anything in chess. And not only was/is he good, he was/is the best. The US government repaid him by threatening to arrest him because he played Chess in a "sanctioned nation". That doesn't mean its right to say that the 9,000 people who died at 9/11 deserved it, but he still has the right to say that.
As for his hatred of the Jews, though I'm not saying its good, he still has the right to hold whatever opinions he wants. Though it would make more sense if he hated Christians, as he was scammed by the "Worldwide Church of God". But from his perspective, he's been wronged by Jews. He's particularly enraged about all of the profiteering that has been going on around his name, while he hasn't received a dime. Movies like "Searching for Bobby Fischer" and biographies of him were made, yet he's received no compensation. In short, other people are making billions of dollars off of his name, and he attributes this mainly to the Jews. That doesn't justify hating all Jews, but its still his right to do so.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
I realy found this point is well taken, it seems that anti-semitism is "more evil" then other "anti-" movements is the optic of the press. I do think that the fact that he is anti-semetic is important and should have been mentioned, but I do believe that anti-semetic have more emphasis in the press then other type of prejudices.
:-)
I like when some one open my eyes to something I havent noticed before, thanks.
[]'s Victor Bogado da Silva Lins
^[:wq
The Soviet Union would have fallen apart even if they never started the Afghanistan campaign. It's economy was altogether inefficient, corrupted and rotten, producing poor quality goods that no-one needed. This was made worse by the fact that "quality" of production was measured by quantity - the "best" factories were those that produced a lot of crap. Add the fact that no-one was allowed to critisise this unil Gorbatchov's glasnost, when it was already too late, and the result is clear for all to see. The Soviet Union was not only stagnated, it was recessing and it was too big and slow to turn around. Game over.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
There is an earlier story about the suspicion that Regina Fischer was a Soviet spy. The title is Was Fischer's Mother a Communist Spy (pdf file) written by someone who knew Joan Fischer (Bobby's sister).
Stalin was deeply involved in the Spanish Civil War. He provided the Republicans with substantial quantities of arms, military advisors and "volunteers". He also exported his paranoia and the purges to Spain. The PCE (Communist Party of Spain) often seemed more interested in fighting its perceived enemies in the Republicans than it did in fighting the Nationalists.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
...and there were people in Palestine before the Jews were there. Read the Old Testament of the bible for tons of stories about how the Jews killed tribe after tribe, nation after nation. The bible says that they are god's people, and that is why god leads them to victories over so many nations.
The argument that it is the Jewish homeland is a fascist argument. The rule of thumb is that there was always some race their before yours.
No more so or less so than any other human being. We all see things through the lens of our culture and upbringing. However, I consider myself first and foremost a scientist and logical thinker. I make mistakes, and I am always interested in having my mistakes pointed out to me by those who refrain from ad hominem attacks and blatant racism.
n unbiased thinking does not just look at crime statistics or graduation statistics and take them as established facts, all the while failing to consider alternative explanations for social injustices and inequalities.
Huh? You did not read my post properly, or perhaps I wasn't clear enough about my meaning. The point is that the facts are not under dispute. The explanation IS open to dispute. In fact, I agree with you here that the crime statistics and graduation statistics I referenced ARE due to social circumstances. I don't know about focusing on "injustices and inequalities" since that seems like a rather negative and narrow framework to view it in, but I certainly never argued that any of these differences were due to anything other than social circumstance. In the case of Jewish culture, a value and ethic is placed on academic performance and achievement. This is a qualitative observation I have made, based on my own life history, in which I have lived in many communities, some which were dominated by a variety of minorities (mostly black, in Lauderdale Lakes, FL), some of which were mostly white, and some of which (in New York City) were largely Jewish.
In particular, the idea of "institutional racism" does not inform your thinking. I see no evidence that you are prepared to have a serious discussion of the issues you've raised.
I am aware of the concept of "institutional racism". I agree that it can explain some of the problems certain minority groups have. It can certainly not explain some of the successes certain minority groups have had. Internal cultural differences can explain both, but certainly some of those cultural differences have been created by years and centuries of "institutional racism". In the case of Jews, I think the cultural differences have been created by social forces on Ashkenazi Jews in Europe over the centuries that favored the cultivation of intellectual skills - there have been several studies that have used this explanation to explain observed IQ differences. Not to say that this is "the truth", but it is a possible explanation. Likewise, cultural evolution of American Black culture has certainly resulted from insitutional racism over the years, though I think more of the problems African Americans have today are due to these entrenched cultural differences than due to _current_ institutional racism, that likely plays a part too.
In the future, you should consider taking a less hostile position with somebody who fundamentally agrees with your point of view. And don't post AC. It undermines your credibility.
Maybe this is because Jews generally have more money than the average population while african americans tend to be poorer? "Elite" colleges are all about how much cash you have. Helps if you're not black too. Get charged and convicted of felony theft is all about how little money you have for a lawyer, oh ya, helps if you're black too.
Okay, how did Jews get all that money then? When most Jews immigrated to this country they were poor, just like the Irish and the Italians. Actually, all of these groups have been quite successful economically in this country.
I cannot deny that economic success increases the odds of academic success by providing time to spend in academic pursuits. However, before the Jewish community in the US was well off at all, academics were still heavily emphasized. Some of the great Jewish academics of this century came out of CCNY in New York, and were from poor or middle class families in Brooklyn and Queens. I don't have statistics to back this up, but simple qualitative observation rejects your assertion that academic success is tied only to economic status.
Furthermore, I would encourage you to look at the inside of an elite college sometime. There are certainly people there because they have money, but they are usually the minority (maybe 15-20% of the school's population). At Harvard, where I went, over 60% of the undergraduate students received financial aid.
So if i decide I'm only going to hire white people because they have so many great and well documented accomplishments then I am not prejudice?
No, if you judge an individual based on statistical trends among groups without any particular analysis of causation you are an idiot. It is not prejudiced to note that white people have had many great accomplishments. Of course, much of that (in the US) has to do with the fact that over the years this has been a white culture, a country founded by white people, with institutions and organizations founded by white people. The implicit assumption you would be making in refusing to hire non-whites is that non-whites must not be as competent for a job regardless of individual merit, or that they all have non-desireable characteristics based on ethnicity. Those are prejudiced assumptions, very different from factual observations.
Since you say if it is based on facts not opinions then it is true. So you can't deny then that most Israel men are trained killers who have participated in the occupation and suppression of the palestinian territories?
I agree that many Israeli men have been trained by the military. That military training is not that different from the military training every male receives in any country with mandatory military service. If that makes them "trained killers" then so is anybody who has done military service. Most who served in the Israeli military never fired a gun during their service, and certainly most have not killed any Palestinians.
I never said I agreed with the occupation of Palestinian territories nor with the "settlements" or the religious zealots who live in them (who, noteably, make up less than 1% of the population of Israel). I support a peaceful two state solution in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as do the majority of American Jews.
So your claim is that Al Quaeda waited for a Republican Administration, before they decided that they didn't like the U.S., right?
-- Terry
You are an idiot.
I worked in the same IBM facility as one of his kids; their cubicle was 20 feet away from mine. We all followed the case very closely, and we were pretty uniformly outraged; and being an engineering department, we did not simply adopt the outrage of the family blindly, we looked at the information for ourselves, rather than operating on hearsay.
Are you maybe that FBI dufus who perjured himself on the stand, and then later retracted his testimony, which anyone can see by examining the public records of the court proceedings?
If so, your behaviour really reflects poorly on your organization.
-- Terry
Well, I could have said his "New York Jew bigotry" is not much different to Southern White Trash Redneck, but I wasn't sure if the poster was actually from the NYC metro area. In any case, leave it to a pro-zionist to miss the point. To refer to Southerners as "white trash" and redneck is prejudiced and offensive. I'm sure there are even some Southerner white trash rednecks that would be offended at being called anti-semites. If you cannot see the tools of racism and bigotry, and do not condemn their use, you probably will end up using them.
People who think Israel doesn't have the right to exist is basically an anti-semite.
What would that make a Palestinian against the existence of Israel? A self-hating anti-semite? I do not have a problem with the creation and existence of Israel. That does not mean I condone blowing up a building with children inside in order to get a terrorist, or allowing children in schoolyards to be be blown up because they are too lazy to setup a sniper team. I also don't think such terrorism is justified even when its practiced against the perpetrator. Does that make me an anti-semite?
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
I did intend to imply it ain't so easy to be classified a Jew (according to the Jews themselves). Now that I've gotten almost totally off the topic, I'll try to get back near it: Bobby is Jewish, whether he likes it or not. While I defend his right to have opinions, even ones I find despicable, I suspect his anti-Jew attitude was born out of issues with his mother (from what I gleaned of the original article) not any actual reasoning on his part. OTOH, a Christian friend and I have had long intellectual debates concerning the Jews of the Old Testament being "terrorists" by today's definition - I could find ways to defend that they were. Maybe Bobby's a dick, maybe he has mental health problems, or maybe he simply believes the reasoning that lead some people to hate Jews.
Personally, I'm all for free love and diversity, and my personal opinion is hating an entire group of people based on somewhat arbitrary affiliations is just, well, stupid. Of course, this attitude means I have to give even the racists a chance as individuals, which is easier said than done.
Like the saying goes, "History Is Written by the Victors". I once read that, if instead of Christianity, Islam held power in this world, there would also be a secret movement trying to destabilize this hold of power.
If one day America stops being the most powerful country in the world, -- where it can't threaten hostility against another country without fear of being reprimanded by a bigger country that thinks otherwise -- I'm sure the version of history from the new number one country would be the one accepted as the history of the world. But Dubya would bomb the hell out of any country trying to take over his place at the throne of the world before anything like that can happen.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
As a game player........ Sure the US Military is interested...
What do you mean "Russia fell apart after Afghanistan"? Still looks OK to me, probably hasn't been better in a very long time.
Or did you mean, "*Communism in Russia* fell apart after Afghanistan", or "The communist government of Russia fell apart after Afghanistan"?
"Russia" didn't fall apart, on the contrary, they're going through a positive process of transformation to a democratic free market system (Chechnia yada yada). Sure there is still poverty, like in many other fledgling democracies change doesn't happen overnight .. but "fell apart"?
Blah, whatever, no matter what we say in a slashdot thread, the world still hates the top dog.
Yeah, sure, all those people are just jealous, right? Just like all those anti-Microsofties are just jealous of all Bill Gates' money, right? What a childish, simplistic viewpoint. Sorry, the world isn't that simple. Whether you want to know it or not, the USA's rise was *not* entirely squeaky clean, & some people actually have legitimate reasons to dislike the US.
They are different crooks than they were 32 years ago, and they are crooks from the opposition party of the crooks who were in power 4 years ago.
If Fischer is justified in U.S.-bashing as if he were mad from syphilis contracted from a chess groupie, he ought to at least bash the right crooks.
NB: your "Bush was head of the CIA" argument is really bogus: that was George Bush Sr., not George Bush Jr.
-- Terry
You just used the term "ethnic cleansing" unironically. Please never do that again. To do so is to merrily incorporate into your vocabulary the claim that certain ethnicities are dirt and their members should be removed by any means necessary. The widespread adoption of this term by people who should know better is disgusting.