Saturday, April 25, 2009

Obama: Armenian genocide

McClatchy:
Obama marks Armenian tragedy but doesn't say 'genocide'

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday broke a campaign pledge but mollified Turkey by formally remembering the mass killings of Armenians without using the diplomatically loaded term "genocide."
[...]
Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush broke similar pledges. President Bill Clinton, too, leaned on congressional leaders not to pass genocide commemoration measures.

In 2000, only minutes before debate was set to start in the House of Representatives, then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert yielded to Clinton's request not to bring the genocide resolution, authored by Radanovich, up for a vote.

Hastert is now a lobbyist with the firm Dickstein Shapiro, one of a number that Turkey hired to press its cause on Capitol Hill. Turkey pays $35,000 a month for help from Hastert and his team, Justice Department foreign-agent filings show. Turkey is paying former House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt's firm, DLA Piper, $100,000 a month, filings have shown.
For the record, Gephardt is another first-I-was-against-it genocide denier too.

Poltico is running this youtube of Samantha Powers today



Kudos to Jonathon Schwarz who ran this six weeks ago.

BTW: I knew that Marc Grossman, William Cohen and Joe Ralston had a "strategic alliance" with DLA Piper via the Cohen Group, but I (think I) only recently learned that all three are actually "Senior Advisers" to DLA Piper directly.

BTW2: Note in the following youtube how Hastert's 'official spokesman' says "The Speaker does not have any connections to American-Turkish interests." That statement is no longer operative.



Also interesting is the spokesperson's statement/rebuttal that 'the reporter does not have a transcript of any wiretap conversations that we know of' - which is reminiscent of the current outbreak of the Harman/AIPAC outrage.

* Update: In a post worth reading (as usual) , Mizgin says:
"If any of these Deep Staters had even the slightest nano-particle of honor, they'd blow their own brains out.

I'm just saying."
For what it is worth, I'd consider any reports of suicide as suspicious. I think we are both on the same page.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

As an Armenian American I am more than disturbed by the display our president put on for the our country to see in regards to the Armenian Genocide. Our hearts are restless and will remain this way until we are given recognition to the slayings a millions of people, we will never forget nor pretend that we do not notice the shame brought on by politics. Oil for blood is all I see. As a person who as has great power the president could not even bring himself to say the word Genocide, but he foolishly spoke a few words in Armenian. We are not impressed. We live every day with this on our shoulders, if we just stand back all would have been lost for nothing. I will not disgrace my ancestors nor any one who has seen mass killings in actions. This is a disgusting crime that goes unpunished to this very day and occurs in countries around the globe to this very day.

This only fuels me to feel the way I do, a sort of bitter taste that lingers in your mouth. You never forget it and don't ever want to experience it again. Yet here I am, born and raised in California, to a family with 23 grandchildren on just my mother's side. We experience the horror every day and will continue to fight for a change. A REAL CHANGE.

Isak said...

hypocrite - that is what Obama and his teams are. Me as an Assyrian is not suprised by this game the politicians are playing with us that are victims of this genocide.