CNN's"Scream Bloody Murder" Revisited

In "Scream Bloody murder," a 90-minute CNN documentary, Chief International Correspondent, Ms. Christiane Amanpour, adroitly served the Armenian genocide victims a slice of history that had more holes in it than Swiss-cheese -- no substance -- nor acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century.

There is no doubt in my mind, after watching the program for a 2nd time, that the mere 45 fleeting seconds given to the Armenians was out of pure necessity to get her story airborne to levels of genocide relevancy. She knew that the skeletal remains of the Armenian holocaust victims was the only runway suited to handle heavy loads of post-Armenian-genocide calamities. As she taxied her proverbial plane masterfully for 45-seconds past dead bodies of the first genocide victims of the century, she quickly navigated away from the Anatolian killing fields without a call nor a whisper of bloody murder.

From the outset, Ms. Amanpour knew full well that she could not have painted her 'Scream Bloody Murder' tableau effectively without dipping her dry brush in Armenian-genocide-victims' blood first. Despite of this, not a single person (except unpunished perpetrators) would have objected had Ms. Amanpour once screamed bloody murder on behalf of the Armenian victims as she did volubly and admirably for the other six.

Incidentally, December 9 marked the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on Genocides. Thanks to Raphael Lemkin, who spent a chunk of time inordinately larger than 45 seconds (Ms. Amanpour's ration) agonizing over the slaughtering of the Armenians ( just before the Jewish holocaust) when he eventually coined the word "genocide" from the Greek and Latin root words "genos-cide," meaning "tribe, race" and" kill" respectively.

In her report, Ms. Amanpour says: for the better part of the past year I have been interviewing people who found themselves witnessing history that made them scream bloody murder. I truly appreciate her worthy efforts and she needs to be applauded for her great work.

Now, here is my question to you Ms. Amanpour: Did you, by any chance, look for any Armenian genocide witnesses at any time? Better yet, did you look for any Armenian genocide survivors? By the way, there are still few left and they would have hurried to you in their wheelchairs to "Scream bloody Murder" if you had only given them a chance. So, frankly, did the idea of listening to Armenian survivors' accounts ever cross your mind, Ms. Amanpor? If it did, who and what made you change your mind? You see, some of those centigenarian survivors endured long grueling flights to Washington DC last year to witness the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopt the resolution, which calls on U.S. Foreign policy to properly reflect the genocide of over 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-1923 in Ottoman Turkey -- You see, they do come if asked. But you regrettably ignored them.

Ms. Amanpour, I pray to God, that someday you muster the moral fortitude to seek out these Armenian survivors and, then, make an unabridged documentary -- please listen attentively to their feeble voices as they have much to tell.

You also said in your report: will we ever learn? or will I or my children or my successors be reporting on this same kind of atrocity and inhumanity for years and years to come? The answer is: A resounding YES -- Genocides will be reported by you and others for years to come if they continue to be told in duplicitous versions.

If This Song Can't Move You Neither Could a Crane

I was fortunate to stumble upon this doleful melody of ethereal beauty and wanted to share it with my guests along with my thoughts and feelings -- You may not have a pulse, if this song, "Andouni," by Isabel Bayrakdarian, does not transport you beyond all normal sensory channels of emotions you presumed didn't own; You may not have a spirit, if it does not outstretch your raw feelings to breaking point through its high-strung vibes of harmonic pain you didn't know existed; and you may not have a soul, if it does not shatter your hardened mind to smithereens with its impassioned tug at your heartstrings and, still, refuse to acknowledge it.

ENJOY!

CNN's "Scream Bloody Murder" is "Bloody Shame Whisper"

Last night I watched CNN's powerful broadcast documentary entitled "Scream Bloody Murder," by the highly talented reporter, Christiane Amanpour who delivered a very compelling look at Genocides throughout "history," except her recollection of genocidal accounts of history was on a tad shorter temporal leash than the victims of the Armenian genocide would have liked to see.

Amanpour commands my utmost respect, though, for shining megawatt-rich spotlight on the spine-chilling events of the Jewish Holocaust, and all subsequent genocides of Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. But, unfortunately, she failed to generate a mere milliwatt of fleeting light on the first genocide of the century: The Armenian genocide.

Nonetheless, the indefatigable CNN reporter did some good -- though, not quite enough -- by informing the general public about the roles of those courageous heroes who saw and understood evil -- and 'screamed bloody murder' to the deaf ears of international leaders to heed their call for action.

Amanpour, by the power of her camera and microphone, breathed life to the screaming voices of the forgotten activists, and deservedly amplified the "bloody murder" calls of the moral few, such as: Eli Wiesel, Father Francois Ponchaud, Peter Galbraith, Richard Holbrook, Romeo Dallaire and other unsung heroes, but Amanpour chose dead silence instead to the screams of Henry Morgenthau, the US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time of the Armenian Genocide -- Morgenthau too, 'screamed bloody murder.' Give that honorable man some credit and the 1.5 million Armenian victims some respect.

You see, Amanpour's failure to mention the "screams" of Henry Morgenthau and others is an unfortunate continuum of a political play. Even worse, when a reputable reporter such as Amanpour chooses to silence the calls of equally deserving fine men, then it does create the ultimate hypocritical human-rights rat's nest that no one could ever get out of unscathed. The timing of this matter is specially significant and doubly important as the reporter tries to bring attention to genocides on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the adoption of UN Convention of Genocide and Human Rights, which, by the way, was authored by Raphael Lemkin who coined the word "genocide."

Amanpour's approach to subtractive journalism in her "Scream Bloody Murder" is flawed and it is a little disrespectful to the legacy of Raphael Lemkin who gave us the word "genocide." Hello, the man was describing the systematic slaughter of the Armenians, repeat, the slaughter of the Armenians, not some imaginary people nor a hypothetical race when he coined the word "genocide."

So, if the death of 1.5 million Armenian victims could have given birth to a word named "genocide," just as Lemkin did to legally define holocaust. Then, how could they not apply that "word" back to its source where it belongs? just as Lemkin had done and intended. Amanpour's report, unfortunately, could have, just as easily, been titled "Bloody Shame Whisper" without missing a beat.

Hypocrisy and muddy moral standards in matters of genocide-justice has never worked (as demonstrated by their frequency) -- brace yourselves, as there is an ongoing genocide in Darfur as we speak and I'm sure many more are likely to happen soon.

Modern Turkey: Same Old Dirty Ottoman Underwear Worn Inside Out

Just as the bloodthirsty Turkish Ottoman empire (aka "the sick man of Europe") was on its last, decrepit, leg in the waning days of its turgid greatness, and just before The Ottoman's doomed fez and proverbial last shoe was set to drop, it had already bequeathed posterity (modern-day Turkey) the honorific Ottoman legacy of sheer ruthlessness, corruption, butchery, and yes, genocide -- make that plural in capital letters -- GENOCIDES of Bulgarians, Greeks, Assyrians, and last but not least Armenians.

On numerous occasions, including both, before and after 1915 [ the worst year in total of 1.5 million Armenians massacred] the Ottoman Turks pillaged hundreds of Armenian villages, stole their properties and wealth, set their churches and schools on fire, burnt parishioners and schoolchildren alive, decapitated their writers and intellectuals, gouged the eyes of their poets and musicians, destroyed their books and libraries, maimed their defenseless babies and children, bayoneted their young and the old, raped their women and their daughters, drowned their helpless people in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and brutally drove the rest of the indigenous Armenians on a forced march out of their ancestral land to meet their destiny of certain death under the torching sun of DerZor's desolate desert. Ironically, all of these Turkish brutalities happened on Armenian historical land, where Armenians lived since time immemorial, in fact, prior to anyone had ever heard of the four-letter word "Turk" before. The book, "The Burning Tigris," by Peter Balakian puts my depiction of the Ottoman savagery to shame when you read the Author's detailed and well-researched historical accounts of that dark era.

After world war I, the "founding father" of modern Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal, with oft-used "Ataturk" (father of the Turks) title attached to his name -- who, by the way, was no more a fitting father to the Turks than his children's Ottoman grandfather was to him -- staged the greatest escape from Ottoman forefathers historical tie when he performed the mother of all Houdini-acts on the Turkish people without them knowing it. He declared the dissolution of the Ottoman empire and conveniently disassociated himself and his Turkish herd from the immediate past of the genocidal sins of his forefathers. Instead of forging a national identity based on historical authenticity, Ataturk masterfully leapfrogged over 600 years of brutal Ottoman Turkish rule of the lands; He revised, distorted and falsified history books and began an inculcation process of indoctrination on the undeveloped -- and underdeveloped -- tabula rasa of Turkish minds. He successfully erased the existential traces of Armenians and other ethnic groups. He mercilessly punished anyone who dared question his revisionist narrative. His biggest fabrication yet. Well, just like that, in a flash, he pulled a new 'national identity of, so-called, "monolithic Turkey"' nonentity out of his allegorical butt whose identity was built on pure myth and its purpose was to concoct an artificial Turkic identity that fits the void of nationalistic air pocket that Ataturk's legerdemain move had created. Subsequently, he romanticized this new factually-challenged imaginary "Turkish " fiction and made it stick like wet noodle on the collective skull of the Turkish populace.

A couple of oblivious generations later, Turkey's mind-inoculation campaign of "Turkishness" became a bittersweet success. In Turkey, being clueless about the real unvarnished history, though, could be a double edge sword at times; on the one hand, ignorance of facts keeps the masses' mental boat quite afloat, but on the other hand, they could quickly turn violent and resort to murder when that little voice in their collective head is challenged with factual accounts of the land -- just as the 17-year old Turkish ultra nationalist punk did when he gunned down a Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink . This sort of violence is just a small example, reflective of the Turkish "statehood-of-falsehood" by-product which is squarely built on the ashes of 1.5 million Armenian genocide victims and other christian subjects.

You may find this hard to believe, but Post-Ottoman Turkish government -- beneath its transparently phony, revisionist structure -- has been worse than their predecessors on matters of historical facts, historical facts, and btw, did I mention historical facts. Hang on to your tasseled red fez for just a second longer and you'll see why. This time the joke is on the entire Turkish citizenry, compliments of Ataturk, the Turkish putz's pelvic wisdom which helped create this factually-challenged partial-birth anomaly known as modern-day Turkey. "Real history" tells us that the Turkish ancestral umbilical cord tie this savage nomadic tribe directly to central China and nowhere near the current geographical lands captured from the native Armenians of Anatolia and other ethnic groups of those lands.

It is quite apparent, also, that all subsequent Turkish leaders after Mustafe Kemal Ataturk, had to stick with the same reverse-engineered historical spin in order to save the country, essentially, from itself by constantly keeping the nation in a state of deep freeze of denial. As a result, the Turkish government has successfully straitjacketed the Turkish masses into an ideology based on falsehoods, lies, obscurantism, and last but not least, penchant zeal of denial, particularly the DENIAL of the Armenian GENOCIDE.

Unfortunately, this philosophical straitjacket has constrained the Turkish nation from the cerebral growth it badly needs; Turkey has become an intellectual orphan to its ancestral past. No wonder, Turks feel unnerved and threatened -- perhaps, even a bit "un-Turkish?" in an obsessive-compulsive "Turkishness" sense of the word-- specially when the index finger of history's steady hand points to Armenian presence on those stolen lands. More importantly, though, this sham was cobbled together to create a black hole within which all memories of their forefathers shameful acts, including genocides, would forever be lost. or, so they thought.

To sum it up, Turkey of pre-1923 did not suddenly disappear from planet earth, in fact, don't let "brown clad Turk" fool you anymore. Post-Ottoman Turkey is the same underwear worn inside out with criminal skid marks clearly visible to the whole wide world -- except Turkey. Perhaps Modern-Turkey will be better served doing real modern things for a change: drop those soiled ones for a set of crisp, fresh white political undies.

As the Genocide-Denial-Beat Goes On.

What's worse than a Holocaust denier? Answer: A Holocaust denier who's a Jew.
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There is absolutely nothing more disturbing then the deafening sound of genocide denial drumbeat doggedly pounded by pace eminent people of prominence and leadership, e.g., Abe Foxman of the ADL--supposedly, a human rights organization headman-- or Tennessee congressman Steve Cohen -- purportedly, a representative voice of decent folks.

What makes this doubly disturbing and eerily spine-chilling is the fact that the aforementioned personalities et al are men with Jewish blood running through their veins, and yet fail miserably to comprehend the gravity of their improvident preoccupation with self-destructive genocide-denying activities -- the whole Jewish holocaust experience has taught them naught.

While Abe Foxman is no stranger to controversy, he is an ingrained denier extraordinaire; a bona fide tri-medalist champ worthy of gold, silver, and bronze medals, alas, if only "Genocide denial" were an Olympic event. But don't despair just yet, for perhaps someday, the indefatigable army of genocide deniers could realize this olympian feat too, if they lobby with the same level of zeal and vigor as they always, sinisterly, do against the Armenian genocide victims.

After all, the behavior of this highly duplicitous genocide-denying machine, unwittingly, overplay its hand. Let there be no doubt that the current Jewish modus operandi unjustifiably burdens every single Jew of conscious, and needlessly yokes the nation of Israel with the distinct honor -- and, yes, the bragging rights -- to lead the comity of nations with the privileges of hosting the first -- albeit highly hypothetical, but abundantly apropos -- "Genocide Denial Olympiad" of its kind aptly showcased against the juxstapositional backdrop of Yad Vashem -- This ought to give the star denier-athletes the added advantage to bring home the mother of all gold medals.

Recently, Congressman Steve Cohen is being a festering boil on the collective rump of society as this video indicates. Mr. Cohen, too, is getting involved in extracurricular genocide-denying activities. He is fighting tooth and nail against anti-genocide legislation; spewing ethnic slurs against the Armenian community; making disparaging, racist remarks as "these Armenians" and "those people," going so far as to generalize Armenians as assassins and killers. This corrupt politician is in the pockets of foreign governments and is nothing but a shameless denier too.

And what, say you, does moral shortage of some Jews have to do with us? P-L-E-N-T-Y!

Today, the few, living breathing genocide-denying Jews are well on their way of achieving what 6-million-fallen-Jews did not deserve: The fulfillment of the residual to "never again" call with "unless you're a Jew" conditional imagery.

If moral principles, ethical standards, and core values are worth defecating on, then, don't blame Mr. Ahmadinejad for borrowing a sheet or two (depending on the amount of crap) right out of Abe's "Foxma-deny-ejad" toilet scroll (sic) -- an eponymously apropos genocide-denial playbook. For Mr. Ahmadinejad's principles (and he's got a few,) by and large, matches well with those of Foxman's inner little-man's credo -- spitting images, indeed, of uncanny resemblance to the homegrown genocide-denying Jewish hypocrites, beamed right back to us, without the slightest of diffraction, from the holocaust-denying mirrors of Ahmadinejad's world.

So what might have caused this cataclysmic moral collapse in the malignant hearts and minds of some Jewish bigwigs? More importantly, are you still having a hard time wrapping your mind around the enormity of this Judaical moral dilemma? if you do, the answer is undeniably simple: Just ask the man in the mirror -- After all, if you're a genocide denier, as Abe Foxman and his numerous cohorts are, then the biggest lamentable L-I-A-R you'll ever have to deal with probably watches you shave his face in the mirror every morning.

Lastly, why don't you save your wheezing breath, all you deniers out there, and stop fogging up the proverbial mirror!

That's Sprezzatura

A true aristocrat, Castiglione insisted, should preserve one's composure in all circumstances, and behave with unaffected nonchalance and effortless dignity. Such nonchalance he called sprezzatura:

It is an art which does not seem to be an art. One must avoid affectation and practice in all things a certain sprezzatura, disdain or carelessness, so as to conceal art, and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it.