Sunday, November 22, 2009

#639 INTL: Chomsky's Controversy‏

National Congress of the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina

ONLINE NEWSLETTER INTERNATIONAL

No. 639

November 17th, 2009

CONTENT

1. Uvodne napomene

1. Chomsky's controversy

2. RE: NOAM CHOMSKY, DENIER OF GENOCIDE

3. Chomsky described the Srebrenica massacre as 'much lesser'

4. Chomsky’s Bosnian shame

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1. Ordil Noama Chomskog zbog negiranja genocida u Bosni i Hercegovini

Editorial

Ovih dana se dogadja veoma interesantna stvar u vezi sa genocidom u Bosni i Hercegovini. Pokazalo se da svjetski intelektualci humanisti znaju sta se dogodilo u Bosni i Hercegovini i da su spremni distancirati se i od najpoznatijih medju njima koji se usude da negiraju genocid.

Sve je pocelo kada je Amnesty International (AI) pozvao Noama Chomskog, do ovog momenta slavnog Americkog mislioca, profesora na MIT, da odrzi govor na godisnjoj konferenciji AI u Belfastu. Tada se digla svjetska inteligencija da se to onemoguci. Razlog je bio negiranje genocida u Prijedoru od strane Noama Chomskog u njegovim ranijim nastupima.

U nasem proslom Glasniku za Englesko govorno podrucje (kojega nismo distribuirali na ovoj listi, za Bosanki jezik) mi smo objavili otvorena pisma Ed Vulliamy-a, reportera Observera, jednog od ljudi zasluznih sto je otkriven genocid u Prijedoru, i Tilman-a Zulcha, Predsjednika Drustva za ugorzene narode. (Zainteresovani mogu taj nas Online Newseltter International naci na linku http://republic-bosnia-herzegovina.com/?p=624 )

Medjutim, osude Noama Chomskog zbog njegovog negiranja genocida u Prijedoru su nastavile da stizu od istaknutih svjetskih intelektualaca. Mi smo izabrali 3 pisma sa kojima cemo upoznati gradjane BiH, jer nemamo prostora za sve, a ovim pismima se uglavnom pokrivaju kljucni argumenti.

Ovaj Internacionalni Glansik, na Engleskom, saljemo i na ovu listu, za Hrvatsko-Srpsko-Bosansko govorno podrucje, jer ima mnogo nasih mladjih sugradjana sirom svijeta koji govore Engleski, a koji se nalaze na ovoj distribucionoj listi.

Ono sto je najvaznije u svemu ovome je da gradjani BiH vide koliko je genocid u Bosni i Hercegovini neprihvaljiv za svjetske intelektualce i da su najveci problem "nasi" politicari koji se saradjuju sa cetnicima na unistenju BiH. Jedan od najistaknutijih svjetskih humanistickih milsilaca, Noam Chomski je izgubio kredibilitet kojega je do sada uzivao kao pouzdan, profesionalan, nezavisan misliac jer nije ispravno ocijenio genocid u BiH.

Genocid u Bosni i Hercegovini je od velikog znacaja za cijeli sviijet, i Bosna i Hercegovina ima ogromnu podrsku svjetske javnosti, ali nazalost, niko ne moze pomoci Bosni i Hercegovini kada "nasi" politicari ucestvuju podjeli tj. unistnju BiH, kao sto niko ne moze pomoci samoubici koji je cvrsto odlucio da se ubije.

Dr Muhamed Borogovac

Slijede clanci na Engleskom preneseni iz naseg Online Newslatter International.

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2. Chomsky's Controversy

Editorial

We have received a number of replies regarding Amnesty International's invitation to Noam Chomsky to give the annual lecture in Belfast and the corresponding open letters published in Online Newletter on October 30, 2009. We selected the following 3 your replies to forward to readers of our Online Newsletter - International issue.

Our last Online Newsletter with open letters of Tilman Zülch and Ed Vulliamy to Amnesty International can be found in the link:

http://republic-bosnia-herzegovina.com/?p=624

We also selected the following two ICTY's files about genocide in Prijedor.

i) Research Report Prepared for the Case of Milomir Stakic, Exhibit S337A

http://www.institutgenocida.com/dokumenti/icty/Stakc_Exhibit_S337A.pdf

ii) The List of missing people from Prijedor (7.05 MB)

http://www.institutgenocida.com/dokumenti/icty/MISSING_PERSONS_PD.pdf

(ICTY - "International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia")

If somebody is interested we may send more files with evidence of genocide in Prijedor area, e.g. video "Forensic evidence of genocide in Bosanska Krajina" (big file - 53MB)

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2. RE: NOAM CHOMSKY, DENIER OF GENOCIDE

November 9th, 2009

Welcome to my Orwellian nightmare

For any leftist who came of age during or after the Vietnam era, Noam Chomsky was a great mind who offered an alternative to the mainstream Cold War political thought.

It was devastating to see Chomsky and a few other leftists show no concern at all for the victims of genocide. A fascist regime emerges in the middle of Europe and yet very little response from the left.

One of the first panel discussions on the Bosnia genocide included leftist intellectual and writer, Christopher Hitchens who remarked that the discussion was incomplete without the voice of Noam Chomsky. I later told Hitchens that Chomsky had indeed weighed in on Bosnia and warned him, "You won't like it.''

Ed Villiamy is right. If Chomsky and his ilk were really paying attention, they would have noted the unsavory role played by the Bush and Clinton administrations as well as that of the UN.

My companion was once attacked for having the audacity to disagree with Chomsky and sometimes sidekick, Ed Herman on the Cambodia genocide which they still deny. Again, if they were more astute, perhaps they would have taken issue with the U.N. flying the Khmer Rouge flag and seating the KR representatives. A member of the Khmer Rouge front organization(FUNCINPEC)actually worked in the Reagan White House! Chomsky's position to this day is that more Cambodians died from U.S. bombing than the genocidalist Khmer Rouge.

I never heard of Diana Johnstone until the Nation magazine published her silly article. There were so many errors of fact, it would have been impossible to respond to all of them in the constraints of a letter. I had to pick 3 or 4 to focus on but The Nation refused to publish my letter taking issue with her absurd contentions. Then, after some weeks, they printed a very weak letter which Johnstone could more easily refute.

I will never forgive Chomsky and other so-called leftists who took the side of Serbian fascist killers. When the subject is genocide, they have no business being wrong.

Keep up the good work.

DeDe Faller,
Bosnia Support Committee

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3. Chomsky described the Srebrenica massacre as 'much lesser'

Friends,

Chomsky described the Srebrenica massacre as 'much lesser' in scale than what he claims was the Indonesian massacre of 5-6,000 East Timorese civilians in 1999.

http://www.hagglundsforlag.se/forfattaredok/Johnstone/ChomskyDararnas.htm

At least, that is the way his passage reads to me, though his prose is sufficiently convoluted that there is admittedly some room for differing interpretations.

In any case, the actual figure for East Timorese civilians killed by the Indonesians and their auxiliaries in the whole of 1999 was 1,400-1,500.

http://greatersurbiton.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/is-it-really-true-that-east-timor-was-worse-than-bosnia-or-kosovo/

Describing the Srebrenica massacre as 'much lesser' than the Indonesian massacres in East Timor of 1999 amounts to minimisation of the Srebrenica massacre, however you look at it. The best Chomsky can plead is ignorance of the facts concerning both atrocities.

Dr Marko Attila Hoare

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Kingston University, London

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4. Chomsky’s Bosnian shame

November 14th, 2009

Following on from the controversy surrounding Noam Chomsky’s October 2009 Amnesty International lecture in Belfast (see here), I have been receiving new information on interviews Professor Noam Chomsky has given in recent years where he discusses, amongst other issues, the 1992 ITN television reports of the Bosnian Serb camps at Omarska and Trnopolje.

My correspondence with Noam Chomsky:

I’ll say some more about these interviews below, but one thing I have always wondered was whether Chomsky was open to evidence that these TV reports were in fact an accurate portrayal of the Prijedor region camps. So, having written the most detailed study available on this issue – Atrocity, Memory, Photography, a two-part academic article – last week I decided to write to Professor Chomsky and ask if he had, or was willing to read, my two articles, and if so, what he thought about them. He did reply, and the reply is revealing.

Here is the verbatim exchange:
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To: Noam Chomsky

Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 1:30 PM

Subject: Bosnian camp photos – the true story of ITN vs LM

Dear Professor Chomsky

In 2002 I published two lengthy, refereed academic articles in the Journal of Human Rights on the controversy surrounding the ITN news reports from the Bosnian Serb camps in 1992. These articles (attached as PDFs) were the result of two years research using many primary sources, and they have been freely available on the web for the last few years.

I am aware that you have made a number of statements repeating and endorsing the substance of the Thomas Deichmann/Living Marxism critique of the ITN reports. I am referring to two items available on your web site, namely the
2005 interview with The Guardian

http://www.chomsky.info/onchomsky/20051031.htm) and the 2006 interview with RTS (http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20060425.htm

In light of my research, I find those statements very disturbing. I believe if you examined the empirical details of the case you would recognize that the Deichmann/LM position is without foundation when it comes to the accuracy of the original TV reports and the meaning of the camp at Trnopolje.

I hope you will read my work, and I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

David Campbell
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Within hours, Chomsky responded:

On 12/11/2009 19:13, “Noam Chomsky” wrote:

Thanks for the reference. I’ll look it up. I doubt that I’ll have any comments, unless you raised the matter of freedom of speech. On the camp and the photo, I've barely discussed it, a single phrase in an interview, in fact, which didn't say much. I realize that the Balkans are a Holy Issue in England, far more sensitive than Israel in the US, so perhaps it is not surprising that a single phrase in an obscure interview, which said virtually nothing, would arouse utter hysteria, as it has.

As for the sources you cite, one of them (the Guardian interview) was known at once to be a complete fabrication, so ridiculous that the Guardian ombudsman quickly issued an apology and it was withdrawn from their website (over my objection — I think the antics of the media should be exposed). As for the other, I said almost nothing about the photo and the camp, apart from repeating Knightley’s conclusions about what was probably the case. I presume you agree that he is a credible source, whether right or wrong.

I’ll be happy to send it to you if you haven't seen it, along with his bitter condemnation of British intellectuals for their shameful contempt for freedom of speech. In the interview to which you referred, that is what I discussed. If you disagree with him, you should write to him, not me.

I am well aware that the concept of freedom of speech is not regarded highly in England, so even this shameful escapade passed with virtually no criticism, in fact with euphoria. I’ll be interested in seeing how you handled it in your articles. I don't see anything at all disturbing in my comments, except that they were perhaps too mild in condemnation of British intellectual practices. I do, however, think you might consider your own reaction, and ask whether the words “very disturbing” might be appropriate.

Noam Chomsky
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This wasn't exactly an invitation to intellectual engagement (“I doubt that I’ll have any comments…”). And he doesn't hesitate to conclude with an attack (that my concern about his statements is itself “very disturbing”).
Given this, I didn't bother with a direct reply. But a public reply is warranted given the seriousness of the issue, so I intend to examine in detail Chomsky’s response.

Let’s skip over the question of whether the Balkans are a “holy issue” in England; whether calling attention to his statements is evidence of “utter hysteria”; and his claim that freedom of speech is “not regarded highly in England” and that “British intellectual practices” are to be condemned tout court. I am neither English nor British, but the more important point is that Chomsky has said all these things many times before, and the repetition of these charges suggests he keeps a stock answer for enquiries such as mine. Engaging with the challenging views doesn't seem to interest him. Of course, If Professor Chomsky decides to debate the substance of the two articles I sent him in a future reply, I will post his response and correct anything below should he demonstrate anything I've written is incorrect.
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The continuation of the article you can find on the following link

http://www.david-campbell.org/2009/11/14/chomskys-bosnian-shame/

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