[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> I don't like to be sour in writing these posts, but I have to observe that,
> somehow, chomskyites engage is selective attention, which blocks out facts
> that are unwelcome. Your post seems to be the result of a case in point.
> The reality is that the statement made by a kidnapper and widely quoted was
> as follows: "He was killed because he was anti-Islamic and a Jew." There was
> no mention of a previous accusation that he was CIA. As I have explained in
> an earlier post, given Daniel Pearl's personal and professional situations,
> he would have been insane to be a CIA collaborator. What could be clearer?

No, it isn't a case in point.  I was quite clear stating that I didn't
know Pearl was Jewish.  That's not the result of "selective attention."
I didn't see the "widely quoted" report, and that's not because I have
blocked out facts that are unwelcome.  Now, thanks to you, I know that
Pearl was Jewish. That fact is still irrelevant to the original point
made by Mr Simmons, which was that we didn't indicate our indignation as
a way of urging the kidnappers to release the kidnapped American Jew,
the way we indicated our indignation that the Guantanamo Bay prisoners
of war were not classified as prisoners of war.  Or something.  I'm not
really sure what Simmons' message was meant to prove, but he certainly
didn't identify the American Jew held captive as Daniel Pearl.  Why
not?  Why refer to Daniel Pearl as an American Jew instead of by his
name, Daniel Pearl?

Pearl's citizenship and his religion are irrelevant to Simmons' point,
which was about his expectation that we should express indignation, and
which had nothing to do with your point, which is about why the
kidnappers killed Daniel Pearl.  Also, Pearl had the US State
Department, The Pakistani government, the WSJ, CNN, and almost certainly
the CIA working on his behalf.  Finally, it is morally wrong to kill,
injure, or otherwise abuse civilians to achieve a political end, whether
its fundamentalist fanatics doing it or the US government.

Who said Pearl was a CIA collaborator, and what does that even mean?

Are there any facts *relevant* about the Daniel Pearl case that we
ignored?  Or is Simmons really the only one who deliberately ignored
relevant facts?

martin

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