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July 14, 2002
Secret campaigns
Always wondered about the expression "secret bombing campaign". Wouldn't the people getting the bombs dropped on them kind'a notice that there were bombs getting dropped on them?
Then I remembered that they're little brown people and no one gives a fuck, and the campaign was secret for the folks who matter. The ones in the U.S. paying for it.
The Associated Press, in a piece printed/repurposed various places, reports that China has released the man believed to be their longest-held political prisoner, after 19 years:
BEIJING - A Tibetan teacher believed to be China's longest-held political prisoner arrived in the United States on Saturday, freed nine years early from a prison sentence on medical grounds after months of intensive negotiations with a leading U.S. human rights activist.
Tanak Jigme Sangpo, 74, arrived in Chicago from Beijing on Saturday afternoon in ``pretty good health'' despite serious high blood pressure and coronary disease, said John Kamm, president of the San Francisco-based Duihua Foundation. He said Jigme Sangpo was ``frail but mentally sharp.''
His mistake was campaigning against Chinese rule in Tibet. The charges, according to the article, were "counterrevolutionary incitement and propaganda". No suggestion he actually committed violence, although you could interpret "incitement" to mean he was suggesting it to others. More or less. If you squint a little.
The article includes a quote from U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt:
Our goal is not that China should be just like Dorothy's Kansas, but we do insist that China abide by certain international norms.
I'm sure that sentence was actually coherent in context.
Just for the sake of comparison, Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years. Dhoruba bin Wahad matches Jigme Sangpo with 19 years behind bars. Geronimo Pratt matches Mandela, with 27. Leonard Peltier is still in prison, which trumps everyone.
Unless you accept that the U.S. doesn't have political prisoners, and never has.
We weren't bombing Cambodia, either.
Posted by Aaron at July 14, 2002 08:22 AM
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