"My car was covered with chunks of human flesh. There were two girls covered in blood and human flesh who were crawling through the snow"

Vladimir Khomerkov,
Moscow bomb witness

(a) antisemitism exists and people legitimately raising that concern are often wrongly villified and attacked
AND
(b) antisemitism is unjustly used by individuals, groups, and authorities to chill and silent legitimate and much needed criticism of the unjust acts of violence and opression done by the state of Israel.

In Saddam’s time we used to whisper about Al-Dujaile, we all knew that a massacre happened there, but we didn’t dare to ask about the details and I never met any one from there. Now I can know all about it from my new friend and here it is, in his own words:

-"Al-Dujaile is my home town, I always looked at it as god’s heaven on earth......

- Date: 7/8/1982, Saddam decides to visit the village, the Ba’ath party in the region prepared the people to make a big reception, they took us out of the schools (I was 7 years old). They made us line in a row on both sides of the road to wave for him and cheer his name. It never occurred to me that it would be my last day in the childhood world. I was forced to skip that period of my life with such cruelty that I can not explain.

-17 of the finest young men in the village had decided to put an end to the tyrant’s life at that day, they had the courage to face him, we didn’t know about their intention. The brave men set an ambush among the palm trees, they couldn’t tell which car was his, there were dozens of cars, all identical in model and color.

-The attack starts, the brave young men open fire from their simple weapons, some of the body guards get killed, others wounded, the tyrant get panicked, imagine that (Saddam is afraid) the man who enjoyed terrorizing people lives a moment of fear with all its details, he was so close to death this time. 8 of the attackers were killed, the rest fled out of the country.

(Woe to the sinners) who dared to make him scared, you should fear his revenge, you should learn the lesson so that it won’t happen again, you should bow more and more and fear more and more, you should be scared to death so that you don’t dare even to think of harming him; the shadow of god on earth.

-The answer was fast, one hour after the escape of the tyrant, we had to face his anger, I heard the sound of helicopters over our heads wreaking their vengeance upon our small village, backed later with shovels that leveled the trees with the ground, the order was clear(the terror should be great) so that the others would learn.

The women and children had their share, and this is what saw: extraction of nails and teeth, electric shocks, whipping with lashes, using razors to tear the skin into shreds, my aunt was left hanging from the roof after her clothes had been wrapped of her in front of her brothers to force them to talk. Do you know how much pain we suffered? Can you imagine? I doubt it.

Date: 4/9/2003, I can’t believe it, the tyrant falls, is it a dream? Does it mean no more fear, no more terror, and no more death? We jumped into the streets wreaking our vengeance on his pictures and statues that surrounded the village he raped in a dark night. The towns and villages expelled him and expelled his name

..WE WERE SAVED.

I took a deep breath, the air had the scent of freedom, nothing can be more beautiful, it’s difficult to describe, but we were overwhelmed by happiness, with only one distress: where had our beloved ones gone?

We started to search the security departments in Baghdad - like thousands of Iraqis - looking for a trace, I didn’t take a long time, we found what we were looking for. The documents of the crime, I read with tears in my eyes; the presidency order dated: 7 /23 /1985, signed by the tyrant, ordering the execution of 143 men from Al-Dujaile, the youngest one (Najeeb Abd Kadim) 11 years old. Among these, 35 were relatives of mine.

My friend surprised me saying ”we don’t regret what happened, and yesterday, when the nine remaining heroes returned to Iraq, we met them with flowers, as the heroes of all the Iraqis, and we will never blame them, as they’re the ones who kept our chins up.”

This is what peace looked like in Iraq at Saddam’s time.

The battle is not over yet, the evil and cruel criminals are every where, and they will not rest until they kidnap our dreams, but this time we’re stronger, as we are not alone. The whole good and brave people on earth took it upon themselves to fight with us, we hate wars and all the bloodshed that comes with them, but we have no other choice.

Let us all dream of a world of love and real peace.

"We have to get this piece of living, breathing s--- out of the office," said comedian Judy Gold whose performance--like those of Janeane Garofalo and David Cross--was liberally larded with the F-word. . . .

Garofalo last night described the Medicare prescription-drug bill that Bush signed yesterday as the " ’you can go-f--- yourself, Grandma’ bill."

Gold ridiculed Democrat Joseph Lieberman for being unable to campaign on Jewish holidays.

I went to a rally in Atlanta about three months ago, perhaps the same one to which the lovestruck gentleman in your story went. Anyhow, the people who entertained the crowd while the governor was wrapping up a previous engagement were a complete embarrassment.

First, a "poet" took the stage, and reeled off an Amiri Baraka-lite poem about exploding owls how America should look in the mirror when it tries to pin the blame of September 11 on someone, and how there were lots of poor people in America. I don’t know much about spoken-word poetry, but this thing sucked on both aesthetic and polemical levels.

Next, a guitar-strumming bum took the stage and sang a stridently anti-Bush song, asked the audience if it was "fully loaded" yet, and added "f---" to a few blues covers (as far as I know, it wasn’t John Kerry in disguise). I turned to my roommate in shock, and he at me.

(2003-12-09) -- Former presidential candidate Al Gore this afternoon said he was tricked into endorsing Howard Dean and had intended to back his former running mate, Senator Joseph Lieberman. Mr. Dean allegedly imitated Mr. Lieberman’s voice in a late night phone call to Mr. Gore, and invited him to Harlem to announce his endorsement.

"By the time I realized that I wasn’t endorsing Joe, I was already there at the podium with Howard," said Mr. Gore. "It was embarrassing, but there was nothing I could do about it. It was already out there."

In a scene reminiscent of the story of Jacob and Esau from the Bible, Mr. Lieberman came in at the end of Mr. Gore’s speech and pleaded with him.

"Have you not reserved an endorsement for me?" cried Mr. Lieberman. "Do you have only one endorsement to give? Endorse me also, Al."

But Mr. Gore remained stoic.

"Howard came deceitfully and has taken away your endorsement," he said. "I have virtually made him the Democrat nominee, and he shall rule over you."