I recently came across a letter on your web site where

a user wanted to read your www.aljazeerah.info website

in germany instead of english.

maybe you can suggest on your web site that they can

use free services like http://babelfish.altavista.com

which will translate a web page from english to

germany, french,...

Thanks and keep up the good work

SP, ADF/ASF

Hi, my name is Ana Valdés, I am a Latinamerican/Swedish writer living in

Sweden. Together with a colleaghe, Cecilia Parsberg, has being traveling

to Palestine to write and inform about the conflict. We were in Jenin in

April 2002 and documented the destruction and the atrocities which the

Israelian army was responsable for.

We put all material on a website, http://this.is/Jenin

It should be wonderful if you could offer a link to our page in your

webpage. We are going to do a similar project now with the Wall which

Israel construct in Palestine and one other project in Gaza. There are

going to be similar sites, http://this.is/Thewall

 and

http://this.is/Gaza

Best regards

Mar salam!

Ana

To Editor,

Although Al-Jazeerah has photos of military casulties and POWs, it has

decided to show only civilian casualties .

This decision is regrettable and helps the Zionists. All pictures available

should be available to the public. They have the right not to look at them.

Only when the truth is revealed is there a hope that such events could be

prevented in future. Selectively holding information back (editing) is

censorship and does not serve humanity. Don't do what all the others do,

unless you thereby wish to display that you are not much different than

they.

Thanks for appearing to be different so far!

Peter,

Canada

I would stick with your Arabic Version. Your English translation pages are

backfiring. You are killing your credibility with your English audience

and come across as a mouthpiece of the Iraqi Information Ministry not a news

organization

Jeff Jones

Hi Dr. El-Najjaar:

I visit your website often during these times. It is difficult to find

sites for information that is objective and often critical of the

" Empire". To be critical is not necessarily to be biased. On some

matters it is necessary to have bias, for example..bias against the

killing of innocent civilians rather than the opposite bias in favour of

such an action. Bias against illegitimate use of armed force rather than

the opposite bias in favour of such action...etcetera. Your site is

valuable. I get the impression that you have come under some pressure

from the " Empire" or its subordinates of late by the recent suggestion

that we visit the most biased and often dishonest of information

sources, the White House, the State Department and their cheerleaders at

CNN.

Keep up the good work of providing good alternative information and

viewpoint.

Michael O'Neill, Vancouver, Canada

Editor: Thanks Michael. That note was in response to a flood of hate and bashing letters accusing the materials published with bias. The note is corrected now, also as a result of a counter flood of mail like your letter.

Candlelight Vigils

 By Mahbubul Karim (Sohel)

Candlelight vigils and millions of peoples’ unified voices

Ruffling through, and peace dove fluttering its spanned wings over musty air

As if its fleeing is foretold and war is foretold in a predetermined sermon

Serpent’s venom and crushing bulldozer’s demolition of homes and bones

Are all intertwined in the same fashion of predetermination of fate or hold

 Aye! The forceful captain is out in shoving force

Dismantling the wings of dove or silencing people’s voices, sweet or hoarse

Are all the game of poker or other musing gambles

Jackpot if you have lucky numbers or be doomed to shambles

 They want the world to burn

They want the weak to die or mourn

By the bombarded relative’s skeletons

 But the candlelight vigils and millions of peoples’ unity

Not to be reckoned with ceaseless impunity or careless gesture

Thy the endless fabrication and polymerization of organic truth

These are the moment of uncouth frenzy and bamboozled hoot

 Soon the bombs will be falling through the roof of the poor and classless

Iraqi and sansei

And the polymerized fabrics will be worn by the shameless spin masters and

flattered prodigy

To give a color of distortion over the rumpled flesh and blood of fallen and

children

As if none is visible, nothing can be excavated through history and faces

ashen

From the guilt and shame of butchering thousand families for organic gold

Dear Madam, dear Sir,

It is very difficult to find reliable information on war and we try

comparing what they say on various TVs. Unfortunately we receive only

excerpts of your famous Al Jazeerah TV from other TVs; but we can read your

Website. We noticed that the information you provide is often, in a first

time refused by people who invade Iraq and then, one day after, accepted.

This suggests that you do have good sources. Congratulations.

But why do you suggest "complementary information" on sites which are known

for obvious lack of objectivity: "The White House, US State Department". Are you 

surreptitiously in their service? There, they don't have the

same full freedom of expression as us: e.g. TVs gave the information about

the hundreds of people arrested in California when they peacefully

demonstrated against war and violence.

Why don't you suggest, e.g., "Euronews" (http://www.euronews.net/)? We

don't take the risk to say that "Euronews" is the best but it seems much

more neutral than those you hold up as examples!

Our Swiss TV seems often objective (on foreign news). Example: all TV's we

have watched said that Iraqis do not respect Geneva Conventions when they

showed prisoners at TV. Yesterday we heard only Swiss TV

(http://www.tsr.ch/) denouncing that nobody blamed TVs when they showed

Iraqi prisoners and the frisking of Iraqi prisoners, which is the same

infringement of Geneva Conventions.

Why don't you put a link to the Red Cross Website where belligerents can

always read the texts of the Conventions and humanitarian treaties:

http://www.icrc.org/ or

http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/party_gc

If you are interested in it, the famous text of Henry Dunant, the founder

of the Red Cross, is here (from the original edition):

http://un2sg4.unige.ch/athena/dunant/dun_sol.html

We deeply feel that civilized people from "Old Europe" cannot accept a war

- against the will of UNO - for seizure of oil, testing weapons, giving

jobs to military factories, enrich shareholders of building trades.

Yours sincerely.

Pierre Perroud

Pierre: We receive a lot of hate and bashing mail accusing us of bias. We put that sign to tell people that they can find other information in these areas. But this website is completely independent of any influence of any government in the world. There is no way to add all the good websites. Hopefully, your letter will benefit readers. 

Remember Rachel Corrie

Pass it on. Lest we forget our young...

Our Young Poets Had Better Be Strong

by Richard Redhawk (1983)

The trees grow tired

of churning out little magazines

full of young poets

desperate to be reborn in print;

the trees are weary

like the poems of the old poets

who refuse to see tht a world

will not heal the sickness in their hearts

nor end the sorro of the days

which comes each morning

the moment they awaken.

Very soon the trees will give out

and our young poets had better be strong then

because they will be the first to go.

Only the oldest and weariest ones

will be in print then;

they will lack the nobility of spirit

to be still

as the last trees groan

and smash their faces against the Earth.

Only the old and weary poets will

refuse to see

that the last poem on the printed page

will not shade them from the heat

nor stand tall enough to catch the wind.

Then the young ones will have to relearn

singing their songs to soothe a handful

huddled together for warmth and courage;

they will have to be satisfied

that once in a great while

there will be a song so fine

it will be repeated for a thousand years

before it fades away;

our young poets had better be strong then.

My name is Tara DeVries and I am from Australia. I am outraged that my government is supporting the actions of the US, which ultimately only lead to death and destruction (on all fronts) as war cannot bring peace; only peace brings peace.

I have read some of the articles in your website (and particularly enjoyed the cartoons), I thank you for having your news avaliable on the internet - this war is much about propaganda and in Australia our media is mainly limited to American, British and Australian sources. Your site has given me further perspective (although I was already opposing the war), the images I found where particularly disturbing and my heart goes out to ALL who are injured or killed, particularly women and children. May peace be with all.

I am sorry for the things that go on.............

 Kyle

From: Salum Masoud (3/25/03)

Subject: Need for Aljazeera TV in English

Asalaam aleikhum,

It has come to my light that the Iraq war is 100% dominated by propaganda of western MEDIA lead by CNN & BBC. The main objective of USA & Britain governments is to make sure that their people do not get the information of what exactly is happening in Iraq, so that they can continue getting support from them.

I would like to request you to take an emergency decision of establishing English service, because most people in USA, Britain and other World doesn't know Arabic, in addition to that you can advertise heavily your "website" so that different people can be visiting it.

I'm taking this opportunity to congratulate you for the superb job your doing of revealing the fact of this unacceptable war. I can assure you that your TV Station is famous than you can imagine.

Please consider to pass this idea to all other Arabic Television stations including Iraq television.

Editor: Thanks. We are not related to Aljazeer TV. I hope that they can read your letter.

From: Kausar Khan (3/24/03)

Subject: US war on Iraq

This is the first time in the history that one president is ordering another president to leave his own country otherwise there will be war. This war is illegal, against humanity and torture, This war is just an excuse for USA to show its power, Only USA has the right to keep dangerous arms! why not others? Is this justice?

This war is the warning not only to the Arab world but threatening to the whole world. All parts of the world should not only stand up but take action against it (peacefully), it is the USA who should not be allowed to keep dangerous means of arms.

From Rita Buschmann, Germany (3/24/03)

Subject: Translation of Al-Jazeerah articles from English into German

Further to your comment on Claudi Thöne's e-mail ("In case anybody is interested in cooperating with Al-Jazeerah for that purpose, please write back to the editor"), I don't have the resources to translate a whole website, but I would like to offer support in translating a few articles into German.

Thanks for offering readers an uncensored source of information. I wish we also had Al-Jazeerah TV here in Germany.

Editor: Thanks Rita, very much. Go ahead and start translating any number of Al-Jazeerah news or op ed articles, send them to the editor, and Al-Jazeerah will start a new section in German. I welcome other German readers to contribute to the creation of Al-Jazeerah in German. You need to include the link to the English article article. Good Luck, waiting for your articles.

From: Olafur Thordarson, New York, USA (3/23/03)

Subject: September 11 was not a hoax

For the last 6 years I have lived and worked two blocks south of the World Trade Center. I witnessed the entire event up-close out of my windows in clear-view and evacuated my premises right after the south tower collapsed.

I am an architect with pretty good experience around New York City in knowing about existing skyscraper construction. I saw up close (approx. 300m) the second airplane fly into the building and the subsequent and actual structural failure of the towers.

I just read the article by Mr. John Kaminski (Sept 11 was a hoax) and must say that some of the statements do more harm to AlJazzeerah´s reputation than good. This particular article has a lot of disinformation. Surely the president's and the air force behaviour is highly questionable that morning as is well written about Gore Vidal's "Dreaming War" and others.

In relation to Mr. Kaminsky's article, I can assure you of two facts: 

1. It is absolutely false that there were explosives in the towers. The burning gasoline from the airplanes was flowing down the sides of the towers and obviously down the elevator shafts and stairwells. I guess Mr. Kaminsky hasn't seen a jetliner explode on impact.

2. It is totally false to assert that there was "substance utilized in the demolition of the structures" because the fires raged for so long. It is "normal" that fires would rage for 100 days. Because: We are talking about office materials, furniture, papers, local oil tanks, incredible amounts of plastic parts, interior wood finishes, even cars etc. Material for 110 floors is the equivalent of materials of 110 acres, per tower, already tightly packed as in the proper use of an expensive office space in an expensive city. Of course it burns for a long time. And this smelled of NOTHING you ever smelled before.

And any New York architect and firefighter knows the basic fact that a steel structure such as a skyscraper can fail if the fire rages long enough. Steel doesn't take that much to melt, in fact it is totally illegal to have it unprotected by some fire proofing material.

Editor: Your prompt commentary as well as Kaminsky's analysis will be appreciated by readers who have the right to know about various possibilities, explanations, and interpretations.

From: Chris Edwards, Anti-war videographer, Manchester, UK (3/23/03)

Subject: Anti-war and war videos

Dear Editor,

I have uploaded videos of many of the anti-war activities that happened in Manchester, UK over the past days, including a strike of school children against the Iraq war.

They are all conveniently located on the same tv.Oneworld.net page They are at:

http://tv.oneworld.net/tapestry?story=647

Perhaps this might be of interest to your readers? Do you have any videos of the atrocities being committed by US/UK in Iraq? I would be happy to upload video footage to anti-war web-sites in the West.

You can also e-mail me video files directly--I have broadband.

Regards,

Editor: This is a great contribution to the cause of peace. This is education. Most people are more likely to be moved by seeing rather than by reading. Readers can send in links to websites that have such videos. or to you at oneworld.net.

Concerning footage of the war, you can have that through Al-Jazeerah TV, and Abu Dhabi TV. They present 24 hour coverage from Iraq. You can access them through Arab Sat in Europe and through Dish Network in the United States. But, your suggestion of creating war video websites will be helpful to people everywhere.

From: John Kaminski (3/23/03).

Subject: Oppose an Oregon law bill that punishes anti-war demonstrators

Dear friends,

This is serious and urgent. There is a clear and present danger to democracy in Oregon which could spread to other states.Senate Bill 742 proposed by Oregon State Senator Minnis (R-Dist. 25 /Fairview)(Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee) creates the crime of "terrorism" -- punishable by life imprisonment. Senator Minnisdefines "terrorism" so broadly that even being present at a demonstration that is in any way "disruptive" could result in life imprisonment.

I have given the relevant sections of the bill below, as well as the link to the whole bill. I have also provided information from theAmerican Civil Liberties Union regarding this, including contact Information for the relevant Oregon State Senators.

Ever since laws began to be passed criminalizing "terrorism," I have been concerned that its definition would be expanded to include anything that authorities wished to suppress which could then be subject to extreme punishment, laying the groundwork for serious suppression. It seems that is now happening. It must be energetically nipped in the bud if we are to prevent its spread.

If this law passes in Oregon, it is highly likely that other states will pass similar laws, especially in the current political climate.

From: Lawrence Mosqueda, Ph.D. (2/23/03)

Subject: A DUTY TO DISOBEY ALL UNLAWFUL ORDERS

Many articles have been written on the illegality and the immorality of Bush's plans to attack the people of Iraq. While many of these articles are excellent, they are not usually directed at the people who need to read them the most-the members of the armed forces of the United States. If you find this information useful, please forward this article, especially to anyone you know in the military or to websites that they would frequent. Permission is granted to forward, post, or publish this article. This article was recently published at

http://www.counterpunch.org/mosqueda02272003.html.

 It is also at

http://www.omjp.org//ArtLarryDisobey.html.

From: John Armstrong (3/22/03)

Subject: Al-Jazeerah and the horrible war

I just stumbled across your website in the recent surge of information that has begun to flow in the wake of this horrible war and while I do not agree with many of your points I do respect them and will continue to read on a regular basis and assimilate the opinions of those I do not agree with. Please continue your work.

I was specifically pleased to see the 'occasional' insightful look at the Arab political culture and its own partial responsibility for the situation the Arab world finds itself in. Hopefully you will not silence these voices of dissent who seek to bring balance and fairness to Arab culture.

Editor: Thanks John for the search engine. Many readers requested it in the past. I agree with you, so do millions of Arabs, with regard to the responsibility of Arab rulers to this war. Things will not be business as usual from now on. There will be an Arab awakening that will confront these rulers.

From: James Cowan, Toronto, Canada (3/21/03).

Subject: Canadians are also against the war on Iraq

I have been reading reports of protests, peace marches, and vigils in support

of peace that have been occurring around the globe since yesterday, including

your own. Here is some information that you may not be aware of.

In terms of the USA, not only were there relatively small protests taking place

in US cities (according to US media), save for a more sizeable one in San

Francisco, but I have also read that in Chicago a crowd of 10,000 protesters

repeatedly broke through lines of riot police to continue their march. See the

story entitled "U.S. protesters out in force Thursday", carried on Canadian

Broadcasting Corporation's web site:

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/03/21/usprotests_030321 

for verification.

Also, and the main reason I am writing, is to suggest you attend to what is

happening in Canada also. There have been protests, marches, and vigils in

many major Canadian cities, some large, some small. In the city of Halifax,

for instance, 11 protesters were arrested. I was involved in a march in

Toronto which included at least two separate marches that intentionally

converged at a key intersection to block traffic for half an hour, before

moving on through downtown streets to arrive at the US Consulate to join what

became a sizeable rally that included speeches by leaders of a Federal

opposition party, Persian expatriates, Christian church representatives,

students, etc.. All in all I would estimate that up to 6 or 7 thousand

marchers showed up to rally at the consulate.

This event can be verified in a story entitled "Antiwar protests erupt across

the globe", on the web site of the Globe and Mail:

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030321.wxuprotn/BNStory/

National

as well as in a story entitled "Canadians protest war; 11 arrested in Halifax",

on the web site of The Toronto Star:

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?

pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1048201307938&call_pageid=96

8332188492&col=968705899037

Moreover, there is another march/rally planned for Saturday which will surely

draw more people.

It would be good to share the knowledge with your readers that not all North

Americans are sympathetic to US agendas, and many Canadians wish to be counted

among the global ranks of dissenters.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. 

~ Albert Einstein

From: Rita Buschmann, Hamburg, Germany (3/23/03).

Subject: Expressing deepest sympathy and respect for the Arab people.

Dear Editor,

This is to express my deepest sympathy and respect for the Arab world. Most people in my country are horrified and full of anger by what has been and still is going on in Iraq, how the Bush regime has made the Iraqi people suffer, and how Palestinians have been murdered, oppressed and swept into the arms of the war criminal Ariel Sharon.

The trigger-happy Bush administration can brainwash and deceive the mass-media, his own people, and a few corrupt and hypocritical statesmen but he cannot fool and intimidate the whole world!

This (non-elected) President is a danger to all of us. Now, that he has shown his true face, the world will no longer just watch and shut up. Keep it up!!! Our thoughts are with you.

From: Claudi Thöne, Germany (3/21/03)

Subject: Why not Al-Jazeerah in German and other languages?

Hello,

excuse me, but my English is not so good, but I will ask.

Why isn't there Al-Jazeerah in other languages, on the internet and TV? For example, in German. I think this will enable people in other countries to learn more about the world. We have more news about Germany only or about other western countries. It is urgent, particularly now because of war in Iraq.

I would appreciate it if you can answer in German, so I can better understand.

Thank you very much. Nice greetings.

Editor: This is a good suggestion. It has been made before by other readers. We are interested in pursuing it. In case anybody is interested in cooperate with Al-Jazeerah for that purpose, please write back to the editor (Note: the above letter was edited).

From: C W Turner (3/20/03)

Subject: Marc Grossman: New Iraqi regime must recognize Israel

UN to have no political power in postwar Iraq

By Guy Dinmore and Peronet Despeignes in Washington and Henry,Hamman in Miami

Financial Times

Published: March 20 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: March 20 2003 4:00

Gen Tommy Franks will take immediate charge of Iraq once Saddam Hussein is overthrown, but the head of US Central Command will then start the process of handing over government to an interim Iraqi authority, a senior US official said yesterday.

Marc Grossman, under-secretary of state, said Gen Franks would be supported by Jay Garner, head of the Pentagon's new Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, but he declined to confirm reports that Gen Franks would hold the position of interim civilian administrator. Mr Garner's job, he said, was to show the benefits of reconstruction to the Iraqi people.

"Iraqi democracy will have to be defined by the Iraqi people," Mr Grossman said. Answering a question, he said he hoped that one of the first decisions of a new Iraqi government would be to recognise the state of Israel.

Subject: Dangerous, pro-war websites

I found your web-site two ore three months ago. Since this time I read it every day. It has become the homepage of my browsers. And I told a lot of people, what astonishing site is on the net.

Thank you for the daily information, that will not be shown on CNN and FOX. I'm from Germany. And I'm very happy, that my government is at this time not with the aggressors, together with France and a lot of other nations. The fact itself is astonishing, that Germany not is on the war side.

But the result is an Uncle Sam, who forgot his own education. Please have a closer look at the following websites to get an impression, what happens outside the closer war-region.

http://www.germany-stinks.com

http://www.axis-of-weasels.com

http://www.francesucks.com

The first two sites are owned by Mr. Christopher Guild, which is addressed at www.nic.com with 'Senate Office Building, Washington DC, 20510'. The third web-address is protected very well, but it relates to the first ones.

These sites show very well, which kind of brains are working out the present strategies of war. Please bring this light of human thinking to the public with your means. They should get emails from all over the world to think about and to fill their mailboxes.

If it is possible, you should add this address to a special (NEW) section of your website, together with the gulf-war-play, you offered  http://idleworm.wolffelaar.nl/nws/2002/11/swf/iraq2.swf 

I think, there are a lot of people on the world, who detect other such sites of psychological war.

We should collect them together and then ask the US, what's going on by such forms of terrorism.

Greetings

From: David Allison, Dundee . Scotland . UK (3/14/03).

Subject: Scottish Muslim children (asylum seekers) put in Concentration Camps

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2849451.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2847513.stm

A Scientist, who was constantly worried about world's problems, was resolved to find the means to curtail them. He spent days in his laboratory in search of answers.

One day, his 7 year old son invaded his sanctuary wishing to help him. The scientist, upset because the interruption, asked him to go elsewhere to play. Realizing that it was impossible to send him away, the father thought about something that could distract his attention. Suddenly, he found a magazine which had a map of the world in a page, just what he needed.

He cut the map in a lot of pieces with his scissors and gave the parts along with some tape and said to him: "Given that you like puzzles, I'm giving to you the broken world for you to fix it without anybody's help". He calculated that it would take 10 days for his son to assemble the map, but it didn't happen that way. Some hours after, he heard the child's voice, calmly calling him: "Dad, dad, I did it, I finished it".

At first, the father didn't believe his son. He thought that it would be impossible for him to assemble a map that he had never seen before. Unbelieving, the father stopped looking at his notes with the certainty of looking to a typical child's work. To his surprise, the map was complete.

All pieces had been put into their correct places. How was it possible? How was the boy able to do it? So, the astonished father asked his son: "Son, you didn't know how was the world like, how did you make it?"

"Dad," replied the boy, "I didn't know how was the world like, but as you ripped out the map page I noticed that in the other face of the page was a man. So I flipped the page pieces and began to fix the man, which I knew how it was like. When I managed to fix the man, I turned the page and realized I fixed the world".

From: Afef Klouj, Washington, DC (3/12/03)

Subjects: Victims of the 1991 Gulf War and the UN sanctions 

I needed to find the estimated number of Iraqi victims resulting from the gulf war (1991) and the number of Iraqi victims as a result of the UN sanctions. I wish you have a search option on your web site so I can search previous Al-jazeerah postings but you don't have a search option.

My search on google came up with a document on your web site that contains the following text "This number is derived by adding the 200,000 Iraqis that General Schwarzkapf estimated were killed in the Gulf War to..." But when I clicked on it, it said document not found. I tried several times. Could you please help me locate it or give me some reliable web references where I can find the estimates I am looking for? Thanks.

Editor: The question of victims of wars is of great importance because it is rarely mentioned by politicians, war mongers, and their media (propaganda) machine. A considerable part of the Chapter titled, The Mother of All Battles, in my book The Gulf War: Overreaction & Excessiveness. is about excessiveness, that is the degree of death and destruction.

Estimates of the number of Iraqi soldiers who were killed during the 1991 Gulf War range between 150,000 (Schwarzkopf) and 360,000. Concerning Iraqis who died as a result of sanctions since 1990, they are estimated about one and a half million, including more than half a million children. This is also documented in my book, with reference to Huda Salih Ammash's research about the use of depleted uranium. 

From Hassan Shakeel (3/7/03)

Assalaamu'alaikum

How can the Muslim countries let the non-Muslims in their country to kill the Muslims in another country? Shame, just remember judgment day.

Editor: I answered your question before, in the following interactive editorial:

Why do some Arab states collaborate with the US against each other, By Hassan El-Najjar and Husna Naim