Allin, I'd be prepared to request family members of mine in St. Louis to get to the source who confirmed that it "was old footage". Or, I could do it myself the next time I get to St. Louis, probably January. Or, if you plan a St. Louis visit, I may be able to arrange a meeting. (Incidentally, I was copying to the list a message from someone I know very well, not an 'acquaintance'; furthermore, the 'contact' was a named St. Louis peace activist.) It should be possible to get to the bottom of this and perhaps SEE the videos in question. I guess it depends upon how is important energy now spent on this item. Rakesh thinks it's inconsequential but I don't. I sense you agree the truth of the matter is consequential, but you are convinced of CNN's truthfulness. (The fact of the retraction by Brazilian student isn't meaningful, as far as I am concerned.) In any case, I of course agree that the left is best served by truth. In my opinion, pictoral images are extremely penetrating to the consciousness and can completely submerge a verbal statement, e.g., by Arafat (who hasn't credibility here, anyway). Words are often forgetten; those pictures are seered into many minds and become part of the background for racist attacks and discrimination. Wasn't it Colin Powell as a major who drafted a report that there was no My Lai massacre, eight months after it took place? In our case, probably by the time we have actual footage, people will be onto something else (e.g., are tactical nuclear weapons being used or not?). Paul ************************************************************************ Paul Zarembka, editor, RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY at ********************* http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka Allin Cottrell <cottrell@wfu.edu> said, on 09/21/01: >On Fri, 21 Sep 2001, Paul Zarembka wrote: >> "we had also heard from ___ (pacifist peace activist in St. Louis) that the >> initial film footage of some Palestians celebrating the terrorist attacks >> was old footage -- a friend of his had found the old footage in a video >> library that the friend keeps." >So now, to back up Chai-on's report of an unnamed Korean preacher's having >unspecified reasons for believing the video to be fake, we have a report >that a friend of a contact of an acquaintance of yours believes the same. >Allin C.
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