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HOLLYWOOD AND THE CIA — Film historian Ed Rampell details Hollywood’s entangled relationship with the CIA and the Pentagon; HOUSES OF THE DEAD: Nancy Kurshan exposes the cruel human rights offenses taking place inside America’s vast gulag of Control Unit Prisons; BROTHERHOOD OF SUMMER: David Macaray charts the history of the most powerful union in the US: the Baseball Players Association; TAR SANDS COME TO AMERICA: Steve Horn explains how the Keystone Pipeline debates have diverted attention from Big Oil’s other plans to transport Alberta’s oil into the US. PLUS: Jeffrey St. Clair on CONSTITUTIONAL ENTROPY; Mike Whitney on HOW THE BANKS TARGETED BLACKS; Chris Floyd on THE RISE OF BRITAIN’S TEA PARTY; Kristin Kolb on THE NEEDLE AND THE DAMAGE DONE; Kim Nicolini on the FILMS OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN; and Lee Ballinger on POETS VS. THE ONE PERCENT.

Weekend Edition February 8-10, 2002

ADC Calls for Attorney General's Resignation Following Anti-Islamic Remarks

Ashcroft the Bigot

by CounterPunch Wire

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the largest Arab-American civil rights organization, called on President George W. Bush to distance himself from anti-Islamic statements attributed to Attorney General Ashcroft and demanded the latter’s immediate resignation.

ADC President Ziad J. Asali and Vice President Khalil E. Jahshan, wrote President Bush to express Arab-American condemnation of the Ashcroft statement which they described as “inflammatory, fanatical and inexcusable, particularly coming from the Attorney General of the United States.”

In an article by Cal Thomas in Crosswalk.com News Channel, Ashcroft is quoted as saying that “Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you.”

Asali and Jahshan emphasized to President Bush that the statement attributed to Ashcroft negates the goodwill sought by the President throughout the past five months and added that the statement “contradicts your personal position and that of your Administration regarding Islam as a religion. An irresponsible and bigoted statement of this sort will undoubtedly derail your tireless efforts in emphasizing that the war against terrorism is not one against Islam or Muslims.”