Mordechau Vanunu, the man that told the world about Israel's nuclear weapons is a 'free' man today. Or rather, he got to leave jail. He spent 11 of the 18 years in solitary confinement, believe it or not.
The police are keeping him under surveillance 24 hours a day, so his freedom is relative, but at least he's out of jail.
Here's the link:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2004/s1092232.htm

I think this man is a hero!

What, it's a crime to tell the world that hey, this country has nukes, and it can blow anything off the face of the earth if it wants to ? Some people like to say that about other countries, even if it's not true. And it is true in this case...
:rolleyes:
(did the above make any sense?)

I'm on his side of the issue! Yay for Mordechau Vanunu!!
(Feel free to gang up on me. I can fight back. :) )

not to be taken as a threat. but I do have arguments to counter your arguments.

(did the above make any sense?)
It made a lot of sense to me! This is how twisted the world is. The only nuclear power in the Middle East is Israel. And this guy had enough of a conscience to make that public. I think it's a terrible injustice that he was put in prison for 18 years, but I'm glad he made it out of prison alive and sane.

Am I supposed to know who he is?...

Am I supposed to know who he is?...
No, you're not. The Israeli and American government tried very hard to make sure people don't know who he is.

No, you're not. The Israeli and American government tried very hard to make sure people don't know who he is.
They must not have tried hard enough...I knew who he was before he was released.

You know, there is an erroneous perception in other countries that Americans are so in the dark about what is happening in the world. I remember when starlet mentioned that no one in the states knew about what was happening in Spain with the terrorist bombings, yet the story was plastered all over our newspapers and television screens.

I also knew about this Vanunu fellow. Perceptions are not necessarily truths.

Most kids in the U.S. can't name the Vice President of the United States, it doesn't mean America is trying to hide the fact that they have a Vice President ;)

Sorry, I just see so much misinformation!

I've never heard of him......but YAY!!!!

I've never heard of him before, but now that I have, I'm on his side. :)

I'm glad he made it out of prison alive, I don't know if I would, 18 years is a long time.

I reckon it must feel like a lifetime if 11 of those 18 years are spent in solitary confinement :(
Imagine what that must do to a person...
He seems remarkably sane, after all he's been through.

They must not have tried hard enough...I knew who he was before he was released.

You know, there is an erroneous perception in other countries that Americans are so in the dark about what is happening in the world. I remember when starlet mentioned that no one in the states knew about what was happening in Spain with the terrorist bombings, yet the story was plastered all over our newspapers and television screens.

I also knew about this Vanunu fellow. Perceptions are not necessarily truths.

Most kids in the U.S. can't name the Vice President of the United States, it doesn't mean America is trying to hide the fact that they have a Vice President ;)

Sorry, I just see so much misinformation!

Its definatly one of the American stereotypes that you guys don't care about anything outside of America yeah (along with you are all fat, stupid and brash :lol:)
I do think all stereotypes come from somewhere, and i do believe a lot of americans are ignorant to the rest of the world...but that in no way applys to everyone in america...and it also applys to people in other countries too.

Anyway yeah, hope that guy can get on with his life now!

Most kids in the U.S. can't name the Vice President of the United States, it doesn't mean America is trying to hide the fact that they have a Vice President ;)



I get so angry when people don't know that. I mean that is really sad.

and yay for him. Solitary for 11 yeards *shudder*

Its definatly one of the American stereotypes that you guys don't care about anything outside of America yeah (along with you are all fat, stupid and brash :lol:)
I do think all stereotypes come from somewhere, and i do believe a lot of americans are ignorant to the rest of the world...but that in no way applys to everyone in america...and it also applys to people in other countries too.

Anyway yeah, hope that guy can get on with his life now!
Well, I wasn't really getting at stereotypes (the dutch are potheads and ^^^ addicts, the british can't cook and are physically unfit, all americans are fat, the germans like to drink too much beer etc.).

I was more concerned about the perception that people in Europe have that the American government successfully hides world news from its people. I think that's a false perception.

Well, I wasn't really getting at stereotypes (the dutch are potheads and ^^^ addicts, the british can't cook and are physically unfit, all americans are fat, the germans like to drink too much beer etc.).

I was more concerned about the perception that people in Europe have that the American government successfully hides world news from its people. I think that's a false perception.

If you watch the BBC (yay for cable and BBC America (bit of an oxymoron there)!) they put things in that you wouldn't ordinarily hear. Like that the Israelis blocked shipments of food (from the UN organization for the purpose of distributing food and aid, I forget its acronym.) into either Gaza or the West Bank. It was a while ago, forgive me.

We get told about world events, sure, but I find that it's filtered.

Nowadays, from what I know, there is a scensorship on the news in the States, for example, the number of deaths from the war in Iraq is not to be mentioned, and no coffins or body bags from the war are to be shown on TV.
This is to keep the American public from realising that Iraq is turning into a 2nd Vietnam.
Also, I've been told, but I don't know if it's accurate, a few weeks ago, when four westerners (3 of them were Americans) were attacked in their car, burnt, and then their bodies were dragged through the streets and what was left of their carcasses was hang up for public display, the actual images were not shown on American TV, though the news was told on TV.
Now those images were on TV here, and they are so bad they give you nightmares. So I think they should not be shown on the 7 pm news when children are watching, but I feel it is wrong to ban something altogether because it is so horrible. The public has a right to know.

As for whether or not the government succeeds in keeping the people ignorant, largely depends on the people themselves. With Internet, you can choose to find out these things for yourself, with or without your government's approval.

As for your statement, Lissa:
the dutch are potheads and ^^^ addicts, the british can't cook and are physically unfit, all americans are fat, the germans like to drink too much beer etc.).

It's true that the British can't cook, all Americans are fat, all Germans drink too much, everyone knows that.
But THE DUTCH ARE NOT POTHEADS!!!

Just kidding. The Dutch really are.

Nowadays, from what I know, there is a scensorship on the news in the States, for example, the number of deaths from the war in Iraq is not to be mentioned, and no coffins or body bags from the war are to be shown on TV.
This is to keep the American public from realising that Iraq is turning into a 2nd Vietnam.
Also, I've been told, but I don't know if it's accurate, a few weeks ago, when four westerners (3 of them were Americans) were attacked in their car, burnt, and then their bodies were dragged through the streets and what was left of their carcasses was hang up for public display, the actual images were not shown on American TV, though the news was told on TV.
Now those images were on TV here, and they are so bad they give you nightmares. So I think they should not be shown on the 7 pm news when children are watching, but I feel it is wrong to ban something altogether because it is so horrible. The public has a right to know.

As for whether or not the government succeeds in keeping the people ignorant, largely depends on the people themselves. With Internet, you can choose to find out these things for yourself, with or without your government's approval.

As for your statement, Lissa:


It's true that the British can't cook, all Americans are fat, all Germans drink too much, everyone knows that.
But THE DUTCH ARE NOT POTHEADS!!!

Just kidding. The Dutch really are.
I hear the number of American troops and Iraqi citizens killed every day on the TV news, and I read it in the newspaper. They have wounded and dead tolls published every day.

As for the coffins, it has been a policy in America for the last decade (10 years if you don't know what that is) to protect the privacy of families of slain military members. They are not allowed to publicly show coffins in the media (although I saw them on TV last night...). The media is allowed to attend their funerals, and take photos and publish them only with the permission of the family of the deceased.

On my television, in my living room, I saw the charred bodies of all four of the slain civilians hanging from the bridge. It was also published in my local newspaper. Not every newspaper chose to run the photos. The point is, though, they have a choice to print whatever they want.

Sure some news companies report what they want and leave out what they want. It's their right to tell the news the way they want to tell it. Some major news stations are democratic, and tell the news with a democratic slant. Some of them are republican, and tell the news with a more conservative slant.

But the notion that the American government keeps news away from the Americans to such a huge degree just absolutely amazes me since I've seen no evidence of it. Maybe it's something that your media or governments want you to believe about America?

While you were here, Marianne, you should have read our newspaper ;)

While you were here, Marianne, you should have read our newspaper ;)
I suppose I should have, I definitely was ill-informed!

We can't cook? I wasn't aware of that one :lol: Id be offended....if i could cook :P
What papers and news stations were these Lissa? I see it as more of a mainstream thing....local or smaller and dodgy cable shows/papers are more likely to be honest about eveything because they have less pressure from the government to make things go their way...i honestly dont know what the news is like in 'normal' times, perhaps it is really good...but definatly in dodgy times, like after 9/11 and while in the war with Iraq...the way the news was reported on the major channels was atrocious....id hear something or see something on BBC news, come online and read the same story on fox or CNN and it would be totally twisted and changed from how i'd heard it, or just not reported at all, that made me really paranoid that it was the BBC who were messed up and it was me not getting the full story...which is when i started looking at lots of news sources online from all sorts of countrys....i found Australia to be the 'best' at just reporting the news with no propaganda either way, even though they were involved in the war! Then most other contrys that werent involved were good as well, BBC was 3rd on the list...they did sometimes try put Bush/Blair in a good light and spin things, but at least we were getting all the news! Then out of all the about 30 news channels i used....the american ones were second from last on the list....in front of only Al Jazeera....so, i dont know....its not like this assumption comes from nowhere, i know from experience and research that during the couple of years mess with terrorism and wars the american media is appalling at reporting unbias and honest news! I guess like Marianne says, it depends on the person....if you dont rely only on fox or CNN for your news, and activly look for and are interested in news then all the info is easy peasy to come across....if the only news you hear is when cnn is on in the background...your buggered!

Nowadays, from what I know, there is a scensorship on the news in the States, for example, the number of deaths from the war in Iraq is not to be mentioned, and no coffins or body bags from the war are to be shown on TV.
This is to keep the American public from realising that Iraq is turning into a 2nd Vietnam.
Also, I've been told, but I don't know if it's accurate, a few weeks ago, when four westerners (3 of them were Americans) were attacked in their car, burnt, and then their bodies were dragged through the streets and what was left of their carcasses was hang up for public display, the actual images were not shown on American TV, though the news was told on TV.
Now those images were on TV here, and they are so bad they give you nightmares. So I think they should not be shown on the 7 pm news when children are watching, but I feel it is wrong to ban something altogether because it is so horrible. The public has a right to know.

As for whether or not the government succeeds in keeping the people ignorant, largely depends on the people themselves. With Internet, you can choose to find out these things for yourself, with or without your government's approval.

As for your statement, Lissa:


It's true that the British can't cook, all Americans are fat, all Germans drink too much, everyone knows that.
But THE DUTCH ARE NOT POTHEADS!!!

Just kidding. The Dutch really are.

We got the news about the car. But the images were edited. You see, to quote Donald Rumsfeld, "it's not helpful." And it's an election year. Most of the population can't be bothered to look for stuff on the internet anyway.

If those people choose ignorance it's their fault, isn't it? People who want to know the full of it have the resources in front of them, election year or not. I'm not trying to argue, I'm just saying I don't think it's anyone's fault but there own if they aren't getting the real news when they have access to it (assuming they have the internet).

sry, I don't read news, plus I've been away from the U.S. for about 2 years.