
U.S. Capitol
Foreign Policy/ Human Rights
General
Latin America
Middle East
Southeast Asia
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Rod Driver on
Foreign Policy and Human Rights
General
- Applying
Milgram to Kosovo
(The Providence Journal, June 18, 1999)
A STUDY conducted at Yale University in the early 1960s dismayed psychologists.
Prof. Stanley Milgram had wondered, along with millions of others, how so many
Germans could have tolerated or participated in the Nazi atrocities. And how
could a person who had gassed thousands of Jews say later that he was not
responsible for the killing: Rather, he was just "following orders"?
Latin America
- Rep.
Kennedy vs. the Cuban People
(Letter to the Editor, The
Providence Journal, March 1, 1999). It was 1959 when Cubans
led by Fidel Castro overthrew dictator Fulgencio Batista. Forty
years later is none too soon to stop punishing them for it.
Middle East
- News Media
Shield Us From the News
(The Providence
Journal February 18, 2000). SUPPOSE YOU NOTICED that the news media
were not reporting an enormous life-and-death story involving
the United States. And suppose that you decided to tell
something about it through a paid television
commercial. Would there be a problem with that? A major
humanitarian organization has a TV commercial telling
of the suffering and deaths of Iraqi children and
appealing for contributions for relief efforts. In
December, on behalf of "Life for Relief and
Development," I took that 30-second TV spot to Rhode
Island television stations to arrange for broadcasting.
- Weygand Should
Get His Facts Straight
(The Chariho
Times, April 20, 2000) When President Clinton attacked Sudan on Aug. 20,
1998 he told America that his target was a chemical weapons plant. Four days
later Congressman Bob Weygand endorsed the missile attack, declaring "we had
hard physical information about that chemical plant in the Sudan" and
praising Clinton as "one of the greatest leaders we've ever had."
- Meeting the 'enemy' in a brutalized Iraq (part 1)
(The Providence Journal, March 1, 2001) For 10 years, Americans have traveled by car or bus to Iraq in defiance of U.S. government prohibitions. But the trip I joined in January, organized by Dr. James Jennings of Conscience International, was the first "airlift" of Americans carrying humanitarian supplies.
- Meeting the Iraqis we torture (part 2)
(The Providence Journal, March 6, 2001) Several times in recent years, Westerly has experienced polluted water. Residents were under orders to boil water as recently as December. Pawtucket and other communities have experienced similar crises, especially in the summer.
- Iraq TV Ad (October 25, 2002)
- Demolishing and Rebuilding Homes in Palestine, TV Ad (October 24, 2003)
- Lying By Any Other Name
(The
South County Independent, Janyary 3, 2003) The old
Soviet Union often found it necessary to revise history. The
process was heavy handed and not particularly effective. For
example when Lavrenti Beria, chief of the Soviet secret
police, was executed in 1953, libraries across the country
received orders to remove the Beria pages from their
encyclopedias and replace them with some enclosed pages about
the Bering Sea.
- Rights are eroded all too easily
(the Newport Daily News March 5, 2004). In rush to protect security, bad laws pass without proper scrutiny. If you were dismayed to learn that Gov. Donald L. Carcieri had not even read his "Homeland Security" bill, prepare to be dismayed again.
- Why won't our leaders stand up to confront Israel's latest round of attacks on civilians?
(The Westerly Sun, August 1, 2006) I did not truly understand the plight of the Palestinians until the early 1980s during Israel's occupation and bombardment of Lebanon and its Palestinian refugees.
- Rod interviewed on Quality News Network (August 28, 2006). Direct link to audio here
-
Rod interviewed on Rhode Island's TV channel NBC10 (July 14, 2006)
Southeast Asia
- The Johnson
Administration Credibility Gap
(A Pamphlet
produced by Rod Driver, 1968). (The Congressional Record, May 14, 1968,
page S 5500.) SENATOR MARK HATFIELD (R, OR) in the Senate:
"Mr. President, with other Senators I have spoken in the Chamber and
accused the Johnson administration of not being candid with the American
people concerning the war in Vietnam... But seldom have I seen this
`credibility gap' revealed with such incisiveness as it is in a pamphlet
prepared by Mr. Rodney Driver of Albuquerque, N. Mex. Mr. Driver has
painstakingly researched and presented the administration's many myths
about our commitment in Southeast Asia and then given the reader a view
of Vietnam that comes much closer to reality."
- Vietnam
- History Turned Upside Down
(the New
York Times, April 20, 1972). In the Soviet Union, when it becomes
necessary to revise history, the Government can direct libraries to remove
and replace certain pages of their encyclopedias (as was done with the
biography of Lavrenti Beria)
Contact Information
Rod Driver
P.O. Box 156, W. Kingston, RI 02892
Telephone: (401) 539-7985
E-mail: rod@roddriver.com
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