YellowTimes.ORG writes: "
By Christopher Reilly

YellowTimes.ORG Journalist

(YellowTimes.ORG) – The Bush administration has been completely hypocritical in its attempts to stop terror groups. The US president announced to CNN that he would be cracking down on financiers of the radical Palestinian group Hamas; however, he completely failed to mention Saudi Arabia and other “moderate” gulf states as being financial and verbal supporters of the Palestinian terror group.


CNN reported yesterday that the president “froze the U.S. assets of a Texas-based Islamic foundation…alleging that the organization acts as a front to finance the militant wing of the Palestinian group Hamas.”

The group, known as the Holy Land Foundation, is reported to have raised $13 million dollars in the United States; money allegedly used to help fund the militant Hamas.

After condemning the foundation, Bush failed to even criticize Saudi Arabia, who according to Britain’s The Guardian, recently gave a grant to Hamas amounting to over $140 million dollars; money which probably went toward purchasing more nail laden plastic explosives.

Once again this highlights the Bush administrations hypocritical stance in the war against terrorism. Going after the assets of small foundations will do next to nothing in stopping terror groups when the main supporters are left immune to criticism, as in the case of Saudi Arabia and their support for Hamas.

Bush even went so far as to say, "The money raised by the Holy Land Foundation is used by Hamas to support schools and indoctrinate children to grow up into suicide bombers. The money raised by the Holy Land Foundation is also used by Hamas to recruit suicide bombers and support their families."

But Bush still had nothing to say about Saudi Arabia, who gave over ten times that amount of money to Hamas.

The Bush administration also failed to criticize Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait, who have all given their support to Hamas in the past, despite the terror group’s indiscriminate killings of Israeli and Arab civilians. These four countries have welcomed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, with open arms.

Even more chilling is how CNN has continued to fail to address this hypocritical stance of the Bush administration. The article on Bush’s “crackdown,” written by CNN correspondents John King, Kelly Wallace, and Susan Candiotti, mentioned nothing of the Gulf States contributing to Hamas and the failure of the Bush administration to address this issue.

The article, titled “Bush announces crackdown on alleged Hamas financiers,” looked more like a press report from Bush spokesmen than an article from a non-governmental media agency.

Concerns can be raised about the dangers of a large media outlet such as CNN becoming a mouth-piece for the Bush administration, despite their claims of objectivity.

The links between CNN and the Bush administration are even stronger when considering how CNN chairman Walter Isaacson told his staff to “balance their war reporting,” according to Britain’s The Times on November 1st, 2001.

This order by Isaacson came shortly after journalist Michael Theodoulou reported Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah telling a group of newspaper editors, “The vicious Western media attack against the Kingdom is only because of the ancient spite against Islam and Saudi Arabia’s commitment to Islam.”

Much of the US media, led by CNN, have also been largely silent on “accidental” civilian killings in Afghanistan as a result of US bombs. Civilian deaths due to US bombs are now accepted to be in the hundreds, but much of the US media does not seem to consider this important news.

Just yesterday, journalist Richard Lloyd Parry witnessed the remnants of the Afghan town Kama Ado, completely destroyed after “American B-52s unloaded dozen of bombs that killed 115 men, women and children.” Yet once again, the US media has remained relatively silent on Kama Ado, and the Pentagon has continued to deny the event even took place.

Perhaps journalist Robert Fisk said it best, “We are not supposed to know the details of these deaths.”

Christopher Reilly can be contacted at: creilly@YellowTimes.ORG"