no bias here, we're the times

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday February 28, 2002 16:24 by ciara

Once again, our most 'respected' national paper has taken the side of the most powerful. In this case, its Mr Kissinger. Is anyone out there even surprised by this blatent bias anymore??? Once more, the protesters are the crazies and, I noticed, have a distinct lack of voice in the piece. Wait aminute, they don;t have a voice at all! Oh, except to call them the usual "controversial." Change the record.

Don't forget to leave a comment, especially if you were there.

'War crimes' protest as Kissinger
visits Cork
By Olivia Kelleher, in Cork

Former US Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger denied he was a
war criminal yesterday, saying it was an insult to human
intelligence for protesters in Cork to compare him to Slobodan
Milosevic.

Protesters at University College Cork chanted and waved banners
bearing the words "The Milosevic of Manhattan" prior to the arrival of
the 56th US Secretary of State, who was in office during the
controversial Nixon administration.

Dr Kissinger said he was pleased to discover that even in Ireland
people were not indifferent to him. However, he said he was
incensed at comparisons made between him and known war
criminals.

"These people are throwing around allegedly criminal charges
without a shred of real evidence. I don't know who they [the
protesters\] represent, but I wish their knowledge equalled their
passion."

Dr Kissinger, who was visiting the university to deliver a speech at
an MBA Association of Ireland business conference, said he had
never replied to derogatory remarks made about him in the media.

"I consider them [the accusations] fundamentally beneath
contempt. They are based on distortions and mis-representations."

The focus of his address was on US foreign policy, particularly in
the post September 11th world climate.

Dr Kissinger said the international scene was experiencing
extraordinary change for which there is no historical precedent.

One of the biggest challenges facing the US administration, he
said, was to bring countries together to prevent the spread of
biological and chemical weapons.

"It requires global action. There is no way this can be done by one
nation on its own. The hardest thing for America is to get a focus
on the important, not the urgent - to get a sense of where you are
going to be three or four years from now."

Dr Kissinger said there were countries capable of transforming and
becoming powerful enough to make what happened at the Twin
Towers look like a tea party.

"The American people have pulled together in an amazing way and
have shown a spirit of patriotism I haven't seen since the second
World War. But nobody can conceive that we can deal with these
problems all by ourselves."

He commended the performance of President Bush in the aftermath
of the terrorist attacks, saying he had handled the situation
remarkably well.

However, he argued the attacks were a tremendous shock to most
Americans, who never believed their country could be vulnerable to
such atrocities.

Dr Kissinger's visit to Cork has been condemned by human rights
organisations which say he has frequently flouted international law
in his dealings with Bangladesh, Chile and East Timor.

Cork Sinn Féin councillor Mr Jonathan O'Brien told a recent council
meeting that Dr Kissinger was not welcome in the city, and called
on UCC to cancel his invitation.

The controversial speaker is the subject of a recent book by best-
selling author Christopher Hitchens, The Trial of Henry Kissinger.
Hitchens has said Dr Kissinger should go on trial as a war criminal
for his role in the bombing of Cambodia between 1969 and 1973.

The former Secretary of State has also been accused of being
complicit in the overthrow of the government of Chile in 1973 by the
dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Dr Kissinger began his career as a lecturer at Harvard from the late
1950s until 1969 when he was appointed assistant for national
security affairs in the Nixon administration.

As US Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977 he played a major role
in formulating US foreign policy, helping to initiate Strategic Arms
Limitation Talks with the Soviet Union, and arranging President
Nixon's visit to China in 1972.

Dr Kissinger was a key negotiator of the withdrawal of American
forces from Vietnam, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in
1973.

Since 1977 he has lectured and served as a consultant on
international affairs.