Date: Fri, 23 Aug 1996 08:31:28 +0200 (MET DST)
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: Re: Village Voice & Campbell's Soup.


Actually i could not agree more with the below article. This is how i see 
the events as they developed. And the infamous "Aldolfo" interview certainly 
played a key in this stuff. 

malecki

>                CAMPBELL'S SOUP AND THE VILLAGE VOICE
>
>Richard Gehr, in his article "The Flaming Path" of Aug. 27, is long on 
>insinuation but short of some crucial facts.  He was naively seeking 
>to suggest that a flame war on the Internet led to the arrest of Julian Calero.
>Allegation, that we believe, his attorneys, relatives, Julian Defense 
>Committee and Calero himself consider groundless.
>
>The long years of struggle of our people has become insignificant before a 
>public spat with a disgruntled Canadian "journalist", Ken Campbell (aka
>Ken Howard or Zodiac) Easily verifiable facts are overlooked. 
>First of all, the names of the editors of the New Flag, Luis Quispe and
>Marcelina Ccoriyama, are misrepresented as a couple.  A few sentences 
>later, a completely fabricated "threat" from us is quoted.  The source?  
>The same "pseudo journalist" who freely admits to making up stuff to spice
>up his dead-end career.
>
>Gehr dismisses our notion that Ken Campbell is some sort of agent or 
>act like one.  It should be recalled that journalists have often been
>CIA "assets", both directly and indirectly, and that libelous articles
>have always been a tool used to discredit and attack Communists.  Despite a 
>long public history of COINTELPRO and the FBI's effort to derail the
>Central American solidarity movement with provocateurs, our exposure of
>a questionable "journalist" is trivialized by Gehr.
>
>Campbell approached us, oozing with insincere desire to help our cause,
>he claimed to be a "supporter," but it wasn't long before we became 
>suspicious of him, after he requested confidential information on the 
>Peruvian revolution, we labelled him a possible agent, something which
>many others in the Marxist list and specially a labor activist in Toronto 
>named Luftmensch bolstered with a subsequent post. We haven't invented this,
>it is a matter of public record (see the Marxist list archives.)
>
>It was not Campbell's messages we uploaded to the lists that triguered
>the flame war with him. This was his disguise. After all, being a publication
>we consider all messages delivered and received by e-mail as public. 
>
>The real reason of Campbell's wrath was our exposure of his internet heroe
>Olaechea that he was trying to promote in the Internet. However, it is not 
>true that we had a longstanting feud with Olaechea before we met Campbell,
>quite the contrary, we had relatively good political relations with 
Olaechea in 
>the past.
>
>Our first clash with Olaechea occurred in the Marxist list due to his 
>initiative of introducing a split organization named WMC into our 
>movement, and this has nothing to do with the attention Campbell gave to 
>Olaechea. As a matter of fact it was Olaechea who introduced us to Campbell.
>Our discrepances with Olaechea are political. 
>
>Campbell's response to us was a long fabrication of our correspondence 
>which included threats, pornography and credit card fraud which Campbell 
>later admitted it was a "joke".  Apparently for him, trying to discredit
>activists become into a peculiar form of humor once his scheme is exposed.
>Then he began a campaign to undermine us, trying to expose the names of 
>supporters of the New Flag (who had little or no relation to this 
>publication) like an amateur Dick Tracy.  Campbell fabricated names and
>addresses. The names of 2 Republican senior citizens were listed as 
>"posibble" New Flag leaders, one of our readers, an advocate for human 
>rights for U.S. political prisoners in CT became the "money bag,"
>Luis (of campesino background) became "a white man" in his fifties who 
>grew up in Harlem. All garbage. Our only
>concern with Campbell's non-sense articles was the danger he was posing to 
>innocent people he mentioned in his posts and the possibility of search
>and seize operations by the pigs against these innocent people.
>
>In the era of Clinton's anti-terrorism laws, this kind of behavior goes
>far beyond yellow journalism into the realm of policeman's best friend.
>Campbell's name is now listed in revolutionary organizations in the 
>world as one of "possible" operatives disguised as a journalist.
>
>A closer look at Campbell's articles reveals that his main "source" of 
>information is one Jay Miles, referred to in Gehr's piece as "director" 
>of the Peru Support Committee, a group which only appears to exist only 
>in his electronic mailbox.  This "Jay Miles" approached us at a Mumia 
>rally, eager to join in the work of the New Flag. He was a street distributor
>for the New Flag in Detroit. His seeming friendliness turned to hostility 
>when we had public disagreements over political questions, and soon he 
>was spreading gossip all over the Internet to anyone who would listen.  
>Yet this same "Jay Miles" was forced to publicly admit that even his name 
>was made up, soon we found out that his real name was James Jaszewski (he 
>said that he didn't like to be a Polish but an Irish) which hardly 
>inspires confidence in him as a source of information.  Anyone who has 
>read his posts on the internet would be less than impressed by someone 
>who changes tunes so quickly, or who brags that he can "name names," try 
>to photograph political activists for the "album of his mother" in the 
>spirit of solidarity!
>
>It is sadly typical of the left/liberal press that they don't consider 
>Peru's civil war particularly newsworthy unless an American is involved 
>or they can cash in on the internet craze and write a lurid story about 
>flame wars leading to arrests, a ludicrous idea that anyone familiar 
>with Julian Calero's case would be quick to dismiss.  Many 
>Peruvians in exile have been subjected to the extradition 
>process, and Internet had nothing to do with it. The U.S. government as a
>matter of policy (international treaties with Peru) release the name
>to the Peruvian government of those seeking asylum for human rights 
>violations by the U.S. supported military and security services in Peru.
>The U.S. funds the judiciary and the "faceless" judges in Peru, including
>human rights" training to military officers.
> 
>Julian's story is part of the criminal farce of U.S. immigration policy and
>political asylum cases.  His case merits serious coverage in a "progressive"
>paper like the Voice, but to date more important issues like "A World Without 
>Wigstock" are quick to fill up column space.
>
>In our long struggle, we know from experience that we can rely on no one 
>but ourselves to set the record straight about Peruvian reality. 
>We have obscured fake supporters and weak critics such as NACLA as the
>source of information on Peru. We use what little resources we have to 
>get the message out through our printed materials and our precious PCP Web 
>Page. Thank you very much for listing it in your article.
>  
>The fact that many dislike what we say only reinforces our commitment to 
>say it. It is good that the enemy attack us, it means that we are doing
>a good job. 
>
>
>The New Flag Editorial Board.
>===========================>E-Mail: lquispe-AT-nyxfer.blythe.org
>PCP WEB PAGE:
>http://www.blythe.org/peru-pcp.
>
>
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>




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