WA: Corrie's Parents Sue Caterpillar
Is This The Most Pointless Lawsuit Ever?
A Great Day For a Shakedown
Some people are getting very creative these days in where they lay blame for unfortunate events. Now here's a candidate for the most frivolous lawsuit in history, or at the rate things are going, at least the moment.
First, some background:
It's now been two years since the bulldozer death of Evergreen State College activist Rachel Corrie by Israeli Defense Forces near the border with Egypt. Corrie failed to move out of the way as she stood between the machine and a home being demolished.
Supporters say she was intentionally hit, but Israel has a different version of events.
As much now as when it occurred, Corrie's death stirs up the young leftist faithful, but their attempts to turn her into a saint have never caught on with the general public.
Why? Because most people don't think young American college students have any business meddling in foreign affairs. Evergreen State College has a notorious history of encouraging undergrads to interfere overseas in ways that are downright dangerous.
A group of Evergreen students and faculty were expelled from Mexico several years ago for participating in anti-government protests.
Isn't there a difference between standing up for one's beliefs in an appropriate setting and foolishly inserting yourself in the causes of others? There's something infuriating about what Corrie did that day. It's not pleasant to see impressionable college students get suckered in this way.
At the time, I got mixed up in the story, in a way that generated hate mail from Corrie's supporters. Because the story hit right before I went on the air I tackled it before the rest of talk radio. Call volume was tremendous right off the bat. In the coming days, I received a large number of nasty emails from around the country, but it was unclear how they knew about my show.
As it turned out, a reporter from the Olympia bureau of the Oregonian newspaper had quoted me in a story, which made the rounds on the Internet. Later, a Seattle Times reporter interviewed me about Corrie and Evergreen's policies, which stirred it up all over again.
As much as I feel for the loss Corrie's parents have faced, now as much as at the time, her behavior was unjustifiable then and now. Now they're looking for more scapegoats, the most ridiculous being Caterpillar, the manufacturer of the bulldozer that killed her. How can Caterpillar control how their machines are used? If they were used to cover up mass graves in Iraq, does that make them friends of Saddam's regime, as well? How far do you want to take this? What a way to wipe out an American industry for no constructive reason.
The Corrie family's contention is that Caterpillar knew how the machines would be used by Israel to destroy homes and kill innocent people. How is that possible? Short of a boycott of all sales to Israel and many other countries around the world there is no way to prevent misuse of a bulldozer. Israel maintains this was an accident anyway.
What's the aim here? There's no way to bring to Rachel back. The only motive now can be monetary gain.
Two years ago I said that I wished I'd known her, so I could have tried to talk her out of associating with radical leftist groups that suckered her into participating in this pointless exercise.
That's what's really sickening about Evergreen State College-- that taxpayer funds are used to trick impressionable young people into sacrificing themselves for senseless causes.
Notice how the International Solidarity Movement radicals turned Corrie into a martyr, but you don't see them jumping in front of heavy equipment, do you?
(AP Via KIRO-TV/Seattle)
Tip from Orbusmax
SEATTLE -- The parents of a 23-year-old activist killed while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home is suing Caterpillar Inc., the company that made the bulldozer that ran over her.
The federal lawsuit, which lawyers said would be filed here Tuesday, alleges that Caterpillar violated international and state law by providing specially designed bulldozers to Israeli Defense Forces that it knew would be used to demolish homes and endanger people.
Rachel Corrie, a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, was standing in front of a home in a refugee camp in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, on March 16, 2003, when a bulldozer plowed over her.
"The brutal death of my daughter should never have happened," Corrie's mother, Cindy Corrie, said in a statement released by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a law firm handling the case. "We believe Caterpillar and the (Israeli Defense Forces) must be held accountable for their role in the attack."
Caterpillar spokeswoman Linda Fairbanks said the company had no comment on the lawsuit. However, the company released a general, written statement Tuesday that said: "Caterpillar shares the world's concern over unrest in the Middle East and we certainly have compassion for all those affected by political strife.
"However, more than 2 million Caterpillar machines and engines are at work in virtually every region of the world each day. We have neither the legal right nor the means to police individual use of that equipment."
A Great Day For a Shakedown
Some people are getting very creative these days in where they lay blame for unfortunate events. Now here's a candidate for the most frivolous lawsuit in history, or at the rate things are going, at least the moment.
First, some background:
It's now been two years since the bulldozer death of Evergreen State College activist Rachel Corrie by Israeli Defense Forces near the border with Egypt. Corrie failed to move out of the way as she stood between the machine and a home being demolished.
Supporters say she was intentionally hit, but Israel has a different version of events.
As much now as when it occurred, Corrie's death stirs up the young leftist faithful, but their attempts to turn her into a saint have never caught on with the general public.
Why? Because most people don't think young American college students have any business meddling in foreign affairs. Evergreen State College has a notorious history of encouraging undergrads to interfere overseas in ways that are downright dangerous.
A group of Evergreen students and faculty were expelled from Mexico several years ago for participating in anti-government protests.
Isn't there a difference between standing up for one's beliefs in an appropriate setting and foolishly inserting yourself in the causes of others? There's something infuriating about what Corrie did that day. It's not pleasant to see impressionable college students get suckered in this way.
At the time, I got mixed up in the story, in a way that generated hate mail from Corrie's supporters. Because the story hit right before I went on the air I tackled it before the rest of talk radio. Call volume was tremendous right off the bat. In the coming days, I received a large number of nasty emails from around the country, but it was unclear how they knew about my show.
As it turned out, a reporter from the Olympia bureau of the Oregonian newspaper had quoted me in a story, which made the rounds on the Internet. Later, a Seattle Times reporter interviewed me about Corrie and Evergreen's policies, which stirred it up all over again.
As much as I feel for the loss Corrie's parents have faced, now as much as at the time, her behavior was unjustifiable then and now. Now they're looking for more scapegoats, the most ridiculous being Caterpillar, the manufacturer of the bulldozer that killed her. How can Caterpillar control how their machines are used? If they were used to cover up mass graves in Iraq, does that make them friends of Saddam's regime, as well? How far do you want to take this? What a way to wipe out an American industry for no constructive reason.
The Corrie family's contention is that Caterpillar knew how the machines would be used by Israel to destroy homes and kill innocent people. How is that possible? Short of a boycott of all sales to Israel and many other countries around the world there is no way to prevent misuse of a bulldozer. Israel maintains this was an accident anyway.
What's the aim here? There's no way to bring to Rachel back. The only motive now can be monetary gain.
Two years ago I said that I wished I'd known her, so I could have tried to talk her out of associating with radical leftist groups that suckered her into participating in this pointless exercise.
That's what's really sickening about Evergreen State College-- that taxpayer funds are used to trick impressionable young people into sacrificing themselves for senseless causes.
Notice how the International Solidarity Movement radicals turned Corrie into a martyr, but you don't see them jumping in front of heavy equipment, do you?
(AP Via KIRO-TV/Seattle)
Tip from Orbusmax
SEATTLE -- The parents of a 23-year-old activist killed while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home is suing Caterpillar Inc., the company that made the bulldozer that ran over her.
The federal lawsuit, which lawyers said would be filed here Tuesday, alleges that Caterpillar violated international and state law by providing specially designed bulldozers to Israeli Defense Forces that it knew would be used to demolish homes and endanger people.
Rachel Corrie, a student at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, was standing in front of a home in a refugee camp in Rafah, near the Egyptian border, on March 16, 2003, when a bulldozer plowed over her.
"The brutal death of my daughter should never have happened," Corrie's mother, Cindy Corrie, said in a statement released by the Center for Constitutional Rights, a law firm handling the case. "We believe Caterpillar and the (Israeli Defense Forces) must be held accountable for their role in the attack."
Caterpillar spokeswoman Linda Fairbanks said the company had no comment on the lawsuit. However, the company released a general, written statement Tuesday that said: "Caterpillar shares the world's concern over unrest in the Middle East and we certainly have compassion for all those affected by political strife.
"However, more than 2 million Caterpillar machines and engines are at work in virtually every region of the world each day. We have neither the legal right nor the means to police individual use of that equipment."
published by Brian Maloney at
12:03
3 Comments:
Frost, thanks for your additional information. It really is quite an involved tale of deception (by the activists), isn't it?
By
Brian Maloney, at 17 March, 2005 23:15
This comment has been removed by the author.
By
bestonline323, at 23 July, 2008 22:10
sorry its so long i would really like you to read it
Some 10,000 miles away another set of parents, the American parents of terror abiding ISM member Rachel Corrie continue to praise the anti-Israel efforts of their daughter. Rachel Corrie was filmed burning American flags and died in an accident as she tried to prevent the Israel Defense Forces from closing tunnels built by Islamic terrorists to smuggle weapons into Israel for the murder of Israel civilians.
Prof. Steven Plaut of the University of Haifa recently wrote an open letter to the parents of Rachel Corrie.
It stated: Your daughter was in a war zone as a belligerent. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Corrie, you are continuing with your campaign of demonization and delegitimization against Israel, a campaign that now manifests itself in a shallow anti-Israel propaganda play being staged in Seattle. All this, of course, came after your earlier open letter to the world, "A Call to Action; Rachel's Words Live," which was reprinted in many different media outfits, including the viciously anti-Semitic Counterpunch magazine, and the Guardian of the UK.
Your daughter conscripted herself as an aid for those seeking to murder my children.
In that letter, you begin by recalling that your daughter was "killed by an Israeli bulldozer," but you neglect to mention the circumstances under which she was so killed (and the fact that she died from her injuries while under Palestinian medical care). You then add, "She had been working in Rafah with a nonviolent resistance organization, the International Solidarity Movement, trying to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and wells."
No, she was not. She was trying to prevent the demolition of tunnels used to smuggle weapons for Palestinian terrorists seeking to murder Jewish civilians. The International Solidarity Movement, or ISM, to which she belonged openly endorses Palestinian "armed struggle" against Jewish children and civilians and openly collaborates with terrorists . It has hidden wanted terrorists and their weapons in its offices. It is an accomplice in murder. Two Arabs who entered Israel under ISM auspices blew up a Tel Aviv pub and murdered Jews. Lying is not the best way to drum up sympathy for your dead daughter.Your daughter was in Rafiah in the Gaza Strip to serve as a human shield to defend and promote Palestinian terrorism. When you yourselves were nearly kidnapped in Gaza last year, you were there for the same reason. You pretend that your daughter died trying to protect an "innocent house." You are lying again. That "innocent house" she was protecting was camouflage for a not-so-innocent terrorist smuggling tunnel, and the residents of that "innocent house" knew all about the tunnel. Explosives and arms were being smuggled by terrorists through that tunnel to commit mass murder.
Your daughter was in a war zone as a belligerent, as one who had - perhaps wittingly and perhaps not - recruited herself on behalf of a genocidal movement of Arab fascists seeking to destroy Israel and murder as many Jews as possible. Your daughter died while interfering with an anti-terror operation carried out by an army in a land in which she had no business being at all. You demand that we in Israel feel your pain at the loss of your daughter, yet your daughter conscripted herself as an aid for those seeking to murder my children.
No harm would have fallen her had she not decided to "play chicken" with the machine.The raison d'etre of the ISM is to assist Palestinian terrorists murder Jewish children, and to prevent all Israeli efforts to fight that campaign of murder. Your daughter foolishly put herself in harm's way by challenging a large bulldozer and placing herself in a position where the operator could not see her. You know quite well that the bulldozer operator was not seeking to harm your daughter. And you know very well that no harm would have fallen her had she not decided to "play chicken" with the machine - about as responsible a form of behavior as running across unlit segments of LA freeways at midnight.n that earlier open letter of yours you write, "We had not understood the devastating nature of the Palestinians' situation." Of course, you have never expressed any interest in the devastating nature of the Jews' situation. The Jews have been battling Arab fascism and terrorism for a hundred years, before, during, and after the Nazi Holocaust of six million Jews. Your daughter was allied with those seeking to continue the perpetration of Nazi-like atrocities against randomly selected Jews. You smugly praise the propaganda play about your daughter in London, which ignored all the other Rachels, the Jewish women victims of terror in Israel, who were murdered by the genocidal terrorists with whom your daughter's ISM friends collaborate.
Your daughter, and apparently you as well, never had any understanding of the Middle East conflict. The Middle East conflict is not about the right of self-determination of Palestinian Arabs, but rather, it is about the right to self-determination of Israeli Jews. For a century, the Arabs have attempted to block any expression of Jewish self-determination, using violence, armed aggression and terrorism. The Arabs today control 22 countries and territory nearly twice the size of the United States. They refuse to share even a fraction of one percent of the Middle East with Jews, even in a territory smaller than New Jersey.
You do not have a single word of sympathy for the families of the thousands of innocent victims.
Great post you have here too
CHeers!
Dianne
By
Anonymous, at 09 August, 2008 05:01
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