Modern American Poetry Amiri Baraka: Online Poems Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note Lately, I've become accustomed to the way The ground opens up and envelopes me Each time I go out to walk the dog. Or the broad edged silly music the wind Makes when I run for a bus... Things have come to that. And now, each night I count the stars. And each night I get the same number. And when they will not come to be counted, I count the holes they leave. Nobody sings anymore. And then last night I tiptoed up To my daughter's room and heard her Talking to someone, and when I opened The door, there was no one there... Only she on her knees, peeking into Her own clasped hands Online Source In Memory of Radio Who has ever stopped to think of the divinity of Lamont Cranston? (Only jack Kerouac, that I know of: & me. The rest of you probably had on WCBS and Kate Smith, Or something equally unattractive.) What can I say? It is better to haved loved and lost Than to put linoleum in your living rooms? Am I a sage or something? Mandrake's hypnotic gesture of the week?
Transcript
Modern American Poetry
Amiri Baraka Online Poems
Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
Lately Ive become accustomed to the way The ground opens up and envelopes me Each time I go out to walk the dog Or the broad edged silly music the wind Makes when I run for a bus Things have come to that And now each night I count the stars And each night I get the same number And when they will not come to be counted I count the holes they leave Nobody sings anymore And then last night I tiptoed up To my daughters room and heard her Talking to someone and when I opened The door there was no one there Only she on her knees peeking into Her own clasped hands
Online Source
In Memory of Radio Who has ever stopped to think of the divinity of Lamont Cranston (Only jack Kerouac that I know of amp me The rest of you probably had on WCBS and Kate Smith Or something equally unattractive) What can I say It is better to haved loved and lost Than to put linoleum in your living rooms Am I a sage or something Mandrakes hypnotic gesture of the week
(Remember I do not have the healing powers of Oral Roberts I cannot like F J Sheen tell you how to get saved amp rich I cannot even order you to the gaschamber satori like Hitler or Goddy Knight) amp love is an evil word Turn it backwardssee see what I mean An evol word amp besides who understands it I certainly wouldnt like to go out on that kind of limb Saturday mornings we listened to the Red Lantern amp his undersea folk At 11 Lets Pretend amp we did amp I the poet still do Thank God What was it he used to say (after the transformation when he was safe amp invisible amp the unbelievers couldnt throw stones) Heh heh heh Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men The Shadow knows O yes he does O yes he does An evil word it is This Love
Online Source
Notes For a Speech African blues does not know me Their steps in sands of their own land A country in black amp white newspapers blown down pavements of the world Does not feel what I am Strength in the dream an oblique suckling of nerve the wind throws up sand eyes are something locked in hate of hate of hate to walk abroad they conduct their deaths apart from my own Those heads I call my people
(And who are they People To concern myself ugly man Who you to concern the white flat stomachs of maidens inside houses dying Black Peeled moon light on my fingers move under her clothes Where is her husband Black words throw up sand to eyes fingers of their private dead Whose soul eyes in sand My color is not theirs Lighter white man talk They shy away My own dead souls my so called people Africa is a foreign place You are as any other sad man here american
Online Source
KaBa
A closed window looks down on a dirty courtyard and Black people call across or scream across or walk across defying physics in the stream of their will Our world is full of sound Our world is more lovely than anyones tho we suffer and kill each other and sometimes fail to walk the air We are beautiful people With African imaginations full of masks and dances and swelling chants with African eyes and noses and arms tho we sprawl in gray chains in a place full of winters when what we want is sun We have been captured and we labor to make our getaway into the ancient image into a new Correspondence with ourselves and our Black family We need magic now we need the spells to raise up
return destroyand create What will be the sacred word
Online source
Monday in B-Flat I can pray all day amp God wont come But if I call 911 The Devil Be here
in a minute
Online source
Wise I WHYS (Nobody Knows The Trouble I Seen) Traditional If you ever find yourself some where lost and surrounded by enemies who wont let you speak in your own language who destroy your statues amp instruments who ban your omm bomm ba boom then you are in trouble deep trouble they ban your own boom ba boom you in deep deep trouble humph probably take you several hundred years
to get out
Ancient Music
The main thing to be against
is Death
Everything Else is a
Chump
In the Funk World
If Elvis Presley is King
Who is James Brown God
leroy
I wanted to know my mother when she sat
looking sad across the campus in the late 20s
into the future of the soul there were black angels
straining above her head carrying life from our ancesters
and knowledge and the strong nigger feeling She sat
(in that photo in the yearbook I showed Vashti) getting into
new blues from the old ones the trips and passions
showered on her by her own Hypnotizing me from so far
ago from that vantage of knowledge passed on to her passed on
to me and all the other black people of our time
When I die the consciousness I carry I will to
black people May they pick me apart and take the
useful parts the sweet meat of my feelings And leave
the bitter bullshit rotten white parts
alone
Crow Jane
Crow Jane Crow Jane dont hold your head so high You realize baby you got to lay down and die
--Mississippi Joe Williams
For Crow Jane
Mama Death
For dawn wind off the river Wind and light from
to be continued when I have time
Somebody Blew Up America
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomsbuahtml
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnt our American terrorists It wasnt the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnt Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring It wasnt The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases They say (who say) Who do the saying
Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest Who define art Who define science Who made the bombs Who made the guns Who bought the slaves who sold them Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnt insane Who Who Who Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philippines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up
Who own the papers Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker Who Who Who Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great aint nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos Who Who Who Who own the ocean Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what aint even known to be owned Who own the owners that aint the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who dont worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who Who Who Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who Who Who Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun aint goin
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
(Remember I do not have the healing powers of Oral Roberts I cannot like F J Sheen tell you how to get saved amp rich I cannot even order you to the gaschamber satori like Hitler or Goddy Knight) amp love is an evil word Turn it backwardssee see what I mean An evol word amp besides who understands it I certainly wouldnt like to go out on that kind of limb Saturday mornings we listened to the Red Lantern amp his undersea folk At 11 Lets Pretend amp we did amp I the poet still do Thank God What was it he used to say (after the transformation when he was safe amp invisible amp the unbelievers couldnt throw stones) Heh heh heh Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men The Shadow knows O yes he does O yes he does An evil word it is This Love
Online Source
Notes For a Speech African blues does not know me Their steps in sands of their own land A country in black amp white newspapers blown down pavements of the world Does not feel what I am Strength in the dream an oblique suckling of nerve the wind throws up sand eyes are something locked in hate of hate of hate to walk abroad they conduct their deaths apart from my own Those heads I call my people
(And who are they People To concern myself ugly man Who you to concern the white flat stomachs of maidens inside houses dying Black Peeled moon light on my fingers move under her clothes Where is her husband Black words throw up sand to eyes fingers of their private dead Whose soul eyes in sand My color is not theirs Lighter white man talk They shy away My own dead souls my so called people Africa is a foreign place You are as any other sad man here american
Online Source
KaBa
A closed window looks down on a dirty courtyard and Black people call across or scream across or walk across defying physics in the stream of their will Our world is full of sound Our world is more lovely than anyones tho we suffer and kill each other and sometimes fail to walk the air We are beautiful people With African imaginations full of masks and dances and swelling chants with African eyes and noses and arms tho we sprawl in gray chains in a place full of winters when what we want is sun We have been captured and we labor to make our getaway into the ancient image into a new Correspondence with ourselves and our Black family We need magic now we need the spells to raise up
return destroyand create What will be the sacred word
Online source
Monday in B-Flat I can pray all day amp God wont come But if I call 911 The Devil Be here
in a minute
Online source
Wise I WHYS (Nobody Knows The Trouble I Seen) Traditional If you ever find yourself some where lost and surrounded by enemies who wont let you speak in your own language who destroy your statues amp instruments who ban your omm bomm ba boom then you are in trouble deep trouble they ban your own boom ba boom you in deep deep trouble humph probably take you several hundred years
to get out
Ancient Music
The main thing to be against
is Death
Everything Else is a
Chump
In the Funk World
If Elvis Presley is King
Who is James Brown God
leroy
I wanted to know my mother when she sat
looking sad across the campus in the late 20s
into the future of the soul there were black angels
straining above her head carrying life from our ancesters
and knowledge and the strong nigger feeling She sat
(in that photo in the yearbook I showed Vashti) getting into
new blues from the old ones the trips and passions
showered on her by her own Hypnotizing me from so far
ago from that vantage of knowledge passed on to her passed on
to me and all the other black people of our time
When I die the consciousness I carry I will to
black people May they pick me apart and take the
useful parts the sweet meat of my feelings And leave
the bitter bullshit rotten white parts
alone
Crow Jane
Crow Jane Crow Jane dont hold your head so high You realize baby you got to lay down and die
--Mississippi Joe Williams
For Crow Jane
Mama Death
For dawn wind off the river Wind and light from
to be continued when I have time
Somebody Blew Up America
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomsbuahtml
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnt our American terrorists It wasnt the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnt Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring It wasnt The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases They say (who say) Who do the saying
Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest Who define art Who define science Who made the bombs Who made the guns Who bought the slaves who sold them Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnt insane Who Who Who Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philippines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up
Who own the papers Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker Who Who Who Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great aint nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos Who Who Who Who own the ocean Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what aint even known to be owned Who own the owners that aint the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who dont worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who Who Who Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who Who Who Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun aint goin
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
(And who are they People To concern myself ugly man Who you to concern the white flat stomachs of maidens inside houses dying Black Peeled moon light on my fingers move under her clothes Where is her husband Black words throw up sand to eyes fingers of their private dead Whose soul eyes in sand My color is not theirs Lighter white man talk They shy away My own dead souls my so called people Africa is a foreign place You are as any other sad man here american
Online Source
KaBa
A closed window looks down on a dirty courtyard and Black people call across or scream across or walk across defying physics in the stream of their will Our world is full of sound Our world is more lovely than anyones tho we suffer and kill each other and sometimes fail to walk the air We are beautiful people With African imaginations full of masks and dances and swelling chants with African eyes and noses and arms tho we sprawl in gray chains in a place full of winters when what we want is sun We have been captured and we labor to make our getaway into the ancient image into a new Correspondence with ourselves and our Black family We need magic now we need the spells to raise up
return destroyand create What will be the sacred word
Online source
Monday in B-Flat I can pray all day amp God wont come But if I call 911 The Devil Be here
in a minute
Online source
Wise I WHYS (Nobody Knows The Trouble I Seen) Traditional If you ever find yourself some where lost and surrounded by enemies who wont let you speak in your own language who destroy your statues amp instruments who ban your omm bomm ba boom then you are in trouble deep trouble they ban your own boom ba boom you in deep deep trouble humph probably take you several hundred years
to get out
Ancient Music
The main thing to be against
is Death
Everything Else is a
Chump
In the Funk World
If Elvis Presley is King
Who is James Brown God
leroy
I wanted to know my mother when she sat
looking sad across the campus in the late 20s
into the future of the soul there were black angels
straining above her head carrying life from our ancesters
and knowledge and the strong nigger feeling She sat
(in that photo in the yearbook I showed Vashti) getting into
new blues from the old ones the trips and passions
showered on her by her own Hypnotizing me from so far
ago from that vantage of knowledge passed on to her passed on
to me and all the other black people of our time
When I die the consciousness I carry I will to
black people May they pick me apart and take the
useful parts the sweet meat of my feelings And leave
the bitter bullshit rotten white parts
alone
Crow Jane
Crow Jane Crow Jane dont hold your head so high You realize baby you got to lay down and die
--Mississippi Joe Williams
For Crow Jane
Mama Death
For dawn wind off the river Wind and light from
to be continued when I have time
Somebody Blew Up America
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomsbuahtml
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnt our American terrorists It wasnt the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnt Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring It wasnt The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases They say (who say) Who do the saying
Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest Who define art Who define science Who made the bombs Who made the guns Who bought the slaves who sold them Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnt insane Who Who Who Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philippines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up
Who own the papers Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker Who Who Who Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great aint nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos Who Who Who Who own the ocean Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what aint even known to be owned Who own the owners that aint the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who dont worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who Who Who Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who Who Who Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun aint goin
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
return destroyand create What will be the sacred word
Online source
Monday in B-Flat I can pray all day amp God wont come But if I call 911 The Devil Be here
in a minute
Online source
Wise I WHYS (Nobody Knows The Trouble I Seen) Traditional If you ever find yourself some where lost and surrounded by enemies who wont let you speak in your own language who destroy your statues amp instruments who ban your omm bomm ba boom then you are in trouble deep trouble they ban your own boom ba boom you in deep deep trouble humph probably take you several hundred years
to get out
Ancient Music
The main thing to be against
is Death
Everything Else is a
Chump
In the Funk World
If Elvis Presley is King
Who is James Brown God
leroy
I wanted to know my mother when she sat
looking sad across the campus in the late 20s
into the future of the soul there were black angels
straining above her head carrying life from our ancesters
and knowledge and the strong nigger feeling She sat
(in that photo in the yearbook I showed Vashti) getting into
new blues from the old ones the trips and passions
showered on her by her own Hypnotizing me from so far
ago from that vantage of knowledge passed on to her passed on
to me and all the other black people of our time
When I die the consciousness I carry I will to
black people May they pick me apart and take the
useful parts the sweet meat of my feelings And leave
the bitter bullshit rotten white parts
alone
Crow Jane
Crow Jane Crow Jane dont hold your head so high You realize baby you got to lay down and die
--Mississippi Joe Williams
For Crow Jane
Mama Death
For dawn wind off the river Wind and light from
to be continued when I have time
Somebody Blew Up America
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomsbuahtml
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnt our American terrorists It wasnt the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnt Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring It wasnt The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases They say (who say) Who do the saying
Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest Who define art Who define science Who made the bombs Who made the guns Who bought the slaves who sold them Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnt insane Who Who Who Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philippines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up
Who own the papers Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker Who Who Who Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great aint nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos Who Who Who Who own the ocean Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what aint even known to be owned Who own the owners that aint the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who dont worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who Who Who Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who Who Who Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun aint goin
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
to get out
Ancient Music
The main thing to be against
is Death
Everything Else is a
Chump
In the Funk World
If Elvis Presley is King
Who is James Brown God
leroy
I wanted to know my mother when she sat
looking sad across the campus in the late 20s
into the future of the soul there were black angels
straining above her head carrying life from our ancesters
and knowledge and the strong nigger feeling She sat
(in that photo in the yearbook I showed Vashti) getting into
new blues from the old ones the trips and passions
showered on her by her own Hypnotizing me from so far
ago from that vantage of knowledge passed on to her passed on
to me and all the other black people of our time
When I die the consciousness I carry I will to
black people May they pick me apart and take the
useful parts the sweet meat of my feelings And leave
the bitter bullshit rotten white parts
alone
Crow Jane
Crow Jane Crow Jane dont hold your head so high You realize baby you got to lay down and die
--Mississippi Joe Williams
For Crow Jane
Mama Death
For dawn wind off the river Wind and light from
to be continued when I have time
Somebody Blew Up America
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomsbuahtml
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnt our American terrorists It wasnt the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnt Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring It wasnt The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases They say (who say) Who do the saying
Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest Who define art Who define science Who made the bombs Who made the guns Who bought the slaves who sold them Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnt insane Who Who Who Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philippines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up
Who own the papers Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker Who Who Who Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great aint nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos Who Who Who Who own the ocean Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what aint even known to be owned Who own the owners that aint the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who dont worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who Who Who Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who Who Who Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun aint goin
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
useful parts the sweet meat of my feelings And leave
the bitter bullshit rotten white parts
alone
Crow Jane
Crow Jane Crow Jane dont hold your head so high You realize baby you got to lay down and die
--Mississippi Joe Williams
For Crow Jane
Mama Death
For dawn wind off the river Wind and light from
to be continued when I have time
Somebody Blew Up America
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomsbuahtml
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnt our American terrorists It wasnt the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnt Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring It wasnt The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases They say (who say) Who do the saying
Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest Who define art Who define science Who made the bombs Who made the guns Who bought the slaves who sold them Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnt insane Who Who Who Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philippines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up
Who own the papers Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker Who Who Who Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great aint nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos Who Who Who Who own the ocean Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what aint even known to be owned Who own the owners that aint the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who dont worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who Who Who Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who Who Who Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun aint goin
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest Who define art Who define science Who made the bombs Who made the guns Who bought the slaves who sold them Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnt insane Who Who Who Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philippines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up
Who own the papers Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker Who Who Who Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great aint nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos Who Who Who Who own the ocean Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what aint even known to be owned Who own the owners that aint the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who dont worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who Who Who Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who Who Who Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun aint goin
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
Who own the papers Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker Who Who Who Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great aint nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos Who Who Who Who own the ocean Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what aint even known to be owned Who own the owners that aint the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who dont worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who Who Who Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who Who Who Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun aint goin
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
Who own what aint even known to be owned Who own the owners that aint the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who dont worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who Who Who Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who Who Who Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun aint goin
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Princess Margaret Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Lenins head Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and okd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
In the Indians blankets Who thought up The Trail of Tears Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colons mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away Who Who Who Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face could be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful Who you know ever
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
Seen God But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo Copyright (c) 2001 Amiri Baraka All Rights Reserved For Amiri Barakas Response Click Here
AMIRI BARAKArsquos Response
httpwwwthetalkingdrumcomamirihtml
I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN The recent dishonest consciously distorted and insulting non- interpretation of my poem Somebody Blew Up America by the Anti-Defamation League is fundamentally an attempt to defame me And with that an attempt to repress and stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing zealots who are interested only in slander and character assassination of those whose views or philosophies differ from or are in contradiction to theirs First the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since being kidnapped into US chattel slavery eg by Slave Owners US amp State Laws Klan Skin Heads Domestic Nazis Lynching denial of rights national oppression racism character assassination historically and at this very minute throughout the US The relevance of this to Bush call for a War on Terrorism is that Black people feel we have always been victims of terror governmental and general so we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people who while asking us to dismiss our history and contemporary reality to join them in the name of a shallow patriotism in attacking the majority of people in the world especially people of color and in the third world This is said to us even as this counterfeit president has legalized the Confederate Flag in Mississippi Could the victims of European Fascism be as frantically loyal to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their homes So we cannot in good conscience celebrate what seems to us an international crusade to set up a military dictatorship over the world legitimatised at base by white supremacy carried out no matter the crude lies as the most terrifying form of Imperialism and its attendant national oppression All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from the colored peoples of the world but as well from the majority of the peoples in the world For all the frantic condemnations of Terror by Bush etc as the single International Super Power they are the most dangerous terrorists in the world
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
---------- Actually in my focus on various forces of terror Afro Americans and other oppressed people of the world have suffered slavery colonialism Imperialism Neo neo- colonialism National Oppression the ADL disingenuously makes no mention of my probing into the creators of the holocaust eg who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said America First and Okd the yellow stars which of course is a reference to Americas domestic fascists just before World War II and the Nazi Holocaust Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention the poems listing of some of the Jews across the world oppressed imprisoned murdered by actual Anti- Semitic forces open or disguised The poem asks Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebnecht Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinate vanished The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs nor the assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like Liebnecht Luxembourg The ADL leaves these things out to try to make their lies more believable and also because these victims of imperialism were on the Left Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem though including in a box supposedly identifying the offending phrases my question Who Blew Up The Reichstag as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was inferring that Jews did it When it was Hitlers destruction of the Reichstag that provided the pretext for the general imprisonment of Jews after incarcerating Communists Social Democrats and Trade Unionists Why this was done one can only speculate but this is the kind of sloppy or intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find in the media It also reflects the kind of unprincipled attack that characterizes ADL press release
------------ The Reichstag fire parallels the 911 Attack in that after that mysterious act of terrorism which Hitler blamed on Jews and Communists the Nazis passed a law The Reichstag Enablement Act that gave the Nazis much the same carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911 tragedy to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin rounding up suspects even without identifying them Of course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror were never found though most scholars are certain it was the Nazis themselves Of the other lines of the poem which the ADL termed an example of the Hitlerian Big Lie and the poets spewing Anti-Semitic venom The lines Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna getbombed Well now certainly even the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush Administration knew I agree with this and it is everywhere on the Internet that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany France Russia England but also Israel Michael Ruppert of the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly Israeli security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of large-scale terror attacks And that the Israeli Mossad knew that the attacks were going to take place they knew that the World Trade Center were the targets This is from British newspaper the Telegraph In addition there are articles in all forms of media and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting that the entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US CIA in advance but no action was taken WHY They say they couldnt connect the dots The FBI agents in Minnesota and Arizona who said that FBI received a report in 1998 that a terrorist organization planned to bring people to the US to enroll in flight schools Zacharias Moussoui now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks was arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August 2001 but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant even to search his computer And in a prepared statement by a Minnesota FBI agent he blamed legal restrictions but principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more aggressive investigation of this man As for the other agents attempt to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks he was rebuffed when he made the report but now FBI HQ says it has not record of such warning (See httpwwwTruthoutorgdocs) There are other incredible dots on the media for instance the stockholders of American Airlines and United which were the carriers high-jacked to commit the terror began withdrawing stock from these companies in August before the attacks
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
----------- The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various attackers is Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away To infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the atrocity is disingenuous slander and character assassination But I do believe as I stated about England Germany France Russia that the Israeli government certainly its security force SHABAK knew about the attack in advance My sources were Haaretz and Yadiot Ahranot (two Israeli newspapers) Al Watan (a Jordanian newspaper) Manar-TV and the website of the Israeli security force SHABAK There are myriad references to this in Reuters Der Spiegel The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first revealed that SHABAK had canceled Sharons appearance in New York City that day Sept 11 where he was supposed to speak at an Israel Day celebration This was also mentioned in the Star Ledger to the effect that Sharon was supposed to visit the US but no dates were mentioned It is the Green Partys Ruppert who makes the most effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not Jewish Workers) but Israeli nationals He says in his video if what I am showing you is known overtly although the media how much more does our thirty billion dollar intelligence community know He goes on and this seems true to me It is Nonsense to say the Israelis did it They were warning the US hand over fist Ruppert speculates further 1 The US did not listen 2 They needed the attacks which I leave to time as Malcolm X said Time will tell But the most stunning revelation is this again Ruppert We reviewed the list of former tenants of the World Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site And theres the website It is an alphabetical list of tenants Scroll to the very bottom and notice the moving date for the office of Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia They were in the World Trade Center They must have had Mossad (or Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before September and they broke their lease The Israelis didnt pull the attack but they were smart enough to get their people out of the way How come our government didnt do the same thing for us (Statement amp Quote by George DeCarlo Coordinator of Union County Greens Co Founder of the NJ Lavender Greens- included in media pkg) The poem was never saying anything else ie why didnt the other slaughtered Americans know I WAS NOT SAYING ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK BUT THAT THEY KNEW AND OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO There is other disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks which my family and I could see from the third floor bathroom window of our homes And certainly one day all this will be thoroughly investigated The poem says Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion I got this story from The Star Ledger where it appeared twice and The New York Times
----------- The reference to cracking they sides or laughing uproariously while filming the 911 attack apparently on the top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct paraphrase of them stated that that is one of the reasons they did arrest them because they were laughing Again these were Israeli Nationals persons holding Israeli passports The Times article even reported on what their lives were like in Jail And implied they would be deported So this reference is not more of the ADLs Anti- Semitic venom but arrived at merely from studying the US media Why those five Israelis were there filming and laughing I do not claim know Thats why the poem here and throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO WHO That is who is responsible for this horrible crime and WHY It is a poem that aims to probe and disturb but there is not the slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism as anyone who reads it without some insidious bias would have to agree Why the ADL would do this I can only speculate I wish they and other concerned pundits would speculate on how an Airplane flying in America where the pilot has to file a flight plan before taking off how can such a plane or two or three of them file such a route in which they would travel and in the case of the planes leaving Boston make 45 degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World Trade Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be challenged by US Air Defense Fighters or brought down by ground to air missiles Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters would normally confront such rogue aircraft within a few minutes Why was this not done Let the ADL and the media investigating me investigate that We should know
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
that Bush and his Right Wing crew want War against all the forces of their so called Axis of Evil What a not so wild coincidence that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to the far east apparently to oppose the spiraling economic growth and influence of China They scream Bin Laden and Taliban and destroy Afghanistan install a puppet president and a shadow occupation force Next in the Axis is Iraq we should have known that With no real proof at all again the people of the US outraged and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with chants of Regime Change and Saddam Hussein No longer is the madness of crowds being aroused by the Anti -Terrorist campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to rouse the people to a patriotic frenzy now it is Saddam Hussein So forget last months war and get ready for this months Bush says he wants regime change in Palestine he wants to oust Arafat now in Iraq and he wants to oust Saddam The Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea What is this an updated version of 1984 or an American version of Hitlers and Bush 1s) New World Order Regime Change why Because these regimes are anti democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam they have weapons of mass destruction Well if being anti democratic were a good rationalization for foreign invasions of countries then the United States better watch out because the Florida coup which tricked the American people into accepting Bush as President is anything but democratic Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid of Bush What would be the American Peoples reaction to such Third Reich replay
--------- And as for Saddam having weapons of mass destruction (or mass diversion as some critics say) the US has these weapons So do Israel South Africa Germany France Italy England Russia and now China India Pakistan How is it the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have such weapons but no one else can The answer to that of course is White Supremacy and Imperialism And what should be the growing understanding by the American people and the democratic people of the world is what the far right Bush coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world The ADL by attacking me by distorting what my poem is saying is doing its usual ugly as a well known running dog of imperialism particularly by attacking anyone who takes an independent position or is critical of Israeli Imperialism and its attendant ideology political Zionism As they are attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not happy with Israels ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians As Anti Semitic when lst of all Israel and its guiding philosophy have nothing to do as categories with Jews (See Zionism in the Age of the Dictators Brenner But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use to hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel When we criticize US imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity maybe only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian Zealots perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the same as Judaism (Op cit Brenner also The Dilemma of the Modern Jew Prinz) But this is the trick the Israelis and their sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism Israel (and its political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism as the US has to do with Christianity In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a secular nation and by law theoretically enforces separation of church and state though Mr Bush and Mr Asscraft have demonstrated they disagree and Israel outright says it is a Jewish State but if that is so then that explains why it can discriminate against its Arab people living inside Israel and make them 2nd class citizens in much the same way that South Africa a close friend did under Apartheid (See The Crisis of Black Jewish Relations Brenner amp Bloom Israel and South Africa Stevens amp Ellmessi The Arabs in Israel by Sabri Jiryis foreword by Noam Chomsky) The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me as just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their absolutely false depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian Terrorism This is absolutely in tune with the Bush administrations Frenzied destroy Iraq regime change Jones (a street word for narcotics addiction) that the administration is chanting around us like cheer leaders at a football game So that US imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle East the Arab world into a gas station (See Bushwacked A Counterfeit President for a Fake Democracy Baraka) So that we are supposed to believe that if a little girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor she is a terrorist but
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
when Israeli Jets made in the USA destroy whole sections of Palestinian cities bulldoze neighborhoods all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance with its President Yasser Arafat inside sitting in the dark it is the Israelis who are victims and the little Palestinian girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder they are the terrorists We are supposed to be intimidated by demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should be called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel as a jr partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world military domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in the name of fighting terrorism It is the ADL which is actually guilty of what its leader Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian Big Lie and ironically it is the ADL which is spewing anti-Semitic venom The same ADL which became aware of Black Anti Semitism which it had earlier said has never been a threat until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the PLO and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle and condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism That is when as Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRPs Smash Zionism the ADL smashed SNCC instead As Israel drew closer to South Africa politically economically militarily in the 60s (Op Cit above amp others) the Black Liberation Movement and African Nations became more and more guilty according to the ADL of Black Anti-Semitism This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights Struggle and the most notable white comrades in that struggle were young Jews The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary Baake Decision which challenged amp defeated the University of Californias affirmative action as racist and was explained by the ADL as its opposition to quotas So that the universitys could now enforce a quota on Black students of none This is the same ADL which in league with the American Israel Political Action Committee just a few weeks ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta Georgia to defeat progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney because she called for a more balance American view of the Palestinian -Israeli Conflict These same forces defeated in Alabama another progressive Black incumbent Congressman because he too dared to support the Palestinians (See New York Times) Amsterdam News Star Ledger) Very much like the way Bush touts Regime Change recently even hinting at an attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein if the American People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq ADL and their bagman AIPAC didnt like these black politicians stance on Israel so in a minute and a few million dollars they are gone So now its my turn Using my poem Somebody Blew Up America they are going to spread the Big Lie distort what poem says Cover the fact that this poem actually is an attack on Imperialism National Oppression Monopoly Capitalism Racism Anti-Semitism I challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is Anti- Semitic in the least In their press release they say talk about Jews being scape-goated throughout history then conspiracy mongers of the Arab world have taken Anti- Israel propaganda to a new level (Mr Foxman what is the Arab World Alan Dershowitz in his Chutzpah says the basis of bigotry is overgeneralization so where is the Arab World Is Detroit included Asscraft thinks so Earlier the press release mentions the Muslim World does that include Lyons Ave Newark But then from Anti-Semitism the release goes to Israel not Jews and Israeli Mossad as those victimized So they fight Anti Semitism mainly by defending Israel In fact they defend Israel like Joe McCarthy defended the US against Communism Included in my package is a communiqueacute from an Israeli Peace Organization Gush Shalom Israeli Peace Block (see Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered (infogush-shalomorg) This was first published 7112000 as a press release In the past 24 hours an attack is being mounted against Gush Shalom Knesset Member Collette Avital (Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the police claiming that cartoons presented on our website constitute incitement And the powerful American Jewish organization Anti -Defamation League found time even on election day over there to disseminate a message of defamation against Gush Shalom which already resulted in hate e mails being sent our address In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush Shalom Spokesperson The organization defends itself from an ADL press releases expressing outrage at Gush Shaloms portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of Palestinian children in a caricature on its web site stating that the image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden body of a Palestinian child is abhorrent Gush
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
Shalom replies Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am in a position to make an offer Should a complete week - seven days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is killed by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to Mr Barak we would remove the above mentioned cartoon from our website The Gush Shalom statement ends As for the ADL- an organization which claims to counter hatred prejudice and bigotry can you truly find no other places to search for such with Israeli society in its present condition except at our modest website Was the ADL attacking these Israelis for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather forcefully the continuous murder of the Palestinians So in Israel itself ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone even Israeli citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan to de- Palestinianize Palestine Another communication from Israe(robertoj69yahoocom) This signed by 95 Israeli Academics Sept 23 2002 that begins URGENT WARNING THE ISRAEL GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY It goes on We members of the Israeli academe are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leaderships enthusiastic support of it We are deeply worried by indications that the fog of war could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing One striking description of the Israeli Military by these professors is that in an interview found in Haaretz Sept 19 2002 Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon describe the Palestinians as a cancerous manifestation and equated the military actions in the Occupied territories with chemotherapy Certainly the ADL will have to go after these Anti Semites using the Big Lie and Spewing Anti- Semitic Venom And the growing list of progressive democratic people around the world who will have opinions about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the ADL the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well I challenge the ADL to set up a national television program so that we might debate this issue We can project the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss it If not that then why not a forum or debate some place like NYC Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark Why not take a survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge Festival Those who registered and the students brought by schools could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just the majority of people hearing the poem thought not just some shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to convince people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and Israeli Imperialism
------- I have already gotten a great many communications praising the poem A great many E-mail letters and phone calls not only praising the poem and the poet for writing it but also opposing the attempt to violate my first amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites I have already said in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted as demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ Poet Laureate And I have said repeatedly that I will do neither It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been stampeded by paid liars and apologists for ethnic cleansing and white supremacy bourgeois nationalists and the dangerously ignorant to be panicked into joining in the ADLs slander belittling my intelligence and insulting not only my person my family my fellow artists and activists who know all this is just the feces of a very small cow But they are also attacking my work in the arts and my social political views By demanding that I apologize to Evil and Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically motivated call for me to resign as New Jerseys Poet Laureate he is insulting the broad group of people who know he is incorrect and who have read and celebrated and valued my work And that is a grave mistake one I am hoping he will correct Somebody Blew Up America was written Oct 1 2001 A month after the terror attack Almost immediately I circulated it around the world on the Internet In addition I have read this poem in Spain Portugal Africa Switzerland Italy Finland and it was translated into German and read on German radio at Universities and other venues across this country It has become one of the most circulated of my poems Yet it was not until I read the poem at the Dodge Poetry Festival that I got negative response from three people that I know of The overwhelming response was an almost thunderous applause I even had to come out and take a
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
second bow at one performance So why now and Who as the poem asks is behind it Perhaps the forces which have dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as venom or merely a harangue (just as they called John Coltranes music Barbaric Yawps) are simply the Charlie McCarthy voices for Bush amp Sharons Edgar Bergens Empty-headed devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and costumed to look like it is real people speaking when all the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist speaking through their mouths NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE I WILL NOT RESIGN In fact I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but still have not been paid to do Publicize and Popularize poetry and poets throughout this state To set up new venues and new networks for poetry reading and workshops in the states libraries and schools and other institutions Hopefully initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark Public Library its branches and throughout the school system Therefore giving more of our citizens access to poetry involving poets of all nationalities both male and female of diverse experience and styles I have already begun to enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the state so that we can network a tour of poets hopefully beginning in January throughout the state To do this I will be approaching local county state federal and private funding And expand our budget with the cooperation of these other existing programs We will ask that poets POET-ON That they begin to produce at least one poem or publish a poem monthly in the most modest forms Kinko style and give them away if they have to That they begin to set up readings not only in the places we mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in neighborhoods We say this because we feel that this state and indeed this nation and this world is desperately in need of the deepest and most profound human values that poetry can teach That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the poet to do to bring Truth and Beauty To be like the most ancient paradigmythic image of the poet To be like Osiris and Orpheus whose job it was to raise the Sun each morning with song and story To illuminate the human mind and bring light into the world POET ON
httpwwwamiribarakacom
Amiri Baraka born in 1934 in Newark New Jersey USA is the author of over 40 books of essays poems drama and music history and criticism a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA the Caribbean Africa and Europe
With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman John Coltrane Thelonius Monk and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements Baraka is renowned as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became though short-lived the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics The movement and his published and performance work such as the signature study on African-American music Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded ldquothe cultural corollary to black nationalismrdquo of that revolutionary American milieu
Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri BarakaLeRoi Jones (1979) to The Music (1987) a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina and his boldly sortied essays The Essence of Reparations (2003)
He has been the subject of numerous documentary films including Mario Van Peebles Poetic License for The Sundance Channel and St Clair Bournes In Motion Amiri Baraka He has also appeared in dozens of films including most recently MK Asante Jrs award-winning documentary The Black Candle
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
The Essence of Reparations is Barakarsquos first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism national oppression colonialism neo-colonialism self-determination and national and human liberation which he has long been addressing creatively and critically It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer He has taught at Yale Columbia and the State University of New York at Stony Brook
Somebody Blew Up America amp Other Poems is Barakarsquos first collection of poems published in the Caribbean and includes the title poem that has headlined him in the media in ways rare to poets and authors The recital of the poem ldquothat matteredrdquo engaged the poet warrior in a battle royal with the very governor of New Jersey and with a legion of detractors demanding his resignation as the statersquos Poet Laureate because of Somebody Blew Up Americarsquos provocatively poetic inquiry (in a few lines of the poem) about who knew beforehand about the New York City World Trade Center bombings in 2001
The poemrsquos own detonation caused the authorrsquos photo and words to be splashed across the pages of New Yorkrsquos Amsterdam News and the New York Times and to be featured on CNN--to name a few US city state and national and international media
Baraka lives in Newark with his wife and author Amina Baraka they have five children and head up the word-music ensemble Blue Ark The Word Ship and co-direct Kimakorsquos Blues People the ldquoartspacerdquo housed in their theater basement for some fifteen years
His awards and honors include an Obie the American Academy of Arts amp Letters award the James Weldon Johnson Medal for contributions to the arts Rockefeller Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts grants Professor Emeritus at the State university of New York at Stony Brook and the Poet Laureate of New Jersey
Somebody Blew Up America
by AMIRI BARAKA httpwwwcounterpunchorg20021003somebody-blew-up-america
Somebody Blew Up America
They say its some terrorist some barbaric A Rab in Afghanistan It wasnrsquot our American terrorists It wasnrsquot the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnrsquot Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler Helms retiring
It wasnrsquot The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity as they pleases
They say (who say) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
Who got the tar who got the feathers Who had the match who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God amp still be the Devil
Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble
Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest
Who define art Who define science
Who made the bombs Who made the guns
Who bought the slaves who sold them
Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnrsquot insane
Who Who Who
Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies the Philipines Manhattan Australia amp The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese
Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers
Who owned the slave ship Who run the army
Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker
Who Who Who
Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war
Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainrsquot nobody bigger
Who own this city
Who own the air Who own the water
Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth
Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime
Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos
Who Who Who
Who own the ocean
Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
Who own what ainrsquot even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainrsquot the real owners
Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws
Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying
Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified
Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide
Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donrsquot worry about survival
Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner
Who Who Who
Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie
Who Who Who
Who found Bin Laden maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida San Diego
Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion
Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainrsquot goinrsquo nowhere
Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm Kennedy amp his Brother Who killed Dr King Who would want such a thing Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln
Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later
Who killed David Sibeko Chris Hani the same ones who killed Biko Cabral Neruda Allende Che Guevara Sandino
Who killed Kabila the ones who wasted Lumumba Mondlane Betty Shabazz Die Princess Di Ralph Featherstone Little Bobby
Who locked up Mandela Dhoruba Geronimo Assata Mumia Garvey Dashiell Hammett Alphaeus Hutton
Who killed Huey Newton Fred Hampton Medgar Evers Mikey Smith Walter Rodney Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed
Who put a price on Leninrsquos head
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
Copyright 2002 AMIRI BARAKA
Somebody Blew Up America
Who put the Jews in ovens and who helped them do it Who said ldquoAmerica Firstrdquo and okrsquod the yellow stars
Who killed Rosa Luxembourg Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced tortured assassinated vanished
Who got rich from Algeria Libya Haiti Iran Iraq Saudi Kuwait Lebanon Syria Egypt Jordan Palestine
Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansrsquo blankets Who thought up ldquoThe Trail of Tearsrdquo
Who blew up the Maine amp started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista Hitler Bilbo Chiang kai Chek
Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction The New Deal The New Frontier The Great Society
Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonrsquos mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere
Who overthrew Nkrumah Bishop Who poison Robeson who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin Who frame the Rosenbergs Garvey The Scottsboro Boys The Hollywood Ten
Who set the Reichstag Fire
Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away
Who Who Who
Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen
Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence and hunger and poverty
Who is the ruler of Hell Who is the most powerful
Who you know ever Seen God
But everybody seen The Devil
Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night all day if you listen Like an Owl Exploding in fire We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog
Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo
