Tiananmen Square - 20 Years Ago Today
Byrnzie
Posts: 21,037
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/ju ... g-killings
Tiananmen Square: briefly, anything seemed possible
Tania Branigan, Beijing
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 June 2009
'It is 20 years since Ding Zilin stood by her gate and waited for her son. "What came were students with tattered clothes and dishevelled hair, shouting 'they are killing people, they are shooting at people,'" she recalled.
"The more we watched, the more terrified and desperate we felt … At about five in the morning we saw a car with a flat wooden board on it and a child's body on the board. When I saw the body of that child I felt my son's fate was the same, and he would not come back again."
Her son, Jiang Jielian, 17, was one of hundreds who died that day, shot dead by the People's Liberation Army on the streets of Beijing. Some believe the death toll in the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests stretches into thousands. But no one knows for sure, and Ding's attempts to list the dead have resulted in two decades of harassment.
Security officials have repeatedly prevented her from marking her son's death. "You killed my son and you're stopping me going to commemorate him? You didn't do enough?" was her incredulous comment about them to the Guardian earlier this year.
Today police again arrived to blockade her home amid a broad security clampdown. Other dissidents have been detained or invited on "holidays" by security officials this week. Plainclothes and uniformed officers have flooded Tiananmen Square. Popular online services including Twitter and Flickr and bulletin boards have been blocked. BBC broadcasts on the anniversary are blacked out and pages of imported newspapers are cut out or glued together.
Tonight an exiled student leader trying to return to China was refused entry to the territory of Macau, where he has not seen his parents for two decades. An arrest warrant for Wuerkaixi has been in force since 1989, when he was second on China's "most wanted" list. Like the peaceful activities of Ding – a 73-year-old retired philosopher and grieving mother – Wuerkaixi's presence is unacceptable to a state determined to suppress memory of the Tiananmen protests.
Turning point
Bao Tong, a chief aide to the reformist former general secretary of the Communist party, Zhao Ziyang, who was purged for his sympathy towards the students, said: "A lot of people have forgotten; foreign people forgot; many Chinese young people forgot too. But as long as China is still under one-party leadership … you can't avoid talking about 4 June, because it was a turning point. It's the key turning point, when it could have gone in the right direction, but went in the wrong direction instead."
His remarks emphasise the double amnesia surrounding the summer of 1989. The demonstrations' bloody ending has largely erased memories of the carnival of protest that preceded it: an astonishing uprising which lasted six weeks and drew in millions of people from around the country, threatening an end to communist rule. Anything seemed possible.
Ten years of reform had created an appetite for freedom, but also new economic pressures such as rampant inflation, leaving many anxious and insecure. The party's paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, tacked between reform and party orthodoxy as he tried to hold the leadership together.
Then, in April 1989, came the death of purged reformist leader Hu Yaobang. It sparked student protests with modest demands: greater freedom of speech, economic freedoms, curbs on corruption.
"The top leadership was very divided over what it meant. One view was that the students were patriotic … The other was that they were challenging the leadership of the party and that [would lead] to chaos," said Professor Andrew Nathan, editor of The Tiananmen Papers.
Bao said: "When protests began, I was at that time very optimistic. I thought students raised anti-corruption issues, and asked for democracy. It was an opportunity to make progress." But while his boss was pressing for dialogue with students, others were pushing Deng to crack down.
"What happened later was not the students increasing their level of activity, but Deng irritating them," Bao said. Riven, the leadership swung between tolerance and suppression: one side emboldened the protesters, the other appeared to inflame them. As the demonstrations spread to hundreds of cities, primary school teachers took their charges to the square. Police, judges and naval officers marched to support the students.Even the city's pickpockets were said to have stopped work in sympathy. The explosion of dissent took demonstrators as well as the government by surprise. Students found themselves heroes to thousands. Workers were drawn in almost by accident.
"It was not that on the first day I knew what my agenda was, that I was fighting for democracy. I was not there for that – I was there just for fun … curiosity," said Han Dongfang, now director of China Labour Bulletin, who was passing on a bus when he first spotted the demonstrations. His decision to get off at the next stop would transform his life, resulting first in leadership, then jail, then exile.
"To me that was a fast growing period mentally, ideologically, politically," he said. "As a human being, as an activist, I grew really fast in this six weeks, from zero to a spokesman of my organisation – the only workers' organisation in the square – and then into a wanted person."
But what exhilarated participants terrified leaders who had lived through the chaos of the cultural revolution, when young people turned on their elders. The participation of workers was particularly frightening for the government.
"Their logic was very simple: We took power with the ideology of a workers' movement, therefore, if others are starting a labour movement not under our control, it will one day take away our power," said Han.
The movement's demands were growing bolder and more fractured as students flooded in from the provinces and new leaders emerged, scorning suggestions of compromise.
That was inevitable in a state which had never tolerated alternative organisations, said Chen Ziming, one of the intellectuals who attempted to mediate. For his pains would serve 13 years as a "black hand" behind the events. There was simply no way of channelling or shaping such dissent. "Students who didn't compromise cannot be described as hostile to the government. It was more like children talking to their parents," Chen said.
""They think because they are children they can show their temper and parents won't treat them that badly and will in the end step back and agree with whatever they ask," Chen said.
"Fate was against the reformers," said Nathan. "Zhao Ziyang was suggesting a softer line that isn't in the DNA of the CCP … Deng had been through the [communist] revolution, through the cultural revolution. I think it was in his nature to crack down eventually."
Zhao refused to support the use of troops and was purged; he died years later under house arrest, while Bao served seven years in jail.
But when the government declared martial law, the unthinkable happened.
"I waited all night on the monument of the people's heroes in the middle of the square for troops to arrive – and they didn't," recalled Robin Munro, then a human rights activist in Beijing and now at China Labour Bulletin.
"The student loudspeakers burst into life and someone announced 'the great Beijing people have blocked the advance of the army' – and this roar went up. It was an extraordinary moment that no one had believed would be possible. Beijing citizens, ordinary people, had all turned out and physically stood in front of tanks to stop them coming into their city. And the troop columns halted."
Unlike many of the celebrating students, Munro correctly read the brief triumph as the beginning of the end.
"I felt it was huge loss of face for the authorities. They will not accept it. They will have to end it their way," he said.
Two weeks later, Deng's patience ran out. Troops were ordered to clear the square by dawn. "They woke me up and said tonight, army really, really will break in; we have to get prepared," said Han. "I still did not believe it – I had been in the army for three years. We were educated that the only aim as a soldier was serving the people."
Jielian, pushing his way through the crowd in a Beijing suburb, was hit almost as soon as the firing started.
"Even after they were shot, they thought it was rubber bullets, so they tried running away," said Ding. "After he ran a few steps he said to his friend, I may be shot – you run fast; don't wait for me. And after he finished the sentence he knelt down and then fell forward."
Munro thinks the authorities had never expected that citizens would dare to defy the state en masse for a second time. Yet they sent their troops in with tanks and live ammunition.
"I believe what probably tilted the balance was this point: that it would shock and awe the Beijing citizenry into submission for the far foreseeable future," he said. "And terror works. That's the awful thing."
He watched as troops fired on civilians and an armoured personnel carrier rammed a truck, sending it crashing on to the crowd. "There was one poor man who had been crushed underneath it and his brains were lying outside of his head – squashed out," Munro said. "It was literally 'over our dead bodies will they go in and kill our students'. It was a very heroic moment for the people of Beijing - and they paid the price. They were the ones who were slaughtered."
Amid the chaos, some soldiers were set upon, beaten and killed by angry citizens. Officials would cite this as proof of "a counter-revolutionary riot".
"It was a one-way shooting massacre," said Wuerkaixi, who left the square on the last ambulance to arrive in hospital awash with blood: "Darker, fresher, lighter, red. And the awful smell."
In Tiananmen Square, as the dawn approached, troops were massing in their thousands. "The students left it till the very last minute – and many were determined to stay and sacrifice their lives. They were writing their wills on the monument," said Munro.
In the end they walked away, minutes from the deadline. Some would flee into exile, where many remain; others were caught and jailed. Across the city, hundreds lay dead, among them Jielian.
"The last time I kissed him was two days after his death," said Ding. "He was so cold. So cold, I can never, ever forget his cold cheek."
Tiananmen Square: briefly, anything seemed possible
Tania Branigan, Beijing
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 June 2009
'It is 20 years since Ding Zilin stood by her gate and waited for her son. "What came were students with tattered clothes and dishevelled hair, shouting 'they are killing people, they are shooting at people,'" she recalled.
"The more we watched, the more terrified and desperate we felt … At about five in the morning we saw a car with a flat wooden board on it and a child's body on the board. When I saw the body of that child I felt my son's fate was the same, and he would not come back again."
Her son, Jiang Jielian, 17, was one of hundreds who died that day, shot dead by the People's Liberation Army on the streets of Beijing. Some believe the death toll in the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square democracy protests stretches into thousands. But no one knows for sure, and Ding's attempts to list the dead have resulted in two decades of harassment.
Security officials have repeatedly prevented her from marking her son's death. "You killed my son and you're stopping me going to commemorate him? You didn't do enough?" was her incredulous comment about them to the Guardian earlier this year.
Today police again arrived to blockade her home amid a broad security clampdown. Other dissidents have been detained or invited on "holidays" by security officials this week. Plainclothes and uniformed officers have flooded Tiananmen Square. Popular online services including Twitter and Flickr and bulletin boards have been blocked. BBC broadcasts on the anniversary are blacked out and pages of imported newspapers are cut out or glued together.
Tonight an exiled student leader trying to return to China was refused entry to the territory of Macau, where he has not seen his parents for two decades. An arrest warrant for Wuerkaixi has been in force since 1989, when he was second on China's "most wanted" list. Like the peaceful activities of Ding – a 73-year-old retired philosopher and grieving mother – Wuerkaixi's presence is unacceptable to a state determined to suppress memory of the Tiananmen protests.
Turning point
Bao Tong, a chief aide to the reformist former general secretary of the Communist party, Zhao Ziyang, who was purged for his sympathy towards the students, said: "A lot of people have forgotten; foreign people forgot; many Chinese young people forgot too. But as long as China is still under one-party leadership … you can't avoid talking about 4 June, because it was a turning point. It's the key turning point, when it could have gone in the right direction, but went in the wrong direction instead."
His remarks emphasise the double amnesia surrounding the summer of 1989. The demonstrations' bloody ending has largely erased memories of the carnival of protest that preceded it: an astonishing uprising which lasted six weeks and drew in millions of people from around the country, threatening an end to communist rule. Anything seemed possible.
Ten years of reform had created an appetite for freedom, but also new economic pressures such as rampant inflation, leaving many anxious and insecure. The party's paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, tacked between reform and party orthodoxy as he tried to hold the leadership together.
Then, in April 1989, came the death of purged reformist leader Hu Yaobang. It sparked student protests with modest demands: greater freedom of speech, economic freedoms, curbs on corruption.
"The top leadership was very divided over what it meant. One view was that the students were patriotic … The other was that they were challenging the leadership of the party and that [would lead] to chaos," said Professor Andrew Nathan, editor of The Tiananmen Papers.
Bao said: "When protests began, I was at that time very optimistic. I thought students raised anti-corruption issues, and asked for democracy. It was an opportunity to make progress." But while his boss was pressing for dialogue with students, others were pushing Deng to crack down.
"What happened later was not the students increasing their level of activity, but Deng irritating them," Bao said. Riven, the leadership swung between tolerance and suppression: one side emboldened the protesters, the other appeared to inflame them. As the demonstrations spread to hundreds of cities, primary school teachers took their charges to the square. Police, judges and naval officers marched to support the students.Even the city's pickpockets were said to have stopped work in sympathy. The explosion of dissent took demonstrators as well as the government by surprise. Students found themselves heroes to thousands. Workers were drawn in almost by accident.
"It was not that on the first day I knew what my agenda was, that I was fighting for democracy. I was not there for that – I was there just for fun … curiosity," said Han Dongfang, now director of China Labour Bulletin, who was passing on a bus when he first spotted the demonstrations. His decision to get off at the next stop would transform his life, resulting first in leadership, then jail, then exile.
"To me that was a fast growing period mentally, ideologically, politically," he said. "As a human being, as an activist, I grew really fast in this six weeks, from zero to a spokesman of my organisation – the only workers' organisation in the square – and then into a wanted person."
But what exhilarated participants terrified leaders who had lived through the chaos of the cultural revolution, when young people turned on their elders. The participation of workers was particularly frightening for the government.
"Their logic was very simple: We took power with the ideology of a workers' movement, therefore, if others are starting a labour movement not under our control, it will one day take away our power," said Han.
The movement's demands were growing bolder and more fractured as students flooded in from the provinces and new leaders emerged, scorning suggestions of compromise.
That was inevitable in a state which had never tolerated alternative organisations, said Chen Ziming, one of the intellectuals who attempted to mediate. For his pains would serve 13 years as a "black hand" behind the events. There was simply no way of channelling or shaping such dissent. "Students who didn't compromise cannot be described as hostile to the government. It was more like children talking to their parents," Chen said.
""They think because they are children they can show their temper and parents won't treat them that badly and will in the end step back and agree with whatever they ask," Chen said.
"Fate was against the reformers," said Nathan. "Zhao Ziyang was suggesting a softer line that isn't in the DNA of the CCP … Deng had been through the [communist] revolution, through the cultural revolution. I think it was in his nature to crack down eventually."
Zhao refused to support the use of troops and was purged; he died years later under house arrest, while Bao served seven years in jail.
But when the government declared martial law, the unthinkable happened.
"I waited all night on the monument of the people's heroes in the middle of the square for troops to arrive – and they didn't," recalled Robin Munro, then a human rights activist in Beijing and now at China Labour Bulletin.
"The student loudspeakers burst into life and someone announced 'the great Beijing people have blocked the advance of the army' – and this roar went up. It was an extraordinary moment that no one had believed would be possible. Beijing citizens, ordinary people, had all turned out and physically stood in front of tanks to stop them coming into their city. And the troop columns halted."
Unlike many of the celebrating students, Munro correctly read the brief triumph as the beginning of the end.
"I felt it was huge loss of face for the authorities. They will not accept it. They will have to end it their way," he said.
Two weeks later, Deng's patience ran out. Troops were ordered to clear the square by dawn. "They woke me up and said tonight, army really, really will break in; we have to get prepared," said Han. "I still did not believe it – I had been in the army for three years. We were educated that the only aim as a soldier was serving the people."
Jielian, pushing his way through the crowd in a Beijing suburb, was hit almost as soon as the firing started.
"Even after they were shot, they thought it was rubber bullets, so they tried running away," said Ding. "After he ran a few steps he said to his friend, I may be shot – you run fast; don't wait for me. And after he finished the sentence he knelt down and then fell forward."
Munro thinks the authorities had never expected that citizens would dare to defy the state en masse for a second time. Yet they sent their troops in with tanks and live ammunition.
"I believe what probably tilted the balance was this point: that it would shock and awe the Beijing citizenry into submission for the far foreseeable future," he said. "And terror works. That's the awful thing."
He watched as troops fired on civilians and an armoured personnel carrier rammed a truck, sending it crashing on to the crowd. "There was one poor man who had been crushed underneath it and his brains were lying outside of his head – squashed out," Munro said. "It was literally 'over our dead bodies will they go in and kill our students'. It was a very heroic moment for the people of Beijing - and they paid the price. They were the ones who were slaughtered."
Amid the chaos, some soldiers were set upon, beaten and killed by angry citizens. Officials would cite this as proof of "a counter-revolutionary riot".
"It was a one-way shooting massacre," said Wuerkaixi, who left the square on the last ambulance to arrive in hospital awash with blood: "Darker, fresher, lighter, red. And the awful smell."
In Tiananmen Square, as the dawn approached, troops were massing in their thousands. "The students left it till the very last minute – and many were determined to stay and sacrifice their lives. They were writing their wills on the monument," said Munro.
In the end they walked away, minutes from the deadline. Some would flee into exile, where many remain; others were caught and jailed. Across the city, hundreds lay dead, among them Jielian.
"The last time I kissed him was two days after his death," said Ding. "He was so cold. So cold, I can never, ever forget his cold cheek."
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Maybe. Just as you could be arrested for wearing a t-shirt that insults your government and/or criticizes the war in Iraq.
Or maybe if you protest too loudly you'll end up like those dead students at Kent State:
Ronald Reagan - "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with"
no, actually I wouldnt be arrested. nice try
Are you always on the defensive?
Are you sure about that?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20310306/
'A couple [were] arrested at a rally after refusing to cover T-shirts that bore anti-President Bush slogans..
Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi, Texas, were handcuffed and removed from the July 4, 2004, rally at the state Capitol, where Bush gave a speech.
The front of the Ranks’ homemade T-shirts bore the international symbol for “no” superimposed over the word “Bush.” The back of Nicole Rank’s T-shirt said “Love America, Hate Bush.” On the back of Jeffery Rank’s T-shirt was the message “Regime Change Starts at Home.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01 ... an.arrest/
'Peace activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested Tuesday in the House gallery after refusing to cover up a T-shirt bearing an anti-war slogan before President Bush's State of the Union address.
According to a blog post on Michael Moore's Web site attributed to Sheehan, the T-shirt said, "2,245 Dead. How many more?" -- a reference to the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq...'
http://nationalexpositor.com/News/1130.html
80 Year Old Man Arrested For Wearing Anti-war T-shirt In Mall
'...On Saturday, Zirkel, 80, was at an anti-war rally outside the mall in Lake Grove, wearing a white T-shirt splotched with red and emblazoned with a simple message about the fatalities of the Iraq war: "4,000 troops, 1 million Iraqis dead. Enough."
Zirkel said he was at the rally to support the anti-war protesters. "I was an encourager. I was an affirmer," he said.
During the rally, Zirkel and his wife went into the mall's food court for coffee and French fries. After he declined mall security's request to either turn the T-shirt inside out or leave, he said police put him in a wheelchair and escorted him from the mall. Suffolk police charged him with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest. He was released on bail and is due to be arraigned May 22 in Central Islip...'
Only with particular individuals.
LOL, looks like they turned out just fine "Federal government to pay $80,000 to Texas couple arrested at rally"
nice example
I'm sure you can find many examples of cops acting like assholes. 99 times out of 100 charges are dropped. and in the case YOU posted, they are paid handsomely for their troubles. and for every person arrested, there are thousands upon thousands who arent.
but go ahead and tell us how we dont have any freedoms here in America and I'll let soul embarrass you again. maybe he's right, I think you do like it.
are you new here?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090604/ap_ ... _tiananmen
On the mainland, government censors shut down social networking and image-sharing Web sites such as Twitter and Flickr and blacked out CNN and other foreign news channels each time they aired stories about Tiananmen.
Dissidents and families of crackdown victims were confined to their homes or forced to leave Beijing, part of sweeping efforts to prevent online debate or organized commemorations of the anniversary.
"We've been under 24-hour surveillance for a week and aren't able to leave home to mourn. It's totally inhuman," said Xu Jue, whose son was 22 when he was shot in the chest by soldiers and bled to death on June 4, 1989.
So now you try to derail this thread. You are referring to an issue of freedom that is not that dissimilar to what the OP is addressing so why are trying to poke fun?
By the way your "yes man" comment was very lame, just thought you should know.
I'm not poking fun. it is a serious concern. China has very limited freedoms when it comes to speaking out against the government. and especially when talking about this issue.
you really are so good at it though. keep it up, he could use the help.
If that is what you believe.
Yes the OP hints towards this.
Yawn.
ok?
the "OP" didnt hint towards jack shit. simply cut and pasted from the good ole internet.
YES MAN! thumbs up
Maybe you'll succeed in getting this thread closed with your 'bickering comments' like you did the Hamas one. Good work. Keep it up.
um, shouldnt you being saying this to your yes man? he is the one who made came at me.
anyway, how did your protest go in China? did you light a candle in Tienanmen Square to mark the anniversary?
Like that's the point.
People are arrested. People are threatened with arrest. This has the effect of deterring dissent. Keep it up though. I wouldn't want to get in the way of your efforts to get this thread closed too.
Keep those provocations coming. They seem to be working out well for you. You've succeeded in getting me two warnings in the last 24 hours.
that is the point. I'm sorry you dont see it. the government made a MISTAKE by arresting this couple and paid a great price for it. I'm sure now you see the point.
maybe you should stop telling people to fuck off who dont agree with you on everything. just a suggestion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/20 ... tter-china
China blocks Twitter, Flickr and Hotmail ahead of Tiananmen anniversary
Internet crackdown blocks 'young generation' as leading dissident is detained in Beijing
* Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 June 2009 14.12 BST
* Article history
Chinese censors blocked access to Twitter and other popular online services today , two days before the 20th anniversary of the crackdown on democracy protests in Tiananmen Square.
The move came amid increasing pressure on dissidents, in a reflection of the authorities' anxiety ahead of the sensitive date. Hundreds died as the army forced its way through Beijing to clear away demonstrators from the capital's political heart in June 1989, but the issue is taboo on the mainland.
The photo-sharing site Flickr, email service Hotmail and other services were also unavailable this evening.
"Twitter is a tool which can put all the sensitive things and sensitive guys together, very quickly. That's the very thing that the Chinese government doesn't want to see in China," said one blogger, Michael Anti, who had predicted Twitter would not be allowed for long.
"They needed time to figure out what it is and whether it needed to be controlled."
He added: "I don't know whether they will reopen Twitter after 4 June. I hope they will, for Twitter is a crucial icon for the new internet era on which many innovations emerge. China can't block their young generation from the future."
While most Chinese internet users rely on domestic services, which are heavily monitored and controlled, Twitter had become hugely popular among an urban elite. They used the site to share information on sensitive issues in recent months, such as the fire at the Chinese state television complex.
But while people could not access the site this evening, some users were still able to tweet, sending their complaints about the ban.
"We netizens were beaten by a 'combination blow'. So many famous websites are not accessible now ... This time, it is huge," wrote user williamlong.
Reuters reported that the email service Hotmail was also blocked across the mainland, while some internet users said they were unable to access Microsoft's Windows Live.
Blogger.com was blocked last month and YouTube has been inaccessible from the mainland since March.
Internet monitors have also shut down message boards on more than 6,000 websites affiliated with colleges and universities, according to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
In a statement distributed by the same organisation, the exiled former student leader Chai Ling appealed for the release of political prisoners, an independent investigation into the events and permission for former student leaders to return home.
"The current generation of leaders who bear no responsibility should have the courage to overturn the verdicts [on the protests]," said Chai, who now lives in the US and has not commented on the issue for several years.
"The party and the government long ago reached a conclusion about the political incident that took place at the end of the 1980s and related issues," spokesman Qin Gang said when asked about the issue at the Foreign Ministry's regular news conference. The Chinese authorities deemed the protests counterrevolutionary riots.
In Taizhou, Zhejiang, officials have detained a former prisoner who last week co-signed an open letter to the government complaining about economic discrimination against dissidents, according to US-based group Human Rights in China.
Wu Gaoxing and four other men who were jailed for supporting the 1989 pro-democracy protests said former prisoners were struggling to survive because they could not find steady jobs and are deprived of medical benefits and pensions.
Calls to Taizhou's state security bureau rang unanswered.
Another signatory, Mao Guoliang, told the Associated Press: "I expect he's being held under some form of house arrest, but I don't know where."
Nice.
That's right Jlew. Keep 'em coming.
For example, Leonard Peltier received a fair and balanced trial.
keep what coming? are opinions not allowed anymore around here?
no, American so ZERO political prisoners. next.
Are you saying that Peltier isn't a political prisoner? Do you know anything about this case?
Ok lets see here.
You are saying the OP is not trying to highlight the problems that are occurring in China. Interesting. So tell me, if you think the OP hinted towards jack shit why exactly were you concerned about his safety? Why would you crack a joke about a candle protest too?
How old are you exactly?
Do you know anything about The Cuban five?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Five
because China doesnt allow discussions about this event. I'm very concerned that his internet is probably being tracked and himself watched by the Chinese authorizes. China is a fucked up place that doesnt allow freedom
what joke? I'm just wondering if went to protest. seems like something he would do
im 32. how bout you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_Al-Arian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Austin