ГУЛаг Палестины

years ago. And we're not talking about a few nasty editorials in

colonial newspapers. We're talking about a television show with

compelling images that goes instantaneously to forty, fifty million

people - a sizable percentage of the whole country - and murders our

reputation. Murders it. Unjustifiably. That's the situation we're

talking about here. So," Marder said, "what do you advise us to do,

Ed?"

"Well," Fuller cleared his throat again. "I always advise my

clients to tell the truth."

Of course Michael Crichton's depiction above is fictional, and so may be

exaggerated. However, anyone who is acquainted with 60 Minutes' broadcast The Ugly

Face of Freedom of 23 Oct 1994 - hosted by yourself - cannot help wondering whether

Crichton's depiction might in fact be accurate, at least in occasional instances.

I wonder if you would not at long last care to break your silence and say a word

either of retraction and apology, or if not that, then at least some word in defense

of your broadcast and of your profession?

Yours truly,

Lubomyr Prytulak

cc: Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney, Lesley Stahl,

Mike Wallace.

HOME DISINFORMATION PEOPLE SAFER 820 hits since 9Apr99

Morley Safer Letter 5 9Apr99 Who blew the hands off Maksym Tsarenko?

The sort of powerful story that neither you nor Rabbi Bleich were able to find is one of

a Russian summer-camp councillor who had his hands blown off by Ukrainian

nationalists for using the Russian language within Ukraine; or one of a Jewish

summer-camp councillor having his hands blown off by Ukrainian nationalists for using

Hebrew or Yiddish within Ukraine. Such things do not happen within Ukraine to either

Russians or to Jews - they happen only to Ukrainians.

April 9, 1999

Morley Safer

60 Minutes, CBS Television

51 W 52nd Street

New York, NY

USA 10019

Morley Safer:

Who Blew The Hands Off

Maksym Tsarenko?

The photograph above shows Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma bestowing the Order of

Yaroslaw the Wise on Maksym Tsarenko. My free translation of the text which explains

the photograph is as follows:

Among the first recipients of the Order, awarded on the fourth

anniversary of the national independence of Ukraine, were leading

Ukrainian workers in the fields of culture, art, and law: O.

Basystiuk, A. Mokrenko, and F. Burchak.

On this same day, the president of Ukraine also bestowed this mark

of distinction, "for valor" upon twenty-year-old student at the

Vynnytsia Pedagogical Institute, Maksym Tsarenko.

During the summer holidays, Maksym was working as a councillor at a

summer camp for young girls near Yevpatoria, Crimea.

Haters of Ukraine, who rush to propose the view that Crimea is not a

peninsula attached to Ukraine, but rather is an island unconnected

to Ukraine, reacted with hostility to this summer camp, especially

provoked by the Ukrainian language spoken by the Ukrainian children,

which dared to resound even within Ukrainian Crimea. The hatred

mounted to such an irrepressible degree that it provoked the bandits

to the most egregious crime: they constructed an explosive and threw

it into the window of the children's dormitory. Ten or so children

could have been killed by the explosion. But the young Ukrainian

councillor showed no confusion as to his duty. He picked up the

bomb, shielding it with his own body, and jumped out of the

building. Unfortunately, the bomb went off, seriously wounding

Maksym.

The best local surgeons fought for several days to save the boy's

life. Thanks to them, the youth's life was spared. Unfortunately,

it was not possible to save his hands.

No one can accuse the recipient of not having earned his award.

Ukrainian awards, in contrast to Soviet, are fully deserved.

(Ukrainian-language newspaper, Novyi Shliakh (New Pathway) of

7Oct95, based on the earlier report in Ukrains'ke Slovo, (Ukrainian

Word), Kyiv, No. 37, 14Sep95)

The above story of Maksym Tsarenko compels me to ask - not for the first time - who

is in danger in Ukraine? The Western media urge us to accept that it is Jews and

Russians who are in danger, threatened by Ukrainian nationalists. That, for example,

is the conclusion of your infamous 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom of

23Oct94. However, you came back from your brief visit to Ukraine with no data to

substantiate such a claim. Almost a year ago, the Ukrainian Archive has requested

both of you and of Rabbi Bleich the evidence backing your report of violence against

Jews, and neither of you has as yet condescended to reply, strengthening the

suspicion that your story was fabricated.

The sort of powerful story that neither you nor Rabbi Bleich were able to find is one

of a Russian summer-camp councillor who had his hands blown off by Ukrainian

nationalists for using the Russian language within Ukraine; or one of a Jewish

summer-camp councillor having his hands blown off by Ukrainian nationalists for using

Hebrew or Yiddish within Ukraine. Such things do not happen within Ukraine to either

Russians or to Jews - they happen only to Ukrainians. It is the story of Ukrainians