Whistleblowers Sound the Alarm at the National Press Club on April 27

Bill Binney, Tom Drake, Dan Ellsberg, Ray, Jesselyn Radack, Coleen Rowley, and Kirk Wiebe give short presentations, in alphabetical order, followed by questions. Norman Solomon, who leads ExposeFacts.org, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy, took the lead arranging this event. The NYT and WaPo reporters apparently were too busy to cover this unique event, but several others took part. Check it out on YouTube:

Paying Attention to the Horrors of War

As promised yesterday, here is a translation of the poem by Nikolai Nekrasov chosen by Ray for his talk at the Moscow commemoration of the 70thanniversary of the meeting of Russian and American forces on the Elbe, April 25, 1945, two weeks before V/E day.

Poetry always looses something in translation, and this is no exception. Ray has tried to be literal without undue sacrifice to verse and feeling. A lot is lost, though; so the original is included. The Russian is taken from Komsomolskaya Pravda, April 27, 2015, http://www.msk.kp.ru/daily/26372.5/3252925/

Рэй Макговерн декламировал по-русски

стихи Николая Некрасова:

Внимая ужасам войны,

Heeding the horrors of war,

При каждой новой жертве боя

At every new victim of battle

Мне жаль не друга, не жены,

I feel sorry not for his friend, nor for his wife,

Мне жаль не самого героя.

I feel sorry not even for the hero himself.

Увы! утешится жена,

Alas, the wife will be comforted,

И друга лучший друг забудет;

And best friends forget their friend;

Но где-то есть душа одна –

But somewhere there is one soul –

Она до гроба помнить будет!

Who will remember unto the grave!

Средь лицемерных наших дел

Amidst the hypocrisy of our affairs

И всякой пошлости и прозы

And all the banality and triviality

Одни я в мир подсмотрел

Unique among what I have observed in the world

Святые, искренние слезы –

Sacred, sincere tears –

То слезы бедных матерей!

The tears of poor mothers!

Им не забыть своих детей,

They do not forget their own children,

Погибших на кровавой ниве,

Who have perished on the bloody battlefield,

Как не поднять плакучей иве

Just as the weeping willow never lifts

Своих поникнувших ветвей.

Its dangling branches.

 

70th Anniversary of Meeting of Russian & American troops on the Elbe Celebrated With Speeches, Poetry, Song, and Planting of Birch Tree in Moscow Park

By Aleksei Pankin, April 25, 2015, w/photos and video, in mass-circulation Komsomolskaya Pravda.

It was a heat-warming observance of the victory of our wartime Grand Alliance…and what might be possible again today, were leaders of the “sole indispensable” country inclined to give more respect to the strategic interests of former allies.

Ray contributed a favorite poem — one by Nicolai Nekrasov (the “Poet of Russian Sorrow”) and led the singing of “Katyusha.” We’ll post an English translation of the poem tomorrow.

For now:

http://www.msk.kp.ru/daily/26372.5/3252925/