An elusive quest for answers By Matt Kapko & Matthew Mais Opinion and Community editors The Lumberjack 10-30-2002 Marc Sievers presentation, "U.S. and the Middle East: elusive quest for peace," left many of us journalism folk at a loss for words, wondering when and what will finally cause the government to tell the truth. Sievers, a diplomat with the State Department, was met by many students and members from the community who wanted answers to questions about the apparent inefficiency of diplomatic and political solutions to problems in the Middle East, his alleged region of expertise. The League of Women Voters question-and-answer format was manipulated by Sievers to sell the Bush administration's policies throughout the afternoon. He's been trained, admittedly, to dodge any issue critical of the United States; such as support for Saudi Arabia, and the application of contradictory standards to North Korea's acknowledged development of weapons of mass destruction while it pushes for a military strike on Iraq based on unproven allegations. Having a moderator ask the questions did not allow for an immediate follow up to the question, lessening the chances of Sievers offering an adequate response. Sievers did not address the voice of this community nor did he intend to gather input. Rather his unstated purpose was to disseminate state-friendly information in a controlled setting. The only concerns addressed were those filtered and deemed worthy by Sievers. After all, he wouldn't even fess up to the United States' sale of biological weapons to Iraq in the late '80s, which is documented in the 1994 Senate Banking Committee report and early '90s records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He claimed he was unaware of any evidence which supported it had done so. One breath of fresh air was his divergence from the usual focus of top government officials and mainstream media opinions regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. It was refreshing to hear him tell more than one side of the complicated story. After thoroughly lambasting the Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians, he called the Israeli response to those attacks "vicious" and "counterproductive." He repeated a U.S. stance of opposition to the ongoing development of settlements in Palestine. But he neglected to mention the United States has done nothing to effectively pressure Israel to stop the creation of settlements or dismantle those within the heart of Palestine. Sievers also offered adequate reason for not being able to dissent against any policies of the State Department. He would have to resign to be able to do so. So, explain to us one more time, "why was he here?" We'd like to take this opportunity to give a shout out from terra firma to all the organizations who put this on, for bringing to us our (fill in unknown dollar amount here)'s worth of apparent propaganda and unwillingness to offer truth from a "government official." Home