Letters To The Editor

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November 30, 2011 - MidWeek

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Guard’s response

I’d like to correct the record on two inaccurate statements written by Bob Jones in two recent, but separate, columns.

First, in the Nov. 9 issue of MidWeek, Mr. Jones wrote that the Hawaii National Guard had Diamond Head Crater closed for two days during the APEC summit as part of a power play to justify keeping National Guard assets within Diamond Head.

This is completely untrue for two reasons: a) the Hawaii National Guard had no desire to call attention to its use of Diamond Head Crater during APEC and issued a news release solely to inform weekend hikers of the park’s closure, and b) the Hawaii National Guard has no long-term designs on retaining facilities inside the crater. In fact, the Hawaii National Guard has taken numerous steps to relocate its facilities elsewhere.

Then, in his Nov. 23 column, Mr. Jones stated that Diamond Head was closed because a National Guard bunker inside the crater was used as the security command center for President Obama’s visit. In fact, no National Guard facility anywhere in the state was used as a security command center for the presidential visit. Mr. Jones’ source or sources for these assertions were completely unreliable. The Hawaii National Guard asked for the closure of Diamond Head in order to preposition equipment and personnel who could have been called upon to support civil authorities in the event of a security incident during APEC.

Lt. Col. Charles Anthony,
Director of Public Affairs, Hawaii National Guard

Hate mail

As Midweek is probably the most widely-read publication in Hawaii, it saddens me to see it being used to publish hate mail. Specifically, I’m referring to “Good and bad” in the Nov. 23 letters, wherein one Robert Stiver praises reports on various other items in the paper he liked, then changes the subject to lash out at President Obama, referring to him as a “lapdog” and stooping even lower using terms like “the Zionist pariah state of Israel” and worse. Such behavior is beneath contempt.

Giveon Cornfield
Honolulu

Honest on Israel

Thank you to MidWeek for publishing Robert Stiver’s comments about Israel. So many in the media just go blindly along with the notion that anything Israel does is OK. Their land-grabbing and inhumane treatment of Palestinians makes them look more and more like Hitler’s Germans. OK, they haven’t resorted to gassing people, but Israelis have lost any claim to being “God’s special people.”

May Blake
Honolulu

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