Bonnie King

Salem-News.com Publisher

Email: bonnie@salem-news.com

Bonnie King`s career is unique, she is one of the few media professionals who has extensive time in four relevant areas; radio, television, newspaper and Internet. She has been with Salem-News.com since August '04.

Her television career began in 1988, at Lincoln City, Oregon`s cable TV station, TV 10, in dual roles as News Anchor and Sales/Promotion Director. This was a natural evolution of her journalistic aspirations, since she was first "bit by the bug" while serving as Editor in Chief of her high school yearbook for two years. She graduated from Bassist College in Portland, Oregon in 1986.

Bonnie has interviewed legends like Aaron Spelling, Hugh Miles and Peter Frampton; Nadia Komenich, the feisty Judge Mills Lane, and the stars from CHARMED, FELICITY, ROSWELL, 7TH HEAVEN and BUFFY the VAMPIRE SLAYER. She has interviewed Oregon`s governors and congressmen, and she was on the award-winning news crew that first spoke to Evander Holyfield the night of the notorious Tyson ear-biting incident.

Her first full length documentary, `Fallen Fortress at Cape Lookout` aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting in 1993, for which she was the Producer alongside Tim King, Executive Producer. She is presently working on two Oregon based historical documentaries, and is an integral force in civil and human rights causes.

Bonnie has served in a number of positions in the broadcast industry; TV Production Manager at KVWB (Las Vegas WB) and Producer/Director for the TV series "Hot Wheels in Las Vegas" (2 seasons); TV Promotion Director for KYMA (NBC), and KFBT (Ind.); Asst. Marketing Director (SUPERSHOPPER MAGAZINE); Director/Co-Host (Coast Entertainment Show); Promotion Director (KBCH/KCRF Radio); and, Newspapers In Education/Circulation Sales Manager (STATESMAN JOURNAL NEWSPAPER).

Bonnie has a depth of understanding that reaches further than just behind the scenes, and that thoroughness of her nature is demonstrated in the perseverance to correctly present each story with the wit and wisdom necessary to compel and captivate viewers.

View articles written by Bonnie King

Tim King

Salem-News.com Vice-President/Executive Editor

Email: tim@salem-news.com

Iraq War Coverage

Visit the: Orange County Press Club

Afghanistan War Coverage

Tim's Facebook: Facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter

Tim's myspace: MySpace.com/timsalemnews

Tim King launched Salem-News.com during the summer of 2004 when he was a photojournalist/reporter for KATU Channel-2 News, the ABC affiliate in Portland, Oregon. Assigned to cover Salem for the station, Tim began Salem-News as an overflow for his daily work for the television station.

About a year and a half later, Tim left KATU to become fully devoted to the growth, development and daily news needs of Salem-News.com along with Bonnie King, who had left her position at the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon where she served as the Newspapers in Education Director.

After two years, Salem-News.com was selected by Google to be one of its contributing news organizations and traffic on the site grew ten times overnight; with the daily number of visitors jumping from 600 to 6,000.

Over the winter of 2006/2007, Tim spent two months in Afghanistan covering the war there through the eyes of 900 Oregon soldiers.

Tim reported for Salem-News.com and Oregon's KPTV FOX-12 from a number of regions and situations in Afghanistan. His stories showed the poverty and despair ever present in this war torn land. Tim spent time in Kabul, Jalabad, Mazur-e-Shariff, Gardez, Ghazni and many other locations.

In addition to turning 30 news reports for Salem-News.com and Oregon's FOX-12 in Portland, his work was also shown in two documentaries produced by the Portland FOX station in the weeks following his return.

Tim King - free slideshow maker Salem-News.com founder Tim King's life in pictures; photos of Tim King in Oregon, California, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and France. Includes several photos with Bonnie King, Tim's wife and business partner, & his sons; Nathan, Matthew, Austin, Sean and Christian.

More recently, Tim spent five weeks covering the war in Iraq, embedded once again with an Oregon Guard unit. Tim produced reports with the Army's 101st Airborne and Marines from the 2nd Marine Air Wing during the summer of 2008. Based primarily out of the Air base at Balad, better known to soldiers there as 'Mortaritaville' due to its frequent reception of rocket and missile attacks. Tim spent time in Baghdad, and also with Marines at the Al Asad Air Station in Iraq's Anbar Province. Tim's stories for Salem-News.com ranged from combat patrols with the Army and Marines, and memorable videos and articles; including a focus report on a Navy doctor based with the Marines, who helped several Iraqi children receive heart surgery in Israel, and a report of a harrowing night in an Army helicopter flying around Iraq packed with Iraqi 'detainees' who were kicked and abused by the Americans in the Army aircraft.

Since spending time in the Middle east, Tim has become increasingly interested in the struggle of the Palestinian people who live with the daily occupation and related oppression of Israel.

The Salem-News.com team generates new reports about Israel and Palestine constantly; and the team also explores and exposes other vital issues that impact this section of the world. It always invariably, is interrelated with US affairs.

Another huge aspect of Tim's work at Salem-News.com has revolved around the contamination of the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Irvine, California, which officials planned to turn into a park and housing subdivision, in spite of the fact that the ground is seriously contaminated with several deadly chemicals. Working with several other Salem-News.com writers who also served as Marines at El Toro, Tim has generated a steady stream of news reports that have seriously impacted the proposed redevelopment of the base, which today is just a ruin.

Announcing: 'A Few Good Men, Too Many Chemicals'

The news regarding this coverage of the Marine base at El Toro, is the completion of a new book by Salem-News.com writer Bob O'Dowd and myself. This is an excerpt from the release dispatched to media by our publisher, MilSpeak Books:

Written by two former MCAS El Toro Marines, Tim King, photo/journalist and war correspondent, and Bob O’Dowd, E-Correspondent, A Few Good Men, Too Many Chemicals is a thrilling and informative nonfiction account of contamination at two Marine Corps installations, Marine Corps Air Station El Toro on the West Coast (CA) and Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune on the East Coast (NC). The eBook is scheduled for release Fall 2011 by MilSpeak Books, the eBook publishing division of MilSpeak Foundation (501c3).

A Few Good Men, Too Many Chemicals stands with the best works of New Journalism and Creative Nonfiction, including the works of Norman Mailer (The Executioner’s Song) and Truman Capote (In Cold Blood). A Few Good Men tells the story of the thousands of Veterans and their families, once stationed at these hazardous military installations, who have continued to be ignored by the U.S. government by denial of the effects of exposure to environmental hazards, including the highest incidence of occurrence of male breast cancer in any other demographic in the U.S. Legislation to provide health care and compensation for Camp Lejeune Veterans and their dependents was introduced during the 111th Congress....

Read the entire release here: 'A Few Good Men, Too Many Chemicals'

Tim's Background prior to Salem-News.com

Tim`s history is steeped in his ability and desire to tell a great story - which first led him to the television newsroom in 1988, serving as News Anchor/Reporter for Lincoln City, Oregon`s cable TV station, TV 10. That`s where Tim found his calling.

Since those first years, Tim has moved on to serve as News Photojournalist/Reporter for KATU (ABC), Photojournalist at KVVU (FOX), KVBC (NBC), and KYMA (NBC), the News Assignment Editor for KVVU (FOX) in Las Vegas, NV, as well as radio News Director (KBCH/KCRF). In addition, he was the Producer/Host for the `Coast Entertainment Show`, Executive Producer (creator) of the TV series `Hot Wheels in Las Vegas`, and Executive Producer of the 30-minute documentary `Fallen Fortress at Cape Lookout` which aired on Oregon Public Broadcasting in 1993.

Also significant among his achievements are the 2 years he spent as a Wildlife Rescue team leader on the coast of Oregon; and his service in the US Marine Corps with MWSG-37 in the 3rd Marine Air Wing at El Toro.

Tim`s career in the broadcast industry has afforded him many opportunities to cover incredible stories as well as meet innumerable celebrities and dignitaries. He has flown in many military planes including an F-16 Air Force Fighter, and produced a three-part series on aviation history of the Southwest region of the United States. Aviation is one of Tim`s passions.

Tim majored in journalism at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, California. He holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), the first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several other awards including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting.

View articles written by Tim King

Matt Lintz

Salem-News.com Webmaster / Creator

Occasionaly writes games and diversions: Diversions and Daily Cryptogram Puzzles Working on a mobile - pc (html5) friendly site MobSor

Currently working on some projects up north near Bellingham Washington, looking to return to working in the Salem area soon. See Whatcom-Views which is a simple news / images of that area.

The person behind the action at Salem-News.com is Matt Lintz, a graduate of the Institution of Technology in Spokane, Washington. Matt is another Northwest native who found his niche in technology and lives at the forefront of it.

It isn't just the concept, it is the ease of Salem-News.com's design and operation, the search engine that always leads to the desired information, the fact that a person does not have to strain or spend minutes seeking a particular story, that is Matt's design for a news Internet Website.

Matt studied networking and computer security receiving a Bachelors of Science degree in 2005, and that was attained after a life already spent in computer technology.

Henry Clay Ruark

Salem-News.com Opinion / Editorials

Opinion and Editorials

S-N Staff:

Henry Clay Ruark is a former newspaper reporter; educational and audio-visual media specialist; agency, institution, corporate public information officer; national trade magazine publisher and editor; and Chicago-based communications media consultant for agency, institution, individual and corporate clients.

Splitting a “very checkered” career between journalism and education, he has written and worked for many newspapers while continuing in educational assignments. He has taught at every level from grades to graduate school, agency/institution seminars, and corporate conferences; written, edited and produced both print and visual learning media in all formats; and written for weeklies, dailies, newsletters, journals and magazines.

At 91, he is still intermittently writing ”on assignment” for editors served for decades; and for S-N Op Eds.

Hank is registered as a Democrat, but disregards any and all political-party disciplinary or bias for “the precious independence demanded as foundation for professional reporting”, insisting that one cannot be Democrat, Republican; OR Libertarian,Independent, any more than one can be four-legged and two-faced. Probing, controversial, confirmed conversation (read:”honest, open, democratic dialog”) demands writer be independent, Hank firmly believes.

His photo, taken in December 2009 in front of his son Loren's live truck in Eugene, Oregon, offers a hint of this reporter's connection to a whole generation of younger Ruarks in news today.

View articles written by Henry Clay Ruark

Dr. Phil Leveque

Salem-News.com Medical Expert/Staff Writer

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

In a unique new segment, Salem-News.com brings viewers the words and wisdom of one of Oregon's most famous doctors, Dr. Phillip Leveque, a man who fought in World War Two and now fights to make access to marijuana a matter of reality. He also was instrumental in the initial changing of Oregon law that allowed medical the use of Medical Marijuana in the first place.

He's been a fighter since his days in the Army during World War Two, when he captured 26 Nazi officers in a single day by himself. These days this veteran physician fights for the rights of patients who use marijuana as a medicine and for veterans suffering from PTSD, something he is no stranger to.

The world is changing fast and medical marijuana is a daily reality for thousands of patients in Oregon, and hundreds of thousands of people nationwide who suffer from a variety of illnesses.

But who can pot smokers turn to for medical care? Needless to say, a vast majority of users are hesitant to discuss their use with physicians, and doctors are fearful when it comes to discussing a substance that potentially violates the law.

Federal laws still consider possession of pot illegal, even though states and individual counties have adopted their own standards. Because of the federal shadow cast on the situation, hundreds of thousands of legal users and millions of illegal users, go without adequate medical advice.

Until now. We are extremely proud to have this lifelong healer and former WWII combat soldier on our primary team of writers at Salem-News.com

View articles by Dr. Phil Leveque

Daniel Johnson

Deputy Executive Editor, Salem-News.com

Email: DanielJohnson@telus.net

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, as a teenager, Daniel Johnson aspired to be a writer. Always a voracious reader, he reads more books in a month than many people read in a lifetime. He knew early that in order to be a writer, you have to be a reader.

Another early bit of self-knowledge was that writers need experience. So, in the first seven years after high school he worked at 42 different jobs ranging from management trainee in a bank (four branches in three cities), inside and outside jobs at a railroad (in two cities), then A & W, factories and assembly lines, driving cabs (three different companies), collection agent, a variety of office jobs, John Howard Society, crisis counsellor at an emergency shelter, salesman in a variety of industries (building supplies, used cars, photocopy machines)and on and on. You get the picture.

In 1968, he was between jobs and eligible for unemployment benefits, so he decided to take the winter off and just write. The epiphany there, he said, was that after about two weeks, “I realized I had nothing to say.” So back to regular work.

He has always been concerned about fairness in the world and the plight of the underprivileged/underdog. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that he understood where that motivation came from. Diagnosed with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) he researched the topic and, among others, read a book Scattered Minds by Dr. Gabor Maté, an ADD person himself. Maté wrote: "[A] feeling of duty toward the whole world is not limited to ADD but is typical of it. No one with ADD is without it."

That explains his motivation. Hard-wired.

As a professional writer he sold his first paid article in 1974 and, while employed at other jobs, started selling a few pieces in assorted places. He created his first journalism gig. In the late 1970s, when the world was recovering from a recession, the Canadian federal government had a job creation program where, if an employer created a new job, the government would pay part of the wage for the first year or two. The local weekly paper was growing, so he approached the publisher and said this was an opportunity for him to hire a new reporter. The publisher had been thinking along those lines but cost was a factor. No longer.

Over the next 15 years, Daniel eked out a living as a writer doing, among other things, national writing and both radio and TV broadcasting for the CBC, Maclean’s (the national newsmagazine) and a host of smaller publications. Interweaved throughout this period was soul-killing corporate and public relations writing.

It was through the 1960s and 1970s that he got his university experience. In his first year at the University of Calgary, he majored in psychology/mathematics; in his second year he switched to physics/mathematics. He then learned of an independent study program at the University of Lethbridge where he attended the next two years, studying philosophy and economics. In the end he attended university over nine years (four full time) but never qualified for a degree because he didn't have the right number of courses in any particular field.

In 1990 he published his first (and so far, only) book: Practical History: A guide to Will and Ariel Durant’s “The Story of Civilization” (Polymath Press, Calgary)

Newly appointed as the Deputy Executive Editor in August 2011, he has been writing exclusively for Salem-News.com since March 2009 and, as of summer 2011, has published more than 160 stories.

He continues to work on a second book which he began in 1998.

View articles written by Daniel Johnson

Leonardo (Glen L. Bledsoe)

Salem-News.com Cartoonist

Nota Bene by Leonardo

Glen L. Bledsoe was born and raised in Indiana.

He graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelors of Art in Fine Arts and was a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for several years.

Glen made his home in Oregon in the early 80's where he continues to enjoy the mild climate and lack of sales tax.

He and his wife Karen have published seventeen books together for the school library market. Glen has written extensively on the issues of technology and education for the National Education Association and other publications.

When he not is creating "Nota Bene by Leonardo," Glen is either teaching, writing a novel, composing music, or reading.

Lauren Booth

Salem-News.com Political Strategist

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Lauren Booth is a British broadcaster, journalist and human rights activist who has been writing political articles and columns for UK national newspapers since the 1990's. Predominantly the Mail on Sunday. During a prolific journalistic career, Lauren has written for the New Statesman, the Sunday Times, the Guardian and the Daily Mail. In 2005, she visited the West Bank to interview Mahmoud Abbas. Having witnessed the Occupation first hand and has since become an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights.

In 2008, Lauren Booth was onboard the FreeGaza; the first ship to break Israel's illegal siege of the Gaza Strip. She was then refused exit via either Israel or Egypt for a month, stating at the time 'it's an honour to be under siege with the people of Palestine and to feel what it is like to survive under the illegal Israeli occupation.

Lauren has been a forthright campaigner against the war in Iraq. She supports the Stop the War Coalition, Media Workers Against the War and the FreeGaza Movement.

Since 2008, Lauren has worked for the 24 hour international English-language news channel Press TV. Lauren presents 'Remember Palestine' and a soon-to-be aired new series on the Palestinian Diaspora.

In October 2010 Lauren announced at the Global Peace and Unity event that she had embraced Islam..

Alison Weir

Salem-News.com Publisher

Email: alisonweir@gmail.com

Alison Weir's goals are peace and understanding and the realization of a real multi-cultural place where people are not continually scrutinized and referred to as 'terrorists' in order for one side to further its difficult political position.

As a former journalist, Weir has traveled throughout the West Bank and Gaza, and speaks widely on this topic; in the past having given two briefings on Capitol Hill, three talks at the Asia Media Summit in Kuala Lumpur (at the end of the month she will be speaking at the Summit in Beijing), presentations in Ramallah and Bethlehem, and lectures at numerous campuses across the US, including Harvard Law School, Stanford, Yale, UC Berkeley, MIT, Vassar, and the Naval Postgraduate Institute.

Weir has received awards from the Council on American Islamic Relations and the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, and she was asked to contribute a chapter to Project Censored's 2005 volume. She was inducted into membership of Phi Alpha Literary Society, founded in 1845 at Illinois College, the award citing her as a “Courageous journalist-lecturer on behalf of human rights." She was the first woman to receive an honorary membership in Phi Alpha history.

Her writings on this topic have appeared in publications including The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, The Link, CounterPunch, the Bay Guardian, and anthologies published in the US and abroad. She was the narrator of the award-winning documentary "Occupation 101." Weir was the subject of the Public Access program "Off the Charts," produced by Alternate Focus, and is a member of the board of directors of the Council for the National Interest and New Policy.

Alan Hart

Salem-News.com Writer in London

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

One of the biggest names in the history of Mideast TV reporting is Alan Hart, the London-based former BBC and ITN Reporter. who found his path into the media reporting world at the young age of 17. Alan soon began receiving assignments as a 'stringer' correspondent for all but one of Britain’s national newspapers. He was also turning reports at this point for the three main international news agencies - Reuters, Associated Press and UPI. After years in Africa, a more experienced Alan Hart back to England, where he secured a job with the Daily Telegraph. Alan explains that it was in Vietnam, where he watched America spend six million dollars a minute destroying two countries in a war that could not be won, and possibly should never have been fought, that he first began to really question things, and not merely report. There were few key world leaders who didn't know and work with Alan Hart. It is a fabulous history of the biggest names of the world. Alan says that in his tv reporting days he was "Celebrated within the industry for my scoops and my special relationships with leaders on both sides of the many conflicts I covered."

Alan is a fiercely independent thinker. He says he hates all labels and isms and has never been a member of any political party or group. He prefers to judge issues on their merits. Today, Alan is an author who writes about the Middle East. Look for our reports about his U.S. tour.

Learn more about Alan: AlanHart.com

And to learn even more of Alan's fascinating life, visit this story: Getting to the Hart of the Matter with One of the World's Most Experienced Reporters

======================================================

Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle East.

Over more than four decades Alan Hart enjoyed intimate access to, and on the human level friendship with, leaders of both sides including Golda Meir, Mother Israel, and Yasser Arafat,Father Palestine. (Others included Moshe Dayan, Shimon Peres, Nasser, Sadat, King Faisal, King Hussein—the list is long). He also participated at a leadership level in the secret politics of the search for peace in the Middle East (as an intermediary between Arafat and Peres when it was presumed that Peres was headed for leadership).

Alan recently announced the American edition of his epic book, Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, Vol. 1: The False Messiah. This is Alan Hart’s epic three-volume journey through the propaganda lies and the documented truth of history as it relates to the making and sustaining of what has come to be called the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

He blogs on AlanHart.net, and tweets on twitter.com/alanauthor

See also:

• President Obama’s opportunity to speak truth to power: Part 1
• President Obama’s opportunity to speak truth to power – Rahm Emanuel does it for him – Part 11
• Open Letter to President Obama: Change the Rules of the Game
• An Appeal to the American People

Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews. The sub-title of this volume is Conflict Without End? It takes the story from the 1967 war and the creation of Greater Israel to the present and the question: Is Peace Possible?

Will President Obama be allowed to deliver an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians in order to achieve peace for all and, if not, what’s the most likely future for the region and the world?

Reviews:

• "... immensely readable and a magnificent piece of work ..."
  -- Clare Short, MP and Int'l Development Sec't in Blair Govt

• "... elucidates the dangers involved in the unconditional Western support for Zionism and its oppressive policies against the Palestinians."
  -- Ilan Pappe, Leading Israeli revisionist Historian

  "... principled, ... historical, ... excellent, even heroic, in effort and scope."
  -- Mark Bruzonsky, founder, MiddleEast.org; World Jewish Congress, first Washington Representative

Gilad Atzmon

Salem-News.com Contributor in London

Email: giladatzmon@mac.com

Gilad Atzmon was born in Israel in 1963 and had his musical training at the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem (Composition and Jazz). As a multi-instrumentalist he plays Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Baritone Saxes, Clarinet and Flutes. His album Exile was the BBC jazz album of the year in 2003. He has been described by John Lewis on the Guardian as the “hardest-gigging man in British jazz". His albums, of which he has recorded nine to date, often explore political themes and the music of the Middle East.
Until 1994 he was a producer-arranger for various Israeli Dance & Rock Projects, performing in Europe and the USA playing ethnic music as well as R&R and Jazz.
Coming to the UK in 1994, Atzmon recovered an interest in playing the music of the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe that had been in the back of his mind for years. In 2000 he founded the Orient House Ensemble in London and started re-defining his own roots in the light of his emerging  political awareness. Since then the Orient House Ensemble has toured all over the world. The  Ensemble includes Eddie Hick on Drums, Yaron Stavi on Bass and Frank Harrison on piano & electronics.

Also, being a prolific writer, Atzmon's essays are widely published. His novels 'Guide to the perplexed' and 'My One And Only Love' have been translated into 24 languages.
Over the years Gilad Atzmon's music has moved more and more towards a cultural hybrid. As a bandleader and reed player he has been amazing his listeners with his powerful personal style that combines great bebop artistry and Middle-Eastern roots in a sophisticated, sometimes ironical manner. Influenced by Coltrane’s powerful approach on the sax, Gilad's live performances are simply breathtaking and overwhelming.
Gilad's  latest album ‘In Loving Memory of America’ was highly praised by the British music press. Here are just a few quotes:
"Atzmon's fluid lyricism is in full flow on songbook classics and worldly originals. But as sweet romance morphs to modernist uncertainty, the bittersweet balance and rich emotional palette equally impress." Financial Times ***** March 2009
"Gilad Atzmon, the expat Israeli saxophonist/clarinetist, combines thrilling jazz musicianship with a maverick political intelligence" Guardian ****
"Like the best of albums" Jazzwise **** March 2009
"Atzmon always manages to tell a story" Uncut **** March 2009
"One of the finest alto players around, Gilad pays his respects to Bird i...It's striking how similar Gilad's sweet, open-throated sound is to Parker's, but as you'd expect from the fiery philosopher-turned-Blockhead, this is no tribute album." BBC Music Magazine March 2009

As a member of the Blockheads, Gilad has also recorded and performed with Ian Dury, Robbie Williams, Sinead O'Connor and Paul McCartney. Gilad has also recorded with Robert Wyatt, the Water Boys and many others. In 2007 Gilad extended his role as a Producer, working with outstanding singer-songwriter Sarah Gillespie to produce her debut album released in September 2009.

In 2008-9 Gilad also produced the Brazilian percussion star Adriano Adewale. The multi ethnic Irish band Yurodny and is currently producing the UK legendary bass player Norman Watt-Roy’s debut album.

Dr. James Petras

Salem-News.com Writer in New York

Email: clarity@islandnet.com

Dr. James Petras is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, TempsModerne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet.

His publishers have included Random House, John Wiley, Westview, Routledge, Macmillan, Verso, Zed Books and Pluto Books. He is winner of the Career of Distinguished Service Award from the American Sociological Association’s Marxist Sociology Section, the Robert Kenny Award for Best Book, 2002, and the Best Dissertation, Western Political Science Association in 1968. His most recent titles include Unmasking Globalization: Imperialism of the Twenty-First Century (2001); co-author The Dynamics of Social Change in Latin America (2000), System in Crisis (2003), co-author Social Movements and State Power (2003), co-author Empire With Imperialism (2005), co-author)Multinationals on Trial (2006).

He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, La Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo. He received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Vittorio Arrigoni

Gaza Activist and Correspondent (Deceased)

Vittorio Arrigoni was an Italian human rights activist who died to the great sadness of many, in April 2011 in Gaza. He was one of a number of activists who arrived with the Free Gaza movement. Vittorio (Vik) blogged at Guerrilla Radio [it], and also wrote for the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto. His posts vividly describe what the people of Gaza are experiencing right now. In one, a doctor describes the effects of the white phosphorus shells Israel is accused of using: “He said that what was totally inexplicable was the total absence of eyeballs, which even in the case of trauma of that magnitude should stay in place, at least traces of them.”

Vik's biggest passion was the Gaza Fishermen who are routinely fired at and killed by the Israeli Navy which answers to no one for their crimes except a few extremely brave activists like Vik Arrigoni. We recently published a story that Vik wrote before his tragic loss. Daniella Lofreda

On 17 April 2011, Salem-News.com's Ken O'Keefe who was in Gaza with Vic, wrote: "I have seen my brother Vik's body and his death certificate, but Vik is not dead."

As songs and movements with his name move forward, his spirit is a guiding source for humanity, always.

Stay Human

Jerry Freeman

Salem-News.com News Photographer/Reporter

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Jerry Freeman is part of a new generation of dedicated news photographers who are entering the Internet news industry as a second career. He shares in common with many people the dream of becoming a visual journalist.

Joining the Navy at an early age, and the Oregon Army Guard a few years later, Jerry has a wide range of life experiences. He describes himself as “an old truck driver with a new-found passion to bear witness to the world’s events.”

Teaming up with Salem-News.com he embarks on a new career as a video news photographer and reporter. Stay tuned, and see how it turns out. Jerry seems to exhibit natural talent and is already becoming a published member of the Salem-News.com team.

Nahida Izzat

Salem-News.com Poet and Contributing Writer

Email: nahidaexiledpalestinian@gmail.com

Nahida Izzat is a Jerusalem-born Palestinian refugee who has lived in exile for over forty two years, after being forced to leave her homeland at the tender age of seven in 1967, during the six-day war.

She has a degree in mathematics, but art is one of her favorite pastimes. She loves hand-made things and so makes dolls, cards, and most of her own clothes. She also writes poetry, participates in written dialogues and believes in building bridges, not walls.

She started writing when her friends insisted she should write about her memories, experiences and feelings as a Palestinian.When she did it all came out sounding—she was told—like poetry! So she self-published two books: I Believe in Miracles and Palestine, The True Story.

Her dream is to return back home to a free and liberated Palestine.

If you like poetry and are intrigued by the notion of helping the Palestinian people and learning more, you can purchase Nahida's books, I Believe in Miracles and Palestine, The True Story by visiting:

I Believe in Miracles: a Collection of Palestinian Poems

ISBN 13: 9780954839109 | ISBN 10: 0954839102

£12.99 paperback Nahida Izzat (2004)

Marianne Skolek

Salem-News.com Drug Awareness Reporter

Email: mskolek@aol.com

Salem-News.com Reporter Marianne Skolek, is an Activist exposing Purdue Pharma for their criminal activity in the promotion, marketing and over manufacturing of OxyContin throughout the United States and Canada. She began her work nine years ago after losing her daughter, Jill to prescribed OxyContin.

In July 2007, she testified against Purdue Pharma in Federal Court in Virginia at the sentencing of their three CEO's - Michael Friedman, Howard Udell and Paul Goldenheim - who pleaded guilty to charges of marketing OxyContin as less likely to be addictive or abused to physicians and patients. That same month she also testified against Purdue Pharma at a Judiciary Hearing of the U.S. Senate.

In working with the Department of Justice and Attorney Generals, Marianne has been instrumental in charges being lodged against Purdue Pharma. She also has been retained as a consultant with private attorneys working on behalf of victims and their families against Purdue Phama.

Marianne is a leading authority on the marketing tactics used by Purdue Pharma through their funded pain societies such as the American Pain Foundation in pushing OxyContin for the "under-treatment of pain" in the United States and Canada. The under-treatment of pain is a marketing fallacy contrived by Purdue Pharma and allowed by the FDA. She continues to hold the FDA accountable for this epidemic of OxyContin and lobbies them to reclassify this narcotic to be prescribed for severe pain only - never moderate pain. To date, the FDA has turned a blind eye to the epidemic of death, addiction and abuse of this powerful narcotic.

Marianne is a nurse having graduated in 1991 as president of her graduating class. She also has a Paralegal certification. She served on a Community Service Board for the Courier News, a Gannet newspaper in NJ writing articles predominantly regarding AIDS patients and their emotional issues. She was awarded a Community Service Award by the Hunterdon County, NJ HIV/AIDS Task Force in recognition of and appreciation for the donated time, energy and love in facilitating a Support Group for persons with HIV/AIDS.

Marianne recommends these links for people who want to know more about the dangerous and deadly drugs the U.S. government approves of:
oxydeaths.com/news_chilling.htm
nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html?
blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2007/07/sometimes_only_justice_can_rel.html
judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=2905&wit_id=6612

View articles written by Marianne Skolek

Ersun Warncke

Salem-News.com Business/Economy Reporter

Email: warncke@comcast.net

Ersun Warncke is a native Oregonian. He has a degree in Economics from Portland State University and studied Law at University of Oregon. At a young age, his career spans a wide variety of fields, from fast food, to union labor, to computer programming. He has published works concerning economics, business, government, and media on blogs for several years. He currently works as an independent software designer specializing in web based applications, open source software, and peer-to-peer (P2P) applications.

Ersun describes his writing as being "in the language of the boardroom from the perspective of the shop floor." He adds that "he has no education in journalism other than reading Hunter S. Thompson." But along with life comes the real experience that indeed creates quality writers. Right now, every detail that can help the general public get ahead in life financially, is of paramount importance. Ersun said, "In my reporting at Salem News I will be doing my best to apply this style of historically informed critical analysis to the most important issues in the areas of investment, economics, business and government that face the citizens of our State. Whether you are an investor, business person, worker, or farmer, it is my hope that my reporting will be informative, enlightening, and profitable for you."

You can read more of Ersun's articles at demockrazy.com

View articles written by Ersun Warncke

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD

Salem-News.com West Bank Reporter

Email: mazin@qumsiyeh.org

======================================================

Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. He served on the board/steering/executive committees of a number of groups including Peace Action Education Fund, the US Campaign to End the Occupation, the Palestinian American Congress, Association for One Democratic State in Israel/Palestine, and BoycottIsraeliGoods.org. He is now president of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People and coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Beit Sahour. He advised many other groups including Sommerville Divestment Project, Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project, Palestine Freedom Project, Sabeel North America, and National Council of Churches of Christ USA. He is an active member of a number of human rights groups (Amnesty, Peace action, Human Rights Watch, ACLU etc.). He published several books the most acclaimed of which is "Sharing the Land of Canaan: human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle" which was also translated to spanish.

He also has an activism book published electronically on his web site (qumsiyeh.org). His main interest is media activism and public education. He published over 200 letters to the editor and 100 op-ed pieces and interviewed in TV and radio extensively (local, national and international). Appearances in national media included the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, CNBC, C-Span, and ABC, among others. He also regularly lectures on issues of human rights and international law. He has a new book out shortly titled “Popular Resistance in Palestine: A history of Hope and Empowerment" which reviews resistance going back to the beginning of the Zionist project in the 19th century until today. Salem-News.com is extremely proud to work with Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home
Also please visit: pcr.ps

Doug Dickerson

Contributing Writer, Business

Email: managementmoment@gmail.com

Doug Dickerson is the former editor of the Berkeley Independent newspaper in South Carolina and is currently the Director of Management Moment Leadership Services. Doug’s writing has been recognized by the South Carolina Press Association, having won awards for enterprise reporting, series of articles, and for humor column writing.

Doug’s passion for communicating leadership principles and personal development is crystallized through his Management Moment column and leadership columns he writes.

Leadership development is a passion to which Doug is strongly devoted. Sharing positive leadership lessons taken from his Management Moment columns, Doug is available to speak for your organization. To schedule Doug to speak contact him at managementmoment@gmail.com

Read more of Doug’s columns on his blog at dougsmanagementmoment.blogspot.com

View articles written by Doug Dickerson

Dr. Kevin Barrett

Salem-News.com Political Expert; Mideast and Islamic Affairs

Email: kbarrett@merr.com

Dr. Kevin Barrett, co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance for 9/11 Truth, has taught English, French, Arabic, American Civilization, Humanities, African Literature, Folklore, and Islam at colleges and universities in the San Francisco Bay area, Paris, and Madison, Wisconsin.

He is the author of Truth Jihad: My Epic Struggle Against the 9/11 Big Lie and the editor of 9/11 and American Empire: Christians, Jews and Muslims Speak Out.

Barrett grew up in a family of lapsed Unitarians (which is about as lapsed as it gets) and reverted to Islam in 1993, a move that gradually impressed upon him the gravity of the moral choices we make in this life. Barrett’s dissertation is on Islam and Moroccan legend. He is also the author and illustrator of the cult classic A Guide to Mysterious San Francisco, published under the pseudonym of “Dr. Weirde.” (He begs Allah’s forgiveness for that slightly twisted book.) Barrett became a 9/11 truth activist in 2004 after reading David Griffin’s The New Pearl Harbor and conducting follow-up research that convinced him Griffin had accurately summarized evidence indicating 9/11 was an inside job.

In July 2004 he rashly rejected a plum post-doc at the University of California because it was funded by the 9/11-disinformation-sponsoring CIA-linked Ford Foundation. In the summer of 2006, Republican state legislators and Fox newscasters demanded that Barrett be fired from his job teaching an introductory Islam class at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but the University refused to buckle, and Barrett got high marks from his students. Turned down for a tenure-track job at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and later other teaching jobs, due to his political opinions, Barrett plans to continue fighting for academic freedom until he and other truth-seeking scholars are vindicated. He has appeared in several documentary films, lectures widely on 9/11 and hosts three radio programs on three different patriot networks, as well as a daily news show on Pacifica Radio.

Belén Fernandez

Salem-News.com Correspondent in Panama & other countries

Email: belengarciabernal@gmail.com

Belén Fernandez is an editor at pulsemedia.org. Her articles also have appeared in CounterPunch, Palestine Chronicle, Palestine Think Tank, Rebelión, Tlaxcala, The Electronic Intifada, Upside Down World, and Venezuelanalysis.com. Her book “Coffee with Hezbollah,” a humorous political travelogue chronicling her hitchhiking trip through Lebanon in the aftermath of the 2006 Israeli assault, is available at Amazon, Amazon UK, and Barnes and Noble.

All you have to do to support this talented writer and really discover her amazing story, is click the photo above, it is a link that will take you to a page about the book, with information about how to order it.

Born in Washington, DC, in 1982, Belén earned her bachelor's degree with a concentration in political science from Columbia University in New York City. Her diverse background of worldwide experiences, created a fantastic writer; one whose work we are extremely happy to share with Salem-News.com viewers.

We can not overemphasize the importance of having a Correspondent in Belen's capacity; traveling the world at will to cover strife and reveal it in ways that are striking and memorable.

Belén's articles are timely and relevant and once again, it is time that Americans receive more news from people who live in the places where the stories are happening.

Eileen Fleming

Salem-News.com World Issues Writer

Email: ecumei@gmail.com

Eileen Fleming is the Producer of "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu" Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org, Eileen is a Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com, Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" and BEYOND NUCLEAR: Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My Life as a Muckraker:2005-2010 youtube.com/user/eileenfleming.

Eileen explains her aspirations of running for a Congressional seat in her home state of Florida, "One must act locally and think globally, for to whom much is given, much more is required. I will work to protect the environment, the nurturing of children and will donate all my tax home pay after work related expenses to the building of Habitat for Humanity homes for qualified single parent families.

"I will have an open door for all constituents; but lobbyists will have to make an appointment. I will seek to reconcile and mend foreign relationships and uphold the spirit and intention of the Constitution of America that successfully separated and balanced governmental powers to safeguard the interests of majority rule and minority rights, of liberty and equality, and of the central and state governments and I uphold that one's religion should guide them; and not be used to control another. And I will strive to make real the promises and heed the warnings of our Founding Fathers."

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all [people] are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among [people], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it." -The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.

"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...Passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."-George Washington's Farewell Address, 1796.

We are extremely happy to have Eileen and her devoted writing and efforts as part of our team at Salem-News.com. We are a group that is playing for keeps with the constant delivery of hard, gritty information that is sometimes incredibly hard to swallow, but a necessary bitter pill.

Ralph E. Stone

Salem-News.com Contributor

Email: stonere@earthlink.net

Salem-News.com writer Ralph E. Stone was born in Massachusetts. He is a graduate of both Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School. We are very fortunate to have this writer's talents in this troubling world; Ralph has an eye for detail that others miss.

As is the case with many Salem-News.com writers, Ralph is an American Veteran who served in war. Ralph served his nation after college as a U.S. Army officer during the Vietnam war. After Vietnam, he went on to have a career with the Federal Trade Commission as an Attorney specializing in Consumer and Antitrust Law.

Over the years, Ralph has traveled extensively with his wife Judi, taking in data from all over the world, which today adds to his collective knowledge about extremely important subjects like the economy and taxation.

Since leaving his full time role with the Federal Trade Commission, Ralph retired and has become closely involved in domestic violence prevention and consumer issues. We are happy to have him aboard this important team.

Yousef Al-Helou

Salem-News.com Gaza Correspondent

Email: ydamadan@hotmail.com

Yousef Al-Helou is a freelance journalist based in Gaza who writes for Salem-News.com, Press TV and other world news organizations from the war-torn occupied Palestinian Gaza Strip.

We at Salem-News.com greatly appreciate Yousef's contribution for our readers. The siege of Gaza is one of the most upsetting and seemingly avoidable military events since the dawn of the new Millennium. Having someone in the field there able to send fresh reports to us offers our viewers the freshest perspective from the scene that they are likely to find in western media.

Yousef's view of the ongoing struggle in Gaza is eye-level and he never stops talking to the affected people and asking the important questions that many would have shielded from the world.

Yousef Al-Helou's original articles on Salem-News.com can be found at this link: GAZA REPORTS.

Q Madp

Salem-News.com Photographer

Email: Q@IraqWarHeroes.com

A one-man operation, Q Madp attends funerals and memorials for lost service members in the Northwest whenever possible to pay his respects. He photographs the services, then posts a limited amount of them on the hero’s Tribute Page of IraqWarHeroes.org, and provides other photos at no cost to the immediate family member. No strings attached. It's a Thank You for the sacrifice that they have made.

Nearly 30,000 pictures are posted to Q's site, available for public viewing. He updates his site daily, with very few exceptions, with current releases of names from the Department of Defense and photos or other material mailed in by relatives, friends and others that wish to add to a Tribute Page of one of the fallen.

“I’m not into the politics. We have to take care of our men and women in uniform. And we have to give them respect, even after they’re gone. Besides that, nothing matters. I create a visual record that can be passed on to the next generation, especially to the ones too young to know now.”

Q does this out of the goodness of his heart, out of his sense of duty, in appreciation of our soldiers’ sacrifice, and that of their family and friends. He has been asked to attend services again and again, even where no media or public was allowed. “Sometimes they don’t want any family members to be shown in pictures. I can respect that. Those never show up anywhere but on their CD.” Q is a man of his word.

“This is something many people won’t talk about, but we’ve lost a lot of people to PTSD after they’ve come home. It’s not in the news much, but everyone needs to know about PTSD and what affect is has on the person suffering, and what it does to the people around them, so they will know how to get help,” Q said.

Rarely does Q step from behind the camera; never does he ask for thanks, and usually only gives his web address for acknowledgment of his efforts. Donations, however, are gladly accepted.

To help Q, Mail a check or money order to:

Q Madp

P.O. Box 86888

Portland, OR 97286-0888

Kenneth G. Ramey

Salem-News.com Religion and Philosophy Writer

Email: darken1@sbcglobal.net

When we met Kenneth G. Ramey, he was a "writer without a Website" who was generating excellent, provocative articles on the subject of religion and world affairs.

We are pleased that Ken's "lone wolf" approach as a writer has been replaced by a spot on our team of writers at Salem-News.com.

Ken confronts the hard issues of politics and religion from a logical point of view that combines interesting insight with history into the truth, or lack thereof, that underlies the strengths and weaknesses of the Religious Right’s determination to use American politics for its own misguided, or selfish, interest.

It’s rare for a writer to balance his writing between religious values and the secular guarantees of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights with the knowledge that Ken possesses, and to do it so effectively.

Ken was born in Minnesota but was raised in California since 1932. He is the youngest of four boys raised by his mother alone during the dark years of the Great Depression. He Graduated from SFSU in the 1970s when in his mid-forties, majoring in Spanish North American History, and added three years of post-graduate study, much of it in Philosophy and Religion. He worked hard all his life in and out of doors, except for college and the fifteen years he was in banking, seven of them as Training Director in Administration.

Ken has known tragedy in his lifetime and has overcome them. He is well suited to discuss everything from the low to the highs. that give of us hope.

We live at a critical time in history and believe Ken's views represent the view of many who are tired of the commercialism and false interpretations about religion today.

Watch for Ken's articles on religion, philosophy, politics and history.

View articles written by Kenneth G. Ramey

Dexter Phoenix

Salem-News.com Photographer/Reporter

Email: dexter_phoenix@hotmail.com

Dexter Phoenix has worked as a staff and freelance photographer since the mid-1990's and has a wealth of professional experiences on his resume. We welcome his presence to our staff and Salem-News.com.

His list of assignments includes the European Forest fires in 1998, he photographed oil rigs in Southern Tunisia, while documenting local traditions and livelihoods mostly in the poorer areas of Southern Tunisia. In 1999, Dexter went to Algeria to document the impact of French colonization on the local people and their lifestyle, as well as the hidden dangers of the country - especially for foreign people. In Somalia he witnessed horrific scenes of dismemberment among victims in that ongoing internal strife; and also the power and influence of warlords over the local population; its abject poverty and harsh environment of the Southern Region and leftovers of the American Forces. In Angola, Dexter covered the story of Savimbi who returned to his guerrilla tactics, due to The FAA who pushed Savimbi out, and took more control over diamond producing sites, exploring why Angola is still devastated after nearly 40 years of civil war. Despite its natural resources, over 90% of Angolans live in poverty, two thirds of them on less than a dollar a day. Dexter covered the risks of foreign oil workers working in Angola, especially about the kidnapping situation that seemed to be a common occurrence in Angola. In 2003-2007 in France he photographed the French riots: burnt cars and damaged shops; the clash between the rioters and the police; the riots the day after, and the impact on local businesses.

Dexter covered the War in Lebanon: photographing people fleeing their villages like Ben Jbail, Naqoura, Nabi Uwaydah) and people hanging on to their livelihoods; the slow advance of the Israeli army; Lebanese people fighting back under the cover of civilian clothes (Hezbollah). In Israel he visited places from - Qiriat Shmona, to Ma'lot Tarshiha, Bezet, Nahariyya, Haifa, Nazareth, Tiberius, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Qiryat Yam, Akka, Mizpe Hanita, Matulla, and Ramot.

Staying in places where the Hezbollah rocket attacks were being fired at mostly - in Haifa, Matulla, Qiriat Shamona, and Ma'lot. Being with the Israeli troops engaging and firing back at Lebanon. Also being there as they pushed through slowly over Lebanon's border. Seeing endless military supplies and personnel that carried on day and night until the war ended. He also documented the locals who stayed behind, and tried to live their lives normally. The damage the rockets left behind in the cities and towns. In Palestine, Dexter visited Hebron, Ramallah, Belain (15km from Ramallah), Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, and the West Bank, photographing among many other things, Palestinian demonstrations and the clash with Israel's army; the lives of the people living under the control of the Israeli security forces; landscapes of the holy sites of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions, interviewing the local families about their missing sons and daughters that have fought for their independence. In Turkey Dexter saw the integration of the Kurds within the Turkish community. The potential terrorist threats that could affect their tourism industry, one of the main sources of income for Turkey.

This native of Great Britian moved to Los Angeles in 2007, where he photographed general news, general Interests, sports, freelance model photo work, and also stock images. In his career Dexter has had photos published: World wide, in many magazines and newspapers and online. Throughout the course of his career he has experience with technology of all imaginable types. In his career as a photographer Dexter has covered stories in Norway, Sweden, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, France, Mexico, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Somalia, Tunisia, Algeria, Angola, Iran, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Colombia, and the United States. Email inquiries about photo purchase to Dexter at the above address.

View articles and photos by Dexter Phoenix

Kourosh Ziabari

Salem-News.com Iran Correspondent

Email: kziabari@gmail.com

Kourosh is awarded by President Ahmadinejad

Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian media correspondent, freelance journalist and the author of Book 7+1. In addition to his work with Salem-News.com he is a contributing writer for websites and magazines in the Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, South Korea, Belgium, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. He was once a member of Stony Brook University Publications’ editorial team and Media Left magazine’s contributing writer, as well as a contributing writer for Finland’s Award-winning Ovi Magazine.

As a young Iranian journalist, he has been interviewed and quoted by several mainstream mediums, including BBC World Service, PBS Media Shift, the Media Line network, Deutsch Financial Times and L.A. Times. Currently, he works for the Foreign Policy Journal as a media correspondent. He is a member of Tlaxcala Translators Network for Linguistic Diversity and World Student Community for Sustainable Development (WSC-SD)

We at Salem-News.com are extremely pleased to offer the journalistic observations of this dynamic writer, who delivers a message that few western people actually hear. The best source for news out of Iran, comes from within Iran.

Iran's President honored Kourosh Ziabari during the closing ceremony of National Festival of Iranian Youth in July 2010.

Kourosh Ziabari was named the winner of winners in the category of media activities. He was honored by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, receiving the honorary mention signed by him and the silver medal of Iran's Superior Youth. The media activities category did not award the Gold and Bronze medal to any participant.

_____________________________

From Salem-News.com Editor Tim King: My favorite personal story about Kourosh, involves an article he wrote, titled, In Praise of 'Salem News' which related how surprised he was to find an American media group that welcomed his work, that was not specifically an Islamic American group.

He assumed that in order to carry a point of view like his own, I had to be a Muslim convert, and I think he was most pleasantly surprised to learn that we are none of the above, and all of the above, at the same time.

Every major faith in the world is represented by our team, we have over 60 writers based in 13 countries, and our goal is always to diversify more. Perhaps over time, with the help of really talented writers like Kourosh Ziabari, we all have a chance. Congratulations to our brother and fellow Salem-News.com writer, it is an honor to share space with you Kourosh!-

Bernard Powell

Salem-News.com Paranormal Research Writer

Email: bpowell-sa@comcast.net

Bernard Powell is a local Author and Independent Publisher; he is a devout student of religion, mysticism and the language of occult symbolism. He has had a life-long interest in all branches of the paranormal; he is also the founding member of a Salem-based paranormal research society called OPHIR (Occult & Paranormal House of Investigational Research). You can visit their site at Team-OPHIR.com or you can contact him directly at: bernard@Team-OPHIR.com

His first book, “Path of the Heretic, Liber Erratum” is available for purchase at Amazon.com, the url is: Path of the Heretic. Bernard's sound approach to paranormal research involves careful steps and heaps of skepticism. In fact it seems at times that he is far more interested in disproving reported paranormal events than corroborating them. This makes the findings of he and his team all the more credible when they do deem a location to be genuinely haunted or active. Another part of Bernard's credibility stems from his broad understanding of the history of religion. He scoffs at the term "ghosthunter" and explains that the approach he takes in this area is far more serious, besides ghost hunter certainly implies that the people involved are trying to actually locate and capture spirits, and that is not the way it works.

Visit this link to catch the latest Salem-News.com articles from Bernard Powell.

Robert 'Tosh' Plumlee

Salem-News.com News Photojournalist/Analyst/researcher

Email: lexington3509wrp@gmail.com

Robert 'Tosh' Plumlee is a retired commercial pilot who worked for and with the United States Government for many years. His background is extremely diverse and over the years Tosh was involved in many government operations that are both fascinating and historic. His work began with an enlistment in the Army and a subsequent assignment to military specialized operations at Fort Bliss, Texas in April of 1954. Tosh was associated with various Military Intelligence units of the Fourth Army based at Fort Bliss, Texas, and also the Fourth Army Reserve, located at Dallas Love Field, Dallas Texas. This service period was in the early to mid-fifties and into the early sixties.

From approximately 1962 through 1963, Tosh was assigned to the Cuban Project which operated at the time from the JM/WAVE station attached to Miami, Florida's 'Cuba Desk' of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He operated as a contract "Undercover pilot" and also, at times, was assigned to specialized Cuban operations of the CIA's "Covert Action Group" (CAG).

Some years later, after brief retirement, known as 'The Farm'; Tosh reactivated himself and became attached as an undercover operative and contract pilot for the federal government during President Reagan's "Drug War". He was attached to a secret team known as 'America-Mexico Special Operations Group' ("AMSOG"), HQ'ed Panama Southern Command.

Tosh worked with KiKi Camarena and his pilot, before they were murdered and he was a Military/DEA contract pilot, attached to Panama and Colombia, Costa Rica Investigative Task Force on Narcotics.

As a pilot, Tosh was also associated with the Contra Resupply Network. This is where things become even more interesting. Tosh Plumlee testified four times in close door session, to various Senate and congressional investigative committees (Director FBI 1964; J Hoover; Senator Church, 1976-75; closed-door testimony, classified TS; to Congressmen Tom Downing's investigators, before the HSCA was formed; to Senator John Kerry's Committee of 1988-91 also classified "TS Committee Sensitive" and the "Tri-State Drug Task Force", (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico) chaired by Arizona Governor, Bruce Babbit. The cover operation contact cut out was the Phoenix Organized Crime Div. Phoenix AZ, 1975-86. Tosh worked with Senator Gary Hart and his security adviser Bill Holden, on previous intelligence matters with the NSC and the drug war with Colombia and Costa Rica. He worked UC operations with KiKi Camarena and his pilot, before they were murdered, when Tosh was a Military/DEA contract pilot, attached to Panama and Colombia, Costa Rica Investigative Task Force on Narcotics.

In recent years Tosh has been working along the U.S./Mexico border as a news photojournalist and his contributions to Salem-News.com are wide ranging and extremely valuable. We believe he is the top living source of information about U.S. government covert history.

Sue Hannibal

PTSD/Veteran's Issues - Sue Hannibal eraseptsd@aol.com

In a time when the United States (and an endless of other countries- some far worse) is seeing an unprecedented number of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) cases, Sue Hannibal and her skills as a PTSD coach are simply invaluable. Many of those who suffer this fate are military veterans who served in the current conflicts overseas, however the reasons for PTSD are extremely wide-ranging and potentially affect absolutely anyone.

Susan Hannibal is a gifted intuitive healer, life coach, author and teacher in international private practice since 1999.

With a sincere desire to help others much like our own Dr. Phil Leveque, a retired physician, pharmacologist, forensic toxicologist and WWII combat veteran with PTSD; Sue assists and has had significant successes and at this point is dedicating her life to helping people live good lives in spite of this unfortunate trauma

Her expert facilitation skills lead clients into healing childhood trauma, panic attacks, phobias and combat stress. Safe, effective, non-drug evidence-based “energy psychology” methods bring deep, permanent transformation. Her second book, Emotional Detox: Healing the Traumas That Make You Fat, Harm Your Body and Poison Your Life, is in progress. She can be reached at guidedhealing.com

Alysha Atma

Salem-News.com African Affairs Correspondent

Email: alyshann78@comcast.net

So who am I? I am a culmination of all my experiences most importantly knowledge and all that I still need to learn; lessons of love, laughter and the extraordinary giving of both young and old. I have had the enormous fortune of learning from the best, every person around me, and the amazing strength and fortitude of those I have never met but will always strive to listen to.

I continue to work and write because I believe in the power of community and the power of one, both contradictory to each other and yet can move together in a very powerful way. I feel a responsibility to use my place, freedoms and connections here in the US to stand up and yell for those who need my voice and actions. I have seen such strength in my fellow humans that I cannot even begin to comprehend, they have traveled distances, have gone without food, water, shelter and safety for days and weeks at a time. I have a responsibility as a fellow human to put our common humanity before anything else. Everyone deserves to look towards tomorrow, to dream of a safe future and to have a peaceful present.

I believe in our common humanity and that geographic location shouldn’t dictate if my family dies because of religion, race, creed or ancestry or most importantly human greed. With knowledge comes responsibility, which one has choices and must choose to respond. We as Americans have the freedom to make choices every day, from the type of toothbrush we use to the news we watch, the books we read and most importantly to stand for others who may not have the ability or choice. I believe in that power of choice, the power of knowledge, we again can choose to educate ourselves further on issues or simply walk away. I choose not to walk away but to act with the knowledge that I have, knowing that I have opportunities, a voice and connection to others who own the same. I continue to look because I continue to act, I don’t always like what I see and at times I feel helpless. I believe however that as we all love and have compassion, can breath and feel that we have a responsibility to reach into that commonality and bring to the surface a loud response when others are in such desperate need. Looking and learning isn’t always easy but acting can be. I learned from a young child that one toothbrush can turn into 100 and that small act can feel as good as giving a million dollars. Acting is acknowledging that we all are in need and need one another.

My greatest teachers are my husband and son. My husband has been my pillar of strength and my steadfast rock; he helps me to focus my energy and emotions. My son has taught me there is nothing greater than a smile, with much laughter and most importantly that we can all “grow up to be superheroes”. The world has many obstacles but it also has much in common; humanity, love, respect and grace. You may never know the reasons why or how or the impact that is made, and that is OK my friend.

Jennifer Fierberg, MSW

Salem-News.com Contributor

Email: jennifer@ngonewsafrica.org

Jennifer Fierberg is a social worker in the US working on peace and justice issues in Africa through journalism. Her literary focus has been concentrated on the ongoing humanitarian crisis occurring specific to Rwanda and throughout the central region of Africa. Her articles have been published on many humanitarian sites that are also focused on changing the world through social, political and personal action.

Jennifer has extensive experience in the mental health field includes working with victims of trauma and domestic violence, justice matters as well as individual and family therapy. She is passionate and focused on bringing the many humanitarian issues that plague the African Continent to the awareness of the developed world in order to incite change. She is a correspondent, Assistant Editor, and Volunteer Coordinator for NGO News Africa through the volunteer project of the UN. Jennifer is also the media co-coordinator and senior funding executive for The Africa Global Village (www.africaglobalvillage.com)

Jennifer comes to www.Salem-News.com with a great deal of experience and passion for working to stop human right violation in Africa.

Lee Coyne

Salem-News.com Community Writer

Email: luckycoyne@yahoo.com

A combined career of journalism and gerontology shaped the values of this writer-therapist, who often views the world as the masks of comedy and tragedy placed upon the scales of justice. For him, optimism inevitably wins.

"Lyrical Lee" has traveled to 30 nations aboard and was once a press intern at the UN. His first published article was in The NY Daily News in '59, dealing with the need for integrity in public office.

He also launched the nation's first tele-conference on health education for shut-ins, created the Eldermentors project in VA to pair retirees with immigrant students needing role models, and was the main catalyst behind CCTV's "Public Public" panel show here in Salem.

Lee received his BA in International Relations and an MSW in community organization. He currently serves as a member of Salem's Library Advisory Board.

David MacMillan

Salem-News.com Contributor in Cambodia

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Australian born David Victor MacMillan, 29-years old at the time of this writing, has been living in Vietnam for 8 years. He is a commercial artist, designer, ex- front man of Australian Punk/reggae band Scarred Hope, ex-nurse, actor, martial artist, security expert, stylist, some time bodyguard, veteran resident of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and a tracker and investigator who specializes in Missing Person cold cases.

Dave has been on the trail of Sean Flynn, Dana Stone and all of their other missing journalist colleagues in Cambodia for the last three years and led the team responsible for the highly controversial attempt to recover Flynn's remains in Cambodia in March 2010.

Dave says steadfastly that he won't stop until he finds Sean Flynn's remains. "I have been given this Indiana Jones tag because I do things differently." He sure does, beginning each day at 5:00 a.m., riding up to 120km through rubber plantations and bandit country looking for leads.

And while on a dig, he doesn't mind using his North Queensland gruff to get the team motivated. "I call my workers slack bastards if they cant keep up with me and dig all day long."

He says he has always been fascinated by Sean's disappearance since he was a child, adding that he was a cult-fan of Errol Flynn and a founder of the Flynn Society of Indochina on Facebook. "Most of the other members are just in it for the hell of it but my interest is far beyond that," he says. "I came to Asia because I want to solve this mystery."

Dave's mission in this life is very much a match with Salem-News.com's; a news agency that devotes large amounts of space to issues relating to both military veterans, and those challenges relating to the safety of journalists who cover combat operations.

Dr. Paul Balles

Salem-News.com Reporter ballesp@batelco.com.bh

Dr. Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who generates thought-provoking articles on Middle East politics from first-hand perspective.

Throughout his life as an educator, Paul Balles has lived and worked in the Middle East for 40 years - first as an English professor (Universities of Kuwait and Bahrain), and for the past ten years as a writer, editor and editorial consultant.

He’s a weekly Op-Ed columnist for the GULF DAILY NEWS . Dr. Balles is also Editorial Consultant for Red House Marketing and a regular contributor to Bahrain This Month. He writes a weekly op-ed column for Akbar Al Khaleej (Arabic). He has also edited seven websites, including bahrainthismonth.com, womenthismonth.com

Paul has had more than 350 articles published, focusing on companies, personality profiles, entrpreneurs, women achievers, journalists and the media, the Middle East, American politics, the Internet and the Web, consumer reports, Arabs, diplomats, dining out and travel.

His articles on Salem-News.com are frank and enlightening. We are very appreciative of the incredible writings Dr. Balles has generated for our readers over the years, and we are very pleased to list him among our most valued contributors. Indulging the hard subjects that keep the world divided is our specialty at Salem-News.com, and with writers like Dr. Paul Balles on our team, we amplify our ability to meet challenges and someday, will see the effects of this exist in context with a more peaceful and generally successful world.

Dr. William A. Cook

Salem-News.com World Affairs Writer

Email: wcook@laverne.edu

Dr. William A. Cook Ph.D. is Professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California. Bill received his B.A, from King's College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Lehigh University. His Field is American Literature and his areas of interest include Nathanial Hawthorne (whose picture is below ) and mythology.

Professor Cook served time as the Academic Vice President of the University but now the Department of English is pleased to enjoy his full attention. He maintains a prolific writing career and in his spare time he lampoons sacred cows and draws political cartoons. He serves as senior editor at MWC News and has written for Counterpunch, the Palestine Chronicle, the Pacific Free Press, the Atlantic Free Press, Information Clearing House, Dissident Voice among others. His books on the mid-east include Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, The Rape of Palestine, and a fictional work, The Chronicles of Nefaria, to be published soon in Arabic.

Salem-News.com greatly appreciates the opportunity to deliver Dr. William Cook's sharp and insightful articles to a public that is tired of receiving news from reporters who take on a new assignment every day, often with little understanding of the related issues. Some, like Bill Cook, are far ahead of the game in terms of world perception, experience and understanding, and they possess that accumulated knowledge that drives comprehension to new levels.

William Barth

Salem-News.com Political Strategist

Email: wkbarth@yahoo.com

Dr. William K. Barth recently completed his doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations.

He also recently concluded his term as an Associate Fellow at the University’s Rothermere American Institute, and a alumnus member of St Antony’s College, Oxford.

Dr. Barth’s recently published his D.Phil. thesis entitled On Cultural Rights: The Equality of Nations and the Minority Legal Tradition (Boston, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2008). Prior to initiating his thesis, Dr. Barth served as a senior lawyer for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

He received his Master of Public Administration Degree from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (’86) and Juris Doctor from Loyola University School of Law (’79). He has been a member of the California State Bar in good standing since 1979.

Dr. William K. Barth's book link is: brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=210&pid=30599

You can visit his blog page at this address: thebarthreport.com/

Jeff Gates

Salem-News.com International Affairs

Email: jeffgates2@gmail.com

Jeff Gates is an author, educator, attorney, merchant banker and adviser to policy-makers worldwide and Vietnam veteran. Jeff was counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance (1980-87) working for Democrat Russell Long, son of Louisiana Governor and U.S. Senator Huey P. Long.

Law practice w/ former Senators Russell Long, Democrat of Louisiana and Paul Laxalt, Republican of Nevada, chairman of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns.

During his career Jeff has served as Counsel to Kelso & Company, Manhattan-based merchant bankers, completing $4 billion in transactions in 24-months, including the $3 billion leveraged buyout of American Standard, Inc., with employees and managers gaining a 33% stake in this multinational firm.

Jeff wrote Democracy at Risk – Rescuing Main Street from Wall Street (April 2000). Written as a sequel to The Ownership Solution –Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century (1998). Both books cited by presidential candidate Ralph Nader when branding U.S. Greens “the party of the new populism.” Guilt By Association – How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008).

He has experience working wiht 35-plus governments, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the U.K. South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung announced August 2000 that the Korean edition of The Ownership Solution was his vacation-reading pick.

Jeff is a contributor to trade, professional and popular publications worldwide: Financial Times, Japan Times, Financial Executive, M&A Today, Boston Review, Latin Finance, East/West Business Report, Society, Human Resource Management, Los Angeles Times, National Journal, World Times, The Humanist, Peace Review, Business Ethics, America, Tikkun, Whole Earth, Perspectives, Journal of Society of Organizational Learning, Journal of Organizational Change Management, et.al.

He is a graduate of the University of Virginia (B.A. in Honors Economics); J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of Law. Partner, Washington office of Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy. Faculty in the MBA program, Emory University. Vietnam veteran (1LT, U.S. Army). Jeff Gates is a native of Athens, Georgia. His latest book is Guilt By Association — How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008). His previous books include Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street From Wall Street and The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century. For two decades, an adviser to policy-makers worldwide. Counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee (1980-87).

For more: information, visit: criminalstate.com You can email Jeff Gates at this address: jeffgates2@gmail.com

Michael Hjelmstad

Salem-News.com Contributor in Los Angeles

Email: michael.hjelmstad@yahoo.com

Michael Hjelmstad and Salem-News.com founder Tim King met in the Anbar province, at al Asad Marine Corps Air Station in Iraq, when Tim was covering Marine operations there during the summer of 2008. In addition to his work in Marine Corps Public Affairs, Michael has a highly diversified background in media.

Mike works as the U.S. Motion Picture and Television Liaison for the Marine Corps, ensuring that movies portraying Marines do so with accuracy. So every time Hollywood seeks to involve the Marine Corps in a movie, Mike is there to make sure the creative artists. And that is appropriate, since Mike is also a film producer who has a lot of background with his own projects, which tend to observe and honor Marines and others who serve their country.

Mike is another Los Angeles native who shares a common past both as a U.S. Marine and as a journalist. We at Salem-News.com sincerely appreciate Michael's valuable contributions and his highly developed skills in both writing, and press and sports photography.

Dr. Alan Sabrosky

Salem-News.com Middle East Reports

Email: docbrosk@comcast.net

A member of Salem-News.com's early team of writers, Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is a writer and consultant specializing in national and international security affairs. In December 1988, he received the Superior Civilian Service Award after more than five years of service at the U.S. Army War College as Director of Studies, Strategic Studies Institute, and holder of the General of the Army Douglas MacArthur Chair of Research.

He is listed in WHO'S WHO IN THE EAST (23rd ed.). A Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and a 1986 graduate of the U.S. Army War College, Dr. Sabrosky's teaching and research appointments have included the United States Military Academy, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Middlebury College and Catholic University; while in government service, he held concurrent adjunct professorships at Georgetown University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Dr. Sabrosky has lectured widely on defense and foreign affairs in the United States and abroad.

Bob O’Dowd

Salem-News.com Environmental and Military Reporter

Email: rodowd@live.com

Bob O’Dowd is a former U.S. Marine with thirty years of experience on the east coast as an auditor, accountant, and financial manager with the Federal government, half of that time with the Defense Logistics Agency in Philadelphia.

Bob is somewhat like the accountant played by Jack Lemmon in “The Apartment.” Bob worked in “insane workplaces” similar to the insurance company office setting pictured in the film. No work cubicles. Lots of noise. Mechanical calculators. Phones ringing. Unlike Jack Lemmon, Bob didn’t have a key to an apartment he could share with bosses needing a place to rendezvous with lovers. Instead, he shared one with two Navy veterans, recent graduates of Villanova, who hosted weekend parties with kegs of beer and lots of girls. It wasn’t Animal House, but a close tie. Not exactly the image of an accountant, but then Bob was not your typical accountant.

Originally from Pennsylvania, he enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 19, served in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Marine Aircraft Wings in 52 months of active duty in the 1960s. Bob’s sense of humor has occasionally gotten him in trouble. Leaving San Diego with 1,000 other Marines in November 1964, Bob was the Marine who lead the “Mickey Mouse” theme song to get the attention of a Marine Major in charge of the draft. It was a warm day for San Diego, Marines were in starch utilities (work cloths), carrying a seabag full of clothing on one shoulder and another dry cleaned set of dress greens in their free hand. Most Marines were in poor humor and soaking wet in sweat after standing in line in the hot sun for a few hours. To relieve the tension, Bob started to sing the “Mickey Mouse Theme Song.”

“Who's the leader of the club
That's made for you and me
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Hey! there, Hi! there, Ho! there
You're as welcome as can be
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Mickey Mouse!
Mickey Mouse!
Forever let us hold our banner
High! High! High! High!

Come along and sing a song
And join the jamboree!
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E”

It worked. One thousand Marines took up the song in full voice, tourists in the San Diego harbor stared in amazement, the ship’s company watched and laughed at the rails. The only one who didn’t appreciate the humor was the Marine Major who stood in apparent disbelief on the forward weather deck of the transport. It worked. Within minutes, the entire Marine draft was hustled aboard ship. Who ever said Marines lacked a sense of humor?

A graduate of Temple University, Bob like Jack Lemmon married late. Bob and Grace have been married over 31 years; have two adult children and two grandsons. Bob and Grace are opposites in more ways than one. Grace, a professor of English at La Salle University, has little patience for anyone who enjoys “reading math books.” Bob would rather do math problems than go to a movie. Go figure. Opposites must attract.

Research on El Toro is where Bob intersected with Salem-News.com. Bob served in the exact same Marine Aviation Squadron that Salem-News founder Tim King served in, twenty years earlier. With their combined on-site knowledge and research ability, Bob and Tim and a handful of other ex-Marines, have put the contamination of MCAS El Toro on the map. The base is highly contaminated with TCE, trichloroethylene.

View articles written by Robert O'Dowd

Gordon Duff

Military Reporter

Email: Gpduf@aol.com

Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and a regular contributor to Veterans Today. He specializes in political and social issues. You can see a large collection of Gordon's published articles at this link: VeteransToday.com.

He is an outspoken advocate for veterans and his powerful words have brought about change. Gordon is a lifelong PTSD sufferer from his war experiences and he is empathetic to the plight of today's veterans also suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Other topics range from veterans protesting government land grabs, to Agent Orange, PTSD and an endless of subjects that affect his combat veteran brothers.

We greatly appreciate the opportunity to feature Gordon's timely and critical reports on Salem-News.com, a news organization staffed by a number of veterans, particularly former U.S. Marines. Some of Gordon's articles rank among our most visited and it is clear that he is taking no prisoners in his fight for Veterans and fellow Marines and everyone else affected by the lack of support they receive from their own government.

Gordon is highly traveled, having recently returned from a trip to the Mideast that included meetings with high level officials in Pakistan whose poits of view are featured in his reports. There are those who know because they go and Gordon, in a lifelong way, typifies the person who takes the time to travel this world and learn the facts for himself.

Roger Butow

Salem-News.com's 'Odd Man Out'

Email: rogerbutow@cleanwaternow.com

Launched in January of 2010, Odd Man Out is the creation of Roger von Bütow and his OMO columns are written exclusively for Salem-News-com. Born and raised in the LA Harbor area, son of a German immigrant father, he's been in Orange County for 45 years and is a 38-year resident of Laguna Beach, Ca.

In 1998, he began his professional career in environmental review processes (CEQA, NEPA, MND, MND and EIR/EIS). He's a rare mix of cross-trained builder, writer and consultant as he brings his extensive construction experiences dating back to 1972 into his eco-endeavors. He helps prospective clients and their advisory team better understand regulatory compliance issues, focusing on the complexity of land use rules and potentially significant adverse ecological impacts. This in turn expedites projects by bringing them into accord with their locale's requirements. With his grass roots activist background, he also understands that side of the ecological equation and arbitration process.

He has tremendous field and technical expertise in successful watershed restorations, plus wastewater, urban runoff, water quality monitoring/improvements and hydrologic mechanisms. He's built everything from commercial spas to award-winning private residences, and provided peer review and consultant analyses for single homes, subdivisions and upscale resorts.

He's available for those who want to see every project integrate (to the maximum extent practicable) the emerging strategies and lofty goals of Green Building, especially Low Impact Development (L.I.D.). His extensive writing skills and services include technical submissions and testimonials.

Coming from an activist background (Problems) to the consultancy role (Solutions), his mission has evolved from outrage at enviro-abuse to educational and professional outreach. He also donates his personal time and services to:

(1) OC volunteer beach cleanups for the California Coastal Commission: cleanwaternow.com/ and coastal.ca.gov/publiced/pendx.html

(2) A Southern Cal Steelhead Trout recovery working group in the Aliso Creek Watershed: alisocreeksteelhead.org/

(3) Heads up the Laguna Chapter of Keep California Beautiful: keepcaliforniabeautiful.com/

His resumé is extensive, try an online GOOGLE search of his personal journey and historical accomplishments. His consultation fees are reasonable and if you've got a major project that alarms you, that needs creative intervention, then he's your man. His credentials and "CV" can be provided upon request.

FYI: If a project near you has some interesting enviro-aspect(s) you think is/are worthy of Salem-News.com coverage and our readers attention, feel free to contact Roger with a very brief synopsis.

Contact him at his office: (949) 715.1912 or drop him an email: rogerbutow@cleanwaternow.com

View articles written by Roger Butow

Ken O'Keefe

Salem-News.com Correspondent

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Ken O'Keefe is a former U.S. Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War and subsequently spoke out about the use of depleted uranium as a "crime against humanity" and the US military using soldiers as "human guinea pigs" with experimental drugs that were directly linked to Gulf War syndrome.

He is also a social entrepreneur utilizing direct action marine conservation, though Ken is more widely known for leading the human shield action to Iraq and as a survivor of the Israeli attack on the MV Mavi Marmara in which he participated in defending the ship and "disarming two Israeli Commandos".

On January 7, 2004, O'Keefe burned his US passport in protest of American Imperialism and called for US troops to immediately withdrawal from Iraq. He replaced his US passport with a "World Passport", subsequently proclaiming himself a "Citizen of the World" with “ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth." His is also legal citizen of Ireland and Palestine citizenship.

We are extremely happy that Ken is among our team of writers at Salem-News.com; he is possibly the most interesting and involved American in the effort to bring peace to the conflict between Palestine and Israel.

Read Ken O'Keefe's Biography, you can also visit Ken's Ken's Website alohapalestine.com

Phil Northcutt

Salem-News.com Veterans Issues Reporter

Email: philipnorthcutt@gmail.com

Phil Northcutt is combat veteran of the Iraq war and a former infantry Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps. He is an agriculture student at Santa Rosa Junior College, and works as a veterans advocate connecting veterans in need to the resources and non-profits that assist them.

He has experience as a music promoter, television and mobile media producer with a background in printing. Phil is an outspoken advocate of medical cannabis for veterans with issues of Post Traumatic Stress.

We at Salem-News.com are extremely happy to add Phil to our staff of writers, many of whom are combat veterans, and allow a place for his strong voice that has already made a difference for many. Phil is our first writer who is a combat veteran of the Iraq War.

Jerry West

Salem-News.com Writer

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Jerry West grew up on a farm in Fresno County, California, and served with the US Marine Corps from 1965 to 1970 including 19 months in Vietnam with the Third Marine Division, and three years at MCAS Iwakuni where he became an anti-war organizer in 1970.

He earned an Honors Degree in History at the University of California, Berkeley, and did two years of graduate study there.

While in university he worked seasonally in fire and law enforcement with the US Forest Service. After university he worked for a number of years in the international tour industry in operations and management before moving to a remote village on the west coast of Vancouver Island where he is currently the editor and publisher of The Record newspaper serving the Nootka Sound region.

He is a Past President of the Northern California Land Trust, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Chuck Palazzo

Salem-News.com Vietnam Correspondent

Email: chuck_pal@yahoo.com

Chuck Palazzo is a lifelong writer and activist who served as a U.S. Marine during the Vietnam War, from 1970-1974. He was trained in 02 (intelligence) and ended up with 1st and 3rd Force RECON seeking out and destroying NVA SAM sites.

He says there was no real intelligence needed, except to detonate and get the hell out and hope to get picked up at the designated LZ. Primarily Da Nang area and points north, and the central highlands (Dalat, etc.).

Today Chuck lives in Da Nang, the same place he served during the war. Chuck says we all have the war stories, but that is not what he chooses to write about.

In his words, "I am now all about helping my fellow VET, getting through our ever growing bureaucracy, and helping the Vietnamese who were innocently affected. Agent Orange and fighting the US Chemical Companies is one of my passions. Talking to other VETS, wherever they fought, is another. I also want the opportunity to perhaps allow the Vietnamese to be heard via me or actually do some interviews. For what we did, they are an incredibly forgiving people and have welcomed me with open arms."

He decided to relocate his small software development business to Vietnam about a year ago. In addition to his partner, all of their employees are Vietnamese.

As Salem-News.com continues to cover the wars overseas and fights for veterans on numerous and never ending fronts, we wholeheartedly welcome Chuck Palazzo to our team, and we especially appreciate what he does for Veterans and for the People of Vietnam.

David Bedworth

Salem-News.com Contributing Writer

Email: bedworth53@gmail.com

Salem-News.com has a wide variety of contributing writers, but the most common thread may be issues related to veterans, and specifically, issues related to the Marine Corps.

David Bedworth is the tenth former Marine to join the Salem-News.com writing team, and we are happy to welcome this former Lieutenant Colonel to our ranks.

A disabling encounter with prostate and brain cancer have put David in a situation where he cannot work and has limited abilities as a result of treatment.

However, brain surgery seems to have stimulated a long dormant creative surge in literature, music and poetry.

He is involved with contributions to the Student Operated Press and Newsblaze and is working with his sister on a collection of illustrated poems.

He also helps a group of ill veterans and family members who were exposed to contaminants at the Marine Corps Base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

This is a subject that Salem-News.com has paid serious attention to for years, that we are increasing our coverage of at this point. Dave's joining our team will amplify our ability to pay more attention to Camp Lejeune, since our writers have concentrated primarily to exposing the contamination at MCAS El Toro, and we could not be more happy about it. Welcome aboard Sir!

Luke Easter

Salem-News.com Poet

Email: lyricsfromlucas@aol.com

Luke Easter is a poet who writes about things that are very close to the heart of Salem-News.com. He explained what drives him to try to heal the world with an approach that reaches people on a different level, one known for centuries, yet too often forgotten in the one we live in.

Why is it important to me? We live in a world of social & economic injustice. The main reason for founding America in the first place was to relieve the oppression of the King of England. Patrick Henry said it best, “give me liberty or give me death.” And yet, all too often death seems to be the only way out. Why is there such a high suicide rate especially among teens, in the land of the free & the home of the brave? What makes headlines? Good news? Ha! More depressing stories than anything else. I feel poetry takes an edge off the hurt of bad news while still delivering it but in a, “glitzy” sort of way. Giving a different perspective. Kind of like a slap in the face as opposed to a knife in the back. At least with the slap you’ll live to see another day and you will know whom it’s from. I wasn’t here for the beginning of the world but at 59, I just might be here for the end. Let’s not allow the satanic evils of this world a foothold in the truth and justice pioneers fought so hard to establish.

Even though it’s still a knife, rhyme poetry helps to dull the blade. And that’s my job.

Then there are those, “seemingly” usually buried on the last page (but not on Salem-News.com) rare occasions where the knife becomes a stick of butter. And that just makes my contributions not only easier but a whole lot sweeter too. Love or hate it, whatever the case, this is what I do.

Isaiah 1:17 (Amplified Bible) Learn to do right! Seek justice, relieve the oppressed and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Art W. Schade

Salem-News.com Contributor

Email: awschade@gmail.com

Art W. Schade's life has been spent as a Marine, Vietnam Veteran, Bank Manager, and over 30 successful years in corporate executive marketing, business development, and sales.

Author; married and father of three young men, Schade graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Business Management.

Raised Roman Catholic, to my family this meant I must believe in Jesus, go to confession every Saturday, attend Sunday Mass, and never, ever, miss Catechism instructions.  At a very young age, an only child from a brief WWII marriage, it did not take long to realize my mother, grandmother, and other relatives never followed the Church's rules. However, all expected me to do as they said, not as they did. My father, divorced, was an atheist, and would discuss his views when I asked him – which I did not often do.

The religious contradictions within my family were similar to those I discovered while being taught Roman Catholic principles.  I always remember the wonderful teachings of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, I remained haunted as I was told of vengeful suffering I would receive from God’s wrath, should I break one of his commandments by cursing, telling lies, touching myself in my private area for too long - never did learn what too long was - or consider other religions, Spiritualists, or Atheist dogma. This made my young life a little difficult, because I never discussed my father’s ideals, who I remember as a very kind and loving man - but an Atheist.

Click to visit Website

As I matured from a God fearing child to a bewildered adult, I paid little attention to my families’ lack of consistency between what they told me to do, and what I observed them and others doing.  More difficult was my inability to reconcile the contradictions, possessiveness and inconsistency of my Catholic upbringing.  As an 18-year old Marine in Vietnam I struggled to understand why a loving God allowed the carnage, and emotional trauma of war. Often, wondering whose side He was really on. However, battles are not a place to search for God, they are horrendous conditions where you need to believe God is on your side.

Life of course has passed too quickly. However, time has given me an opportunity to reflect on my life, and write a story that pertains to the consistent unanswered questions I have grappled with throughout my life. Similar questions my children expressed at their bewilderment of religions' contradictory teachings, and self-anointed ownership of God.

The book's theme is not to proclaim the character has found all the answers to the riddles of life.  It is simply one man’s fictional journey [based on religious and secular facts] to find his individual solution regarding God, religion and secular beliefs.  His journey seeks answers to questions, such as; does God truly exist?   If so, whose side is He on - Jews, Christians, Muslims, or one of hundreds of other religions? How accurate are the scriptures, and which ideology should he follow? As well, why God allows disasters, death, molestation, starvation, and other inhuman atrocities to be committed in His name?  Or, are Atheists correct, and religion is man’s ancient tool for controlling mankind?

“Looking for God within the Kingdom of Religious Confusion” is entertaining, educational, factual, and offers those individuals seeking God, other spirituality, or secular views some 'food for thought' about differing beliefs. Sankara Saranam, author of the acclaimed book; ‘God without Religion’ said of this story; "…this book is then both a bridge to nonfiction works that discuss religion in greater depth, as well as a map out of the confusion religions have wrought in the name of one God.”

My story is not intended, nor attempts, to change the readers beliefs. It is simply one man's journey to find his personal answers, to open his mind to determine the road(s) he will travel. Visit www.anotherviewpublishing.com

John Uldrich

Salem-News.com Environmental and Military Reporter

Email: John Uldrich

John Uldrich has common roots with several members of the Salem-News.com team. Like Tim King, Robert O'Dowd and Roger Butow, he is a former US Marine from MCAS El Toro who survived serving at what we now know, is a massively contaminated closed-down military base; one that Irvine, California politicians and developers, believe should be used as a housing community and park. Working very closely with this news team for the last three years, John has been an instrumental player in our fight to expose the deadly toxic base for what it is, and we have had great success.

Like most Marines, John Uldrich is not a man of small aspirations. He is a candidate for Governor with the Independence Party in Minnesota. When he takes office, John will be the State’s “Commander-in-Chief”, with all the more power and ability to bring about positive change in this country, with an eye on all - but a focus on Veterans.

John has a rich and varied background that lends itself particularly well to his work today as a representative of the needs of the citizens of Minnesota, and the United States, whether he is in office or not.

To learn more about John's campaign, visit: johhnuldrichforgovernor.com

Coral Anika Theill

Salem-News.com Reporter

Email: coraltheill@hotmail.com

Coral Anika Theill is an author, advocate and survivor. She teaches that when we truly embrace our pain and suffering, and are able to be authentically grateful for our wounds and the brutality that we may have endured, we become 'healed healers' - Making Light of the Dark.

Coral formerly lived in Oregon for twenty years, until seeking safety from a long term marriage involving domestic violence, rape and ritual abuse. Her published book and true life story, BONSHEA: Making Light of the Dark exposes the dark side of humanity when all people are not valued. Her personal story of twenty years of marital abuse, involving mental, physical, and ritual abuse, is condoned within some of the fundamental, evangelical Christian movements (cults) that thrive today. Her story is also about injustice, the failings of the Oregon court system, and the stigma associated with mental illness.

BONSHEÁ: Making Light of the Dark shares her search for freedom and light in a society based on patriarchal religion and laws. It openly speaks about the ideas and beliefs in our society which foster sexism, racism, the denigration of human rights and the intolerance of difference. Her documentation exposes the dark side of human nature when all people are not valued. A healthy society must have the courage to address these issues, speak about them, examine them and bring them to light. Indifference encourages, "silent violence"-the type of violence she experienced in her home, in the community, religious circles and judicial system. Nobel laureate, Elie Wiesel states, "The indifference to suffering makes the human inhumane." "A few years ago, I believed by sharing my truth and breaking my silence, my very life would be threatened. Breaking the silence and "telling secrets" takes courage. I have discovered there is more danger in keeping secrets. If violence cannot be talked about, it cannot be stopped. I truly believe more victims would be willing to share their pain, fear and shame if they could expect to be believed, respected and vindicated. A victim's first scream is for help, a victim's second scream is for justice."

"The injustice committed against me is not just the physical separation from my children, but the willful desecration of the mother-child relationship and bond, a sacred spiritual and emotional entity. Forcibly taking a mother's children, and then controlling her emotionally by withholding contact must be publicly recognized as one of the greatest forms of 'misuse' of the American justice system and one of the greatest hidden vehicles for wide-spread socially approved physical and emotional abuse and control." - Coral Anika Theill

For the past 11 years she has lived under a 'state address confidentiality program' from her ex husband, Mr. Marty Warner, for crimes of abuse, and from a V.A. unlicensed therapist, George D. Amiotte, for attempted murder and theft. During this time, she was also homeless for several years due to disability and ongoing court trauma and abuse (legal stalking) instigated by her ex husband. Difficult experiences in life have softened rather than hardened her. She believes there is beauty in the ashes, sanity is madness put to good use, normal is only a setting on your dryer, and the secret to a long life is knowing when to go. When a person shows you who they are BELIEVE THEM! After decades of child abuse, marital, ritual and court abuse, Coral is at peace with her life and her past and has learned that as she honors herself, she honors God. She no longer embraces the ideological rigidity of patriarchal religions and "Christianity" but wishes to help those who are being abused in the name of "God." She believes most people long to be understood more than they wish to be 'loved.' In regards to her religious outlook, Coral thinks the Dali Lama sums it up best. "My heart and mind are my temples, my religion is kindness."

Coral believes in the inherent worth of every person and that we are all interconnected and bonded together by the fact that each and everyone of us faces personal trials, traumas and crisis. Each one of us is challenged to reframe and use the tragic moments in life for personal empowerment and for encouraging others. She hopes and prays the Marines and soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq can come home soon. Coral reminds those around her, 'Your trauma is not who you are....just what happened to you." "If you can't help, just do your best not to hurt."

Coral Anika Theill is available for speaking engagements or forums. Presently, she is writing her third book, "The Gift of Healing is Our Birthright." Her email is listed above.

Website for BONSHEA: Making Light of the Dark bonshea.com

• May-8-2010: A Mother Does Not Forget Her Children: First March on Washington for Mothers of Lost Children - Coral Anika Theill Salem-News.com
• May-10-2010: SILENT VIGIL AT WHITE HOUSE: Mothers of Lost Children - Coral Anika Theill Salem-News.com
• Nov-29-2007: Welcome to Oregon: Land of Domestic Abuse Endorsement - Coral Anika Theill Special to Salem-News.com
• May-12-2007: Abuse Under the Watch of Oregon's Justice System - Tim King Salem-News.com
• Nov-28-2007: Marital Rape and Abuse Victim Seeks Justice From Oregon's Governor - Coral Anika Theill Special to Salem-News.com
• May-10-2009: Oregon Should Consider Coral Theill this Mother's Day - Tim King Salem-News.com
• May-29-2008: What Abuse Survivors Expect from the Portland Crime Victims Conference - Tim King Salem-News.com
• Oct-15-2008: PSA Targets Sarah Palin's Anti-Abortion Position - Tim King Salem-News.com

Bonshea: Making Light of the Dark can be ordered from: barnesandnobe.com, amazon.com or iUniverse.com

Leslie Moore Dahlke

Salem-News.com Contributor

Email: lesli@alossofinnocence.com

Born and raised in the Golden State of California, Lesli Moore Dahlke is one of the few rare native Southern Californians.

She is a child of the 50’s — "We had one of the first huge color television sets when they were first presented to the public in 1954. The neighbors 'just happened by' for a visit during the limited hours of TV broadcasting for a peek. I have always lived in the San Fernando Valley, which is a vast suburb of Los Angeles."

Lesli studied journalism and recieved a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Television and Film Production from California State University Northridge.

Her credits include commercial film production, numerous areas of television production; including producing live sports programming, documentaries for The Discovery Channel, PBS Network programming and Telecourse, as well as producing the first series for the Playboy Channel and various other ventures.

Her experiences were vast, challenging and never routine. Until my career came to a crashing halt.

Life’s most challenging experiences were yet to come, with the diagnoses of two virulent cancers caused by Lesli's exposure to Agent Orange while with the USO as an innocent 18-year old girl.

Her story continues with everyday battles and successes. Salem-News.com is extremely happy to carry Lesli's work as she represents a face on the Agent Orange casualty list that is almost never heard. Our writers frequently discuss the impact that this chemical and its parent company, Monsanto, has had on the American legacy. We're awfully glad they are here to do this, we only wish there were far more, but that is not possible.

Lesli said, "I hope you will join me for this journey as it unveils itself to you and I both!"

John Bury

Salem-News.com Military Health Writer

Email: johnb1936@verizon.net

John Bury represents both his interests and those of military veterans, with an emphasis on the U.S. Navy, and specific interest in health-related issues stemming from Agent Orange contamination; a rampant problem affecting so many who didn't necessarily have the deadly chemical dropped on their heads while fighting in Vietnam's jungles.

John was onboard the USS Sacramento (AOE-1) a fast combat support ship from Oct. 1967 to Feb. 1972, making four deployments to Vietnam waters. The ship supplied combat ships at sea with fuel, ammunition and food supplies. The ship operated within the territorial waters of the Republic of Vietnam in the South China sea and Tonkin Gulph.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, John enlisted in the U.S. Navy, February 1954. His Navy duty stations included the U.S.S. William T. Powell DE-213, USS Horace A. Bass APD-124, USS Ponchatoula AO-148, USS San Pablo AGS-30, U.S.S. Cadmus AR-14, USS Sacramento AOE-1, USS Barney DDG-6, Naval Station, Rota, Spain, U.S. Navy Recruiter, Roanoke, Va., Naval Reserve Station (Northeast) Philadelphia, Pa. A Vietnam War veteran, John retired from the Navy at the final termination of that war, in April 1975, with rating of Machinery Repairman (MR-1) after 22 years of Naval service.

Now an activist and writer, John lives in the aptly named Pennsylvania city, Media, where he continues to seek justice while becoming a larger and larger voice of the movement. John has a college degree (AS) Management from Delaware County Community College, and he taught disciplines of engineering at Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades from 1975 to 1984 (Power Plant Technology), also in Media, Pa.

When he isn't writing articles, performing research or rallying support for his fellow military veterans, John enjoys fishing; he is an amateur artist, and also spends time gardening and traveling.

Khalil Nouri

Salem-News.com Writer

Email: khalil.nouri@gmail.com

Khalil Nouri was born in an Afghan political family. His father, uncles, and cousins were all career diplomats in the Afghan government. His father was also amongst the very first in 1944 to open and work in the Afghan Embassy in Washington D.C., and subsequently his diplomatic career was in Moscow, Pakistan, London and Indonesia. Throughout all this time, since the 1960’s, Khalil grew to be exposed in Afghan politics and foreign policy.

During the past 35 years he has been closely following the dreadful situation in Afghanistan. His years of self- contemplation of complex Afghan political strife and also his recognized tribal roots gave him the upper edge to understand the exact symptoms of the grim situation in Afghanistan. In that regards, he sees himself being part of the solution for a stable and a prosperous Afghanistan, similar to the one he once knew. One of his major duties at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2002 was advisory role to LTG Franklin Hegenbeck. He has worked closely with the Afghan tribes and his tribal exposure is well tailored for unobstructed cross-cultural boundaries within all Afghan ethnicities. He takes pride in his family lineage specifically with the last name “Nouri” surnamed from his great-grandfather “Nour Mohammad Khan” uncle to King Nader-Shah and governor of Kandahar in 1830, who signed the British defeat and exit conformity leaving the last Afghan territory in second Anglo-Afghan war. Khalil is a guest columnist for Seattle Times, McClatchy News Tribune, Laguna Journal and a staff writer for Veterans Today. He is the cofounder of NWSC Inc. (New World Strategies Coalition Inc.) a center for Integrative-Studies and a center for Integrative-Action that consists of 24- nonmilitary solution for Afghanistan.

The function of the Integrative-Studies division (a native Afghan think tank) is to create ideas and then evolve into concepts that can be turned over to the Integrative-Action division for implementation. Khalil has been a Boeing Engineer in Commercial Airplane Group since 1990, he moved to the United States in 1974. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, and currently enrolled in Masters of Science program in Diplomacy / Foreign Policy.

Dr. Franklin Lamb

Salem-News.com Correspondent in Lebanon

Email: fplamb@sabrashatila.org

Defining who our most interesting writer is would be a daunting task at best. The competition is quite outrageous, and each member of the team has their own knowledge and skill sets. Several are nothing less than amazing. Read these biographical accounts and you will see what I mean.

I have to say that Franklin Lamb, an international attorney who lives among the Palestinian refugees in Beirut, Lebanon, constantly advocating and writing on their behalf, certainly is tied for first place.

Many years ago, when the owners of Salem-News.com were getting started in their media careers at a small television station on the Oregon coast, Franklin Lamb was working in Oregon, closely involved in state politics and associated with many of Oregon's top politicians. He is one of two expat writers from the Willamette Valley of Oregon with Salem-News.com.

Today, Dr. Franklin Lamb is Director of the Sabra Shatila Foundation. He is working with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign in Lebanon on drafting legislation which, after 62 years, would, if adopted by Lebanon’s Cabinet and Parliament grant the right to work and to own a home to Lebanon’s Palestinian Refugees. One part of the PCRC legislative project is its online Petition which can be viewed and signed at: petitiononline.com/ssfpcrc/petition.html. Lamb is reachable at fplamb@palestinecivilrightscampaign.org.

Franklin Lamb’s book on the Sabra-Shatila Massacre, International Legal Responsibility for the Sabra-Shatila Massacre, now out of print, was published in 1983, following Janet’s death and was dedicated to Janet Lee Stevens. He was a witness before the Israeli Kahan Commission Inquiry, held at Hebrew University in Jerusalem in January 1983.

Maidhc Ó Cathail

Salem-News.com Writer in Japan

Email: maidhc98@yahoo.com

Maidhc Ó Cathail is a writer and educator. Born and raised in Ireland, he has been living in Osaka, Japan since 1999. Salem-News.com is happy that this extremely diverse writer has joined forces with our team.

In addition to writing a monthly column for the Irish language internet magazine Beo!, Maidhc's work has been published by Antiwar.com, Dissident Voice, Foreign Policy Journal, Khaleej Times, Media Monitors Network, Online Journal, Palestine Chronicle and many more.

Maidhc Ó Cathail was asked to join the Salem-News team because of his fantastic world coverage.

His reports covering events like the conflict in Palestine, show a fantastic overview of the developing events that are shaping world history.

We look forward to sharing stories from this well connected individual with our readers.

It is a tough and complicated world out there, and we're all better off with the additional education gleaned from Maidhc Ó Cathail's research and reporting.

Agron Belica

Salem-News.com Writer/Author/Musician

Email: agronbelica@gmail.com

Of Albanian descent, first-generation American Agron Belica is largely self-educated. He accepted the responsibilities of life after his undisciplined teen years, spent mostly on the street with reckless gangbangers and brushes with the law. He is now married and the couple now have three children, all boys. His about-face was total and he began to study inspirational works and comparative religion.

He attended classes on Islam in New Jersey focusing on religious tenets, doctrinal differences, and the claims and beliefs of various Muslim sects. He also studied the proper recitation of the Quran and attained such proficiency in it that he was selected to perform the call to prayer, a great honor in a mosque, second only to leading the formal prayers.  

Belica had a special interest in the history of the Prophet Yahya—John the Baptist. In 2008, this interest resulted in the issuance of his first essay on the neglected prophet: The Revival of the Prophet Yahya, a small article presenting an unorthodox view of Yahya/John. His revolutionary ideas attracted critics, vilifiers, and supporters. Among the latter, was the enterprising reporter, and award winning journalist, Tim King of Salem-News.com, who interviewed Belica. With the publication of that interview, Belica’s ideas went global.  

The following year, he released a more thorough exposition of various aspects of the Yahya question: The Crucifixion: Mistaken Identity? (harvardbookstore.com). This time, the historical circumstances of the career of John the Baptist, extra-Biblical sources were carefully studied and cited and Belica’s contention that John was not beheaded was reinforced by the inclusion of Dr. Jay R. Crook’s essay. Rethinking John the Baptist, that strongly contests the validity of the Biblical version of John’s death on chronological grounds. Dr. Crook has also included that essay as an appendix in the revised edition of the volume on Jesus in his The Bible: An Islamic Perspective.  

Belica’s work on some key words in the Quran has been referenced in Dr. Laleh Bakhtiar’s The Concordance of the Sublime Quran, a supplemental study resulting from translation of the Quran, The Sublime Quran, the first such translation by an American Muslim woman. Dr. Mahmoud Ayoub of the Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut, has declared that the book “is an engaging analysis of the life and mission of the two kindred religious personages, John the Baptist (Yahya) and Jesus (‘Isa)… the book will add much to the discussion of an epoch-making event had has shaped world history. The book is informative and entertaining. It is certainly worth reading.” 

In her review of The Crucifixion: Mistaken Identity?, former Harvard University Professor of English Literature Dr. Harte Wiener wrote: “This book is slim, but both erudite and yet easy to follow, in its step by step progression through the many scriptures, seemingly so familiar is Agron Belica with every passage, the apt ones come easily to mind for him, and strike an immediate chord in us, no matter how familiar or unfamiliar we are with the text and story. And yet, this book is no recipe for persuasion. It is much more sophisticated than that. Written in a devout and true Muslim spirit, it is also—as mentioned at the beginning of this review—an inquiry and a wholly new contribution to that body of scriptural scholarship. Agron Belica advances a theory which sheds an entirely novel light on the views that are commonplace today, and, through an examination of linguistics, passages, intent, and meaning, causes us to re-examine, in an exciting, clue-ridden way, what we have assumed to be true about the three major religions for centuries, concentrating on his own Muslim faith.”  

Not resting on his laurels, after making a name for himself with this achievement in the field of serious comparative religion, he surprised and perhaps shocked his friends and associates by branching off into a totally different and seemingly-unrelated area: hip-hop music. He released his first songs in mid-2010 and since then, he has racked up an impressive number of hits for a newcomer. He quickly demonstrated that the popular medium can be used constructively as well as to entertain. 

With his early background, it was an easy progression to writing and performing his own songs about his life experiences. The idea was to find music that was compatible with his style of singing and reflective lyrics. Belica performs and records his music at Double D Recording Studio in Franklin, MA. Owner, engineer, and an active musician himself, Patrick Dreier has produced and co-produced many albums out of Double D Recording Studio. He has become somewhat of a mentor for Belica who was new to music as a business, and for this Belica is eternally grateful.

Drier co-produced Belica’s first album Unexpected. It was released under the Out of the Blue Records label, Boston, MA. In this album, he addressed several social issues. Some of the early song titles reflect those interests, such as: Forgiveness, End of the Road, Street-Life, and Cost to be the Boss. Soon after the release of Unexpected, he was signed by a second label, Black Tree Music Productions, out of the West Coast. Agron began working on a new album, Newsic, that was commissioned by award-winning journalist and news reporter Tim King of Salem-News.com. In it, Belica’s humanitarian themes are evident: Depression, Hardship,  medical marijuana in Cannabis, his research about the Prophet Yahya/John the Baptist in Sermon From the Throne, History dedicated to the peace activist Ken O’Keefe, and his last piece about the personal tragedy of a Jewish child in Brooklyn Boy.  

Tim King says: “Every time Agron releases a new song, it blows me away. It is the new style, Newsic, and it brings current events into the popular culture better than almost any medium could. Once you listen to this you will either understand, or more completely understand the concept. This is not a time on earth to sing songs that fail to account for the reality of our situation. Newsic allows a solid interpretation of tragedy in ways that chill the listener to the bone. Agron's songs about Vittorio Arrigoni, the murdered activist who also was ripped away from humanity at large, the Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka, the plight of the Palestinians—they are a source of inspiration for so many of us, from the West Coast of the U.S. to Gaza and every point in between.” 

Although the name Agron was borne by the famous King Agron of Illyria (now Albania), possibly meaning “dawn” in Albanian, Agron is very proud to point out that the name “Agron” could also be of Hebrew origin, dating back to the first High Priest Aaron, the brother of Moses. He refers to this interpretation of his name in Sermon From the Throne, one of the seven tracks of his forthcoming Newsic album. 

A further indication of the breadth of Belica’s worldview and his passion for unity and peace is the names given to his sons. The eldest is Arabic: Jamal, meaning handsomeness, beauty. His second son from the Hebrew is named for the beloved child of Jacob and brother of Joseph, Benjamin. His third is named for the ancient Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great, whose quest was for a united world. Sadly, Agron comments, “We are still a long way from accomplishing that goal, but we have to begin somewhere. Why not with the naming of our own Children?” He hopes that in some small way his work, both in writing and in music will aid in achieving that goal. 

His friend Dr. Jay R. Crook, the author of a number of books about comparative religion (The Bible: An Islamic Perspective series) and the translator of several Persian classics, edited and annotated Belica’s The Crucifixion: Mistaken Identity? About Belica, he said, “It was while working with him on that book that I got to know Agron quite well. Not only are his ideas original, but also he is adept at presenting them to the public. I had expected him to look for some other writing project after that one was accomplished, but I must confess he surprised me when he turned instead to singing. When his song was recorded, I was impressed, not just by the professionalism of the production, but by the lyrics he wrote himself from his own life experience as well. Just as his ideas about John the Baptist were original, so was the content of his song. Then, he has astonished me by putting together one song after another, each one different, but all possessing a unity of presentation and depth. That he could continue to meet or excel that standard set by his first song is nothing short of amazing.”

Moreover, the pro-Palestinian activist and award-winning musician, Gilad Atzmon, has said about Agron’s music: “If beauty is the capacity to introduce a change, Agron Belica is the true meaning of the culture of resistance. Through the beat, the lyrics, and the fat bass you can hear the sound of hope, but you can also envisage the prospect of a better future.”

We are hoping to hear more from this remarkable and talented author, singer, and songwriter, God-willing.  

Emmet Whittaker

Writer/Photographer

Salem-News.com's Emmet Whittaker spends his days working as a project manager and volunteering to raise awareness of the suffering of children and families in Palestine.

An Irish transplant in Corvallis, Oregon, Emmet is no stranger to oppression or occupation, and the remnants of a long bitter war in Northern Ireland still simmers as opposing cultures continue to clash.

It seems natural that Emmet would come to care deeply about the conditions children in Gaza are forced to survive under.

So many homes have been destroyed, people have been killed and left maimed and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) exists at rampant incurable levels.

Problems confront this society at every bend but with the help of brave individuals like Emmet, both hope and faith are raised.

Emmet is a founding member of the Corvallis Palestine Action group which advocates for Palestinian rights and promotes Palestinian culture.

The Oregon community is very politically active and always involved in peace projects. We are extremely happy and honored to work with this fantastic writer and photographer who is guided by his heart and illuminating the path for others to follow.

Jessica Campbell

Writer/Photographer

Salem-News.com's Jessica Campbell is a student at Oregon State University and a community organizer for social justice and human dignity.

On December 31, 2009, Jessica entered Gaza with over $17,000 in student aid she fundraised through the School Supplies for Gaza campaign. Gaza is the home of more than 1.5 million human beings, with over 800,000 children among the population. The land has been severely attacked by the Israeli military and there are great restrictions on what is allowed into Gaza. Many families live among the rubble of their homes.

Last summer, she participated in the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions’ house rebuilding experience in East Jerusalem and taught English in Bani Na’im. Jessica was deeply affected by the children she met in Palestine and is eager to return with the Oregon-Gaza Cultural Exchange. This effort brings relief to Gaza and also raises awareness of the needs of so many youth.

Salem-News.com is especially pleased and honored to work with Jessica and support her efforts to bring peace and dignity to the people of Palestine.

Like so many human beings at this point in time, she is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that people faced with extreme poverty and strife are not left to suffer in silence.

April Scott

Salem-News.com Reporter

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

April Scott has been an avid writer since she learned how to spell. In 1996, she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Criminology with a minor in Radio-Television from Eastern Washington University.

Her media career began at KXLY (Spokane, Wa) in 1996. She produced several popular talk shows on AM 920 including “All About Crime” with host Mark Fuhrman, “The Rick Miller Show”, “Mike Fitzsimmons”, “Phyllis and Art” and “Seebeck”. She also developed a successful career in ad sales and copywriting for Rock 94 ½ another KXLY station.

In 2000 she moved to Oregon where she worked as copywriter and online editor for KATU news (Portland).

Today, April is a mom striving to live an organic lifestyle. She is dedicated to sharing her knowledge and experience with fellow Oregonians, and people all over the world. She hopes that by educating people about the chemical content in our modern food supply, she will be able to arm them with the knowledge they need to become smarter consumers.

View articles written by April Scott

James Lewis

Salem-News.com Chief Technical Advisor

Email: jim.lewis@live.com

James Lewis has been associated with the Salem-News.com team far longer than the site has existed. An old friend of Tim and Bonnie King's from the time of their first TV news jobs in Lincoln City, Oregon, Jim is Salem-News.com's Chief Technical Advisor, and has contributed greatly from day one with his incredible set of Internet and computer based skills.

He and his wife Brynnen Lewis have two wonderful daughters and Jim has spent a significant portion of the last several years in the employment of Microsoft in Seattle, Washington. Jim earned his Bachelor's Degree in Software Engineering from the Oregon Institute of Technology in 2003.

Jim brings the most cutting edge skills to the drawing table, where the future of Salem-News.com is plotted and executed. He works with our development team headed by Web Designer Matt Lintz, who is assisted by our writer and multi talented 'Whiz Kid' for a lack of better terms, Ersun Warncke. Jim's background with Microsoft adds greatly to his highly effective education, which is diversified by all kinds of computer and Web development advances.

Amanda Leduc

Salem-News.com Reporter

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Amanda Leduc is Originally from British Columbia, Canada. She moved to the United States in 1992, and has always had a passion for writing, animals and the environment. Amanda's background working with the public includes time in Veterinary Clinics and with a local Animal Shelter. She uses these skills as a writer and her passion for animals and the environment, to spread the word about the pet over-population epidemic in our community and across the country, as well as many other important subjects.

As a writer, Amanda will address the environmental issues that impact wildlife locally and nationally, especially the decline in native species that are connected to both habitat destruction, and the ever dreaded invasive species. Salem-News.com is excited to offer Amanda's reports to a public always interested in animals, but not always aware of what they can do to help them. She is currently studying to complete a degree in Veterinary Technology.

Sigismond (Michel Hervé Navoiseau-Bertaux)

Salem-News.com Contributor in Paris

Email: oldsigismund@hotmail.com

Sigismond (Michel Hervé Navoiseau-Bertaux) is an Independent psychoanalysis researcher, a former pupil of the Psychoanalysis Department of Paris VIII university 1976-1983, HEC (Ecole des hautes études commerciales) 71, Licencié ès Sciences Economiques 72, Diplome d'Etudes Comptables Supérieures 75.

His letter Circumcision and Newborn itus: Winberg's Solution was published by the British Journal of Urology International: BJU Int 2003, 91: 429-30. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1464-410X.2003.04113.x/full

He has also given three lectures in the 4 september 2008 10th symposium of NOCIRC in the University of Keele (R.U.), organized with the University School of Law and NORM-UK.

Sigismond is the author of “Sexual mutilation, the victims' point of view”, it is available free at: circabolition.multiply.com.

Sigismond has been a friend of Tim and Bonnie King for several years, sharing the common belief that circumcision is basically an archaic and extremely needless procedure that is barbaric in nature. Males who are circumcised lose one third of the nerve endings, and one third of the pleasure they would ever attain in sex. This leads to sexual frustration and a real loss. Stories about circumcision being 'safer' for boys and men over hygiene-related issues are wives tales, unless a male is living in an expressly dirty environment where cleanliness is not automatically encouraged.

Not only has Sigismund contributed stories to Salem-News.com that have helped educate readers about this extremely important topic, he also helped us out when we were preparing to send a reporter to Iraq to cover the war. A serious friend, that is Sigismond (Michel Hervé Navoiseau-Bertaux).

John McCarthy

Salem-News.com Veteran's Affairs Reporter

Email: vpocvs@gmail.com

John J. McCarthy Jr. was a Captain U.S. Army Special Forces whose story is both amazing, and encouraging. His involvement in the military Service were a face to face encounter with Unconventional Warfare (UW) and so-called Military Justice. John first joined the military in the summer of 1960. He beamce part of the 77th Special Forces Group and worked in Germany with an initial job title of Radio Operator. He next werved with the 10th Special Forces Group (Abn) in Europe; a land of Cold War Espionage, where he was one of the players in the Cold War spy game. From there John became an Intelligence Analyst, around the same time he was promoted to sergeant. Working with the CIA, he assisted in the training of East Germans who came into West Berlin via the tunnel system for reinsertion back into East Germany as agents.

In 1964, John attended Officer Candidate School and Ranger School at Ft. Benning and was then assigned to the 3rd SFG at Ft. Bragg where he attended the Officers Special Forces Course in 1965.

John was stationed in Okinawa, and from there came his first tour in the 5th SFG in Nha Trang, Vietnam. He served as the Executive Officer of a Special Forces A Team, opening a new SF Camp at Ap Bac and Kinh Quan Hai in 4th Corps, "Sixty miles West of Saigon in the middle of the Plain of Reeds. Outside artillery range, we were bait," John said of that experience.

John worked in completed the Underwater Demolition Training, Scuba School and Submarine training on the USS Tunny, SS 241, where he trained Chinese Nationalists in the art of night infiltration from submarines while submerged and underway. They were later sent into mainland China as agent provocateurs directed by the CIA. John then trained Nationalist Chinese in the art of High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) night parachuting from C-130 at 21,500 feet for infiltration into mainland China, as directed by the CIA. This took place in Taiwan.

In June 1967, Captain John J. McCarthy Jr. was on his second voluntary tour in Vietnam, where he was assigned as the S-3 Operations Officer for Project Omega in Plei Djereng, Vietnam. He says his role as the case officer running black terror and assassination teams in September of 1967. This was a CIA operation run out of the US Embassy in Saigon.

On January 30, 1968, a Top Secret General Court-martial concluded that John had murdered a Cambodian "peasant". Although facing the death penalty, the court sentenced Capt. McCarthy, to "...be confined at hard labor for the term of your natural life." Deliberation on sentencing took all of three minutes. Amazingly enough, the sentence to confinement for life DID NOT include reduction in rank, forfeiture of pay and allowances, nor dismissal from the service. This remains a precedent in the history of Military Justice, i.e., an accusation followed shortly by a conviction. After 65 days of pre-trial confinement at Long Binh, Vietnam, in a 5 x 7 foot box, topped with chicken wire, a continuously burning light bulb, and a tin roof and another 3 months after the trial, John was transported in a "prison shipment" to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where I was incarcerated until Oct. 6, 1969. He was carried on the books of the 5th SFG until murder charges were dismissed in Jan 1971. Then Army then assigned him to be the S-3 of the Combat Surveillance School at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. He resigned from the Army on August 2, 1971, after 11 years six months and two days of active duty with an Honorable discharge.

John then became a police officer in Miami, Florida. The years that followed saw John's role from soldier and police officer gradually move toward researcher and writer. Today he publishes a wealth of information that is extremely relevant to Americans and world citizens at large, and Vietnam Veterans in particular, whose range of issues are long and mostly unaccounted for. John's first article for Salem-News.com dealt with the Feres Doctrine, the legal tool used to block military veterans from suing the government for anything. As John reveals, it is not necessarily even a legal document, based on the Constitution. We are extremely proud to feature the work of this fascinating Combat Veteran, Government Operative and world-class researcher on Salem-News.com.

Learn more about John McCarthy by visiting his Website: johnmccarthy90066.tripod.com

M. Dennis Paul, Ph.D.

Salem-News.com Contributor

Email: mdp54@gsinet.net

In his youth, Dr. Paul was a headlining poet/playwright/performance artist based in Southern California and was the Director of both a reading program based in the Fahrenheit 451 Bookstore and the Poetry Project for the City of Laguna Beach. Politically active in the Anti-War movement, he was also a contributing writer and cartoonist for a number of underground newspapers (The Old Mole, Sherwood Forest, and S, P & C) and performed various services for the Black Panther Party and the Weather Underground.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Paul has been active in Conflict Resolution (ADR), Counseling and Education addressing issues ranging from Family, Marital, Business and Civil conflict to Addictions, Developmental Disorders, Toxic Relationships, Death and Dying and everything in between. He is also, currently, a CASA/GAL.

Dr. Paul is a former honorary member of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP) formed by Dr. Peter Breggin (Author of Toxic Psychiatry), which he continues to support, and is a Founding Member of the International Association of Counselors and Therapists (IACT).

He served as President of HEAL-NE, a non-profit, for 10 years, advisor to the President (Michael Ellner) of HEAL-NYC (The nation’s 1st Alternative Health Organization for AIDS) for 13 years, and assisted numerous other health non-profits throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. He also sat on the Board of Directors for INTEGRA, Inc. (a Ma.based rehabilitation/reintegration service) for 6 years and acted as advisor to its Human Rights Committee for 2 years.

Dr. Paul served as an Adjunct Course Instructor for the Keene State College Psychology Dept. Addictions Program for 2 years. He provided numerous seminars and weekly courses, including his own Feelings Group and Creative Happiness Programs, for both the Marathon and Phoenix House Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centers in NH. Additionally, he designed, and acted as Director for, the Marathon Transitional Living Program and provided State Certified services to both the Kickstart and Academy Youthful Offender programs associated with both Marathon and the Probation Department.

In conjunction with his work in drug related counseling, Dr. Paul completed post graduate courses in theory and psychopharmacology at Antioch and State courses related to Urinalysis and Legal Processing. He is also a graduate of the Proudfoot School of Clinical Hypnosis and Psychotherapy in the UK (Virginia Satir based therapies presented by former PM Wilfred Proudfoot, one of the originators of Pirate Radio)

Having developed, implemented, and presented commentary on a course for teaching the Theory and Practice of Co-Meditation to complete his Ph.D. (Counseling), he served as a Co-Meditation Instructor for both Hospices and individual families over a period of 9 years and has personally assisted numerous individuals in the death and dying process. A graduate of numerous courses in Hypnotherapy, he also served as a Hypnotherapist/Educator providing seminars and workshops for the National Guild of Hypnotists over a period of 10 years.

He has worked extensively with dual diagnosis clients who exhibit dependent drug issues and with moderate to severely behavioural children and young adults assisting them in adjusting to daily living. Many of these individuals are autistic and/or living with other aspects of PDD (persistent and/or pervasive developmental disorders), some are recovering from TBI (traumatic brain injuries), and others are patients with shortened life expectancies due to tuberous sclerosis, cerebral palsy, or other disorders. .

During the ‘90’s, Dr. Paul actively home-schooled his son (Now in his 3rd year on the Dean’s List) and produced HEAL & Good Foods E-Zines while adjusting to a crippling illness (RSD).

Dr. Paul has received numerous presentation awards as well as a Mediator of the Year award. He has been interviewed on radio stations and in newspapers and magazines on both coasts, has been a guest on several health related local TV programs in NYC, and has been published in many magazines and websites including several articles still available on OfSpirit.com and SelfGrowth.com

Dr. Paul created and presently offers 14 & 21 day Thought Addiction workshops which are highly successful programs for understanding and eliminating the root cause of all addiction. These workshops are geared toward high profile Actors, Artists, Musicians and Executives. The exclusive one to one relationship, established through these programs, between counselor and client, affords opportunities for learning and change not possible elsewhere. This exclusive relationship allows the program to be tailored to the specific needs of each individual client.

Based on years of research and experimentation with materials and modalities recognized as some of the most advanced in the field of personal empowerment, these workshops create an environment in which months and years of inner work are carefully distilled into a few weeks.

Dr. Paul is grateful to Tim King for this opportunity to contribute to his valuable creation, Salem-News.com, and join the ranks of what surely represents the greatest cross section of writers on the web.

Gail Parker

Salem-News.com Writer in Patagonia

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Gail Parker is a writer and photographer who lives in Argentina. She and her lifetime mate and husband Eddie Zawaski, who also writes for Salem-News.com, are former residents of Oregon, Gail has a great eye for memorable photos in this unique place, full of life, called Patagonia. Her observations from this amazing wonderland of nature are a fun and welcome addition to our story flow.

She describes her surroundings as steppe, desert and a little high mountain valley up snug against the border of Chile. The climate is arid and the terrain is rocky and sandy like much of Patagonia but a special micro climate has evolved; some plants that are only seen in jungles are now making a showing here. These have evolved to live here and are part of the El Bolson magic. She became accustomed to seeing the soaring Doug fir in Oregon, and not those have been imported to Patagonia because they grow so fast and the rest of the native trees are quite slow growing.

Gail talks about cypress and many unheard of species of trees but they all are dwarfs compared to Oregon trees. Gail said, "Think armadillos, think Bend, think Texas. Think barren and then plop the magical El Bolson down on the edge of it".

Austin King

Salem-News.com Reporter

Email: BlackTreeMusicProductions@gmail.com

Visit Austin on Facebook.

In addition to writing articles about local and international music happenings for Salem-News, Austin contributes to the global awareness that Salem-News is about through graphic art design and section coordination.

Austin is the owner of Black Tree Records / Music Productions, a local NW music & activism group to bring supportive people from international communities together. Black Tree provides support for any and all bands/variety artists throughout the NW.

Join Black Tree Music on Facebook.

Terrence Aym

Salem-News.com Contributor

Born in Minnesota, Terrence Aym grew up in the Chicagoland suburbs. Having traveled to 40 of the 50 states and lived in 7 of them, Aym is no stranger to travel. He's also spent time in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Western Africa.

An executive for many years with Wall Street broker-dealer firms, Aym has also had a life-long interest in science, technology, the arts, philosophy and history. If it's still possible to be a 'Renaissance man' in the 21st Century, Aym is working hard to be one.

Aym has several book projects in the works.

Recent events:

Pravda has published an article about one of Terrence Aym's Helium articles. Caution...it's about giant spiders! 'Fact or Fiction? Giant Spiders in Africa...and USA'

Recently, Terrence Aym was a guest on Johannesburg, South Africa's popular evening radio talk show 'State of the Nation' with David Gleason on Classic FM. The show aired live at 7:00 p.m. Johannesburg time. An MP3 download of the show is available here: State of the Nation with David Gleason

Art Bell (inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2009) and Dr. Peter Ward (Professor of Biology, a Professor of Earth and Space Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of Astronomy at the University of Washington in Seattle) opened the second half hour of the popular late night radio show, "Coast to Coast AM" with a serious discussion of Terrence Aym's article, "How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event."

The Russian press has discovered Terrence Aym. Pravda-one of Russia's oldest and most read newspapers-ran a front page article about the Gulf and referenced Terrence Aym and his articles. english.pravda.ru/

NewsTime, one of Johannesburg, South Africa's major newspapers, has a web presence too. NewsTime featured an article about Terrence Aym and the unfolding disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. You can read it here: THE GREAT BP BORGORYGMI

Media sites that have recently featured Aym, and/or discussed his articles, include ABC News, TIME Magazine, Business Insider, Crunchgear.com, Discover, Dvice, Benzinga and more.

Aym's science article, an extrapolation of cascading events, 'Doomsday: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event' stirred up a great deal of interest around the world and was the topic of discussion on blogs across 5 continents.

Read it here: How BP Gulf disaster may have triggered a 'world-killing' event - helium.com

On June 30 Terrence Aym's article "How the ultimate BP Gulf disaster could kill millions" was the subject of a lively discussion on the popular late night radio talk show, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory who opened his program reading from the article.

Noory reads excerpts of article here

An audio archive of each hour of the show's first two hours is also available: helium.com/users/529618

Terrence also reports for Before It's News and is an OpEd News Contributing author

Other publications Aym has written for include:

Personal Investing News Magazine
Individual Investor Magazine
Online Investor Magazine
Silicon Investor
The Los Angeles Sentinel - a daily newspaper

Also see:
twitter.com/TerrenceAym
Terrence Aym | Write on! | Facebook Fan Page

Robert Collinsworth

Contributing Writer

Email: bonnie@salem-news.com

Writer Robert Collingsworth is an American who isn't hesitant to talk about the good side of his country, and that is a welcome thing in this day and age. Salem-News.com admittedly, is very critical of both American politics, as well as those of other nations that we perceive is being wrong in their motives and actions. At the same time, within these structures we criticize, are many outstanding people who make each day a better place for all those around them. They embody and personify the American spirit that is sometimes fleeting, but always present. These are some of the things Robert takes into account when writing commentary that is designed reach people, to "get them thinking" in his words, and indeed it does. Salem-News.com's goal is for all people to be on the same page, we appreciate Bob's more conservative approach toward that same goal.

Patriotism can be rooted in many things, perhaps what inspired Bob the most was the fact that his Dad landed at Anzio, his uncle landed at Normandy, and another uncle shot down two Japanese zeros at Okinawa.

Robert married his high-school sweetheart (Judi) at 17 and he says they had the best marriage, until she died of breast cancer, 6 weeks before what would have been their 30th anniversary. They had two sons; one son is a detective in Keene, NH and the other works in the Audio-Visual industry in Denver, Co. He says he is a proud of both sons, "as they have proven to be good men, good husbands, and excellent fathers." Bob remarried after Judi’s death, to Donna – his current wife, "and as fine a woman as any man could hope to spend the remainder of his life with". They live in a small log home on a smallish lake in southwestern NH. Robert's days include reading and research on a myriad of very diverse topics such as politics, composting and vermiculture, ice-fishing, trapping, information technology, breast cancer, writing, cooking, history, the military, alcoholism, immigration, snakes, ecology, and on and on. It would be fair to say that I am primarily a self-taught individual with extremely diverse interests.

Bob formally retired from a 46-year career in information technology in January of 2009. He says when he began that career, punched cards were the standard media and CRT’s were still on the drawing board while PC’s were not even a dream. He currently work part-time as an assistant town clerk in Harrisville, NH and is a Justice of the Peace (and Notary) in NH.

Mamoon Alabbasi

Salem-News.com Contributor in London

Email: abbasid@writeme.com

Mamoon Alabbasi is an Iraqi news editor and translator based in London who writes compelling articles from a unique perspective.

His Op-eds, reports, and reviews have appeared in a number of media outlets and we are very pleased to carry his work at Salem-News.com.

Mamoon has a Masters degree in applied linguistics. Among the many interesting highlights of his career, he spent ten years working in Tunisia, where he taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP).

He has also published a number of poems online. Salem-News believes in utilizing the work of poets and we believe this is an outstanding way to present news and current information, as well as a rich format for historical information.

William T. Hathaway

Salem-News.com Contributing Writer

Email: william.hathaway@ewetel.net

William T. Hathaway is author of the novels A World of Hurt, CD-Ring,, Summer Snow and a nonfiction book, Radical Peace: People Refusing War. He also wrote the screenplay for Socrates, an educational film starring Ed Asner that was broadcast on PBS.

Hathaway began his writing career as a newspaper reporter in San Francisco, then joined the Special Forces to research a book about war. Based on his experiences on a combat team in Vietnam, A World of Hurt won a Rinehart Foundation Award for its portrayal of the psychological roots of war.

After the war Hathaway became a peace activist. In his latest book, Radical Peace, he wrote, "Since then my books and articles have centered on this theme, as do many of my nonwriting activities. It's become my beat, as they say in the newspaper business."

Visit this link: Radical Peace

CD-Ring is a young-adult novel about a boy learning the need for peaceful communication. Summer Snow is set amidst the war on terrorism as an American warrior falls in love with a Sufi Muslim and learns from her an alternative to the military mentality.

Radical Peace presents the first-person experiences of war resisters, deserters, and peace activists in the USA, Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Just released by Trine Day, an Oregon publisher, it's a journey along diverse paths of nonviolence, the true stories of people working for peace in unconventional ways. More information and sample chapters are posted on a page of the publisher's website at http://media.trineday.com/radicalpeace

Active in leftwing politics, Hathaway is a member of the Socialist Party USA, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the War Resisters League.

Hathaway was born in Mississippi, raised in the Rocky Mountain region, and educated at Columbia University and the University of Washington. He was a Fulbright professor of creative writing and American studies at universities in Germany, where he currently lives.

The book he's now writing, Wellsprings: A Fable of Consciousness, deals with Transcendental Meditation as a means to peace. He was made a teacher of Transcendental Meditation by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

A selection of his writing is available at http://www.peacewriter.org

J. D. Adams

Salem-News.com Contributor

Email: j1mcm0s@earthlink.net

J. D. Adams was born in Salem, Oregon, a descendant of Oregon Trail pioneer William Lysander Adams. As the son of a gifted artist and a physicist, Jim's abilities are centered at the intersection of art and science.

His experiences exploring and photographing the wilderness sustain a kinship with the spirit of the Oregon country, and prepared him for a calling as a writer. While recuperating from a back injury, he set up a recliner next to his computer and began writing. From the moment he finished his first story, "Phantom Trails of the Santiam Canyon", his words have resonated with readers, earning accolades from professionals with advanced degrees in

Writing and Literature. His next article was the humorous "Hazards of Extreme Camping" that went viral on the Internet, and has been re-posted on hundreds of websites around the world.

Jim's back has long since healed, but he still prefers the computer and recliner arrangement, where he has authored articles that have been published in numerous websites and newspapers on a variety of subjects. He is currently compiling his work for a book titled "JD Adams' Oregon" to showcase his unique style and perspective.

Jim welcomes inquiries about writing work that demands

research, attention to detail, thought-provoking prose, and poetic excellence. JD inhabits Oregon's Silicon Forest as an electronics professional with degrees in Electronics Engineering Technology and Microelectronics. He maintains a Web presence with a signature presentation in genres including travel, history, and technology.

CoCo McCain

Salem-News.com Contributor

Email: TheGoodStuffDesk@cocomccain.com

Dreams are funny things! Sometimes you pick them, but sometimes … they pick you. In this case, The Good Stuff journey definitely picked me! On November 11, 2009, The Good Stuff picked me up and then plopped me down right in the middle of uncharted waters. Some call it chance, I call it a miracle.

Let me explain. I'm the girl-next-door. Really, I am. When I was in law school, I actually married my next-door neighbor. I'm still head over heels for that same neighbor, and now I'm a housewife and I have three very busy little boys! I'm also a daughter and sister, a friend and a neighbor. I try my best to work hard, give back, and make it to a yoga class.

As noted, I'm your ordinary girl-next-door … but on that one November day in 2009, I was given an extraordinary dream! A dream to shine a light on all the good things that happen every single day! Everyday acts of love, bravery and generosity. Everyday acts of determination, kindness and triumph in the face of tragedy. The simple things that make life so rich and rewarding! The zest and marrow of life.

From the very beginning the vision for The Good Stuff has been crystal clear: shine a bright light on the good in life because sharing the good has the power to touch lives around the world.

Touching lives around the world … what a wonderful, beautiful and magical dream. What do you call it when something magical and extraordinary happens? Do you call it chance … or do you call it a miracle?

The Good Stuff definitely feels like a miracle – but the most exciting part of "My Story" is "Your Story!" The Good Stuff is about YOU! It's about YOUR STORY! It's about all the good you see happening around you every day!

So, if I may … please allow me to WELCOME you to The Good Stuff! A place that is here to share your story and celebrate the good things that happen every single day. YOU are important and YOUR STORY is too! Together, we can shine a light. Together, we can reach out and touch lives!

I can't wait to hear from you, so please write soon and tell me your story at Dreams are funny things! Sometimes you pick them, but sometimes … they pick you. In this case, The Good Stuff journey definitely picked me! On November 11, 2009, The Good Stuff picked me up and then plopped me down right in the middle of unchartered waters. Some call it chance, I call it a miracle.

So, if I may … please allow me to WELCOME you to The Good Stuff! A place that is here to share your story and celebrate the good things that happen every single day. YOU are important and YOUR STORY is too! Together, we can shine a light. Together, we can reach out and touch lives!

I can't wait to hear from you, so please write soon and tell me your story at www.CoCoMcCain.com. Until then … may you live, give and grow with all the good in life.

Love,

COCO

James M. Wall

Salem-News.com Contributor in Chicago

Email: jameswall8@gmail.com

James M. Wall is currently a Contributing Editor of The Christian Century magazine, based in Chicago, Illinois.  From 1972 through 1999, he was editor and publisher of the Christian Century magazine.  Jim launched this new personal blog April 24, 2008.

Journalism was Jim’s undergraduate college major at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He has earned two MA degrees, one from Emory, and one from the University of Chicago, both in religion.

He is an ordained United Methodist clergy person.

He and his wife, Mary Eleanor, are the parents of three sons,  and the grandparents of four grandchildren. They live in Elmhurst, Illinois.

Jim served for two years on active duty in the US Air Force, and three additional years in the USAF (inactive) reserve. While serving with the Alaskan Command, he reached the rank of first lieutenant.

He has worked as a sports writer for both the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, was editor of the United Methodist magazine, Christian Advocate for ten years, and editor and publisher of the Christian Century magazine for 27 years, starting in 1972.

Time magazine wrote about the new editor, who arrived at the Christian Century determined to turn the magazine into a hard-hitting news publication.  To read what Time had to say about the 44-year-old new editor, click here.

Time concluded its essay with this summary of what the editor had planned for the future.

He sees the mainstream churches at least as often foolish as they are wise. He believes that the Century, and liberal Protestants generally, must shift from pious approval of their churches to a more realistic and vigorous appraisal. Concludes Wall: “What we have to say about the church and the world will be gutsy and robust.”

The inspiration for Wall Writings comes from that mindset and from many other sources that have influenced Jim’s writings over the years, including politics, cinema, media, American culture, and the political struggles in the Middle East.

He has made more than 20 trips to that region as a journalist, during which he covered such events as Anwar Sadat’s 1977 trip to Jerusalem, and the 2006 Palestinian legislative election. He has interviewed, and written about, journalists, religious leaders, political leaders and private citizens in the region.

Wall Writings deals with all of these topics, and others, as they emerge, from within an understanding of the ambiguity of the human condition as perceived from a religious perspective.

Wall Writings was initially used by Jim as the title of his column in the Georgia Tech Technique, when he served as sports editor of that publication.

He often finds inspiration from cinema and from music and lyrics from songs, like this one, “The Sounds of Silence”:

,

And the people bowed and prayed

To the neon God they made.

And the sign flashed out its warning,

In the words that it was forming.

And the signs said, the words of the prophets

Are written on the subway walls

And tenement halls.

And whispered in the sounds of silence.

This song addressed the uneasy mood that permeated a rebellious period, the 1960s, a mood chronicled in Director Mike Nichols’ film, The Graduate.

“The words of the prophets” come to us from different places, like subway walls, tenement halls, poetry, movies, novels, and surprise gifts of grace that break through the mists of secular creativity.

Such a moment comes to us when first we encounter the deadpan expression of Dustin Hoffman, as Benjamin, a recent college graduate, who has returned to his stultifying suburban home. At a family party, the most important advice a friend of his father’s can give him is “plastics”. The only meaning Benjamin can expect in a godless universe is to be found in a successful career that gives him a home in the suburbs with a swimming pool out back.

Read the signs wherever you can find them, and then act upon them.

Visit Jim's Website: Wall Writings

Ivan T. Brecelic

Salem-News.com Contributor in Australia

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Ivan T. Brecelic has been writing about South East Asia for the past two decades. In his own words, "He is attracted to the extreme side of life where humanity functions at its best."

Perhaps that is why Ivan has been following the search for Sean Flynn, son of swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn, who went missing in April 1970 when the U.S. military invaded Cambodia. His work in this area crosses paths with Salem-News.com founder Tim King, who has been following the Sean Flynn story for many years. Of particular interest is Ivan's coverage of fellow Australian Dave MacMillan's search for this historic photojournalist.

Ivan's writing takes you on a fascinating journey; from the bustling and vibrant crowds of SE Asia; to the tranquil side of art and expression; packed with images and stories that will leave readers thought filled and intrigued. His feature articles have appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Courier Mail, Ralph, and publications in Europe, syndicated by Planet Syndication.

Based out of Perth, Australia, Ivan T. Brecelic travels frequently to a growing array of destinations to meet the people and see the sights that fuel his writing ambitions.

You can more of Ivan T. Brecelic's work by visiting: Ivan T. Brecelic on tripatlas.com

Learn more about the search for Sean Flynn through Ivan's blog: Vanishing Flynn blogspot.

Kiflu Hussain

Salem-News.com Correspondent in Uganda

Email: kiflu.hussain08@gmail.com

At the time of writing this, I have already logged over 16,945 days on this planet by being alive and kicking well. To be precise, I was born on September 5, 1964 in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. I was trained as a lawyer in Addis Ababa University, Faculty of Law whereby I received a diploma in 1986.I worked in different state enterprises and corporations as an attorney until I landed in a concentration camp in October 2005 on a farcical trumped up charge of corruption. After being denied bail for one solid year, I was released in October 2006.On top of being threatened by another round of incarceration, I found the outside world itself to be one big concentration camp since fear and suspicion had descended on the land due to the brutal crackdown in July and November 2005 that saw the massacre of over 200 civilians in Addis Ababa alone.Hence, I decided to flee whereby I sought asylum in Uganda in January 2007.

The passion for writing I guess came from reading. It’s inevitable that the more one reads, the more one develops the urge to write.Although,I published a couple of my articles in Ethiopia on the English Reporter, then a weekly newspaper along with a few of my Amharic articles on the defunct Addis Zena,it’s in Uganda after I sought refuge that I contributed a lot of my writings to the local papers and various websites such as Daily Monitor, Uganda Record, The New Vision, Ethioquestnews, Garowe Online,WardheerNews etc.The reason for this is clear.Ethiopia,despite being a seat of the African Union had never produced a regime that allows even the minimum space for dialogue that other people in Africa enjoy so naturally. So my ending up as a refugee in Uganda is a blessing in disguise for it accorded me with the opportunity to write. At the same time, unfortunately, I learned by virtue of my refugee status as to how deep the hypocrisy of the “international community” goes down. Thus, I redefined the term refugee as follows.

R-rooted out

E-exiled

F-frightened

U-unwelcome

G-globally shunned

E-expendable to capricious politics

E-eternally endangered

Whether you welcome me or not you will get to hear from me or about me via my eclectic writings.

Kiflu Hussain

An Ethiopian Refugee in Uganda

10 February, 2011

Dr. Ashraf Ezzat

Salem-News.com Correspondent in Egypt

Email: amenhotep.55@gmail.com

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time”

                                                    LITTLE GIDDING  (No. 4 of ‘Four Quartets’)

                                                                                      T.S. Eliot

 “Hegel was right when he said that;

 We learn from history that man can never learn anything from history”

                                                                                                        George Bernard Shaw

Dr. Ashraf Ezzat is an Egyptian medical doctor whose passion has always been writing. He says of all the human-related studies, he finds himself attracted to history. Ashraf stresses that history helps us understand change and how the society we live in came to be.

He says Egyptology holds a special place in his heart, for Egypt is where the human conscience sprouted. In ancient Egypt all things civilized began to evolve. "I write articles and share posts of interest to me and hopefully to a lot of people."

Dr. Ashraf Ezzat says you can drop him a line any time at:

"I like to exchange knowledge and experience, I think that`s what Blogging is all about."

Eric Akiskalian

Salem-News.com Contributor

Email: ericakiskalian@mac.com

Eric has been an avid surfer and ocean lover since the age of nine. It was a neighbor’s board that Eric’s Mom paid $30.00 for as a Christmas present. From there, he learned how to surf along the shores of Santa Barbara, CA. Pretty soon, it was an every day affair, after school, during school, on the weekends and whenever he could get to the beach. Weather he had to beg and plead with his Mom, cut class, walk, ride his bike or whatever, Eric would find a way to get to the beach. It was very clear from that point forward, that this was going to be a life long passion of his, and nothing would stop Eric from doing what he loved more than anything else, being in the water. Well, so he thought!

In his early twenties Eric had made a pretty strong name for himself as an aggressive and talented young surfer. Eric was never really into the competition scene but decided one year to give it a shot. Some how he managed to get in the 1980 U.S. Stubbies Pro/AM Event that was held in San Diego, CA and surfed his way to the finals. When it came to the final event of the man on man heats, Eric and his friend Davey Smith ended up competing against one another and needless to say, Davey took the heat.

“It was a great experience as I can remember but I also remember not really being anymore stoked on events even though I did really well during my first major contest. I just never had the desire to be a part of the whole contest scene and decided that it wasn’t what I wanted.”

Eric riding Oregon's South Reef

It was soon after that Eric got a photo in Surfer Magazine in a full page spread and that wasn’t even a big enough motivator to keep him on the right track. After that, he just dropped out of the whole surfing scene completely. This and a lack of motivation was due to his cocaine addiction that had been slowly creeping up on him along with all the heavy parting he was doing. In 1987, Eric realized that his addiction had taken its toll and a good solid 8 years were wasted away. It was time to face reality and make a decision that would change his life forever. Eric remains and has been drug free since 1987 and many positive changes have occurred in his life. One of the many decisions he made was to get back into surfing which is something he knew he missed and loved very much. So back in the water he went and what a positive experience it has been ever since.

It was during the early 90’s when Eric realized that he needed more of a challenge with his surfing than the normal size surf. So he started searching for bigger waves whenever he could. In 1996 Eric paddled out at Mavericks on his 8’ 10” gun on a solid 18’-20’ day and new right then and there that he had to go home with his tail between his legs and train harder then ever.

Today, Eric is 50 years old and is shaping what the new late 30’s, early 40’s should look and act like. With his enthusiasm and young spirited attitude he continues to chase the biggest swells all over the world while building a name for himself and his company Towsurfer.com. With the many experienced and professional big wave surfers that he is surrounded by, he has been able to obtain much knowledge and experience about surfing and towing big waves. Having traveled abroad to many locations has also given Eric new sights and opportunities for the future.

Eric's tow partner Keith Galbraith

Eric is committed more than ever in his love for the sport of surfing. Today he is as a sponsored Pro/AM surfer, pursuing his goals and ambitions in the big wave arena of tow-in surfing.

“I guess for me today, it’s kind of like reliving a dream I may have had as a young surfer before I started using drugs and doing all that parting. What’s kind of cool is that the dream is unfolding right before my eyes at 50. Surfing is a lifestyle for me and it is my new addiction!”

Eric is the sole owner and creator of Towsurfer.com, a leading big paddle wave paddle and tow-in website dedicated to the sport of extreme surfing, athletes, photographers, contests, promoters and the industry at large. He also owned a production company called Akiskalian Productions that he started in 1987. This company had a main focus on marketing, advertising, corporate and non-corporate sponsorships, project development, media relations, television and video productions. Eric has been involved with producing and hosting cable news and entertainment television shows since 1990.

Eric was also the Founder/President of the Association of Professional Towsurfers (APT) a California Non-Profit Mutual Benefit Corporation.

The specific purpose of this corporation was to promote and encourage the responsible growth and development of professional tow-in surfing; to encourage safety, in connection therewith; to develop and sanction events, including championships; and to improve business conditions in connection with foregoing; all for the benefit of professional competitor members, and other members of the Corporation, the promoters and sponsors of sanctioned tow-in surfing events around the world.

"Keep The Dream Alive!"

Gul Jammas Hussain

Salem-News.com Correspondent in Tehran

Email: guljammas@gmail.com

The writer, Gul Jammas Hussain, is a Pakistani journalist based in Tehran. Gul's writing takes into account the long struggle of the Palestinian people, whose plight is largely ignored by western media.

Salem-News.com is extremely pleased to feature the work of Gul Hussain as we believe that Americans and other western people, need to receive information about the Middle East, from the Middle East, whenever possible.

We are glad to amplify the voice of Gul and other writers who seek to deliver true, unfiltered information to the world at large.

Rod Driver Ph.D.

Salem-News.com Contributor in Rhode Island

Email: rod@roddriver.com

Rod Driver was born in England in 1932 (a U.S. citizen via my father’s citizenship). His family lived in London throughout World War II, moving to the U.S. in 1945.

Rod studied engineering and mathematics at the University of Minnesota, receiving a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1960. He worked at Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque for six years before taking a teaching position at the University of Rhode Island for 30 years.

Rod explains, "I became a 'peacenik' in 1951 (thanks to a few weeks on Parris Island). I was particularly active in opposition to U.S. wars in Indochina and our involvement in overthrowing governments and supporting dictators in Latin America and Iran. As the Vietnam war was winding down I became obsessed with the abuse of Palestinians – enabled with U.S. weapons and dollars. This obsession continues. I am the founder and president of the non-profit Justice First Foundation, Inc. Joe Clifford is another director of JFF."

In Rhode Island Rod was an elected delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1986, Then I was elected a state representative for 10 years. At this time he is not in office.

Rod and his wife have three children and six grandchildren.

Vic Pittman

Salem-News.com Contributor in Mexico

Email: tropicats08@hotmail.com

Vic Pittman is a freelance writer from Scotts Mills, Oregon. He is the holder of no literary awards, journalistic awards or college degrees. He has at one time or another been a honor student, inmate, biker, Christian, pothead, father, radical, pacifist, anarchist, artist, heavy metal guitarist, model citizen, lawbreaker, business owner, illegal marijuana grower, and volunteer for various causes.

Vic says he is proud to be a "common man" and be among those striving to make this world a better place if at all possible. He was fortunate enough to have been raised by awesome parents who instilled what he feels to be essential values and encouraged him to feel a kinship with not just family or Oregonians or Americans or whites, but every person on Earth, and to act accordingly. He and his wife Glenda currently live in Nayarit Mexico.

Janet Phelan

Salem-News.com Investigative Journalist

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist whose articles have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The San Bernardino County Sentinel, The Santa Monica Daily Press, The Long Beach Press Telegram, The American's Bulletin, Oui Magazine and other regional and national publications.

Janet specializes in issues pertaining to legal corruption and addresses the heated subject of adult conservatorship, revealing shocking information about the relationships between courts and shady financial consultants. She also covers issues relating to bioweapons.

Her poetry has been published in Gambit, Libera, Applezaba Review, Nausea One and other magazines. Her first book, The Hitler Poems, was published in 2005. She currently resides abroad.

Joe Clifford

Salem-News.com Writer in Rhode Island

Email: jc41@verizon.net

Joe Clifford who lives in Jamestown, RI has contributed a number of articles relating to foreign policy to newspapers in the Rhode Island area for years.

He graduated from Providence College earning both an undergraduate and graduate degree, and after a lengthy career as a high school teacher he turned to the study US foreign policy, and then to writing as a means of expressing an alternative perspective. His reading and research on foreign policy is broad and extensive, especially as the policy relates to the Middle East. His interest in foreign policy was inspied by the American misadventure in Vietnam.

Joe's expertise earned him a guest position on Rhode Island’s most popular political talk radio show, which was hosted by a former Attorney General of the State of Rhode Island. He was invited to join the show whenever important events unfolded in the Middle East and did a regular monthly appearance to discuss foreign policy and continues to write extensively.

Edsel Chromie

Salem-News.com Science & Technology Writer

Email: edchromie@cox.net

Edsel Chromie is a Detroit Michigan native who moved to San Diego in 1965. Edsel is a World War Two Navy veteran who served as a motor machinists mate on diesel electric systems where he learned about the magnetic field current swirling around the primary current flow through a wire as a part of Navy training to trace the direction of flow of the electricity in case of torpedo damage.

This led to Edsel's unique explanations of many phenomena of the universe. He also has four approved patents on solar energy and Sun tracking systems. Today Edsel writes about this unique set of life experiences for Salem-News.com, conveying information that seems especially relevant as nuclear disaster, potential changes in the earth's atmosphere, and what many view as an increasing level of natural disasters continue to dominate headlines. Perhaps many of the answers are on hand, yet unaccepted by the scientific community.

Sharon L. Perry

Salem-News.com Agent Orange / Veteran Issues

As a Salem-News.com writer, Sharon L. Perry specializes in agent orange and Veteran Issues and is the Founder of Agent Orange Legacy – Children of Vietnam Veterans which you can visit online at: www.agentorangelegacy.com. Sharon is the widow of Vietnam veteran, Reuben ‘Bud’ C. Perry III, who lost his life due to exposure to agent orange. Sharon believes both of their children; Danielle Reyes and Lisbeth Perry, suffer the intergenerational affects of their father’s exposure to agent orange.

Sadly, this is a story shared by a countless number of Americans who served their country in Vietnam, and their families. The toll from this irresponsible use of poison in war rises daily in both the United States and Vietnam. Those whose lives are challenged by this demon; permanently impacted by a weapon that spared no soul who crossed its path, deserve all of the support and direct action help possible.

Sharon holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from the University of Maine and worked as a town manager for six years.  Her career in town management was cut short due to her husband's illnesses.  Sharon cared for her husband for six years prior to his death in 2005. We are excited about having this dedicated individual's name on our staff page and believe once again, that the best specialized writers are those who lived through the experience they take on.

Stuart Littlewood

Salem-News.com Contributing Writer

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Stuart Littlewood is a British writer and photographer. He is the co-author of the book "Radio Free Palestine" in which he has elaborately described the plight of the Palestinian nation under the Israeli occupation.

Stuart's articles are serious and revealing; they address the pertinent issues regarding Israel and Palestine and sixty years of conflict that have devastated millions of human beings.

His contributions on the cause of the Palestinian nation have been published in a variety of websites, newspapers and online magazines including Redress News & Analysis, Intifada Palestine, Veterans Today, Palestine Chronicle, Dissident Voice, Ramallah Online, Voltaire and Salem-News.com.

In a 2009 interview with Media Review, Littlewood described his contributions to raising the public awareness of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the ignorance of the British people concerning the suffering of the Palestinian nation.

To learn more about Stuart, visit this Interview conducted by Kourosh Ziabari; for Salem-News.com: The Zionists Wield their Influence by Winning the Ongoing Propaganda War: Stuart Littlewood

Clemente Ferrer Roselló

Salem-News.com Writer in Spain

Email: clementeferrer3@gmail.com

Author and journalist Clemente Ferrer Roselló, a prestigious Spanish advertising character, presents a fascinating personal and professional career fully devoted to the world of communication in its varied dimensions. He earned a PhD in Information Sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, BA in Advertising from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona Master in Marketing from the School of Marketing Studies in Madrid.

He has been Associate Professor of Business Management at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Navarra and a contributor to the Madrid daily ABC. He also spent several years teaching, both in the Official School of Advertising as the School of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1985 he was awarded the Gold Master, granted by the Senior Management Forum and AMPE Prize 1996 to the "long and brilliant career advertising."

Jay R. Crook

World Religion and Culture

Email: newsroom@salem-news.com

Dr. Jay R. Crook was born in upstate New York, the second son of a clergyman, but spent his formative years in the New York metropolitan area. A chance acquaintance awakened his interest in Islamic culture and civilization, and he soon embraced Islam.

After completing his military service and saving some money, he traveled to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to study for a few years. He wound up spending most of his working life in the Middle East, especially in Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Hired by the Peace Corps as a field representative, he finished in 1971 as Deputy Director in the Iran program. He then enrolled in the Doctoral Program of Persian Literature for Foreigners at Tehran University and received his Ph.D. in 1978. His doctoral thesis was A Comparison of the Quranic Stories of Surabadi With the Bible. Much revised and expanded, it has become the core of The New Testament: an Islamic Perspective and its companion volume The Old Testament: an Islamic Perspective.

Subsequent to leaving Iran in 1980, he worked as an English teacher in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia before retiring in 1997. He now resides in Arizona and has translated several books from Persian into English, including Kashifi’s The Royal Book of Spiritual Chivalry and Ghazzali’s The Alchemy of Happiness.

Link 2 old testament cover: http://www.islamicbookstore.com/b9272.html 

Link 2 New Testament cover http://www.islamicbookstore.com/b9274.html  
 

Diane Walsh, MA

Salem-News.com Correspondent in BC

Email: bonnie@salem-news.com

Diane Walsh is a Montreal born journalist, based in the Pacific North West. At university in British Columbia, while studying for an MA in policy and practice, her international political awareness was sharpened as she began to look closely at environmental and social-disenfranchisement issues that affect us all, globally.

After graduation, she made frequent use of her time to travel internationally, and throughout North America, to further her cultural-studies education and experience and early journalistic interests. Later, whilst she was working for government Diane developed a keen focus to giving voice to those who may suffer silently.

Fluent in English and French, and a child of the 70's, she is now an accredited journalist and reporter with the Foreign Press Association, rubbing shoulders with charismatic personalities, well-known in politics and media. Over the years Diane has reported and written on a range of topics, many of which can now be accessed easily, courtesy of Google links or through her blog. It’s often been remarked that Diane has a sixth sense for tomorrow’s story and she’s frequently been on the ‘cutting edge’ of topics destined for the ‘front page’.

As an experienced investigative photo-journalist and political reporter, Diane has also been able to support her writing and publications with her own media company, Mediageode. With the help of her own small co-writing staff, she maintains a strong motivation to enhance the positions of independent journalism in today's fast changing landscape.

Continuing her cross border travels and in-depth reporting, Diane could be found recently in the press scrum at UN headquarters in New York and even more recently at the UN in Geneva.

Her work has been published worldwide, from North America to Eastern Europe and beyond, and accordingly she’s been fortunate enough to interview many varied and talented people, including musicians, artists, business moguls, politicians, and many others often involved in world-changing activities.

In the recent past Diane's work has been featured in --

Vancouver Observer, The Lower Island News (BC), The Prague Post (Czech R.), A & U (NY), Curve (San Francisco), Outlooks (Calgary), MF (Portland), Straight Goods (Toronto),  Socialist Webzine (NY), Canna-Digest (BC), West FM (Kenya) to name but a few -- and -- of course, Salem-News.

When at home Diane has found a relaxation in painting and her artwork has been exhibited both professionally and on the web. She loves to spend time with her pets, walking her dog, cycling and always seeking a sunny spot.

Oh and -- she's a prolific tweep. To reach her -- easily, just tweet her!

You can also visit: http://indydianewalsh.wordpress.com

Oleg Shirokov

Salem-News.com Russian Correspondent

Email: olsimf@mail.ru

Oleg Shirokov lives in the historic Russian Federation city of Simferopol, Ukraine, which is the capitol of Crimea and quite interestingly, one of Salem, Oregon's four Sister Cities. We at Salem-News.com are extremely happy to carry his reports from a very distant, artful and romantic part of the world.

Before reporting news, Oleg work as the translator for 15 years, gaining valuable experience in specialized areas such as software localization, hardware, telecommunications and technical marketing. He also worked as the programmer for 8 years, and serves clients as a translator.

His stories from Russia take many things into account, often with a historical twist and often a dose of organized crime, but that is the history of the place. The art, the history of religion, programs for the treatment of Russia's military veterans, and the scoop on unusual industries like Russian sex shops- just a small snapshot of what Oleg brings our readers.

Young people may not all realize today that Americans and Russians were told for many years that they were essentially enemies in a conflict known as 'The Cold War'.

This war that never directly materialized, pitted the western countries against Russia and China. The 'Cole War' largely centered around the development of nuclear arms by the Americans and other western nations, and Russia, which then was the principal nation in the Soviet Union.

Today things are very different, but even during the Cold War people in Simferopol and Salem had what it took to rise above the fray and pay attention to one another, offering great mutual support and underscoring confidence at the time, that there would be a day when people in these places no longer looked at each other as enemies.

We are extremely pleased to have Oleg aboard as a member of our team, and we applaud his talent as both a writer and photographer.

Anthony J. Lawson

Salem-News.com Correspondent in Bangkok

Email: lawson911@gmail.com

Anthony Lawson is a retired international-prize-winning commercials director, cameraman, ad-agency creative director and voice over. He used to be known for shooting humorous commercials, but doesn't find much to laugh about, with the way the world is going, these days.

After recovering from the shock of seeing the Twin Towers collapse, on subsequent showings, I developed a strong feeling that what I was seeing and what I was being told were quite different things. For two such buildings to collapse, in the manner they did, solely because they had been hit by large aircraft, did not make sense. The collapses were too uniform. If aircraft impacts were the cause, at least one of the buildings should have fallen over. I subsequently made a video called "WTC7 -- This is an Orange" to express my concern that the public was not being told the truth about 9/11.

Arun Shrivastava

Salem-News.com South Asia Correspondent

Email: arunshrivastava.1951@gmail.com

Arun Shrivastava is an accredited management consultant, researcher and writer. He studied in India and England and returned to India in 1989, after a brief stint as senior officer with Economic Development Unit of Birmingham (UK).

From 1989 to 1994, he taught Strategic Management and Long Range Planning to MBA students at International Management Institute in Delhi.

About twenty years ago he founded two institutions, one for consulting and another for doing sponsored research work; today both are known for excellence. Since the events of 9/11, he has devoted much of his time to researching NWO issues. Arun also moderates International Human Rights Organizations’ discussion group.

Salem-News.com is very pleased that Arun Shrivastava chose to join our dynamic team which has been paying increasing attention to problems taking place in India. He is Salem-News.com's 94th writer and his presence allows us to better cover important events in an increasingly interconnected world community.

Anna O’Leary

Salem-News.com Writer in Ireland

Email: missannaoleary@gmail.com

Anna O’Leary, North Kerry writer, lived in the Middle East for seventeen years. Her fascination with the area has continued unabated. Her poetry, fiction and non-fiction are imbued with a sense of the Middle East.

Her short story was published in ROPES, and launched at Cúirt 2011. As a journalist she has written for Al Jazeera.net. She has appeared on the satellite channel, Press TV, as a Middle East commentator. She won a short story prize at K.I.S.S. (Kerry International Summer School) in 1996. Her poetry is published by Kerry Literary and Cultural Centre.

Anna worked on the Bin Laden family’s private jet; was a guest of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad; and lived in a royal palace in Riyadh. An award winning Interior Designer she executed palace projects. Anna’s first book in progress, Saudi Arabia: Axis of Power, tells of her meeting with Osama Bin Laden.

After Iran’s revolution she moved to Kuwait and to Egypt. In her second book in progress, Iran: Axis of Power , she paints a rich canvas of pre-revolution Iran, and of Egypt caught in the turmoil of Anwar Sadat’s assassination. She was flying the Peace Route for Egypt. In Egypt she met Israel’s one eyed general, Moshe Dayan. She frequently went horse riding with the late Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi of Iran.

Sean King

Salem-News.com Teen Reporter

Salem-News.com has the oldest and youngest working journalists in the nation. At the age of 14, Sean became the youngest broadcast TV News reporter in the NW when he was selected as a Salem Correspondent by ATTN's NW Teen News, which aired on Salem's KWVT.

Sean also has substantial time under his belt in the cable access world, where he has volunteered for Salem Oregon's CCTV group. His show ran for several months in 2005 and was a hit with younger and older audiences.

Sean assists other CCTV producers with Music Around Salem, a show that highlights local bands from the capitol city music scene.

Sean's devotion to video production, acting and news delivery first at Leslie Middle School in South Salem, and presently at MACA (Media Arts & Communications Academy) represents a defining period for this reporter/producer.

Literally raised in a TV news household, Sean is able to understand and report about many things with a fresh, undiluted perspective.

Sean has several videos hosted on Youtube. One of which, entitled "Cradle of Filth- My Humps" with nearly a million views, is very popular among the YouTube community.

Now a high school senior, Sean continues his involvement in journalism and video production and is an active representative in the community for Salem-News.com.

David Duncan

Original Salem-News.com Web Designer

David Duncan has been part of the Salem-News.com team since the beginning in the early summer of 2004. The original Web design was David's work, that is what got the whole thing going in the first place until the arrival of Matt Lintz.

David continues to be involved though his other committments keep him jumping too. David has spent years working as a volunteer at Salem's CCTV, the local community cable access channel.

He has also recently completed working on a full length movie that was approved by the Screen Actors Guild.

Toni Samanie

Salem-News.com Correspondent

Email: tonisamanie@yahoo.com

Until last year Toni Samanie was a standard-issue grandmother and mother. She lived life like most ordinary citizens. She worked in a successful sales environment and brought enthusiasm and a win/win attitude to the customers she helped. Then tragedy struck her most regular of families and she lost her 38 year-old son-in-law due to poly-pharmacy. She also has an orphan disease which has enabled her to see the fallacy behind the idea that doctors and pharmaceutical companies are straining day and night to "cure" people like her. Once married to a physician she has had a special view of the medical fraternity from within.

Always an avid reader especially with regard to American History. Having been reared near Manassas' Bull-Run and Fredericksburg, VA she has a fondness for Civil War History and West Point War Strategy. Coincidentally, she is the daughter and step-daughter of two Marines who fought in the Korean War. She grew up in the small civilian town of Quantico, Virginia surrounded by the Marine military base and Navy hospital. She has always viewed the soldiers in her family, as well as other soldiers, with high regard.

As a teenager in the late 60's-early 70s she grew up in a time of civil unrest. "Question authority was de rigueur by most all American youth. Occupy Wall Street is very reminiscent of those formative, yet troubled years.

So, now that the rose-colored glasses have been crushed she is coming to write about the criminal activity of the pharmaceutical industry and to help others be enlightened before it is too late for them. She does not have any formal education in writing but comes with the strength and passion of a soldier.

Her web blog is www.prescriptiondrugsarekillingus.blogspot.com

Lela M. Taylor

Salem-News.com Reporter / Community Editor

As the daughter of an Oregon logger, Lela grew up living in different areas in Oregon.

In 1973, entering into her second marriage and with four children, Lela had to make the decision to go back to school and finish her education so she could become self-sufficient from the government programs that was helping her family survive.

She first volunteered at the non-profit organization known as Cry of Love to get experience in working in a social service environment. She then went on to graduate from Chemeketa Community College where she obtained two Associates degrees.

Lela has experience with humanity, having served with the non-profit Women’s Crisis Service, the Marion County Legal Aid Society, and as the Producer of the local TV show Public Pulse, which examines issues relevant to Oregon's capitol city.

Lela produced her own talk show called Think About It and was the host of the show, which aired for four years. After gaining skills as a director and editor, she directed a show called Reflections with Javier, which was an umbrella for three other shows called, Winds of Change, a political format; Art with a Soul, art and entertainment program; and Other Side of the Coin a religious format.

Two Best of the Northwest awards were won by two of the episodes from this series.

Lela’s latest endeavors have been to expand into the world of journalism with Salem-News.com, where she now works with Tim and Bonnie King as their Community Editor. Lela covers community events and write commentaries on social issues. Her quote for life is from Henry David Thoreau "We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success."

Lela is a regular contributor to the Out door pictures from Oregon photo album.

View articles written by Lela Taylor

Kevin Montgomery

Salem-News.com Reporter/Photographer

Kevin Montgomery has a fascinating history when it comes to the evolution of computer technology. In the early years, the 1970's, Kevin studied and worked with people who would all go on in their own ways to bring high technology in the world to where it is now.

For many years, Kevin was an active member in the HAM TV world. What is that? Live TV transmitted from point to point, like HAM Radio. Here Kevin learned the in's and out's of doing a TV live shot and he often built the equipment that it took to do it.

Today, Kevin works in any number of areas at Salem-News.com. Reporting, photography, editing, and he is the one person you can always look to when a piece of equipment fails, like a video cable, or a computer hard drive, or any construction or electrical need.

Kevin also has plans to produce a weekly entertainment program for the Salem TV station KWVT.

With all of those things to keep him occupied, Kevin says he can't stay busy enough, and these days he doubles as a deck hand on the Willamette Queen, the Willamette River sternwheeler.

Allan Erickson

Salem-News.com Reporter

Email: allan_e@efn.org

With over 35 years of experience, Allan Erickson has worked across the spectrum of photography. Originally a youthful hobbyist, he took his first self-portrait at 10, using an old box camera and a stick. Upon joining the US Air Force in 1970, Allan was trained as a photographic systems repairman, maintaining and repairing photo printers and processors. In 1971 he was retrained to become a photographer and photo-lab technician. He says that all the while, he was also shooting on his, but credits the Air Force with ingraining in him the skills necessary to pursue a lifelong love of photography.

Allan has worked behind the camera as a photojournalist (California Advocate, Fresno, CA), a commercial products table-top photographer (Gottschalks advertising, second camera behind Richard Eissler), and he has photographed weddings, anniversary celebrations, political meet-and-greets, concerts, baseball games (currently working for the Eugene Emeralds, the San Diego Padres' short season single A affiliate, as their team photographer), school events, kids' soccer, portraits and my favorite venue, nature.

More than anything, Allan Erickson cares about the health of Oregon and he works closely on drug policy issues as a member of LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Visit Allan's blog as this link: morningdonut.blogspot.com

Karin Maria Friedemann

Salem-News.com Contributor

Email: togethertalk@hotmail.com

Karin Maria Friedemann is editor of World View News Service groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/ and an op ed columnist for the Khaleej Times (Dubai). She blogs at karinfriedemann.blogspot.com and mariahussain.wordpress.com. She enjoys writing about Jewish and Middle East affairs and her occasionally outrageous personal advice column "Ask Maria." She has written for the Muslim Observer, Islamic Horizons and the Message magazine on local politics, the halal meat industry and women's issues.

Born 1970 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Karin now resides in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a full time mother of four children, all born at home. She registered Republican to vote for Ron Paul in the primaries but ended up voting for Cynthia McKinney for president. Karin has played the violin/fiddle since she was four years old and was a member of the Don't Look Now Jug Band in Detroit's Cass Corridor for ten years. She spends most of her time at home with husband Joachim Martillo and family. Her favorite hobby is sewing patchwork, which her kids are learning, and her favorite album of all time is Hank Williams Sr.'s gospel album.

She is Director of the Division on Muslim Civil Rights and Liberties for the National Association of Muslim American Women.