Complaint Review: Stuart News US Army Europe John P. Vogel Mike Stavrinakis - Stuart Florida

TRRORISM AND MEDIA CENSORSHIP

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Here is some proof that your media are not playing your game. They are lying through their teeth. This is something of which I have perfect, first-hand, real knowkedge.

The Stuart News---Ministry of Propaganda.

If everything was legal, why did the Stuart News have to omit so many important facts?

On October 15, 1980 a feature article appeared in the Accent section of the Stuart News. It appeared there because I had returned to Stuart to attend the funeral of my father who had died about the first week in October. He was about eighty-one years old. I had returned to Stuart on leave from my job in the US army on Rhein Main Air Force Base in Frankfurt, Germany. Weeks before, I had written a letter to the editor of the Stuart News about my experiences in the train disaster. It was published. Someone from the News had left a message that I should stop by the News when I am back in town. This I did. I gave them a call and I was invited in for an interview. I went there for the interview with Mary Ettinger, a reporter and photographer for the news.

I had expected nothing more than a captioned photograph. What did appear was a major feature article with my name in large black letters at the top of the page.I was elated. My ego swelled. Headlines at the page's top read "John Shaw of Stuart Survives and Serves in Ireland's Most Disastrous Train Wreck." It is a story about what I did in the death and destruction. The US army gave me a commendation medal, which, I might add, never appeared in my official military records; all mention of this was censored from my military records. The army said it never happened. You can read that article from the microfilm at the main library (Blake Library) in Stuart, Florida.

The problem with the article was that several relevant facts were omitted. Added back to the original story those censored facts completely change the meaning and the import of its message.

First, read the newspaper article. Here you can see exactly how the article is worded. After reading the article, read about what was omitted from the article. See what a tremendous difference in meaning there is with a fuller representation of the facts.

John Shaw

Jinan, China Reply

|Report Abuse |#2 May 10, 2006

[b]First---The Article[/b]

"The Stuart News News / accent Wednesday, October 15, 1980 D1

John Shaw of Stuart survives and serves in Irelands most disastrous train wreck

Awarded Army Acclaim medal

By MARY ETTINGER News Staff Writer"

"COUNTY CORK, Ireland --- As the train carrying 230 summer passengers approached Buttevant station in southern Ireland traveling more than 70 mph, it suddenly left the main track and collided with a stationary train. The result was the worst rail disaster in Irelands history. A Stuart man, John G. Shaw Jr., a passenger in the most critically damaged section of the train, freed himself and other survivors from the wreckage and organized the earliest life-saving first aid at the scene.The United States Army, recognizing his meritorious achievement, awarded Pfc. Shaw the Army Commendation Medal and a commendation citation."

"Shaw, stationed near Frankfurt, Germany, but on leave in Stuart because of his fathers death, remembers vividly the disaster of last August 1. He was talking to other passengers, on his way to Cork to see the Blarney Stone.I was thrown against the seat back; there was a loud grating noise and screaming; everything disintegrated around me and things were flying through the air. Then things quieted down and he dug himself out from the rubble. The first thing he saw was a lacerated man pinned under a heavy weight and in pain. Shaw freed the man and moved to another section of the train wreckage where he found a woman with her leg chopped off below the knee and a man in the same situation."

"County Cork newspapers reported that many of the eighteen bodies recovered were horribly mutilated some having been cut in half, from being crushed beneath the tangled wreckage. Several of the coaches just behind the engine jack-knifed and ricocheted across four sets of track, totally demolishing the dining car and two coaches. Only three of the passenger carriages remained upright on the main track after the crash. "

"Shaw treated victims for shock and organized small groups of able survivors to care for the injured, quickly teaching them basic first aid measures. When medical personnel arrived, he familiarized them with the crash scene by leading them to the most seriously injured people.The Army citation states that Shaw carried supplies and injured passengers helping to restore a semblance of order in a tragic and chaotic situation. His prompt, direct, and keen sense of duty reflects great credit upon him and the United States Army. The soldier says he learned ways to handle emergency situations in his advanced individual combat training at Fort Dix, N.J.---The Armys training really works. He explains that the basic training most personnel go through builds stamina and gives hands-on training in shock treatment, splints, and survival, in addition to methods of firing various small arms."

"More than 50 people were injured in the crash, many seriously, prompting the biggest rescue operation ever undertaken in the state, according to Shaw. Rescue workers were ready because because of the Southern Health Boards major disaster plan drawn up some ten years ago and kept current with twice-a-year drills. A fleet of twenty ambulances, helicopters, and teams of doctors and nurses sped to the station from several area hospitals. The countrys largest mobile crane, weighing 115 tons, and a 75-ton crane were brought in to help clear the wreckage, freeing survivors and uncovering bodies."

"The cause of the accident was not clear, and Shaw is still trying to find out the results of the investigation. He said it probably was due to some work being done on the tracks near the station and subsequent failure to divert the train to the proper track in time. "

"Shaw, 30, is a native of Stuart. He is the son of Inez Shaw and the late John Gobin Shaw. He is in the transportation section of the 21st Replacement Battalion in Frankfurt. Shaw is working on a degree through the University of Maryland majoring in history. He says he is getting a real sense of history while traveling through Europe."

"Shaw's family goes back through a long line of ancestors who served the country. An early forefather was a captain in a battalion of Berks County Associates in the Jersey campaign of the Revolution in the summer of 1780, and later commanded a company of militia sent to protect the settlers. A later relative was a Pennsylvania state senator and chaplain of the 110th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and another served in the War of 1812. Shaws great-uncle, John Peter Shindel Gobin, was a brigadier general in the U.S. Army, state senator and lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, and major general commanding the Pennsylvania National Guard."

[b]NOW CONSIDER WHAT INFORMATION WAS CENSORED FROM THAT ARTICLE.[/b]

1. For six months Specialist Stavrinakis and Sergeant John P. Vogel of HHD 21st Replacement Battallion of the US Army in Frankfurt, Germany particularized (Eireann) many times, perhaps as many as 100 times, as the name of a group that would commit a covert act of terrorism against me, an event arranged and guaranteed to look like an "accident." The name of the company that derailed the train was Coras Iompair (Eireann). They admitted responsibility, but only for negligence in causing an accident.

2. In Frankfurt, Germany a girlfriend of mine had warned me against going on a Eurail tour that summer. She indicated to me that one of the trains would be bombed that summer. The army had told me that this woman might be involved in spying and terrorism. She spoke broken English. She used a pseudonym all the time I knew her. That should have clued me in. However, I was young and uninitiated into the ways of espionage, if indeed there was any espionage. Later I would have a small confrontation with Memet Al Agca and another middle eastern looking man one block away from the location where the woman was who had warned me that my train might be bombed that summer.But the Mamet Ali Agca incident came after the derailment. I am just mentioning it. It could not have appeared in the article.

3. The dates that I began making complaints about Specialist Stavrinakis and Sergeant John P. Vogel, and the date of the small informal hearing with Captain Lamneck, Sergeant Walker, and Stavrinakis each coincided with the dates that various actions were taken in Buttevant station to reduce the points in the station from being instantaneous, wire connected, switch operated points from a manned switch-house, to manually operated points that took four or five minutes to change with a prybar and a wrench..

4. About three months before that derailment of August 1, 1980 , I had told my roommate (Jimmy Rowe) in the army clearly and unequivocally that my train would be derailed in Ireland. I had described the damage to him saying specifically where the train would receive most of the damage, where I would be seated when it derailed, my position in the train, what would happen to me and to the others, and more in detail. It all happened the way I said it would.

5. Southbound train travel from Dublin to Cork had been shut off except for that one track on which my train was derailed. Other tracks were available, but they had been closed to travel. Closing off all the other southbound rail travel between Dublin and Cork meant that all train traffic going south had to be funneled through Buttevant station.

6. In the wreckage on August 1, 1980, I heard clearly a man and a woman talking about a possible second incident involving a train and a bomb.

7. A powerful bomb exploded in Bologna Italys main train station on August 2, 1980, killing 86 people and injuring around 200 more. The main train station in Bologna was on my planned rail trip south to Italy.

8. I was supposed to go to Italy after Ireland, through Bologna. The army had required my itinerary for travel orders in Europe. It stated that I was traveling mainly to Ireland and Italy. It required that I state which countries I would be going to first and what dates I would be there. I wrote that I was not sure which country I would visit first. I was traveling with a twenty-one day Eurail pass.

9. Buttevant station. Butt-e-vant.

Butt means to strike against with a violent destructive force. Van is defined as a railroad car. Buttevant? County Cork? Cork can also be defined as stopping something from moving; to stop the flow of movement such as stopping the flow of water or traffic. Look at an aerial photo of the train derailed in Buttevant, County Cork. See the outline of the walls at the station. Put a piece of tracing paper over the photo and trace the outline of the walls. If you do you will have the perfect outline of the shape of a bottle. Now look at the head of the wreck. It is exactly where a cork would be in that bottle.

10. Consider this bit of information. The article in the Stuart News had this to say about my initial experience with the impact of the force of the derailment---He was thrown against the seat back. Then things started to disintegrate around him.

11. Consider what really happened. My head snapped back and forth with extreme violence three times over the back of the seat. Remember this was hundreds or thousands of tons of metal and materials telescoping at seventy miles per hour, and coming to a dead halt. The velocity of my head during these three whiplashes was probably 300 miles per hour. The force of my body slamming backwards tore two sets of steel-bolted train seats and a steel-bolted table right up out of the floor and smashed them flat on the floor. These seats and table had been steel bolted firmly to the floor. I went backwards through a wall. At the same time a human body, bits, pieces and things came flying at me hitting me in the legs, crotch, and chest. I was buried up to the waist in debris and trapped in it. I had to pull things away from my legs and body to free myself. It was even much worse that that, but enough of that.

And there you have it---Eleven main facts completely disappeared from public notice. Certainly, there is yet even more to it than what you read here, but this article should be sufficient to get the message across. And I believe to this day that the threats in Germany, and there were many more than are mentioned here, can be traced back to Stuart, Florida, and I do have reason for saying this.

The point here is that what actually happened and what the newspaper article said happened were two very different matters. Considering the hiatus between that news article and the facts as they happened in the real world, I think it is reasonable to suspect that other publishments pertaining to the Buttevant railroad disaster may have similar defects, specifically those writings by Coras Iompair Eireann that argue for the "accident" version of the event.

I think it is interesting to see how much pertinent information can be censored from a media news publication. Is there freedom of the press? If so, freedom from what? Is it freedom from responsibility? What about freedom from truth? How about freedom from offending lucrative advertisers? Could it be freedom from grating the sensibilities of their gentle readers? Maybe it is freedom to cover-up for a criminally offensive government? Is it freedom of complicity in state-sponsored terrorism? Is it just plain old freedom to print whatever they d**n well choose to print? Economic, social, political, personal, and criminal interests all play into the so-called freedom of the press, and they determine to some degree or another how free and what free.

While freedom of the press is difficult to define in todays complex global community, one thing here is abundantly clear. The newspaper article as it appeared in the Stuart News takes on an extremely different meaning when the other facts are added to it. I believe this is especially so following the events of September 11, 2001, for 9-11 shocked and expanded American and world consciousness to heightened awareness of the uses of terrorism in global coercion, retaliation, politics, and warfare.

Samson option

Vero Beach, Florida

U.S.A.