Mao to Obama via Hawai`i and Manzanar

by Andrew Walden  www.AccuracyInMedia.com

The “Honolulu Community Media Council” (HCMC) July 14 denounces Accuracy In Media and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for “shoddy journalism and smear tactics.” HCMC, headed by Chris Conybeare, “finds” that “there is no substance to the claim” that “Frank Marshall Davis was a lifelong Communist and a mentor to (presidential candidate Barack) Obama.”

Conybeare may be hoping that nobody else knowing the post-WW II history of Hawai`i is willing to talk. Davis, it turns out, was just one member of a network whose works continue to exert influence to this day.

A faculty member of the UH-West O`ahu Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR), Conybeare is a producer of the many-part PBS “Rice and Roses” series on the history of labor organizing in Hawai`i, focusing on the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU). Conybeare’s “Biography Hawai`i” videos include the story of ILWU Hawai`i President, Jack Hall and the life of Koji Ariyoshi, founder and editor of the ILWU-funded Honolulu Record.

According to Conybeare’s own videos, before hiring Frank Marshall Davis, Koji Ariyoshi joined the WW2-era Military Intelligence Service/OSS—predecessor to the CIA—and used his language skills to land himself a position as U.S. military liaison to Communist forces in China—working personally with Mao Zedong.

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Riding Honolulu’s Gravy Train

by Laura Brown

Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann has already benefited from the rail project through the end of 2007, reaping contributions from dozens of mainland Parsons Brinkerhoff and CH2M directors and engineers who will head up the project. Here are a few of nearly 100 examples:

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