ICH’s Tom Feeley has died.

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PATRICE GREANVILLE • PAUL EDWARDS

On Oct 17, 2021 we ran our first alert (and homage), reproduced below, for our friend and comrade Tom Feeley, the legendary editor of Information Clearing House website, struggling with a series of conditions precipitated by his leukemia. The site's straightforward mission statement said it all: "We Cover the Issues the Corporate Media Never Will." And he did.

Recently, Tom finally lost his battle with this unrelenting disease. Although this event will surely be ignored in the corporate media, and pass, therefore, unnoticed among the mass public, Tom's death is a big loss for all of us in the anti-imperialist and peace community, and certainly for humanity at large, which benefited greatly from his tireless activism. To push back against this unjust and insulting obscurity, we have asked our friend and contributing editor Paul Edwards to pen (once again) a few words to serve as a proper farewell.

For more than 20 years we have been providing information that our prostitute media are paid to ignore.  We have built a community of (anti-war, pro-justice warriors) around the world. —Tom Feeley

Tom Feeley, who created and ran Information Clearing House for many years, died on September 9th.

It is very hard to write of the loss of a man of such courage and character, when there are almost no standards of comparison; in a time when there are so very few like him, even in exile media, not one in the mainstream giants, and none in our national leadership.  It is akin to writing a description of an extinct animal, of which the wide world has no knowledge and no familiarity.

Tom was a plain, straight man, modest and unassuming, never given to advertising himself.  He was, in many ways, an ordinary man, except in the those qualities that distinguish the most scrupulously ethical and morally brave among us.  He was an immigrant who had come to America, drawn by our stated principles that have been so utterly and cynically expunged from national practice.  He had been witness to that flagrant subversion and betrayal of all that had been promised at our creation, and it offended him to his core.

In the madness that surrounded 9/11 and the tragic acceleration of our precipitous descent as a nation into a sinister moral darkness from which we will never be extricated, he felt a deep compulsion to do what little he could to contest and combat that terrible decline.  He started ICH on the net.

Over the next decades he ran it, against the national current of state sponsored propaganda, as an open forum and a welcoming editorial home for those who had the acuity and courage to tell the truth, to criticize and castigate falsehood, cruelty and injustice, and as Voltaire demanded, “Ecrasez l’Infame!”.

Hail and Farewell, Tom.  You were a hero.

Paul
 
 

The text below was first run on Oct 17, 2021:
My dear friend and senior contributing editor to this publication, Paul Edwards, has just alerted me to Tom Feeley's struggle to stay alive. For those in the genuinely progressive, anti-imperialist community, who, for some reason, never heard of Tom, let me just put it simply: Tom Feeley is editor at Information Clearing House, which he correctly describes as, "A fiercely, independent source of news and information."  Yes, ICH is a key link in the ridiculously thin line of grotesquely underfunded websites still devoted to truth, truth when it matters most. ICH is a massive archive of genuine independent leftist analysis, and an invaluable tool in the contest with the forces working to impose an Orwellian world of fake democracy, constant war, widespread oppression and exploitation, and capitalogenic ecocide. Indeed, ICH would not be around without Tom's unwavering dedication. This is why Paul's fraternal words resonate so much in this quarter:

Our ally and brother Tom Feeley, of ICH, is in the hospital with leukemia, fighting for his life.  I had asked in previous emails if you might mention it somewhere as you no doubt share a good many regular readers.  Tom has not been able to publish consistently since Covid and a subsequent heart attack, and he’s not able to do it at all now.  Let me know if you can mention him as one of the real voices for truth and justice.  Big thanks.—Paul

Tom himself filed an update last May on ICH, which I reproduce below:

Update  - May 28, 2021 "Information Clearing House" - When I wrote the message below, I was sure that I had recovered from and Covid and that within days I would be able to rerun to my work here at ICH. That was wishful thinking on my part.  Some days later, my lack of physical energy led me to my doctor's office and a large number of tests, which indicated that Covid complications had caused not only my heart attack but pneumonia, anemia, (I had lost 42 lbs in the first 30 days of Covid) further tests also showed a kidney infection. This complete lack of energy coupled with depression, resulted in bed rest and very little physical activity over the last month. In fact, there were days when I thought that recovery would not be possible.

Today, is my first attempt at returning to work and I hope that the ICH community will forgive my absence. I will be doing my best to return to regular daily updates but they will be somewhat reduced in content as I am determined to restore my health and provide news and insights that are not available on lamestream media. Again I want to thank you for your patience, support and good wishes.

Peace and Joy
Tom Feeley

Today, Tom filed his most recent personal update, and the news, as Paul had warned, was not good. 


An apology and an explanation

By Tom Feeley

Diagnosed with acute leukemia

October 17, 2021 -- "Information Clearing House - Just wanted to say hi and give every member of our ICH community a big hug and huge respect.

I feel like I owe an apology for the lack of website and newsletter production to our group. As some of you know I got Covid19 in March of this year. This unfortunately led to problems with breathing and other symptoms.

My doctor was treating me for long Covid and despite his best efforts I got to a situation where even one hour's work exhausted me. It got to the point that I was admitted to hospital in San Diego and a battery of tests suggested I might have leukemia, a marrow bone analysis confirmed I have acute leukemia I have been here for almost 3 weeks,  where the doctors nurses and staff are working [to] get my cancer into remission.  I am having daily chemotherapy.

My laptop was delivered today and now I have the opportunity to post to the website and provide a newsletter, which may  have less content but will still expose the corrupt system that inflicts so much pain in the world. I am so happy to be back following my passion. Seeking justice for all.

For more than 20 years we have been providing information that our prostitute media are paid to ignore.  We have built a community of (anti-war, pro-justice warriors) around the world.


If you can, please send our comrade Tom Feeley a note of support. I am certain he will appreciate it. In times like these, fraternal solidarity is everything. Risking the obvious, let me say we all wish our brother Tom Feeley a prompt and uneventful recovery. We need him in the trenches. 

P. Greanville
Editor
The Greanville Post

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