Saturday, November 12, 2005
Tha Fascist Federalist Society - Engaged in a Very Civil War
The Federalist Society has reshaped the legal system without ever going to court.
Washington - It began in 1982 with a handful of law students at Yale and the University of Chicago who saw themselves as minorities. They were conservatives.
As a counter to liberal orthodoxy, they formed a legal debating group they called the Federalist Society. And in a hint of things to come, their first faculty advisor at the Chicago chapter was professor Antonin Scalia, soon to be the most influential conservative on the Supreme Court.
This week, in a moment of triumph, the Federalist Society - now with 35,000 members and chapters at every major law school in the nation - is holding its annual meeting at the Mayflower Hotel, a few blocks from the White House.
Not only are conservative judges no longer a minority, two of the society's favorites, new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., are poised to add their "strict constructionist" voices to the high court.
Washington - It began in 1982 with a handful of law students at Yale and the University of Chicago who saw themselves as minorities. They were conservatives.
As a counter to liberal orthodoxy, they formed a legal debating group they called the Federalist Society. And in a hint of things to come, their first faculty advisor at the Chicago chapter was professor Antonin Scalia, soon to be the most influential conservative on the Supreme Court.
This week, in a moment of triumph, the Federalist Society - now with 35,000 members and chapters at every major law school in the nation - is holding its annual meeting at the Mayflower Hotel, a few blocks from the White House.
Not only are conservative judges no longer a minority, two of the society's favorites, new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., are poised to add their "strict constructionist" voices to the high court.
Objetos prohibidos - Eduardo Galeano
La noche del Día de Muertos, en noviembre del 2005, Helena Villagra y yo tuvimos que pasar, en tránsito, por el aeropuerto de Miami. Veníamos de Honduras, El Salvador y México. A la salida del aeropuerto de México, nuestras cuatro maletas fueron cuidadosamente revisadas, ante nuestros ojos, por manos enguantadas que las hurgaron hasta el último rinconcito y las despacharon a Montevideo.
Todo bien, pero la cosa no terminaba ahí. A continuación, nos tocaba el cambio de avión en Miami. Allí estuvimos unos cuarenta minutos, que raspando alcanzaron para cumplir con el calvario de las colas, los formularios, las preguntas, las impresiones digitales, las fotos y el strip-tease previo al embarque.
Horas después, al fin del viaje, descubrimos que dos de nuestras maletas habían sido violadas. De una, había desaparecido el candado. En la otra, había sido roto el cierre de seguridad. Adentro encontramos, a Bush gracias, una explicación. La violación había ocurrido en Miami. "Objetos prohibidos": ése era el asunto. Dentro de cada valija había un impreso de la Administración de Seguridad en el Transporte de los Estados Unidos, que nos decía: "Su maleta ha sido elegida para la inspección física. Durante la inspección, la maleta y su contenido pueden haber sido revisados en busca de objetos prohibidos." Y tenía la gentileza de agradecer: "Apreciamos su comprensión y cooperación"
***
Helena tiene la afortunada o desgraciada costumbre de ver la realidad antes de que ocurra. La ve mientras duerme. Dormida la vio, poco antes de que nuestras maletas sufrieran este ataque de la curiosidad oficial. Nos vio en un aeropuerto, haciendo fila, obligados a pasar, a través de una máquina, nuestras almohadas. La máquina leía, en las almohadas, los sueños que habíamos soñado. Era una máquina detectora de sueños peligrosos para el orden público.
***
¿Qué encontraron los agentes de seguridad que abrieron nuestras maletas? Me temo que no resultaron sospechosas por lo que llevaban, sino por lo que no llevaban. Las maletas no tenían armas de destrucción masiva. Por eso merecían ser invadidas. Como Iraq. Y para colmo, ahí adentro no había ni un solo objeto de esos que no sólo no están prohibidos, sino que son recomendables, y hasta imprescindibles, en la cartera de la dama y en el bolsillo del caballero:
*Había muchos libros, pero entre ellos no figuraba la colección completa de los discursos del presidente del planeta, que desde sus primeras piezas oratorias en Texas se ha destacado por su fina prosa, su fervor místico, su transparente honestidad y su involuntario sentido del humor.
*Los agentes no encontraron, entre nuestros papeles, ningún contrato de trabajo al estilo de la empresa WalMart, modelo universal del éxito, que prohíbe los sindicatos y otras molestias enemigas de la productividad obrera.
*No encontraron ningún documento de los sabios expertos internacionales capaces de demostrar que hasta la lluvia debe ser privatizada, como ocurrió en Bolivia hasta que el pueblo la desprivatizó.
*No llevábamos ningún tratado de libre comercio, de esos que dicta el todopoderoso país que jamás ha practicado ni practica semejante cosa.
*Tampoco llevábamos picanas eléctricas, ni otros instrumentos de tortura necesarios para los interrogatorios que ese país sí ha practicado, y practica, para promover la libertad de expresión.
*En nuestras valijas no había bandejas de MacDonald´s ni de Burger King, ni de ninguna otra empresa consagrada a la noble misión de luchar contra el hambre multiplicando a los gordos.
*Tampoco había ningún automóvil, lo que sin duda tiene que haber llamado la atención en un país donde hasta los bebés tienen permiso de conducir y desde que nacen pueden pudrir la atmósfera sin que les suene para nada la palabra Kyoto.
*Resultaba también reveladora la ausencia de semillas transgénicas, de ésas que están convirtiendo a los campesinos del mundo en felices funcionarios de la empresa Monsanto.
*Y no menos reveladora era la ausencia de la prensa transgénica, cuyos transgénicos periodistas llaman catástrofes naturales a los cotidianos actos terroristas de la sociedad de consumo.
***
Nosotros veníamos corridos por los huracanes. Habíamos estado en algunos de los países más golpeados por estas locuras, ciclones, sequías, inundaciones, cada vez más frecuentes y más feroces.
¿Qué tienen de naturales estas catástrofes matapobres? ¿Tan perversa es la naturaleza? ¿Loca de nacimiento? ¿Perversa y loca? ¿O estamos confundiendo al verdugo con la víctima? ¿Es la naturaleza la que envenena el aire, intoxica el agua, arrasa los bosques y envía el clima al manicomio?
En Honduras, visitamos las ruinas de Copán. Éste fue uno de los reinos mayas misteriosamente derrumbados seis siglos antes de la conquista española. O no tan misteriosamente: los investigadores tienden a creer, con creciente fundamento, que esos fueron desastres ecológicos. En el caso de Copán, al menos, está claro que los bosques se habían reducido a desiertos que daban piedras en lugar de maíz. ¿No se está repitiendo esa historia? Sólo en Honduras, el exterminio avanza a un ritmo de setenta y cinco mil árboles por día, según denuncia el sacerdote Andrés Tamayo, que vive al servicio del cielo y de la tierra. En las Américas, y en muchos otros parajes del mundo, los bosques naturales, verdes fiestas de la diversidad, están siendo brutalmente reducidos a la nada o convertidos en pasturas de ganado o en falsos bosques industriales que resecan la tierra.
¿No podemos mirarnos en el espejo de los tiempos pasados? ¿Será la memoria un objeto prohibido?
El desastre del ciclón Stan en Chiapas se hubiera reducido a la mitad, afirman los entendidos, si esa región estuviera todavía defendida por sus bosques. En Cancún, donde Wilma no dejó nada en pie y vació de arena las playas, los inmensos hotelones del negocio turístico habían aniquilado las dunas y los manglares que protegían esas costas.
***
¿Y los otros huracanes? Esas imparables ventoleras que arrastran gentíos desesperados desde el sur hacia el norte, ¿son catástrofes naturales? En Tegucigalpa, en San Salvador, en Oaxaca, vimos largas filas de mujeres descalzas, cargadas de niños, venidas de aldeas lejanas, ante las casas de cambio. Ellas esperaban el dinero enviado, desde los Estados Unidos, por el marido, el hermano o el hijo.
Las desgracias se disfrazan de fatalidades del destino y dicen ser naturales. ¿Es natural que un país condene a sus hijos más pobres a jugarse la vida y a perseguir la esperanza al precio de la humillación y el desarraigo?
En toda América Latina, los filántropos del Fondo Monetario y del Banco Mundial han multiplicado las exportaciones. de carne humana.
¿Emigrantes o expulsados? Muchos de los idos, los llamados mojados, caen en el camino, por sed o por bala, o regresan mutilados a sus pueblitos de origen. Los que sobreviven y llegan al prometido paraíso, se desloman trabajando en lo que sea y como sea, día y noche, para que sobrevivan, allá lejos, en el país que los expulsó, sus familias despojadas de tierra y de comida.
Dura odisea.
Ellos también son objetos prohibidos.
Todo bien, pero la cosa no terminaba ahí. A continuación, nos tocaba el cambio de avión en Miami. Allí estuvimos unos cuarenta minutos, que raspando alcanzaron para cumplir con el calvario de las colas, los formularios, las preguntas, las impresiones digitales, las fotos y el strip-tease previo al embarque.
Horas después, al fin del viaje, descubrimos que dos de nuestras maletas habían sido violadas. De una, había desaparecido el candado. En la otra, había sido roto el cierre de seguridad. Adentro encontramos, a Bush gracias, una explicación. La violación había ocurrido en Miami. "Objetos prohibidos": ése era el asunto. Dentro de cada valija había un impreso de la Administración de Seguridad en el Transporte de los Estados Unidos, que nos decía: "Su maleta ha sido elegida para la inspección física. Durante la inspección, la maleta y su contenido pueden haber sido revisados en busca de objetos prohibidos." Y tenía la gentileza de agradecer: "Apreciamos su comprensión y cooperación"
***
Helena tiene la afortunada o desgraciada costumbre de ver la realidad antes de que ocurra. La ve mientras duerme. Dormida la vio, poco antes de que nuestras maletas sufrieran este ataque de la curiosidad oficial. Nos vio en un aeropuerto, haciendo fila, obligados a pasar, a través de una máquina, nuestras almohadas. La máquina leía, en las almohadas, los sueños que habíamos soñado. Era una máquina detectora de sueños peligrosos para el orden público.
***
¿Qué encontraron los agentes de seguridad que abrieron nuestras maletas? Me temo que no resultaron sospechosas por lo que llevaban, sino por lo que no llevaban. Las maletas no tenían armas de destrucción masiva. Por eso merecían ser invadidas. Como Iraq. Y para colmo, ahí adentro no había ni un solo objeto de esos que no sólo no están prohibidos, sino que son recomendables, y hasta imprescindibles, en la cartera de la dama y en el bolsillo del caballero:
*Había muchos libros, pero entre ellos no figuraba la colección completa de los discursos del presidente del planeta, que desde sus primeras piezas oratorias en Texas se ha destacado por su fina prosa, su fervor místico, su transparente honestidad y su involuntario sentido del humor.
*Los agentes no encontraron, entre nuestros papeles, ningún contrato de trabajo al estilo de la empresa WalMart, modelo universal del éxito, que prohíbe los sindicatos y otras molestias enemigas de la productividad obrera.
*No encontraron ningún documento de los sabios expertos internacionales capaces de demostrar que hasta la lluvia debe ser privatizada, como ocurrió en Bolivia hasta que el pueblo la desprivatizó.
*No llevábamos ningún tratado de libre comercio, de esos que dicta el todopoderoso país que jamás ha practicado ni practica semejante cosa.
*Tampoco llevábamos picanas eléctricas, ni otros instrumentos de tortura necesarios para los interrogatorios que ese país sí ha practicado, y practica, para promover la libertad de expresión.
*En nuestras valijas no había bandejas de MacDonald´s ni de Burger King, ni de ninguna otra empresa consagrada a la noble misión de luchar contra el hambre multiplicando a los gordos.
*Tampoco había ningún automóvil, lo que sin duda tiene que haber llamado la atención en un país donde hasta los bebés tienen permiso de conducir y desde que nacen pueden pudrir la atmósfera sin que les suene para nada la palabra Kyoto.
*Resultaba también reveladora la ausencia de semillas transgénicas, de ésas que están convirtiendo a los campesinos del mundo en felices funcionarios de la empresa Monsanto.
*Y no menos reveladora era la ausencia de la prensa transgénica, cuyos transgénicos periodistas llaman catástrofes naturales a los cotidianos actos terroristas de la sociedad de consumo.
***
Nosotros veníamos corridos por los huracanes. Habíamos estado en algunos de los países más golpeados por estas locuras, ciclones, sequías, inundaciones, cada vez más frecuentes y más feroces.
¿Qué tienen de naturales estas catástrofes matapobres? ¿Tan perversa es la naturaleza? ¿Loca de nacimiento? ¿Perversa y loca? ¿O estamos confundiendo al verdugo con la víctima? ¿Es la naturaleza la que envenena el aire, intoxica el agua, arrasa los bosques y envía el clima al manicomio?
En Honduras, visitamos las ruinas de Copán. Éste fue uno de los reinos mayas misteriosamente derrumbados seis siglos antes de la conquista española. O no tan misteriosamente: los investigadores tienden a creer, con creciente fundamento, que esos fueron desastres ecológicos. En el caso de Copán, al menos, está claro que los bosques se habían reducido a desiertos que daban piedras en lugar de maíz. ¿No se está repitiendo esa historia? Sólo en Honduras, el exterminio avanza a un ritmo de setenta y cinco mil árboles por día, según denuncia el sacerdote Andrés Tamayo, que vive al servicio del cielo y de la tierra. En las Américas, y en muchos otros parajes del mundo, los bosques naturales, verdes fiestas de la diversidad, están siendo brutalmente reducidos a la nada o convertidos en pasturas de ganado o en falsos bosques industriales que resecan la tierra.
¿No podemos mirarnos en el espejo de los tiempos pasados? ¿Será la memoria un objeto prohibido?
El desastre del ciclón Stan en Chiapas se hubiera reducido a la mitad, afirman los entendidos, si esa región estuviera todavía defendida por sus bosques. En Cancún, donde Wilma no dejó nada en pie y vació de arena las playas, los inmensos hotelones del negocio turístico habían aniquilado las dunas y los manglares que protegían esas costas.
***
¿Y los otros huracanes? Esas imparables ventoleras que arrastran gentíos desesperados desde el sur hacia el norte, ¿son catástrofes naturales? En Tegucigalpa, en San Salvador, en Oaxaca, vimos largas filas de mujeres descalzas, cargadas de niños, venidas de aldeas lejanas, ante las casas de cambio. Ellas esperaban el dinero enviado, desde los Estados Unidos, por el marido, el hermano o el hijo.
Las desgracias se disfrazan de fatalidades del destino y dicen ser naturales. ¿Es natural que un país condene a sus hijos más pobres a jugarse la vida y a perseguir la esperanza al precio de la humillación y el desarraigo?
En toda América Latina, los filántropos del Fondo Monetario y del Banco Mundial han multiplicado las exportaciones. de carne humana.
¿Emigrantes o expulsados? Muchos de los idos, los llamados mojados, caen en el camino, por sed o por bala, o regresan mutilados a sus pueblitos de origen. Los que sobreviven y llegan al prometido paraíso, se desloman trabajando en lo que sea y como sea, día y noche, para que sobrevivan, allá lejos, en el país que los expulsó, sus familias despojadas de tierra y de comida.
Dura odisea.
Ellos también son objetos prohibidos.
LÓPEZ OBRADOR: ¡UNA LECCIÓN PARA APÁTRIDAS!
La prensa escrita y con mayor intensidad aún la radial y televisiva, van moldeando la opinión pública sobre la técnica del titular impactante o la imagen de primeros planos. Así, el titular o la imagen de impacto, apoyada en comentarios debidamente aderezados van sustituyendo la reflexión y condicionando cuanto pueda ser el nudo de la noticia. Forma parte de una técnica, realmente diabólica y repugnante, utilizada para sembrar la mentira en el subconsciente del público. El titular sustituye el “trabajo” de lectura reflexiva, de análisis sereno. ¡El titular o la imagen lo dice todo! ¡Total..el tiempo es oro! ¡Vaya al grano...no pierda tiempo! ¡No lea, no piense, elija el camino más corto! ¡Aquí lo tiene...servido en bandeja de plata! Cómo en alguna oportunidad fue el eslogan de una agencia publicitaria...”¡Permítanos pensar por usted!”.
U.S. AND HUMAN RIGHTS - More prisoners than any country in the world
- Incarceration rate grew from 411 per 100,000 inhabitants to 486 in 2004
IN the country that claims to be the champion of human rights, the number of prisoners continued to grow dramatically in 2004. The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice had just discretely confirmed that 3,113,664 individuals are currently incarcerated by the repressive U.S. system, not including those held in other institutions under the control of this country outside its national territory, like the concentration camp in Guantánamo.
In a report released on October 23, BJS avoided summing up all the numbers available by stating them separately. Nevertheless, it does admit that 2,267,787 individuals were locked up in federal and state penitentiary at the end of 2004.
This number does not include the 9,788 individuals in immigration detention centers or the 713,990 in local jails; the 102,338 minors in juvenile detention centers, the 15,757 in county jails; the 2,177 soldiers in military prisons and the 1,827 Native Americans in reservation jails.
Nor does it include the hundreds held in its world-wide network of detention centers maintained on U.S. military bases.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons manages the most extensive network of prisons with 180,328 inmates, followed by the states of Texas (168 105), California (166,556), Florida (85,553) and New York (85,533).
Nearly 9% of African Americans aged 25 to 29 are behind bars, compared to 2.5% of Latinos and 1.2% of whites. More than 40% of all convicts are Black, 34% are White, and 19% are Latinos.
The index of U.S. imprisonment grew from 411 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1995 to 486 in 2004, according to BJS. This number only takes into account those sentenced to more than one year, which evidently leaves out many prisoners and eases the appearance of a total disaster.
But what is more evident than ever is that the United States has more persons incarcerated per capita than any other country in the world, while attempting to impose its version of respect for human rights on the rest of the planet.
Bush vs. Chavez: The Imperial President and the Bolivarian Democrat
Bush's woes just keep piling up on him. The summit of hemispheric leaders he attended in Argentina was a total embarrassment, revealing the emperor has no clothes. Bush did manage to avoid shaking hands with his main adversary at the summit, Hugo Chavez. But the president of Venezuela stole the show, drawing 35,000 to hear him speak at a packed stadium. In Bush's only comment on the massive demonstrations against his stay in Argentina, he lamely joked with the country's president, Nestor Kirchner, "It's particularly not easy to host, perhaps, me."
Declaring “I will of course be polite” in the presence of Chavez, Bush waited until he flew off to Brazil to levy a savage attack on the leader of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela: "Ensuring social justice for the Americas requires choosing between two competing visions," he proclaimed at a banquet. "One offers a vision of hope. It is founded on representative government, integration in the world community, and a faith in the transformative power of freedom in individual lives...the other seeks to roll back the democratic progress...by playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor, and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people."
This Orwellian declaration upended the realities of Chavez's Venezuela and Bush's America. Elected to the presidency in 1998, Chavez received 56 percent of the vote, while as the world knows Bush in the 2000 elections lost the popular vote to his Democratic opponent.
Declaring “I will of course be polite” in the presence of Chavez, Bush waited until he flew off to Brazil to levy a savage attack on the leader of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela: "Ensuring social justice for the Americas requires choosing between two competing visions," he proclaimed at a banquet. "One offers a vision of hope. It is founded on representative government, integration in the world community, and a faith in the transformative power of freedom in individual lives...the other seeks to roll back the democratic progress...by playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor, and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people."
This Orwellian declaration upended the realities of Chavez's Venezuela and Bush's America. Elected to the presidency in 1998, Chavez received 56 percent of the vote, while as the world knows Bush in the 2000 elections lost the popular vote to his Democratic opponent.
Info on the torture scandal
November 11, 2005 -- A group of veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Desert Storm sharply criticized the Bush administration today at an event sponsored by Veterans for Common Sense in Washington, DC. Dave Debatto. a former US Army Counterintelligence Special Agent who was assigned in 2003 to Iraq, said he took part in thousands of interrogations in Iraq. He said his orders and those for his colleagues were never to lay hands on anyone, let alone torture anyone. Consequently, Debatto and other interrogators received a lot of intelligence through their cooperation with Iraqis at the outset of the U.S. occupation. However, he said when new tactics were employed in June 2003, things "went south" quickly. Intelligence dried up and Camp Anaconda, his base of operations, became "Mortarville" as it was mortar-shelled day and night.
Frank Ford, a 32-year veteran of military and counter-intelligence assignments, served in Samara, the ancient capital of Mesopotamia, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. His military service began when he served with President Richard Nixon's Presidential security detail at the Western White House in San Clemente, California.
Former Iraq war counter-intelligence agent and Nixon security detail member Frank Ford. Hustled out of Iraq on a stretcher after complaining about U.S. torture tactics.
Ford said at the outset of his assignment in Samara his unit was witnessing 105-100 walk-ins of intelligence sources per day. The only problem was recording and reporting on all the intelligence being provided. After the May 2004 "Wedding Day Massacre" by US troops of a wedding party in the village of Mukaradeeb in western Iraq, near the Syrian border, Ford said things "went south real fast." He said there was an immediate response from the Iraqis. The soured relations with the Iraqis resulted in walk-in intelligence sources dropping from 105 to 110 a day to 2 to 3, and soon to zero. Immediately, U.S. troops in Samara were besieged. The U.S. response was to pick up all males between the ages of 10 and 100 whereupon they were "bagged, tagged, and brutalized." These clean sweeps were conducted in 120 degree temperatures. The new American tactic resulted in an escalation of insurgent attacks.
Ford said Iraqis who had cooperated with the United States warned the US military to knock off the torture. Intelligence reports on U.S. torture were sent up the military chain to Washington. The reports were ignored. Ford said, soon, interrogation became extermination. Ford requested a formal investigation of the torture. The response of the U.S. military command in Iraq was to physically assault Ford and take him to a psychiatrist. Ford was told he was imagining torture. Ford said things got uglier when he was ordered out of Iraq to Germany strapped to a stretcher. Soon after, Ford retired from government service.
Ford was not surprised when 60 Minutes aired its report on torture at Abu Ghraib. He knew where the "kids" at Abu Ghraib were trained in the illegal tactics they employed against the prisoners. In fact, Ford's headquarters was Abu Ghraib. Instead of stopping the torture tactics, the orders from Washington were to send "non-talkers" (Iraqis) to Abu Ghraib for interrogation. Ford revealed that a special team of foreign nationals were brought into Abu Ghraib to advise on torture techniques. The physical stripping of prisoners was one such tactic imported by the foreign national advisers. Meanwhile, U.S. military commanders said torture was not occurring.
Ford said soon the U.S. position in Samara first began to disintegrate n June 15, 2003 after former members of the Iraqi Mukhabarat intelligence service, along with "Saddam Fedayeen" former special forces, launched "Operation Viper," a Tet-style offensive against the U.S. The Mukhabarat warned that five U.S. soldiers would be killed per week. Ford said the insurgency has drastically increased that target number today. Iraq war veteran Garrett Repenhagen said that Abu Ghraib changed things in Iraq. He said that after news of the abuse became public, many Iraqis shifted their support to the insurgency. One starving Iraqi youngster who used to accept a daily meals ready to eat (MRE) package from Repenhagen refused it after the news from Abu Ghraib became known.
Ford, who has a degree in anthropology and specializes in archeology and is familiar with the histories of the current and past countries of the Middle East, said torture has very primal effects on a society in a drastic way. He said the "U.S. restructured the premier torture center in the Middle East," referring to Abu Ghraib during Saddam Hussein's rule.
As far as the presence of contractor personnel in U.S.-run prisons in Iraq and other countries, Debatto said interrogation contracts for companies like CACI and Titan represented the first time in U.S. history that type of intelligence work was contracted out. He called the contracting out "absurd" and said contractors were "minimally supervised." Debatto called this precedent dangerous and said civilian contractors were "part of the problem."
BREAKING NEWS on U.S. "crating" prisoners and flying them around Eastern Europe in C-130 prison planes.
November 11, 2005 -- BREAKING NEWS U.S. "crating" prisoners and flying them around Eastern Europe in C-130 prison planes. Although The Washington Post failed to report on the details of CIA (now Pentagon-run) "black" interrogation sites in eastern Europe, WMR is able to report on the particulars of the covert operation. According to a well-placed intelligence source who served in eastern Europe, prisoners from Iraq and elsewhere have been flown from airport to airport in eastern Europe on board C-130 planes. Placed in what were described as "dog-sized" cages, the covert operation became fully operational after the disclosures of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, Baghdad and Camp Bucca, Umm Qasr, Iraq. The "crated" prisoners were either removed from the C-130s for interrogation at Soviet-era detention centers that were in various states of repair or were kept on board the aircraft and subjected to brutal interrogation by U.S. and/or contractor personnel, who, in some cases, were ex-members of the Soviet KGB, Stasi, and other eastern European security services. C-130s are used because of their short take-off and landing capabilities on short air strips located in remote regions.
The source, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, witnessed the ground work being laid for the "black sites" in a number of countries and locations. These include the Taszar airbase in south-central Hungary, near the town of Pecs; Lv'iv, Ukraine; Szczynto-Szymany, Poland; Skopje, Macedonia; Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in Romania; Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia; Shkoder, Albania; Burgas, Bulgaria; and the Markuleshti air base in Moldova.
Crating prisoners hearkens back to the Vietnam War when the U.S. used "tiger cages" installed by the French on Con Son island off Vietnam to hold political prisoners. The U.S. used the tiger cages to detain and torture suspected Viet Cong sympathizers. Many of the prisoners were merely innocent Buddhists and anti-war activists. The flying of caged prisoners from airport to airport on chartered C-130s is yet another indication of what military judge advocate general (JAG) lawyers have cited as the Bush administration's penchant for placing prisoners in "law free zones."
Crating prisoners for Eastern European "frequent flyer torture" -- The latest outrage from an administration that brought us white phosphorous chemical weapons, sodomizing teen prisoners, and naked human pyramids.
The source, who spoke on a condition of anonymity, witnessed the ground work being laid for the "black sites" in a number of countries and locations. These include the Taszar airbase in south-central Hungary, near the town of Pecs; Lv'iv, Ukraine; Szczynto-Szymany, Poland; Skopje, Macedonia; Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in Romania; Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia; Shkoder, Albania; Burgas, Bulgaria; and the Markuleshti air base in Moldova.
Crating prisoners hearkens back to the Vietnam War when the U.S. used "tiger cages" installed by the French on Con Son island off Vietnam to hold political prisoners. The U.S. used the tiger cages to detain and torture suspected Viet Cong sympathizers. Many of the prisoners were merely innocent Buddhists and anti-war activists. The flying of caged prisoners from airport to airport on chartered C-130s is yet another indication of what military judge advocate general (JAG) lawyers have cited as the Bush administration's penchant for placing prisoners in "law free zones."
Crating prisoners for Eastern European "frequent flyer torture" -- The latest outrage from an administration that brought us white phosphorous chemical weapons, sodomizing teen prisoners, and naked human pyramids.
New aspect of Valerie Plame/Brewster Jennings exposure revealed.
November 11, 2005 -- New aspect of Valerie Plame/Brewster Jennings exposure revealed. According to U.S. intelligence sources, the White House exposure of Valerie Plame and her Brewster Jennings & Associates was intended to retaliate against the CIA's work in limiting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. WMR has reported in the past on this aspect of the scandal. In addition to identifying the involvement of individuals in the White House who were close to key players in nuclear proliferation, the CIA Counter-Proliferation Division prevented the shipment of binary VX nerve gas from Turkey into Iraq in November 2002. The Brewster Jennings network in Turkey was able to intercept this shipment which was intended to be hidden in Iraq and later used as evidence that Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. U.S. intelligence sources revealed that this was a major reason the Bush White House targeted Plame and her network.
The Brewster Jennings/CIA counter-proliferation network prevented a WMD "salting" operation by Bush White House in Iraq.
In fact, U.S. intelligence sources report that the first shipment of VX nerve gas to Saddam Hussein was carried out between 1988 and 1989. The gas was shipped to Iraq by a U.S. company that was established in 1987 -- The Carlyle Group.
U.S. intelligence sources have also confirmed that Israeli military officers served unofficially with the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Baghdad. The Israelis were attached to the J2X (Joint Intelligence Liaison) in Baghdad. Their presence in Baghdad, according to the sources, was kept secret.
The Brewster Jennings/CIA counter-proliferation network prevented a WMD "salting" operation by Bush White House in Iraq.
In fact, U.S. intelligence sources report that the first shipment of VX nerve gas to Saddam Hussein was carried out between 1988 and 1989. The gas was shipped to Iraq by a U.S. company that was established in 1987 -- The Carlyle Group.
U.S. intelligence sources have also confirmed that Israeli military officers served unofficially with the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Baghdad. The Israelis were attached to the J2X (Joint Intelligence Liaison) in Baghdad. Their presence in Baghdad, according to the sources, was kept secret.
False Flag Violence and the French Connection
It's interesting how the Israeli media often reports things you'd never see in the corporate U.S. media. For instance, Itamar Eichner, who writes for the leading Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, tells us "American officials demand Israel provide explanations for how U.S.-made choppers sold to Israel ended up in service of Columbian drug cartel." It appears "the military copters currently serve the drug mafia in the South American country." Eichner believes the story is "dubious" and the IDF sold five helicopters to an Israeli company and this company in turn sold the helicopters to "either to the Mexican federal police, or to the Spain firefighters department. However, contrary to the terms of the license, the copters ended up in Columbia, by way of Canadian mediators." In other words, it is all a mistake.
Mossad-DIA Collaboration Sends Message to China
It appears the Chinese are taking seriously the Mossad-DIA collaborative attack against innocent civilians in Amman, including three "students" from China's University of National Defense. "Chinese organizations and visiting delegations of taking necessary measures to ensure security of life and property," a statement posted on the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs website declares. "Luo Gan, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and secretary of the Political and Legislative Affairs Committee of the CPC Central Committee also made an important instruction requiring Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, overseas Chinese-funded organizations and visiting Chinese delegations to take precautions and raise awareness of and ensure security." In other words, the Chinese believe they are targeted and are taking precautions. Obviously, they don’t believe the murder of these "students" was a mere coincidence.
The Curses of Pat Robertson - Dover Bitch
On Thursday, conservative televangelist Pat Robertson ranted on his daily television show, the 700 Club, that citizens of Dover who ousted a school board that tried to introduce intelligent design to high school science students should be prepared for God's wrath. He suggested that they pray to Charles Darwin for help.
Robertson considers himself a Constitutionalist. Perhaps he should set up an altar to Hamilton, Madison and the rest when the next hijacked plane hurtles toward Virginia.
As Robertson goes, this is nothing new and not even specially vindictive. Last summer, he called for the assassination of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez. And in 2003 he urged that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has speculated that Orlando might be hit by a meteor for allowing gay flags to be flown on city streets and that hurricanes are God's judgment on sinful New Orleans.
Robertson considers himself a Constitutionalist. Perhaps he should set up an altar to Hamilton, Madison and the rest when the next hijacked plane hurtles toward Virginia.
As Robertson goes, this is nothing new and not even specially vindictive. Last summer, he called for the assassination of Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez. And in 2003 he urged that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has speculated that Orlando might be hit by a meteor for allowing gay flags to be flown on city streets and that hurricanes are God's judgment on sinful New Orleans.
Answer to Bush's Speech: It's our Foreign Policy, Stupid
What do you do when your Administration is losing in the second half? You talk "terror."
And what an opportunity for the President on Veterans Day. It was also the day after my nephew's 22nd birthday. Marine Lance Cpl. Chase Comley wasn’t celebrating on Thursday though. He’s one of "those lost in our current struggle." He died in Iraq on August 6, 2005. Maybe, that’s why I didn’t push "mute" as I usually do when Bush stumbles through a speech. I wanted to see how he’d honor my loved one. I was hoping the President might finally admit the big mistake, apologize to the country and say, "I'm gonna bring 'em home." Stupid me.
Instead, Mr. Bush, with awestruck and applauding-on-cue supporters, sitting behind him, tried to hit a three-pointer and restore some credibility to his Office. Stupid him.
"Terrorists are evil but not insane," G.W. said.
"You’re both," I yelled at the screen.
"The enemy seeks to end dissent in every form," Bush orated.
"Seems this Administration has painted anyone who dissents from its position a traitor to Democracy," I answered.
But when he said, "Radicals try to exploit young men and women," I lost it.
"We're the exploiters, you miserable excuse for a human." I shouted at him. "We've exploited people all over the globe. Why, that's what you were doing in Latin American last week. Remember? But back to those young Arabs who are learning to hate us in their mosques--no, no, no. Let's talk, instead, about how you’ve manipulated our young with your nationalistic rhetoric about evil doers, WMDs, Biblical references, like a coach before the big game in a huddle of prayer and then a whoop to win. And all those military recruiters out there, trying to make their quotas before the monthly buzzer sounds, are just more of your equipment to maneuver young men and women with promises of support when they return. If they return."
Then, when Bush said something about a "strategy of replacing resentment with hope," I wanted to gag.
And what an opportunity for the President on Veterans Day. It was also the day after my nephew's 22nd birthday. Marine Lance Cpl. Chase Comley wasn’t celebrating on Thursday though. He’s one of "those lost in our current struggle." He died in Iraq on August 6, 2005. Maybe, that’s why I didn’t push "mute" as I usually do when Bush stumbles through a speech. I wanted to see how he’d honor my loved one. I was hoping the President might finally admit the big mistake, apologize to the country and say, "I'm gonna bring 'em home." Stupid me.
Instead, Mr. Bush, with awestruck and applauding-on-cue supporters, sitting behind him, tried to hit a three-pointer and restore some credibility to his Office. Stupid him.
"Terrorists are evil but not insane," G.W. said.
"You’re both," I yelled at the screen.
"The enemy seeks to end dissent in every form," Bush orated.
"Seems this Administration has painted anyone who dissents from its position a traitor to Democracy," I answered.
But when he said, "Radicals try to exploit young men and women," I lost it.
"We're the exploiters, you miserable excuse for a human." I shouted at him. "We've exploited people all over the globe. Why, that's what you were doing in Latin American last week. Remember? But back to those young Arabs who are learning to hate us in their mosques--no, no, no. Let's talk, instead, about how you’ve manipulated our young with your nationalistic rhetoric about evil doers, WMDs, Biblical references, like a coach before the big game in a huddle of prayer and then a whoop to win. And all those military recruiters out there, trying to make their quotas before the monthly buzzer sounds, are just more of your equipment to maneuver young men and women with promises of support when they return. If they return."
Then, when Bush said something about a "strategy of replacing resentment with hope," I wanted to gag.
Italian prosecutors seek extradition of CIA agents
Prosecutors have requested Italy seek the extradition of 22 suspected CIA agents over the kidnapping of a terrorism suspect, grabbed off a street in 2003 and taken abroad, a judicial source in Italy said on Friday.
The request was delivered to Justice Minister Roberto Castelli.
The minister just returned from Washington, where he discussed the issue with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a U.S. justice department official in Washington D.C. said.
Castelli's office declined comment. He must now decide whether to make a formal request to the United States to pursue the case, said the Italian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The general prosecutor's office has requested the extradition," the well-placed source said.
Prosecutors in the northern city of Milan believe that the CIA was behind the disappearance of Egyptian-born imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar.
They say he was grabbed off a Milan street and flown from a U.S. air base in northern Italy to Egypt, where they suspect he may have been tortured under interrogation by Egyptian security officials.
A Milan judge has issued an arrest order for Nasr, who is believed to be still in Egyptian custody.
Among the suspects is the former head of the CIA operation in Milan, who the Italian prosecutors investigating the case believe organized the abduction, the source said.
The investigation has drawn wide media coverage in Italy and the United States.
The Italian government has denied any role in the episode. Last July, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi summoned the U.S. ambassador to Rome and told him that Italian sovereignty had to be respected.
The United States has faced questions from other European countries, including Germany, over its transfers of militant suspects abroad.
Egypt's prime minister said in May the United States had transferred as many as 70 militant suspects to his country.
Intelligence officials believe that Nasr fought in Afghanistan before arriving in Italy in 1997 and obtaining political refugee status. Investigators accuse him of ties to al Qaeda and recruiting combatants for Iraq.
The request was delivered to Justice Minister Roberto Castelli.
The minister just returned from Washington, where he discussed the issue with U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, a U.S. justice department official in Washington D.C. said.
Castelli's office declined comment. He must now decide whether to make a formal request to the United States to pursue the case, said the Italian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The general prosecutor's office has requested the extradition," the well-placed source said.
Prosecutors in the northern city of Milan believe that the CIA was behind the disappearance of Egyptian-born imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar.
They say he was grabbed off a Milan street and flown from a U.S. air base in northern Italy to Egypt, where they suspect he may have been tortured under interrogation by Egyptian security officials.
A Milan judge has issued an arrest order for Nasr, who is believed to be still in Egyptian custody.
Among the suspects is the former head of the CIA operation in Milan, who the Italian prosecutors investigating the case believe organized the abduction, the source said.
The investigation has drawn wide media coverage in Italy and the United States.
The Italian government has denied any role in the episode. Last July, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi summoned the U.S. ambassador to Rome and told him that Italian sovereignty had to be respected.
The United States has faced questions from other European countries, including Germany, over its transfers of militant suspects abroad.
Egypt's prime minister said in May the United States had transferred as many as 70 militant suspects to his country.
Intelligence officials believe that Nasr fought in Afghanistan before arriving in Italy in 1997 and obtaining political refugee status. Investigators accuse him of ties to al Qaeda and recruiting combatants for Iraq.
A betrayal of our most precious values
Well, I guess that settles that.
"We do not torture," President Bush said on Monday. Never mind all those torture pictures from Abu Ghraib. Never mind all those torture stories from Guantanamo Bay. Never mind the 2002 Justice Department memo that sought to justify torture. Never mind reports of U.S. officials sending detainees to other countries for torture. Never mind Dick Cheney lobbying to exempt the CIA from rules prohibiting torture.
"We do not torture," said the president. And that's that, right? I mean, if you can't believe the Bush administration, who can you believe? No torture. Period, end of sentence.
But . . . What does it say to you that the claim even has to be made?
"We do not torture," President Bush said on Monday. Never mind all those torture pictures from Abu Ghraib. Never mind all those torture stories from Guantanamo Bay. Never mind the 2002 Justice Department memo that sought to justify torture. Never mind reports of U.S. officials sending detainees to other countries for torture. Never mind Dick Cheney lobbying to exempt the CIA from rules prohibiting torture.
"We do not torture," said the president. And that's that, right? I mean, if you can't believe the Bush administration, who can you believe? No torture. Period, end of sentence.
But . . . What does it say to you that the claim even has to be made?
Friday, November 11, 2005
¡Cuando el río suena, es porque AUMENTOS trae!
Una sorda guerra enfrenta a dos ministros. Por un lado el prudente tecnócrata Fernando Zavala, en Economía, niega rotundamente que se esté pensando en un aumento del sueldo mínimo. En cambio piensa distinto el titular de Trabajo, Carlos Almerí, de gran sentimiento social, que propugna –o estaría entusiasmado- por este incremento para los sufridos trabajadores. En este país el NO es SI y ¡cuando el río suena, es porque AUMENTOS trae!
Como los empresarios privados se han negado -¡cuándo no!- a cualquier referencia que orille un aumento por los costos ínsitos que estos tienen, de repente sí se asigna, libre de cualquier impuesto, un bono para el 1’800,000 de empleados públicos. Este plus tendría una característica especial y sospechosa: en papeles para la compra de víveres o toda clase de artículos en establecimientos afiliados a la cadena que tiene, en monopolio, una transnacional francesa o la recepción del dinero en efectivo.
La transnacional gala cuando hace propaganda de las ventajas que tiene la ley de prestaciones alimentarias omite, ¡sólo Dios sabe porqué razones! aclarar que es facultad del trabajador discernir si acepta los vales o escoge el contante y sonante. Primera falla. Hay una publicidad engañosa que realmente tima. De este modo, se induce al trabajador a usar papeles para comprar en algunas tiendas. En esta empresa foránea trabaja, desde hace varios años, desde que su padre era ministro de Energía y Minas, Martín Quijandría.
El negocio financiero que estaría por concretarse alude a que 1’800,000 trabajadores estatales podrían gozar de un aumento de algún porcentaje. El Estado tendría que pagar a esta transnacional monopólica francesa el íntegro de ese incremento cada mes para que los trabajadores reciban esos documentos o vales de consumo. Hay en camino fuertes presiones para ratificar la exclusividad del modus operandi de estos papelitos. En buen romance: si esos casi dos millones, consuman o no, usen o no, esos vales, es un tema personal de cada quien, pero el Estado sí tendría, por angas o por mangas, que avituallar, por adelantado, el monto correspondiente del aumento a la firma francesa ¡por el universo de ese 1’800,000 servidores. Y ésta, a su vez, podría escoger, borrar, decidir, a qué empresas o grupos de firmas les da el privilegio de trabajar con ella y en los términos en que los galos quieran manejar el gran negociado.
La ley de prestaciones alimentarias fue rechazada por el Congreso fujimorista años atrás. En este gobierno sí fue aprobada. Uno de los más eficientes sustentadores de la misma fue Carlos Almerí, hoy en la cartera de Trabajo. Preguntado sobre su presunta relación con Sodexho, por Rosa María Palacios en su programa político diario, el parlamentario discurrió por una alquimia indescifrable de explicaciones. Haría bien el legiferante Almerí en aclarar su absoluto y terminante divorcio de cualquier tema relacionado con la exclusividad del negocio financiero explicado líneas antes y que podría reportar nubes negras a su carrera política. A menos que pretenda irse a gozar de largas vacaciones fuera del país. De repente a Europa y más precisamente a la Costa Azul.
Nada es casualidad o sucede porque sí. Hay una guerra en que algunos quieren, a troche y moche, impulsar un negocio financiero de cientos de millones de dólares, sufragado por el Estado, es decir por todos los peruanos, y para el goce exclusivo en coimas, dineros bajo la mesa y acciones sucias digitadas desde Washington donde reside un ex ministro profundamente vendepatria a quien David Waismann llamó traidor, para seguir estafando al pueblo peruano.
¿Oirán los parlamentarios tan ocupados en los trascendentes temas de su reelección? ¿apoyarán los negocios sanos –muy pocos es cierto- a que esto se corrija? ¿dirá algo la mínima prensa que denuncia y lo hace de frente y sin galanuras paliativas? ¿olvidarán quienes tienen el deber de señalar a los inmorales, sus cuitas particulares y egoístas?
¡Atentos a la historia; las tribunas aplauden lo que suena bien!
¡Ataquemos al poder; el gobierno lo tiene cualquiera!
¡Hay que romper el pacto infame y tácito de hablar a media voz!
Como los empresarios privados se han negado -¡cuándo no!- a cualquier referencia que orille un aumento por los costos ínsitos que estos tienen, de repente sí se asigna, libre de cualquier impuesto, un bono para el 1’800,000 de empleados públicos. Este plus tendría una característica especial y sospechosa: en papeles para la compra de víveres o toda clase de artículos en establecimientos afiliados a la cadena que tiene, en monopolio, una transnacional francesa o la recepción del dinero en efectivo.
La transnacional gala cuando hace propaganda de las ventajas que tiene la ley de prestaciones alimentarias omite, ¡sólo Dios sabe porqué razones! aclarar que es facultad del trabajador discernir si acepta los vales o escoge el contante y sonante. Primera falla. Hay una publicidad engañosa que realmente tima. De este modo, se induce al trabajador a usar papeles para comprar en algunas tiendas. En esta empresa foránea trabaja, desde hace varios años, desde que su padre era ministro de Energía y Minas, Martín Quijandría.
El negocio financiero que estaría por concretarse alude a que 1’800,000 trabajadores estatales podrían gozar de un aumento de algún porcentaje. El Estado tendría que pagar a esta transnacional monopólica francesa el íntegro de ese incremento cada mes para que los trabajadores reciban esos documentos o vales de consumo. Hay en camino fuertes presiones para ratificar la exclusividad del modus operandi de estos papelitos. En buen romance: si esos casi dos millones, consuman o no, usen o no, esos vales, es un tema personal de cada quien, pero el Estado sí tendría, por angas o por mangas, que avituallar, por adelantado, el monto correspondiente del aumento a la firma francesa ¡por el universo de ese 1’800,000 servidores. Y ésta, a su vez, podría escoger, borrar, decidir, a qué empresas o grupos de firmas les da el privilegio de trabajar con ella y en los términos en que los galos quieran manejar el gran negociado.
La ley de prestaciones alimentarias fue rechazada por el Congreso fujimorista años atrás. En este gobierno sí fue aprobada. Uno de los más eficientes sustentadores de la misma fue Carlos Almerí, hoy en la cartera de Trabajo. Preguntado sobre su presunta relación con Sodexho, por Rosa María Palacios en su programa político diario, el parlamentario discurrió por una alquimia indescifrable de explicaciones. Haría bien el legiferante Almerí en aclarar su absoluto y terminante divorcio de cualquier tema relacionado con la exclusividad del negocio financiero explicado líneas antes y que podría reportar nubes negras a su carrera política. A menos que pretenda irse a gozar de largas vacaciones fuera del país. De repente a Europa y más precisamente a la Costa Azul.
Nada es casualidad o sucede porque sí. Hay una guerra en que algunos quieren, a troche y moche, impulsar un negocio financiero de cientos de millones de dólares, sufragado por el Estado, es decir por todos los peruanos, y para el goce exclusivo en coimas, dineros bajo la mesa y acciones sucias digitadas desde Washington donde reside un ex ministro profundamente vendepatria a quien David Waismann llamó traidor, para seguir estafando al pueblo peruano.
¿Oirán los parlamentarios tan ocupados en los trascendentes temas de su reelección? ¿apoyarán los negocios sanos –muy pocos es cierto- a que esto se corrija? ¿dirá algo la mínima prensa que denuncia y lo hace de frente y sin galanuras paliativas? ¿olvidarán quienes tienen el deber de señalar a los inmorales, sus cuitas particulares y egoístas?
¡Atentos a la historia; las tribunas aplauden lo que suena bien!
¡Ataquemos al poder; el gobierno lo tiene cualquiera!
¡Hay que romper el pacto infame y tácito de hablar a media voz!
Cuando «Eye Spy» demuestra que la policía británica mata indiscriminadamente
La revista mensual anglosajona de «espionaje» Eye Spy, defensora de tesis que se pueden calificar como de extrema derecha, dedicó en su número de octubre de 2005 un espacio especial al asesinato de Jean-Charles de Menezes, ocurrido en el metro londinense el 22 de julio de 2005. Aunque no había mostrado el menor comportamiento sospechoso, el electricista de 27 años fue abatido a quemarropa por varios tiros en la cabeza por parte de agentes, cuyos nombres se han mantenido en secreto, cuando acababa de sentarse en un vagón. Después de haber montado, para justificar el error, un complicado guión en el que Menezes llevaba puesto un abrigo anormalmente grueso para aquella época del año y se había comportado de manera extraña, Scotland Yard se vio obligada a reconocer su propia culpa, aunque sin aclarar completamente los hechos ni castigar a los culpables.Eye Spy, que se jacta de contar con fuentes privilegiadas dentro de los servicios especiales de Su Majestad, se dio entonces a la tarea de revelar a sus lectores las circunstancias del drama. En un primer trabajo, el lector se entera de que el teléfono celular de Hussain Osman, uno de los supuestos autores de los atentados frustrados el 21 de julio, había sido rastreado desde Londres hasta Italia, donde Osman fue finalmente arrestado el 26 de julio gracias a los esfuerzos conjuntos de la NSA estadounidense (sic) y del GCHQ (servicios británicos).
La segunda parte, la que tiene que ver con Menezes, termina por revelarnos que, después de numerosas piruetas e imágenes de cámaras de vigilancia, Menezes fue confundido al parecer, según «fuentes extremadamente fiables», con Hussain Osman ya que su «apariencia y complexión son similares». El artículo prosigue afirmando que solamente al sentarse cerca de la víctima los servicios de vigilancia se dieron cuenta de que no se trataba de Osman, ¡pero fue demasiado tarde porque el otro grupo ya venía a matarlo! Además del método, que no parece molestar a Eye Spy, ¿cuántos hombres en el mismo barrio estuvieron aquel día en peligro de ser abatidos a quemarropa por policías incapaces de distinguir la diferencia entre un negro y un blanco?
¡USA echa al pajonal a sus lacayos: la triste tarea!
La IV Cumbre de las Américas en Mar del Plata concluyó con más pena que gloria para el imperio. El hijo de Mr. Bush, es decir, el Jr., abandonó la Cumbre (¿borrascosa?) por el portón trasero, no sin antes dejar las instrucciones a sus lacayos para oxigenar la fórmula hegemónica imperialista del ALCA.
En principio, la convocatoria a la Cumbre era para la creación de trabajo y así combatir la pobreza, el hambre, el fortalecimiento de las democracias en el Continente y proteger el medio ambiente. Pero como buenos tahúres, el imperio sacó su As, -pobre As por cierto- por medio de sus serviles lacayos quienes con denuedo y efervescencia colocaron sobre la mesa la discusión sobre el proyecto ALCA, qué, aunque no estando en Agenda apareció como centro de las discusiones, para ello, salieron las marionetas, orquestadas y entusiastas, adiestradas para la pantomima.
De los 34 países convocados (con la excepción de Cuba) sólo cinco iniciaron una muy importante alianza e impidieron la imposición que el país más poderoso de la tierra quiso someter bajo la mayor presión su fórmula avasalladora y hambreadora, objetando que no están dadas las condiciones para aceptar tales propuestas. Por todos es conocido que el imperio del norte está urgido de nuevos mercados ante la crisis que está sufriendo, con déficit en las balanzas fiscal y comercial y con un dólar que día a día va en caída libre así como las erogaciones billonarias que ha generado la invasión a Iraq, guerra que de seguir así, resultará ser más larga, triste y onerosa que la Guerra de los Cien Años o la Guerra de las Dos Rosas.
Finalmente y como siempre evocando las palabras del Genio de América quien decía “UNIDAD, UNIDAD, UNIDAD O LA ANARQUÍA NOS DEVORARÁ...”
En principio, la convocatoria a la Cumbre era para la creación de trabajo y así combatir la pobreza, el hambre, el fortalecimiento de las democracias en el Continente y proteger el medio ambiente. Pero como buenos tahúres, el imperio sacó su As, -pobre As por cierto- por medio de sus serviles lacayos quienes con denuedo y efervescencia colocaron sobre la mesa la discusión sobre el proyecto ALCA, qué, aunque no estando en Agenda apareció como centro de las discusiones, para ello, salieron las marionetas, orquestadas y entusiastas, adiestradas para la pantomima.
De los 34 países convocados (con la excepción de Cuba) sólo cinco iniciaron una muy importante alianza e impidieron la imposición que el país más poderoso de la tierra quiso someter bajo la mayor presión su fórmula avasalladora y hambreadora, objetando que no están dadas las condiciones para aceptar tales propuestas. Por todos es conocido que el imperio del norte está urgido de nuevos mercados ante la crisis que está sufriendo, con déficit en las balanzas fiscal y comercial y con un dólar que día a día va en caída libre así como las erogaciones billonarias que ha generado la invasión a Iraq, guerra que de seguir así, resultará ser más larga, triste y onerosa que la Guerra de los Cien Años o la Guerra de las Dos Rosas.
Finalmente y como siempre evocando las palabras del Genio de América quien decía “UNIDAD, UNIDAD, UNIDAD O LA ANARQUÍA NOS DEVORARÁ...”
¡HUGO PARA TODOS Y TODOS PARA HUGO!
¡LA BARRICADA SÓLO TIENE DOS LADOS.!
¡LA BARRICADA SÓLO TIENE DOS LADOS.!
A Cúpula dos Povos e a outra América possível
A IV Cúpula dos Presidentes da América, ocorrida nos dias 4 e 5 de novembro de 2005, havia sido programada para consolidar, e festejar, uma Área de Livre Comércio das Américas (ALCA), programada para começar neste mesmo ano. Era para ser a consagração do domínio do grande capital e de sua representação imperial sobre todo o hemisfério. Os EUA exibindo ao mundo os benefícios diretos da expansão de seu poder econômico e militar. Prosperidade e segurança na América como condição e promessa para um mundo sob os mesmos parâmetros. A periferia dos EUA como se fosse uma grande China, só que domesticada em seu próprio quintal. Enormes estoques de mão-de-obra barata, cinturões especializados em commodities, incalculáveis recursos naturais à disposição, mercados consumidores maleáveis e mimetizadores, institucionalidades coerentes com os interesses e as dinâmicas dos conglomerados transnacionais. A América Latina inteira esquadrinhada e reterritorializada pelo capital como o novo "american dream".
A Cúpula presidencial pretendia instaurar as reformas de mercado de segunda e de terceira geração: ajustes fiscais estruturais, marcos regulatórios estritamente privatistas, planejamento de uma infra-estrutura especializante e desarticuladora, e financiamentos ainda mais condicionais. Trata-se de uma liberalização coordenada que objetiva aprofundar nossas diferenças e depois engessá-las através de mediações sociais e ambientais, criminalizando-se o que ficar "alheio" a tais "consensos". Uma vitrine particular de um capitalismo com padrões superiores de eficiência econômica e estabilidade sócio-política.
Mas faltou combinar com esse lado de cá, onde sempre sobraram mãos desatadas e pedras na direção certa. Séculos de humilhação colonial, de genocídios e de etnocídios, ainda assim nos recriamos na resistência. Décadas de Ditaduras Militares, rios de sangue depois; e nos apresentamos de novo redivivos. Vieram as democracias, fragmentadoras e mistificadoras, e vacinados continuamos. Configuraram-se "pactos sociais" com setores egressos da esquerda para reciclar a dominação neoliberal; e não nos dobramos. A III Cúpula dos Povos, na mesma Mar Del Plata, entre 1 e 5 de novembro serviu para lembrar-lhes de tudo isso, e também para nos colocar em marcha.
A Cúpula presidencial pretendia instaurar as reformas de mercado de segunda e de terceira geração: ajustes fiscais estruturais, marcos regulatórios estritamente privatistas, planejamento de uma infra-estrutura especializante e desarticuladora, e financiamentos ainda mais condicionais. Trata-se de uma liberalização coordenada que objetiva aprofundar nossas diferenças e depois engessá-las através de mediações sociais e ambientais, criminalizando-se o que ficar "alheio" a tais "consensos". Uma vitrine particular de um capitalismo com padrões superiores de eficiência econômica e estabilidade sócio-política.
Mas faltou combinar com esse lado de cá, onde sempre sobraram mãos desatadas e pedras na direção certa. Séculos de humilhação colonial, de genocídios e de etnocídios, ainda assim nos recriamos na resistência. Décadas de Ditaduras Militares, rios de sangue depois; e nos apresentamos de novo redivivos. Vieram as democracias, fragmentadoras e mistificadoras, e vacinados continuamos. Configuraram-se "pactos sociais" com setores egressos da esquerda para reciclar a dominação neoliberal; e não nos dobramos. A III Cúpula dos Povos, na mesma Mar Del Plata, entre 1 e 5 de novembro serviu para lembrar-lhes de tudo isso, e também para nos colocar em marcha.
Our Mothers (and Thomas Paine) Warned Us about People like the Disciples of Strauss
How much more will the American people endure?
229 Years Later Have Passed and True Freedom Still Eludes Most of Us
In support of the brave and intelligent citizens of Vermont who recently passed a resolution to secede from the union, I decided to update and modify our Declaration of Independence to fit the circumstances we are facing in 2005. Despite the numerous distinctions between then and now, in some significant ways, little has changed. Like our Founding Fathers, I enumerated grievances of the Oppressed in my version of the Declaration, and many are similar to those spelled out in the original version drafted in 1776. Even the name of the lead Oppressor remains the same.
"Find out just what people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."---Frederick Douglass, African-American slave, and abolitionist
229 Years Later Have Passed and True Freedom Still Eludes Most of Us
In support of the brave and intelligent citizens of Vermont who recently passed a resolution to secede from the union, I decided to update and modify our Declaration of Independence to fit the circumstances we are facing in 2005. Despite the numerous distinctions between then and now, in some significant ways, little has changed. Like our Founding Fathers, I enumerated grievances of the Oppressed in my version of the Declaration, and many are similar to those spelled out in the original version drafted in 1776. Even the name of the lead Oppressor remains the same.
Chavez defends Argentina's Kirchner and gives Mexico's Fox a piece of his mind
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has come out in defense of Argentinean President Nestor Kirchner in the latter's runnin g conflict with Mexican President Vicente Fox.
Speaking on a national TV link-up, Chavez Frias says there was a nice battle at the Summit of the Americas surrounding the Free Trade for the Americas Agreement (FTAA) but Fox's attitude caused him sadness.
The Mexican President left the Summit of the Americas bleeding from the defeat inflicted, Chavez Frias states, and the Venezuelan President has promised to air on TV videos of the speeches of each President.
"It's sad to see President Fox's submission, really sad, sad that a President of a People, such as the Mexican People allows himself to become the Empire's cub."
The Mexican President has said a lot of things against Kirchner and himself, Chavez Frias quips, and they must be answered here in Caracas ... "you have caused me sadness, President Fox and Viva Mexico!"
Speaking on a national TV link-up, Chavez Frias says there was a nice battle at the Summit of the Americas surrounding the Free Trade for the Americas Agreement (FTAA) but Fox's attitude caused him sadness.
The Mexican President left the Summit of the Americas bleeding from the defeat inflicted, Chavez Frias states, and the Venezuelan President has promised to air on TV videos of the speeches of each President.
"It's sad to see President Fox's submission, really sad, sad that a President of a People, such as the Mexican People allows himself to become the Empire's cub."
The Mexican President has said a lot of things against Kirchner and himself, Chavez Frias quips, and they must be answered here in Caracas ... "you have caused me sadness, President Fox and Viva Mexico!"
In Brazil Source of Story on Campaign Money from Cuba Recants and Market Goes Up
Helping to ease worries about an ongoing campaign finance scandal, Vladimir Poleto, a former aide to Finance Minister Antonio Palocci, gave a statement to a congressional investigative committee denying the Workers' Party (PT) accepted money from Cuba's government to finance its election campaigns.
Brazilian newsmagazine Veja had previously reported that the PT in São Paulo received US$ 3 million from Cuba. Poleto said the story was invented by the magazine and that he was drunk when he talked to the magazine's reporter.
Brazilian newsmagazine Veja had previously reported that the PT in São Paulo received US$ 3 million from Cuba. Poleto said the story was invented by the magazine and that he was drunk when he talked to the magazine's reporter.
FUBAR - GOP memo touts new terror attack as way to reverse party's decline
A confidential memo circulating among senior Republican leaders suggests that a new attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as the GOP and "restore his image as a leader of the American people."
The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring the Republican party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could “validate” the President’s war on terror and allow Bush to “unite the country” in a “time of national shock and sorrow.”
The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.
The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring the Republican party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could “validate” the President’s war on terror and allow Bush to “unite the country” in a “time of national shock and sorrow.”
The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.
More bad news for the neo-cons
Nov. 11, 2005 -- UPDATE: More bad news for the neo-cons. Israel's Labor Party, in a surprise development, has chucked out octogenarian Shimon Peres as its leader and chosen Histadrut labor union leader Amir Peretz to replace him. Peretz's first action will be to leave Ariel Sharon's Likud government, a coalition deal worked out by Peres. Peretz is a strong opponent of Israeli neo-con favorite Binyamin Netanyahu. If Peretz, a native of Morocco, becomes Prime Minister, look for a scaling back and government and media investigation of Israeli special operations in other countries that may be linked to false flag terrorist attacks.
Europe is burning (UPDATE)
Update: In a mirror image of what is happening in France, Belgium's government is coming in for attacks from far right anti-immigration parties as arson attacks against cars spread to Mechelen and Ledeberg. In addition, there were more reports of arson attacks in Brussels, Antwerp, and Lokeren. Interior Minister Patrick Dewael, unlike French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, has confronted the violence with stepped up police patrols but no vitriolic statements aimed at the youth. But Dewael admitted that in Belgium, as in France, there were signs that the attacks were coordinated and were being stirred up via the Internet. Also, for the first time, arson attacks were reported in another anti-Iraq war nation, Portugal and in other cities in Germany. Cars were torched in Lisbon and there were arson attacks in a number of districts in Berlin, as well as in Cologne, Altenburg, and Chemnitz. In Portugal, the violence did not involve Arabs or Muslims, but immigrants from former Portuguese colonies in Africa. Also, arson attacks in France neared the Swiss border for the first time. Buses were fire bombed in Dole in eastern Jura, very close to the Swiss canton of the same name -- Jura.
UPDATE Nov. 11, 2005 --- A source has pointed out that Chemnitz and Altenburg are in eastern Germany and are virtually free of foreigners. The "streets" in both towns are under the control of neo-Nazi gangs so it is likely the arson attacks in both cities have been carried out by provocateurs -- either Nazis acting on their own or working for "outside interests." The largest neo-Nazi party in Germany, the National Democratic Party (NPD), has links to Islamist radical and "anarchist" groups.
UPDATE Nov. 11, 2005 --- A source has pointed out that Chemnitz and Altenburg are in eastern Germany and are virtually free of foreigners. The "streets" in both towns are under the control of neo-Nazi gangs so it is likely the arson attacks in both cities have been carried out by provocateurs -- either Nazis acting on their own or working for "outside interests." The largest neo-Nazi party in Germany, the National Democratic Party (NPD), has links to Islamist radical and "anarchist" groups.
Their Terrorism, and Ours - Napalm is back in style
The War Party is going bonkers, these days – maybe it's the indictment of Scooter Libby. Or the way the war itself is going – badly. In any case, the war's proponents seem to be in a downward spiral of what can only be described as utter craziness. Why else would this administration – or, at least, the office of the vice president – be openly pushing to exempt the CIA from U.S. laws against torture?
America, from the "shining city on a hill" to the dark dungeon of sadistic torturers. What a comedown! Abu Ghraib, we were told, was an "aberration." Now they want to make it a policy. How low can we go?
We're supposed to be spreading "democracy" and "freedom" throughout the Middle East, according to this administration and its Washington amen corner, but how is human liberty advanced by frying Iraqi civilians with incendiary phosphorous bombs [video]?
If that isn't a war crime, then nothing is.
America, from the "shining city on a hill" to the dark dungeon of sadistic torturers. What a comedown! Abu Ghraib, we were told, was an "aberration." Now they want to make it a policy. How low can we go?
We're supposed to be spreading "democracy" and "freedom" throughout the Middle East, according to this administration and its Washington amen corner, but how is human liberty advanced by frying Iraqi civilians with incendiary phosphorous bombs [video]?
If that isn't a war crime, then nothing is.
More chipping away at the lie (war) machine
MSNBC is busy at work unearthing the Bush administration's lies.
Should we expect some kind of massive terrorist attack somewhere in the world to boost Bush's poll ratings?
I don't know.
Capitol Hill Blue seems to think so.
A New Yorker friend of mine mentioned how the Jordan bombings stripped the headlines of the GOP losses at the elections.
Two years ago this friend refused to believe in conspiracies or anything of the like. Yesterday she asked me if I thought there was a relationship of convenience between the Bush administration and Al Qaida.
Well, could one really exist without the other?
AS I write this the BBC is showing a special called the Iraq Factor - the spreading of terrorism in the Middle East because of the invasion of Iraq.
It was 9/11 that made Bush popular. His ratings were in hell before that. They soared after that. Soared again when he took on the big bad monster Iraq.
And it got him re-elected.
Terrorism. And fear. That's the necessary ingredient for a president that smiles incessantly for the cameras as bodies float down the bayou.
And that's how a first lady stays popular when she can't even remember the name of the hurricane that devastated so many of her countryfolk.
So, it is not entirely far-fetched.
As NEWSWEEK first reported last July, al-Libi has since recanted those claims. The new CIA document states the agency "recalled and reissued" all its intelligence reporting about al-Libi's "recanted" claims about chemical and biological warfare training by Saddam’s regime in February 2004--an important retreat on pre-Iraq war intelligence that has never been publicly acknowledged by the White House. The withdrawal also was not mentioned in last year’s public report by the presidential inquiry commission headed by Judge Laurence Silberman and former Sen. Charles Robb which reviewed alleged Iraq intelligence failures.It's getting kind of hot for the Bush war camp.
Should we expect some kind of massive terrorist attack somewhere in the world to boost Bush's poll ratings?
I don't know.
Capitol Hill Blue seems to think so.
A New Yorker friend of mine mentioned how the Jordan bombings stripped the headlines of the GOP losses at the elections.
Two years ago this friend refused to believe in conspiracies or anything of the like. Yesterday she asked me if I thought there was a relationship of convenience between the Bush administration and Al Qaida.
Well, could one really exist without the other?
AS I write this the BBC is showing a special called the Iraq Factor - the spreading of terrorism in the Middle East because of the invasion of Iraq.
It was 9/11 that made Bush popular. His ratings were in hell before that. They soared after that. Soared again when he took on the big bad monster Iraq.
And it got him re-elected.
Terrorism. And fear. That's the necessary ingredient for a president that smiles incessantly for the cameras as bodies float down the bayou.
And that's how a first lady stays popular when she can't even remember the name of the hurricane that devastated so many of her countryfolk.
So, it is not entirely far-fetched.
Hey LA Times! Over here! Yoo hoo!
The Los Angeles Times has dropped liberal columnist Robert Scheer, who is no radical but was evidently too much so for the Times. Attempting a bit of humor, evidently, the editorial page editor said "The opinion pages are the newspaper's town square. Our readers expect us to publish all points of view and the broadest range of opinion." Of course, his idea of the "range of opinion" ranges from mildly liberal to completely reactionary. Evidently even real liberals are now beyond the pale. Don't look for the opinions of Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn or Norman Solomon or (with all due humility) myself inside that "range."
Update: Scheer's straight-to-the-point response.
Scheer responds
In an email to friends and supporters, soon-to-be-ex Times columnist Robert Scheer blames Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson for his ouster from the op-ed page:
Anytime you're ready for my daily, weekly, or even monthly column, Los Angeles Times, just let me know. I'm used to working cheap; that ought to appeal to you.
Second update: My letter to the Times:
I was surprised to read Andres Martinez' claim that your editorial pages feature "all points of view and the broadest range of opinion" in the news section of the paper, rather than on the funny pages where it belongs. Like most American media, the real range of opinion featured on your pages ranges from mildly liberal to extremely right-wing. Real left-wing voices, like Norman Solomon or Noam Chomsky, aren't even remotely in your spectrum, and now, apparently, even just regular liberal voices like Robert Scheer's aren't welcome.
I've been writing a blog of news and analysis from a left-wing perspective on a daily basis for more than two years now, and, as an unpaid blogger, you can guess I'm willing to work cheap. As an active member of the antiwar movement, and as someone who believes American troops should be withdrawn from Iraq now (by which I mean this week, not the end of next year), I represent the sentiment of a substantial portion of the American public, yet, strangely, one which is totally absent from your editorial pages. Surely my point of view must be one of those "all" you talk about featuring.
As far as my writing talent, you can judge that for yourself -- all two year's plus of my writing is available on my blog, Left I on the News (http://lefti.blogspot.com).
I'll await your call.
Update: Scheer's straight-to-the-point response.
Scheer responds
In an email to friends and supporters, soon-to-be-ex Times columnist Robert Scheer blames Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson for his ouster from the op-ed page:
On Friday I was fired as a columnist by the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, where I have worked for thirty years. The publisher Jeff Johnson, who has offered not a word of explanation to me, has privately told people that he hated every word that I wrote. I assume that mostly refers to my exposing the lies used by President Bush to justify the invasion of Iraq. Fortunately sixty percent of Americans now get the point but only after tens of thousand of Americans and Iraqis have been killed and maimed as the carnage spirals out of control. My only regret is that my pen was not sharper and my words tougher.
Posted November 11, 2005 08:22 AM
Anytime you're ready for my daily, weekly, or even monthly column, Los Angeles Times, just let me know. I'm used to working cheap; that ought to appeal to you.
Second update: My letter to the Times:
I was surprised to read Andres Martinez' claim that your editorial pages feature "all points of view and the broadest range of opinion" in the news section of the paper, rather than on the funny pages where it belongs. Like most American media, the real range of opinion featured on your pages ranges from mildly liberal to extremely right-wing. Real left-wing voices, like Norman Solomon or Noam Chomsky, aren't even remotely in your spectrum, and now, apparently, even just regular liberal voices like Robert Scheer's aren't welcome.
I've been writing a blog of news and analysis from a left-wing perspective on a daily basis for more than two years now, and, as an unpaid blogger, you can guess I'm willing to work cheap. As an active member of the antiwar movement, and as someone who believes American troops should be withdrawn from Iraq now (by which I mean this week, not the end of next year), I represent the sentiment of a substantial portion of the American public, yet, strangely, one which is totally absent from your editorial pages. Surely my point of view must be one of those "all" you talk about featuring.
As far as my writing talent, you can judge that for yourself -- all two year's plus of my writing is available on my blog, Left I on the News (http://lefti.blogspot.com).
I'll await your call.
CIA and FBI Plan to Assassinate Hugo Chávez
"How do we know that the CIA was behind the coup that overthrew Hugo Chávez?" asked historian William Blum in 2002. "Same way we know that the sun will rise tomorrow morning. That's what it's always done and there's no reason to think that tomorrow morning will be any different."
Now we have a bit more evidence the CIA and the FBI connived with reactionary elements to not only briefly overthrow Chávez, abolish the constitution and the National Assembly, but later assassinate the Venezuelan State Prosecutor, Danilo Anderson. He was killed by a car bomb in Caracas on November 18, 2004, while investigating those who were behind the coup. Giovani Jose Vasquez De Armas, a member of Colombia's right wing paramilitary group called the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, claims he was in charge of logistics for the plot to kill Danilo Anderson. Vasquez De Armas told the Attorney General's office that those planning the killing, "all discussed the plan with the help of the FBI and CIA."
And the sun will rise tomorrow.
As Blum notes, we know all of this is happening, same as we know the sun will come up tomorrow.
Now we have a bit more evidence the CIA and the FBI connived with reactionary elements to not only briefly overthrow Chávez, abolish the constitution and the National Assembly, but later assassinate the Venezuelan State Prosecutor, Danilo Anderson. He was killed by a car bomb in Caracas on November 18, 2004, while investigating those who were behind the coup. Giovani Jose Vasquez De Armas, a member of Colombia's right wing paramilitary group called the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, claims he was in charge of logistics for the plot to kill Danilo Anderson. Vasquez De Armas told the Attorney General's office that those planning the killing, "all discussed the plan with the help of the FBI and CIA."
And the sun will rise tomorrow.
--------------------------------
Hugo Chávez is now between the assassination point of this neolib plan and invasion, when "our young men and women" will be "sent in to die and kill" Venezuelan peasants the same way they are now killing poor Iraqis. Of course, it remains to be seen if Bush can actually invade Venezuela--the neocon roster is teeming with targets, from Syria to Iran--and so we can expect the Bushcons and their jackals to continue efforts to assassinate Chávez, as Giovani Jose Vasquez De Armas reveals the CIA and the FBI are attempting to do, with little success. One notable failure by the jackals is Fidel Castro in Cuba, who experienced numerous assassination attempts and CIA counterinsurgency specialist Edward Lansdale's Operation Mongoose (consisting of sabotage and political warfare), also known as the "Cuba Project."As Blum notes, we know all of this is happening, same as we know the sun will come up tomorrow.
First the Lying, Then the Pardons? - Fitzgerald Should Counter Any Pre-trial Talk of a Pardon for Libby with an Obstruction of Justice Charge
When he announced the indictment of Scooter Libby, vice president Cheney's chief of staff, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald included a homily on the importance of truth. And in truth it sounded a bit quaint, like someone trying to recite the Sermon on the Mount on the floor of the New York stock exchange. But of course Fitzgerald was right. When lying becomes the accepted currency, you haven't got the rule of law but a criminal conspiracy.
All governments lie, but Reagan and his crew truly raised the bar. From about 1978 on, when the drive to put Reagan in the White House gathered speed, lying was the standard mode for Reagan, his handlers and a press quite happy to retail all the bilge, from the Soviet Union's supposed military superiority to the millionaire welfare queens on the South Side of Chicago.
The press went along with it. Year after year, on the campaign trail and then in the White House, the press corps reported Reagan's news conferences without remarking that the commander in chief dwelt mostly in a twilit world of comic-book fables and old movie clips. They were still maintaining this fiction even when Reagan's staff was discussing whether to invoke the 25th amendment and have the old dotard hauled off to the nursing home.
Lying about Reagan's frail grip on reality was only part of the journalistic surrender. For those who see Judith Miller's complicity in the lying sprees of the Neocons as a signal of the decline of the New York Times from some previous plateau of objectivity and competence I suggest a review of its sometime defense correspondent Richard Burt in the late Carter years, as Al Haig's agent in place. Burt relayed truckloads of threat-inflating nonsense about the military balance in the Cold War, particularly in the European theater, most of them on a level of fantasy matching the lies Miller got from Chalabi's disinformers and trundled in print.
All governments lie, but Reagan and his crew truly raised the bar. From about 1978 on, when the drive to put Reagan in the White House gathered speed, lying was the standard mode for Reagan, his handlers and a press quite happy to retail all the bilge, from the Soviet Union's supposed military superiority to the millionaire welfare queens on the South Side of Chicago.
The press went along with it. Year after year, on the campaign trail and then in the White House, the press corps reported Reagan's news conferences without remarking that the commander in chief dwelt mostly in a twilit world of comic-book fables and old movie clips. They were still maintaining this fiction even when Reagan's staff was discussing whether to invoke the 25th amendment and have the old dotard hauled off to the nursing home.
Lying about Reagan's frail grip on reality was only part of the journalistic surrender. For those who see Judith Miller's complicity in the lying sprees of the Neocons as a signal of the decline of the New York Times from some previous plateau of objectivity and competence I suggest a review of its sometime defense correspondent Richard Burt in the late Carter years, as Al Haig's agent in place. Burt relayed truckloads of threat-inflating nonsense about the military balance in the Cold War, particularly in the European theater, most of them on a level of fantasy matching the lies Miller got from Chalabi's disinformers and trundled in print.
Some kind of manly - Bush administration, dead to morality, says torture is the American way
Torture does not work. It is not productive. It does not yield important, timely information. That is in the movies. This is reality.
I grew up with all this pathetic Texas tough: Everybody here knows you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs; and this ain't beanbag; and I'll knock your jaw so far back, you'll scratch your throat with your front teeth; and I'm gonna cloud up and rain all over you; and I'm gonna open me a can of whup-ass ...
And that'll show 'em, won't it? Take some miserable human being alone and helpless in a cell, completely under your control, and torture him. Boy, that is some kind of manly, ain't it?
"The CIA is holding an unknown number of prisoners in secret detention centers abroad. In violation of the Geneva Conventions, it has refused to register those detainees with the International Red Cross or to allow visits by its inspectors. Its prisoners have 'disappeared,' like the victims of some dictatorships." -- The Washington Post.
Why did we bother to beat the Soviet Union if we were just going to become it? Shame. Shame. Shame.
I grew up with all this pathetic Texas tough: Everybody here knows you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs; and this ain't beanbag; and I'll knock your jaw so far back, you'll scratch your throat with your front teeth; and I'm gonna cloud up and rain all over you; and I'm gonna open me a can of whup-ass ...
And that'll show 'em, won't it? Take some miserable human being alone and helpless in a cell, completely under your control, and torture him. Boy, that is some kind of manly, ain't it?
"The CIA is holding an unknown number of prisoners in secret detention centers abroad. In violation of the Geneva Conventions, it has refused to register those detainees with the International Red Cross or to allow visits by its inspectors. Its prisoners have 'disappeared,' like the victims of some dictatorships." -- The Washington Post.
Why did we bother to beat the Soviet Union if we were just going to become it? Shame. Shame. Shame.
Scott McClellan is the trained parrot on pirate Bush's shoulder.
Presidential press secretary Scott McClellan says he can be trusted. But I don't think he should take a poll in the White House press room on that claim. He might lose.
McClellan has lived up to his self-described role as an "advocate" for President Bush.
It's only recently that he admits to wearing another hat -- one that is obligatory, as he put it -- that requires him "to make sure the American people are getting an accurate account of what is going on here in Washington." That will be the day.
Unfortunately, the record shows otherwise. McClellan might be forgiven for declaring from the White House lectern two years ago that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove had told him that they were not involved in leaking to the media that war critic Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA.
As it turns out, both men were involved in one way or another in getting that information out. Libby was indicted on several charges including perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the federal investigation of the Plame leak case. Rove is under investigation.
McClellan is not about to finger his colleagues by accusing them of misleading him. But he has a lot more to answer for -- especially in carrying out the administration's battle plan of pumping up the case for war with Iraq with fibs. The most blatant among the falsehoods has been the constant attempt to link the 9/11 attacks to Saddam Hussein, even after the president conceded that there was no connection.
McClellan has lived up to his self-described role as an "advocate" for President Bush.
It's only recently that he admits to wearing another hat -- one that is obligatory, as he put it -- that requires him "to make sure the American people are getting an accurate account of what is going on here in Washington." That will be the day.
Unfortunately, the record shows otherwise. McClellan might be forgiven for declaring from the White House lectern two years ago that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby and deputy chief of staff Karl Rove had told him that they were not involved in leaking to the media that war critic Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA.
As it turns out, both men were involved in one way or another in getting that information out. Libby was indicted on several charges including perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the federal investigation of the Plame leak case. Rove is under investigation.
McClellan is not about to finger his colleagues by accusing them of misleading him. But he has a lot more to answer for -- especially in carrying out the administration's battle plan of pumping up the case for war with Iraq with fibs. The most blatant among the falsehoods has been the constant attempt to link the 9/11 attacks to Saddam Hussein, even after the president conceded that there was no connection.
Pwogwessive Democrats of America
"There is no difference, the Republicans will stab you in the stomach, and the Democrats will stab you in the back."This what a Chinese diplomat once told me (in 1971)regarding the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans. - Macu
I know I'll be taken to task for this, but I am going to repost something from Lou Proyect that summarizes quite nicely my objections to the not-quite-dead-yet Tom Hayden/PDA et al “alternative exit strategy” for the US in Iraq, and the whole political project behind it, which is about saving the Democratic Party. I have always acknowledged the difference between Democrats and the Democratic Party (leadership), and even argued for dialectical flexibility in many cases. But when Kerry took the war off the table in 2004 as an electoral issue, that was the last straw of proof I needed to see the necessity of burying this obscene institution once and for all, as the most significant obstacle to progress in the US today. As US society becomes more polarized with the evolution of multiple social crises and soical mobilizations, the last thing we need is to have an anchor tied to our asses by these right-opportunists in the DP — which is exactly what the PDA wants to resurrect! The fact that they would dither around with "alternative" exit strategies from Iraq, that are not exits at all but proposals to continue the occupation, while people continue to die, says all I ever need to know about PDA. Those of us with something at stake there cannot afford this kind of white middle-class diletentism.
The President, the dictator and a $9m demand for Oval Office chat
More trouble swirled around the disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff yesterday, after reports that he sought $9m from the leader of the west African country of Gabon to organise a White House meeting with President George Bush.
The episode was revealed in documents released by a senate committee investigating other dubious dealings of the scandal-battered Mr Abramoff, most vividly a personal letter from the lobbyist to President Omar Bongo, dated 28 July 2003. Mr Abramoff informed the Gabonese leader that his lobbying firm had already been approached by "a neighbouring nation" which had offered money to launch a major lobbying effort in Washington, its centrepiece a meeting with Mr Bush.
But Mr Abramoff wrote that he had been assured that Gabon still wanted to use the services of his firm, and would match its neighbour's offer.
The documents, obtained by leading US newspapers, show that the lobbyist drew up a draft contract for Gabon to pay $9m to the privilege.
The episode was revealed in documents released by a senate committee investigating other dubious dealings of the scandal-battered Mr Abramoff, most vividly a personal letter from the lobbyist to President Omar Bongo, dated 28 July 2003. Mr Abramoff informed the Gabonese leader that his lobbying firm had already been approached by "a neighbouring nation" which had offered money to launch a major lobbying effort in Washington, its centrepiece a meeting with Mr Bush.
But Mr Abramoff wrote that he had been assured that Gabon still wanted to use the services of his firm, and would match its neighbour's offer.
The documents, obtained by leading US newspapers, show that the lobbyist drew up a draft contract for Gabon to pay $9m to the privilege.
The United States invades, bombs, and kills for it, but do Americans really believe in free enterprise? by William Blum
Since the end of the cold war, prominent American economists and financial specialists have been advising the governments of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union on the creation and virtues of a free-enterprise system.
The US-government-financed National Endowment for Democracy is busy doing the same on a daily basis in numerous corners of the world.
The US-controlled World Bank and International Monetary Fund will not bestow their financial blessings upon any country that does not aggressively pursue a market economy.
The United States refuses to remove its embargo and end all its other punishments of Cuba unless the Cubans terminate their socialist experiment and jump on the capitalist bandwagon.
Before Washington would sanction and make possible his return to Haiti in 1994, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had to guarantee the White House that he would shed his socialist inclinations and embrace the free market.
It would, consequently, come as a shock to the peoples of many countries to realize that, in actuality, most Americans do not believe in the free-enterprise system. It would, as well, come as a shock to most Americans.
To be sure, a poll asking something like: "Do you believe that our capitalist system should become more socialist?" would be met with a resounding "No!"
But, going above and beyond the buzz words, is that how Americans really feel?
The US-government-financed National Endowment for Democracy is busy doing the same on a daily basis in numerous corners of the world.
The US-controlled World Bank and International Monetary Fund will not bestow their financial blessings upon any country that does not aggressively pursue a market economy.
The United States refuses to remove its embargo and end all its other punishments of Cuba unless the Cubans terminate their socialist experiment and jump on the capitalist bandwagon.
Before Washington would sanction and make possible his return to Haiti in 1994, Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had to guarantee the White House that he would shed his socialist inclinations and embrace the free market.
It would, consequently, come as a shock to the peoples of many countries to realize that, in actuality, most Americans do not believe in the free-enterprise system. It would, as well, come as a shock to most Americans.
To be sure, a poll asking something like: "Do you believe that our capitalist system should become more socialist?" would be met with a resounding "No!"
But, going above and beyond the buzz words, is that how Americans really feel?
KENNEDY STATEMENT ON THE ADMINISTRATION'S LIES THAT LED TO WAR
Earlier this week, several of our Republican colleagues came to the Senate floor and attempted to blame individual Democratic Senators for their errors in judgment about the war in Iraq.
It was little more than a devious attempt to obscure the facts and take the focus off the real reason we went to war in Iraq. 150,000 American troops are bogged down in a quagmire in Iraq because the Bush Administration misrepresented and distorted the intelligence to justify a war that America never should have fought.
As we know all too well, Iraq was not an imminent threat. It had no nuclear weapons. It had no persuasive links to Al Qaeda, no connection to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
But the President wrongly and repeatedly insisted that it was too dangerous to ignore the weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein, and his ties to Al Qaeda.
In his march to war, President Bush exaggerated the threat to the American people. It was not subtle. It was not nuanced. It was pure, unadulterated fear-mongering, based on a devious strategy to convince the American people that Saddam's ability to provide nuclear weapons to Al Qaeda justified immediate war.
It was little more than a devious attempt to obscure the facts and take the focus off the real reason we went to war in Iraq. 150,000 American troops are bogged down in a quagmire in Iraq because the Bush Administration misrepresented and distorted the intelligence to justify a war that America never should have fought.
As we know all too well, Iraq was not an imminent threat. It had no nuclear weapons. It had no persuasive links to Al Qaeda, no connection to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
But the President wrongly and repeatedly insisted that it was too dangerous to ignore the weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein, and his ties to Al Qaeda.
In his march to war, President Bush exaggerated the threat to the American people. It was not subtle. It was not nuanced. It was pure, unadulterated fear-mongering, based on a devious strategy to convince the American people that Saddam's ability to provide nuclear weapons to Al Qaeda justified immediate war.
Mexico fails to profit from Nafta deal
The idea was to have a free trade area stretching from Alaska to the South Pole - but could it ever happen?
Just this week passions in the Americas have spilled over into anger about whether free trade benefits the poorest at all?
It has been 12 years since Mexico joined the United States and Canada to create a huge single market for goods and services.
Some want to go further than the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) while others want to dig its grave.
Was Saddam Right? Are Americans the New Mongols of the Mideast? (UPDATE!)
Update: A November 8, 2005 Washington Post article by Guy Gugliotta reported that thousands of stolen artifacts in Iraq are still missing. Only 5,500 of 14,000 relics have been recovered according to a clearly frustrated Marine Corps Colonel Matthew Bogdanos. The most famous artifacts remain missing and there are fears that they have ended up in the international black market for stolen artwork and antiquities -- a black market controlled by the Russian-Ukrainian-Israeli Mafia (RUIM), a criminal syndicate with ties deep into the White House and Pentagon. Only fifteen of 40 notable relics from the National Museum have been recovered. The recovered items include Sumerian, Akkadian, and Assyrian relics. The missing items include the Sumerian black statue of Eannatum, the prince of Lagash; a gold and ivory plaque of a lion attacking a Nubian; and the copper bust of the Goddess of Victory. Bogdanos said that 8000 small artifacts were stolen from the locked basement of the National Museum in what the colonel described as an "inside job." No wonder Donald Rumsfeld said during the looting, "freedom's untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things." Yes, free to commit crimes especially if they have a wink and a nod from a cabal in the Pentagon and Vice President's office that has close links with the RUIM.
It is suspicious that the neo-cons, shortly after reports of museum looting in Iraq were aired around the world, claimed that most of the artifacts had been recovered. That was a lie and a very suspicious cover-up of the facts. Although the Post article claims that the stolen artifacts may eventually wind up in London, Tokyo, or New York through dealers in the Persian Gulf, no mention is made of Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Bangkok -- the same cities involved with blood diamond smuggling out of Africa and the same network of cities that would be involved in relic smuggling out of Iraq. Bogdanos told the Post that of the most valued artifacts, "you're never going to see these in a gallery . . . no art dealer would ever touch them, because they're just too well known. We're talking about a black market. These pieces will never see the light of day."
The Post also reports that archeological sites outside of Baghdad are being systematically looted to this day. "Before and after" satellite photos of the sites point out holes denser than Swiss cheese. Bogdanos lamented that at least Saddam had looters of Iraqi archeological sites shot. Bogdanos, a Manhattan prosecutor, is writing a book, The Thieves of Baghdad, about the looting. Bogdanos may or may not be aware that he will soon join the ranks of other whistleblowers and be on the receiving end of the wrath of the neo-cons that run the White House, State Department, and Pentagon.
READ FULL ARTICLE
It is suspicious that the neo-cons, shortly after reports of museum looting in Iraq were aired around the world, claimed that most of the artifacts had been recovered. That was a lie and a very suspicious cover-up of the facts. Although the Post article claims that the stolen artifacts may eventually wind up in London, Tokyo, or New York through dealers in the Persian Gulf, no mention is made of Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Bangkok -- the same cities involved with blood diamond smuggling out of Africa and the same network of cities that would be involved in relic smuggling out of Iraq. Bogdanos told the Post that of the most valued artifacts, "you're never going to see these in a gallery . . . no art dealer would ever touch them, because they're just too well known. We're talking about a black market. These pieces will never see the light of day."
The Post also reports that archeological sites outside of Baghdad are being systematically looted to this day. "Before and after" satellite photos of the sites point out holes denser than Swiss cheese. Bogdanos lamented that at least Saddam had looters of Iraqi archeological sites shot. Bogdanos, a Manhattan prosecutor, is writing a book, The Thieves of Baghdad, about the looting. Bogdanos may or may not be aware that he will soon join the ranks of other whistleblowers and be on the receiving end of the wrath of the neo-cons that run the White House, State Department, and Pentagon.
READ FULL ARTICLE
Thursday, November 10, 2005
The Anti-Empire Report - Some things you need to know before the world ends - by William Blum
November 10, 2005
Bird flu and capitalism
Preparing for and combating the threatened bird flu pandemic would be tough enough under the best of circumstances. But the circumstances the United States has to deal with include the reality that the country, more than any other on earth, is privately owned. It's corporations that we have to rely on to make virtually all the vaccines and drugs needed. The corporations, however, need financial incentives, perhaps the government paying for most or all of the research, and then turning the patent over to the corporations, as has often been the case; the corporations are concerned with being stuck with the cost of overproduction if it turns out that there's no pandemic; they're concerned about lawsuits from the inevitable cases of individuals who suffer ill effects from the vaccines or drugs; they get rather upset about a generic version being made available anywhere in the world; and they're highly concerned about obtaining a suitable profit margin, perhaps leading them to hold back on the supply to cause the price to rise. On top of all that, the corporate medical system has dumped millions of uninsured people into society's lap. How will these people fare during a pandemic?
What is needed is a mobilization reminiscent of World War Two. At that time the government commandeered the auto manufacturers to make tanks and jeeps instead of private cars. When a pressing need for an atom bomb was seen, Washington did not ask for bids from the private sector; it created the Manhattan Project to do it itself, with no concern for liability protection or profit margins. Women and blacks were given skilled factory jobs they had been traditionally denied. Hollywood was enlisted to make propaganda films. Indeed, much of the nation's activities, including farming, manufacturing, mining, communications, labor, education, and cultural undertakings were in some fashion brought under new and significant government control, with the war effort coming before private profit.
Those who swear by free enterprise argue that this "socialism" was instituted only because of the exigencies of the war. That's true, but it misses a vital point. The point is that it had been immediately recognized by the government that the wasteful and inefficient capitalist system, always in need of the proper financial care and feeding, was no way to win a war.
I would add that it's also no way to run a society of human beings with human needs. Most Americans agree with this but are not consciously aware that they hold such a belief. For this reason I've written an essay entitled: "The United States invades, bombs, and kills for it, but do Americans really believe in free enterprise?"{1}
The Wonderful World of Anti-Communism
Anti-communism is alive and well in the Washington, DC area. There's going to be a new statue, very near the Capitol: The Victims of Communism Memorial, which "will honor an estimated 100 million people killed or tortured under communist rule", a monument established by an Act of Congress.
Also coming soon: A Cold War Museum in nearby Virginia, to be located on a former Nike Missile Base and affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. The state of Virginia has allocated a $125,000 matching grant for the museum. Francis Gary Powers, Jr., son of the man whose U-2 spy plane was forced to crash land in the Soviet Union in 1960, is the motivating force behind the museum and the associated online magazine "Cold War Times". The journal is hardly a corrective to the many anti-communist myths Americans were spoon fed, from their church sermons to their comic books, which have hardened into historical concrete.
It may be difficult for young people today to believe, but the lies fed to the American people and the world about the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and communism (or "communism") were much more routine and flagrant than the lies of the past few years concerning Iraq and terrorism, the most flagrant and basic lie being the existence of something called the International Communist Conspiracy, seeking to take over the world and subvert everything decent and holy. (In actuality, what there was was people all over the Third World fighting for economic and political changes that didn't coincide with the needs of the American power elite, and so the US moved to crush those governments and those movements, even though the Soviet Union or China was playing hardly any role at all in the great majority of those scenarios.)
I don’t know how those behind the memorial arrived at their figure of 100 million victims. I would guess that they'd be hard pressed to explain it themselves. On their own website one finds this: "In less than 100 years, Communism has claimed more than 100 million lives."{2} So here they're saying it's more than 100 million even without including those tortured.
We've all heard the figures many times ... 10 million ... 20 million ... 40 million ... 60 million ... died under Stalin. But what does the number mean, whichever number you choose? Of course many people died under Stalin, many people died under Roosevelt, and many people are still dying under Bush. Dying appears to be a natural phenomenon in every country. The question is how did those people die under Stalin? Did they die from the famines that plagued the USSR in the 1920s and 30s? Did the Bolsheviks deliberately create those famines? How? Why? More people certainly died in India in the 20th century from famines than in the Soviet Union, but no one accuses India of the mass murder of its own citizens. Were millions actually murdered in cold blood in the Soviet Union? If so, how? The logistics of murdering tens of millions of people is daunting.
The ideological hijacking of history is never a pretty sight. Who, it must be asked, will build the Victims of Anti-Communism Memorial and Museum? To document and remember the abominable death, destruction, torture, and violation of human rights under the banner of fighting "communism", that we know under various names: Vietnam, Laos, Chile, Korea, Guatemala, El Salvador, Cambodia, Indonesia, Iran, Brazil, Greece, Argentina, Nicaragua, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, and others.
Thought crimes
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is a 24-year-old American citizen from Virginia who went to study at a university in Saudi Arabia. He was arrested by the Saudis, interrogated, and confessed to being part of an al Qaeda plot to assassinate George W. Bush while the president was visiting the country. Abu Ali is now being held in the United States by federal authorities. His defense attorneys and his family have contended that any statements he made in Saudi custody were obtained through torture and should thus not be allowed into evidence. Two doctors who examined Abu Ali found evidence that he was tortured in Saudi Arabia, including scars on his back consistent with having been whipped, defense lawyers have said in court papers. The prosecution has argued that he was not tortured, and the judge presiding over the trial, which began October 31, has agreed to allow Abu Ali's confession into evidence.
Abu Ali confessed to the Saudis about conspiring to carry out other terrorist acts as well, but I'd like to focus here on the alleged assassination plot. Law enforcement sources cited by the Washington Post have said the plot against Bush, "never advanced beyond the talking stage".{3} If that is indeed the case, and even assuming there was no torture involved, then I’d raise the question of whether a "crime", worthy of punishment -- and Abu Ali faces up to life in prison on the assassination charge alone -- was committed. Or does it fall in the category of a "thought crime" made famous of course in Orwell’s "1984"? Someone should perhaps tell the Justice Department that "1984" was meant to be a warning, not a how-to guide.
Who amongst us has not entertained fantasies of horrible and nasty things befalling our dear George W.? I’ve imagined myself as the perpetrator of actions taking care of the entire Bushgang all at once, including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Powell, Bolton and about a dozen other neo-con stars, all instantly falling victim to ... well, let's leave it at that on this FBI-patrolled Internet. But I've shared such pleasant thoughts with others in person. And they've shared theirs with me. And I'm sure that a million other Americans have had similar thoughts. Should we be indicted? How about His High Holiness Rev. Pat Robertson who publicly called for the assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez? He did it in all seriousness. Speaking to thousands of people. Without being tortured.
The elephant in Saddam Hussein's courtroom
The trial of Saddam Hussein has begun. He is charged with the deaths of more than 140 people who were executed after gunmen fired on his motorcade in the predominantly Shiite Muslim town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in an attempt to assassinate him in 1982. This appears to be the only crime he's being tried for. Yet for a few years now we’ve been hearing about how Saddam used chemical weapons against "his own people" in the town of Halabja in March 1988. (Actually, the people were Kurds, who could be regarded as Saddam's "own people" only if the Seminoles were Andrew Jackson's own people). The Bush administration never tires of repeating that line to us. As recently as October 21, Karen Hughes, White House envoy for public diplomacy, told an audience in Indonesia that Saddam had "used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. He had murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people using poison gas." When challenged about the number, Hughes replied: "It's something that our U.S. government has said a number of times in the past. It's information that was used very widely after his attack on the Kurds. I believe it was close to 300,000. That's something I said every day in the course of the campaign. That's information that we talked about a great deal in America." The State Department later corrected Hughes, saying the number of victims in Halabja was about 5,000.{4} (This figure, too, may well have been inflated for political reasons; for at least the next six months following the Halabja attack one could find the casualty count being reported in major media as “hundreds”, even by Iraq's Iranian foes; then, somehow, it ballooned to "5,000".){5}
Given the repeated administration emphasis of this event, you would think that it would be the charge used in the court against Saddam, would you not? Well, I can think of two reasons why the US would be reluctant to bring that matter to court. One, the evidence for the crime has always been somewhat questionable; for example, at one time an arm of the Pentagon issued a report suggesting that it was actually Iran which had used the poison gas in Halabja.{6} And two, the United States, in addition to providing Saddam abundant financial and intelligence support, supplied him with lots of materials to help Iraq achieve its chemical and biological weapons capability; it would be kind of awkward if Saddam's defense raised this issue in the court. But the United States has carefully orchestrated the trial to exclude any unwanted testimony, including the well-known fact that not longer after the 1982 carnage Saddam is being charged with, in December 1983, Donald Rumsfeld -- perfectly well-informed about the Iraqi regime's methods and the use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops -- arrived in Baghdad, sent by Ronald Reagan with the objective of strengthening the relationship between the two countries.{7}
I'd also like to announce that a greatly updated edition of my book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower has just been published. It first came out in 2000.
NOTES
{1} http://members.aol.com/superogue/system.htm
{2} http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php
{3} Washington Post, September 9, 2005, p.4
{4} Washington Post, October 22, 2005, p.15
{5} New York Times, April 10, 1988, sec.4, p.3, re Iran; Washington Post, August 4 and September 4, 1988
{6} New York Times, January 31, 2003, p.29
{7} Barry Lando, “Saddam Hussein, a Biased Trial”, Le Monde (Paris), October 17, 2005
William Blum is the author of:
Previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website.
Bird flu and capitalism
Preparing for and combating the threatened bird flu pandemic would be tough enough under the best of circumstances. But the circumstances the United States has to deal with include the reality that the country, more than any other on earth, is privately owned. It's corporations that we have to rely on to make virtually all the vaccines and drugs needed. The corporations, however, need financial incentives, perhaps the government paying for most or all of the research, and then turning the patent over to the corporations, as has often been the case; the corporations are concerned with being stuck with the cost of overproduction if it turns out that there's no pandemic; they're concerned about lawsuits from the inevitable cases of individuals who suffer ill effects from the vaccines or drugs; they get rather upset about a generic version being made available anywhere in the world; and they're highly concerned about obtaining a suitable profit margin, perhaps leading them to hold back on the supply to cause the price to rise. On top of all that, the corporate medical system has dumped millions of uninsured people into society's lap. How will these people fare during a pandemic?
What is needed is a mobilization reminiscent of World War Two. At that time the government commandeered the auto manufacturers to make tanks and jeeps instead of private cars. When a pressing need for an atom bomb was seen, Washington did not ask for bids from the private sector; it created the Manhattan Project to do it itself, with no concern for liability protection or profit margins. Women and blacks were given skilled factory jobs they had been traditionally denied. Hollywood was enlisted to make propaganda films. Indeed, much of the nation's activities, including farming, manufacturing, mining, communications, labor, education, and cultural undertakings were in some fashion brought under new and significant government control, with the war effort coming before private profit.
Those who swear by free enterprise argue that this "socialism" was instituted only because of the exigencies of the war. That's true, but it misses a vital point. The point is that it had been immediately recognized by the government that the wasteful and inefficient capitalist system, always in need of the proper financial care and feeding, was no way to win a war.
I would add that it's also no way to run a society of human beings with human needs. Most Americans agree with this but are not consciously aware that they hold such a belief. For this reason I've written an essay entitled: "The United States invades, bombs, and kills for it, but do Americans really believe in free enterprise?"{1}
The Wonderful World of Anti-Communism
Anti-communism is alive and well in the Washington, DC area. There's going to be a new statue, very near the Capitol: The Victims of Communism Memorial, which "will honor an estimated 100 million people killed or tortured under communist rule", a monument established by an Act of Congress.
Also coming soon: A Cold War Museum in nearby Virginia, to be located on a former Nike Missile Base and affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. The state of Virginia has allocated a $125,000 matching grant for the museum. Francis Gary Powers, Jr., son of the man whose U-2 spy plane was forced to crash land in the Soviet Union in 1960, is the motivating force behind the museum and the associated online magazine "Cold War Times". The journal is hardly a corrective to the many anti-communist myths Americans were spoon fed, from their church sermons to their comic books, which have hardened into historical concrete.
It may be difficult for young people today to believe, but the lies fed to the American people and the world about the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and communism (or "communism") were much more routine and flagrant than the lies of the past few years concerning Iraq and terrorism, the most flagrant and basic lie being the existence of something called the International Communist Conspiracy, seeking to take over the world and subvert everything decent and holy. (In actuality, what there was was people all over the Third World fighting for economic and political changes that didn't coincide with the needs of the American power elite, and so the US moved to crush those governments and those movements, even though the Soviet Union or China was playing hardly any role at all in the great majority of those scenarios.)
I don’t know how those behind the memorial arrived at their figure of 100 million victims. I would guess that they'd be hard pressed to explain it themselves. On their own website one finds this: "In less than 100 years, Communism has claimed more than 100 million lives."{2} So here they're saying it's more than 100 million even without including those tortured.
We've all heard the figures many times ... 10 million ... 20 million ... 40 million ... 60 million ... died under Stalin. But what does the number mean, whichever number you choose? Of course many people died under Stalin, many people died under Roosevelt, and many people are still dying under Bush. Dying appears to be a natural phenomenon in every country. The question is how did those people die under Stalin? Did they die from the famines that plagued the USSR in the 1920s and 30s? Did the Bolsheviks deliberately create those famines? How? Why? More people certainly died in India in the 20th century from famines than in the Soviet Union, but no one accuses India of the mass murder of its own citizens. Were millions actually murdered in cold blood in the Soviet Union? If so, how? The logistics of murdering tens of millions of people is daunting.
The ideological hijacking of history is never a pretty sight. Who, it must be asked, will build the Victims of Anti-Communism Memorial and Museum? To document and remember the abominable death, destruction, torture, and violation of human rights under the banner of fighting "communism", that we know under various names: Vietnam, Laos, Chile, Korea, Guatemala, El Salvador, Cambodia, Indonesia, Iran, Brazil, Greece, Argentina, Nicaragua, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, and others.
Thought crimes
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is a 24-year-old American citizen from Virginia who went to study at a university in Saudi Arabia. He was arrested by the Saudis, interrogated, and confessed to being part of an al Qaeda plot to assassinate George W. Bush while the president was visiting the country. Abu Ali is now being held in the United States by federal authorities. His defense attorneys and his family have contended that any statements he made in Saudi custody were obtained through torture and should thus not be allowed into evidence. Two doctors who examined Abu Ali found evidence that he was tortured in Saudi Arabia, including scars on his back consistent with having been whipped, defense lawyers have said in court papers. The prosecution has argued that he was not tortured, and the judge presiding over the trial, which began October 31, has agreed to allow Abu Ali's confession into evidence.
Abu Ali confessed to the Saudis about conspiring to carry out other terrorist acts as well, but I'd like to focus here on the alleged assassination plot. Law enforcement sources cited by the Washington Post have said the plot against Bush, "never advanced beyond the talking stage".{3} If that is indeed the case, and even assuming there was no torture involved, then I’d raise the question of whether a "crime", worthy of punishment -- and Abu Ali faces up to life in prison on the assassination charge alone -- was committed. Or does it fall in the category of a "thought crime" made famous of course in Orwell’s "1984"? Someone should perhaps tell the Justice Department that "1984" was meant to be a warning, not a how-to guide.
Who amongst us has not entertained fantasies of horrible and nasty things befalling our dear George W.? I’ve imagined myself as the perpetrator of actions taking care of the entire Bushgang all at once, including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Powell, Bolton and about a dozen other neo-con stars, all instantly falling victim to ... well, let's leave it at that on this FBI-patrolled Internet. But I've shared such pleasant thoughts with others in person. And they've shared theirs with me. And I'm sure that a million other Americans have had similar thoughts. Should we be indicted? How about His High Holiness Rev. Pat Robertson who publicly called for the assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez? He did it in all seriousness. Speaking to thousands of people. Without being tortured.
The elephant in Saddam Hussein's courtroom
The trial of Saddam Hussein has begun. He is charged with the deaths of more than 140 people who were executed after gunmen fired on his motorcade in the predominantly Shiite Muslim town of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in an attempt to assassinate him in 1982. This appears to be the only crime he's being tried for. Yet for a few years now we’ve been hearing about how Saddam used chemical weapons against "his own people" in the town of Halabja in March 1988. (Actually, the people were Kurds, who could be regarded as Saddam's "own people" only if the Seminoles were Andrew Jackson's own people). The Bush administration never tires of repeating that line to us. As recently as October 21, Karen Hughes, White House envoy for public diplomacy, told an audience in Indonesia that Saddam had "used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. He had murdered hundreds of thousands of his own people using poison gas." When challenged about the number, Hughes replied: "It's something that our U.S. government has said a number of times in the past. It's information that was used very widely after his attack on the Kurds. I believe it was close to 300,000. That's something I said every day in the course of the campaign. That's information that we talked about a great deal in America." The State Department later corrected Hughes, saying the number of victims in Halabja was about 5,000.{4} (This figure, too, may well have been inflated for political reasons; for at least the next six months following the Halabja attack one could find the casualty count being reported in major media as “hundreds”, even by Iraq's Iranian foes; then, somehow, it ballooned to "5,000".){5}
Given the repeated administration emphasis of this event, you would think that it would be the charge used in the court against Saddam, would you not? Well, I can think of two reasons why the US would be reluctant to bring that matter to court. One, the evidence for the crime has always been somewhat questionable; for example, at one time an arm of the Pentagon issued a report suggesting that it was actually Iran which had used the poison gas in Halabja.{6} And two, the United States, in addition to providing Saddam abundant financial and intelligence support, supplied him with lots of materials to help Iraq achieve its chemical and biological weapons capability; it would be kind of awkward if Saddam's defense raised this issue in the court. But the United States has carefully orchestrated the trial to exclude any unwanted testimony, including the well-known fact that not longer after the 1982 carnage Saddam is being charged with, in December 1983, Donald Rumsfeld -- perfectly well-informed about the Iraqi regime's methods and the use of chemical weapons against Iranian troops -- arrived in Baghdad, sent by Ronald Reagan with the objective of strengthening the relationship between the two countries.{7}
I'd also like to announce that a greatly updated edition of my book Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower has just been published. It first came out in 2000.
NOTES
{1} http://members.aol.com/superogue/system.htm
{2} http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/history_communism.php
{3} Washington Post, September 9, 2005, p.4
{4} Washington Post, October 22, 2005, p.15
{5} New York Times, April 10, 1988, sec.4, p.3, re Iran; Washington Post, August 4 and September 4, 1988
{6} New York Times, January 31, 2003, p.29
{7} Barry Lando, “Saddam Hussein, a Biased Trial”, Le Monde (Paris), October 17, 2005
William Blum is the author of:
- Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2
- Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
- West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir
- Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire
Any part of this report may be disseminated without permission. I'd appreciate it if the website were mentioned.
Palestinian General killed in Amman blasts
Palestinian General killed in Amman blasts
Major-General Bashir Nafeh, the head of military intelligence in the West Bank, and Colonel Abed Allun, a Preventive Security Forces official, were killed in the attack at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Ambassador Attala Kheri told The AP.
Read more from Aljazeera.
Aljazeera is also reporting the following:
The casualty figures show the dead included at least 15 Jordanians, five Iraqi nationals, three Chinese, a Saudi, a Syrian, a Palestinian and an Indonesian, while the bodies of 30 people had yet to be identified. Israel radio reported that an Israeli businessman was among the dead.
The link I posted earlier leads to the same article by Yoav Stern, but it has been rewritten and updated. Stern now says "there is no truth" to reports Israelis staying at the Radisson SAS were evacuated hours before the explosions.
Stern cites "contrary to earlier reports" and says the Israelis were evacuated by Jordanian security forces after the blasts, not several hours before, as he had initially reported. The Haaretz article goes on to say one Israeli was killed in the blasts but it is unclear in which hotel.
Meanwhile, the Al Qaida in Iraq group purportedly released the following statement:
But again, that's typical of this barbaric group. According to Aljazeera, two senior Palestinian officials were killed in the blasts.
So, Al Qaida says it is targeting Israelis and Jews and crusaders but managed to kill four Palestinian officials, two of whom are senior security officials.
Does this not sound strange? Or mere coincidence? This is getting weirder by the minute.
Major-General Bashir Nafeh, the head of military intelligence in the West Bank, and Colonel Abed Allun, a Preventive Security Forces official, were killed in the attack at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Ambassador Attala Kheri told The AP.
Read more from Aljazeera.
Aljazeera is also reporting the following:
The casualty figures show the dead included at least 15 Jordanians, five Iraqi nationals, three Chinese, a Saudi, a Syrian, a Palestinian and an Indonesian, while the bodies of 30 people had yet to be identified. Israel radio reported that an Israeli businessman was among the dead.
The link I posted earlier leads to the same article by Yoav Stern, but it has been rewritten and updated. Stern now says "there is no truth" to reports Israelis staying at the Radisson SAS were evacuated hours before the explosions.
Stern cites "contrary to earlier reports" and says the Israelis were evacuated by Jordanian security forces after the blasts, not several hours before, as he had initially reported. The Haaretz article goes on to say one Israeli was killed in the blasts but it is unclear in which hotel.
Meanwhile, the Al Qaida in Iraq group purportedly released the following statement:
"A group of our best lions launched a new attack on some dens ... After casing the targets, some hotels were chosen which the Jordanian despot turned into a backyard for the enemies of the faith, the Jews and crusaders,"the statement on a website usually used by the group, said on Thursday. Doesn't make sense since it was mostly Arabs and Muslims who died.
But again, that's typical of this barbaric group. According to Aljazeera, two senior Palestinian officials were killed in the blasts.
So, Al Qaida says it is targeting Israelis and Jews and crusaders but managed to kill four Palestinian officials, two of whom are senior security officials.
Does this not sound strange? Or mere coincidence? This is getting weirder by the minute.
A name that lives in infamy
The destruction of Falluja was an act of barbarism that ranks alongside My Lai, Guernica and Halabja
One year ago this week, US-led occupying forces launched a devastating assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja. The mood was set by Lt Col Gary Brandl: "The enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He's in Falluja. And we're going to destroy him."
The assault was preceded by eight weeks of aerial bombardment. US troops cut off the city's water, power and food supplies, condemned as a violation of the Geneva convention by a UN special rapporteur, who accused occupying forces of "using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population". Two-thirds of the city's 300,000 residents fled, many to squatters' camps without basic facilities.
As the siege tightened, the Red Cross, Red Crescent and the media were kept out, while males between the ages of 15 and 55 were kept in. US sources claimed between 600 and 6,000 insurgents were holed up inside the city - which means that the vast majority of the remaining inhabitants were non-comb
President Bush and the current administration have borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than the previous 42 presidents combined
(CNSNews.com) - President Bush and the current administration have borrowed more money from foreign governments and banks than the previous 42 presidents combined, a group of conservative to moderate Democrats said Friday.
Blue Dog Coalition, which describes itself as a group "focused on fiscal responsibility," called the administration's borrowing practices "astounding."
According to the Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions, but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion.
"The seriousness of this rapid and increasing financial vulnerability of our country can hardly be overstated," said Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition and member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
"The financial mismanagement of our country by the Bush Administration should be of concern to all Americans, regardless of political persuasion," said Tanner in a press release.
Earlier this year, the Blue Dog Coalition unveiled a 12-step plan to "cure" the nation's "addiction to deficit spending." It included requiring all federal agencies to pass clean audits, a balanced budget, and the establishment of a rainy day fund for use in emergencies specifically a natural disaster.
"No American political leadership has ever willfully and deliberately mortgaged our country to foreign interests in the manner we have witnessed over the past four years," said Tanner. "If this recklessness is not stopped, I truly believe our economic freedom as American citizens is in great jeopardy."
Blue Dog Coalition, which describes itself as a group "focused on fiscal responsibility," called the administration's borrowing practices "astounding."
According to the Treasury Department, from 1776-2000, the first 224 years of U.S. history, 42 U.S. presidents borrowed a combined $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions, but in the past four years alone, the Bush administration borrowed $1.05 trillion.
"The seriousness of this rapid and increasing financial vulnerability of our country can hardly be overstated," said Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), a leader of the Blue Dog Coalition and member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
"The financial mismanagement of our country by the Bush Administration should be of concern to all Americans, regardless of political persuasion," said Tanner in a press release.
Earlier this year, the Blue Dog Coalition unveiled a 12-step plan to "cure" the nation's "addiction to deficit spending." It included requiring all federal agencies to pass clean audits, a balanced budget, and the establishment of a rainy day fund for use in emergencies specifically a natural disaster.
"No American political leadership has ever willfully and deliberately mortgaged our country to foreign interests in the manner we have witnessed over the past four years," said Tanner. "If this recklessness is not stopped, I truly believe our economic freedom as American citizens is in great jeopardy."
French rioting update
November 10, 2005 -- The intensity of French rioting subsided last night but not before arson spread to the Basque region of France. Four parked buses and a police station in Bayonne were firebombed. In further evidence that the attacks in France are well-coordinated with a view to ensuring that all parts of France were touched by the rioting, arson and other attacks were not only reported in the Basque region but also in Le Havre in Normandy, Belfort and Saint-Quentin, Grenoble in the Alps region, and Brest in Brittany. Meanwhile, French neo-con Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is withstanding pressure for him to resign. Progressive political parties and human rights organizations cite Sarkozy's inflammatory rhetoric as increasing the violence.
The imposition of curfews nationwide are believed to have been successful in quelling the arson and rioting. However, one question remains. Sarkozy could have imposed curfews much earlier. Instead, he called Maghrebian and African youth scum and riff-raff, saying they should be "Karcherized" (pressurized water hosed). [Note: Karcher is a German firm. Its founder, Wurttemberg native Alfred Karcher, sold 1200 "hardened furnaces" for smelting alloys until 1945, including during World War II. It now manufactures multi-purpose nuclear, biological, and chemical decontamination systems for the Pentagon.]
Sarkozy delayed imposing curfews, permitting rioting to spread to 300 French cities, towns, and villages. It would be very interesting to see transcripts from signals intelligence agencies of Sarkozy's international phone conversations after the electrocution of two teens in a north Paris suburb.
The imposition of curfews nationwide are believed to have been successful in quelling the arson and rioting. However, one question remains. Sarkozy could have imposed curfews much earlier. Instead, he called Maghrebian and African youth scum and riff-raff, saying they should be "Karcherized" (pressurized water hosed). [Note: Karcher is a German firm. Its founder, Wurttemberg native Alfred Karcher, sold 1200 "hardened furnaces" for smelting alloys until 1945, including during World War II. It now manufactures multi-purpose nuclear, biological, and chemical decontamination systems for the Pentagon.]
Sarkozy delayed imposing curfews, permitting rioting to spread to 300 French cities, towns, and villages. It would be very interesting to see transcripts from signals intelligence agencies of Sarkozy's international phone conversations after the electrocution of two teens in a north Paris suburb.
Saddam Hussein predicted that the Americans would loot and destroy Baghdad as had the Mongol hordes of the 13th century.
November 10, 2005 -- Saddam was correct. In 2003, the editor wrote the following article about Saddam Hussein's prediction that the Americans would loot and destroy Baghdad as had the Mongol hordes of the 13th century. Saddam was correct in his prognostication. The use of white phosphorous weapons on women and children, the sodomizing by US and contractor troops of imprisoned Iraqi boys and girls, the systematic looting of museums and historical sites by international gangsters as US troops look on. Of course, the neo-cons are no different than the Mongol hordes or the German Nazis for that matter. The article with an update.
Two women
The definitive article on Judith Miller, from the Washington Post. No real comment on it other than to note that her memory and that of other reporters seems to conflict all too often.
In another plane entirely, a long, interesting review of a new book, a "political biography" of Jane Fonda. One excerpt:
In another plane entirely, a long, interesting review of a new book, a "political biography" of Jane Fonda. One excerpt:
"This [the massive bombing of North Vietnam] was the reason for Fonda's trip [to North Vietnam]. Again, the timing was devastating. She arrived as US bombers appeared to be making preliminary strikes against North Vietnam's system of dikes, which if breached would destroy farmland and starve the population. The Pentagon denied the raids. At a press conference in Paris Fonda presented film proving that they had taken place. That same day, the State Department cancelled its scheduled rebuttal. One of the diplomats laid low by the humiliation was America's UN envoy, George H.W. Bush. 'I think that the best thing I can do on the subject is to shut up,' he told the press, after promising them evidence of American innocence. No wonder Nixon was keen to attack Fonda."Pentagon credibility. The oxymoron to end all oxymorons.
Zarqawi Black Op Hits Amman
Last night this page on the Israeli newspaper Haaretz website reported Israelis were forewarned about the bombing in Amman, Jordan (see reprint here) , and this morning the same link points to an article saying there "is no truth to reports that Israelis staying at the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman on Wednesday were evacuated by Jordanian security forces before the bombing that took place there.” Meanwhile, the L.A. Times reports this morning that the "Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Israelis staying at the Radisson on Wednesday had been evacuated before the attacks and escorted back home ‘apparently due to a specific security threat'... Amos N. Guiora, a former senior Israeli counter-terrorism official, said in a phone interview with The Times that sources in Israel had also told him about the pre-attack evacuations.... 'It means there was excellent intelligence that this thing was going to happen,' said Guiora, a former leader of the Israel Defense Forces who now heads the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. 'The question that needs to be answered is why weren’t the Jordanians working at the hotel similarly removed?'" Now we are expected to believe this never happened, or Guiora's "excellent intelligence" never occurred, or suffered a bit of revisionism. Of course, even making mention of this will be considered antisemitism. As for the question of why the Jordanians were not removed, this really is a no-brainer--al-Qaeda was designed in part to kill and terrorize Arabs and Muslims.
America's new enemy by John Pilger
Latin Americans have spent the past few years finding their voices. Now they may have the strength to defy their northern neighbour. By John PilgerI was dropped at Paradiso, the last middle-class area before La Vega barrio, which spills into a ravine as if by the force of gravity. Storms were forecast and people were anxious, remembering the mudslides of 1999 that took 20,000 lives. "Why are you here?" asked the man sitting opposite me in the packed jeep-bus that chugged up the hill. Like so many in Latin America, he appeared old, but wasn't. Without waiting for my answer, he listed why he supported President Hugo Chavez: schools, clinics, affordable food, "our constitution, our democracy" and "for the first time, the oil money is going to us". I asked him if he belonged to the MVR (Movement for the Fifth Republic), Chavez's party, "No, I've never been in a political party; I can only tell you how my life has been changed, as I never dreamt."
It is raw witness like this, which I have heard over and over again in Venezuela, that smashes the one-way mirror between the west and a continent that is rising. By rising, I mean the phenomenon of millions of people stirring once again, "like lions after slumber/In unvanquishable number", wrote Shelley in The Mask of Anarchy. This is not romantic; an epic is unfolding in Latin America that demands our attention beyond the stereotypes and cliches that diminish whole societies to their degree of exploitation and expendability.
To the man in the bus, and to Beatrice whose children are being immunised and taught history, art and music for the first time, and Celedonia, in her seventies, reading and writing for the first time, and Jose whose life was saved by a doctor in the middle of the night, the first doctor he had ever seen, Chavez is neither a "firebrand" nor an "autocrat" but a humanitarian and a democrat who commands almost two-thirds of the popular vote, accredited by victories in no fewer than nine elections. Compare that with the fifth of the British electorate that reinstalled an authentic autocrat in Downing Street.
Chavez and the rise of popular social movements, from Colombia down to Argentina, represent bloodless, radical change across the continent, inspired by the great independence struggles that began with Simon BolIvar, born in 1783 in Venezuela, who brought the ideas of the French Revolution to societies cowed by Spanish absolutism. BolIvar, like Che Guevara in the 1960s and Chavez today, understood the new colonial master to the north. "The USA," he said in 1819, "appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty."
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