The Anti-Empire Report: Some things you need to know before the world ends

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Tue, 25 Apr 2006 09:25:47 -0700 (PDT)

The Anti-Empire Report: Some things you need to know before

the world ends

 

 

 

http://www.killinghope.org/

 

The Anti-Empire Report

Some things you need to know before the world ends April 22, 2006

 

Transforming the World into a War-zone

William Blum

 

 

 

Your War Channel-all war-all the time -24/7-25/8-round the

clock-breaking only for commercials for Halliburton and Bechtel

 

The recent paper by two prominent academics, John Mearsheimer and

Stephen Walt, on " The Israel Lobby " , has spurred considerable

discussion both in the mainstream media and on the Internet about the

significance of the role played by this lobby in instigating the US

invasion and occupation of Iraq. The answer to this question may

reside ultimately, and solely, in the minds of the neo-conservatives,

in or close to official government positions, who lobbied for years to

invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein; an early instance of this

being their now-famous letter to President Clinton in January 1998,

which, in no uncertain terms, called for an American strategy that

" should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from

power " . Warning of Saddam's potential for acquiring weapons of mass

destruction, the neo-cons, in language at times sounding frenzied,

insisted that his removal was absolutely vital to " the security of the

world in the first part of the 21st century " and for " the safety of

American troops in the region, of our friends and allies like Israel

and the moderate Arab states, and a significant portion of the world's

supply of oil. "

 

This of course was a gross exaggeration. In 1998, after seven

years of relentless US bombing and draconian sanctions, Iraq was but a

pitiful shell of its former self and no longer a threat even to its

neighbors, much less " the world " . There were those who hated Saddam,

but the only country that had any good reason to fear Iraq, then or

later, was Israel, as retaliation for Israel's unprovoked bombing of

Iraq in 1981. The letter to Clinton was signed by Elliott Abrams,

Richard L. Armitage, William J. Bennett, Jeffrey Bergner, John Bolton,

Paula Dobriansky, Francis Fukuyama, Robert Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad,

William Kristol, Richard Perle, Peter W. Rodman, Donald Rumsfeld,

William Schneider, Jr., Vin Weber, Paul Wolfowitz, R. James Woolsey,

and Robert B. Zoellick(1), most of whom, if not all, could be

categorized as allies of Israel; most of whom were soon to join the

Busheviks. What could have prompted these individuals to write such a

letter to the president other than a desire to eliminate a threat to

the safety of Israel? And when they came into power some began

immediately to campaign for regime change in Iraq.

 

There are those who argue that the United States has invaded

numerous countries without requiring instigation by Israel. This is of

course true, it's what the empire does for a living. But to say that

the Israel lobby played a vital role in the invasion of Iraq in 2003

is not to suggest an explanation for the whole history of US foreign

interventions.

 

To the role of the Israel lobby we must add two other factors

carrying unknown degrees of weight in the decision to invade Iraq:

controlling vast amounts of oil, and saving the dollar from the euro

by reversing Saddam Hussein's decision to use the latter in Iraq's oil

transactions (and this reversal was one of the first edicts of the

occupation).

 

Whatever ambiguity may remain about the role of the Israel lobby

in the invasion of Iraq, it's clear that if and when the sociopaths

who call themselves our leaders attack Iran, Israeli security will be

the main reason, with the euro in second place because Iran has been

taking -- or at least threatening to take -- serious steps to replace

the dollar with the euro in oil transactions. Iran of course also has

lots of oil, but unless the United States aims at conquest and

occupation of the country -- and where will Los Socios find a few

hundred thousand more clueless American bodies -- access to and

control of the oil would not be very feasible. The Israel lobby

appears to be the only major organized force that is actively pushing

the United States toward crisis in Iran. Along with the lobby's

leading member, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC),

there's the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which has taken out

full-page ads in major US newspapers with the less-than-subtle

heading: " A Nuclear Iran Threatens All " , depicting radiating circles

on an Iran-centered map to show where its missiles could strike.

 

" The threat from Iran is, of course, their stated objective to

destroy our strong ally Israel, " declared George W. last month.

" That's a threat, a serious threat. It's a threat to world peace. I

made it clear, and I'll make it clear again, that we will use military

might to protect our ally Israel. " (2)

 

Chutzpah of an imperial size

 

Do you remember the classic example of " chutzpah " ? It's the young man

who kills his parents and then asks the court for mercy on the grounds

that he's an orphan.

 

The Bush administration's updated version of that is starting a

wholly illegal, immoral, and devastating war and then dismissing all

kinds of criticism of its action on the grounds that " We're at war. "

 

They use this excuse to defend warrantless spying, to defend the

imprisonment of people for years without charging them with a crime,

to abuse and torture them, to ignore the Geneva Convention and other

international treaties; they use it against Democrats, accusing them

of partisanship during " a time of war " ; they use it to justify the

expansion of presidential powers and the weakening of checks and

balances. In short, they claim " We can do whatever we want about

anything at all related to this war, because we're at war. "

 

" War is war, " says Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, " and it

has never been the case that when you captured a combatant you have to

give them a jury trial in your civil courts. Give me a break. " (3)

Scalia, in his public talks, implies that prisoners held in the

far-flung American gulag were all " captured on the battlefield " .(4)

But this is simply false. Very few of the poor souls were captured on

any kind of battlefield, few had even a gun in their hand; most were

just in the wrong place at the wrong time or were turned in by an

informer for an American bounty or a personal grudge.

 

The American public, like all publics, requires only sufficient

repetition from " respectable " sources to learn how to play the game:

Earlier this month many cities of Wisconsin held referendums on

bringing the troops home from Iraq. Here's Jim Martin, 48, a handyman

in Evansville. He thinks that his city shouldn't waste taxpayers'

money running a referendum that means nothing. " The fact of the matter

remains, we're at war, " he said as he ate his lunch at the Night Owl

bar.(5)

 

And here now is Chris Simcox a leader in the Minuteman movement

that patrols the Mexican border: " If I catch you breaking into my

country in the middle of the night and we're at war ... you're a

potential enemy. I don't care if you're a busboy coming to wash

dishes. " (6)

 

One observer has summed up the legal arguments put forth by the

Bush administration thusly: " The existing laws do not apply because

this is a different kind of war. It's a different kind of war because

the president says so. The president gets to say so because he is

president. ... We follow the laws of war except to the extent that

they do not apply to us. These prisoners have all the rights to which

they are entitled by law, except to the extent that we have changed

the law to limit their rights. " (7)

 

Yet, George W. has cut taxes tremendously, something probably

unprecedented while at war.

 

Facing calls for impeachment, plummeting popularity, a looming

Republican electoral disaster, and massive failure in Mesopotamia,

Georgie looks toward Persia. He and the other gang members will be

able to get away with almost anything they can think of if they can

say " We're in two wars! "

 

A tale of two terrorists

 

Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged to date in the United

States in connection with the September 11, 2001 attacks, testifying

at his trial in Alexandria, Virginia:

 

The sobbing September 11 survivors and family members who testified

against him were " disgusting " ... He and other Muslims want to

" exterminate " American Jews ... executed Oklahoma City bomber Timothy

McVeigh was " the greatest American " (8) He expressed his willingness to

kill Americans " any time, anywhere " ... " I wish it had happened not

only on the 11th, but the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th. " (9)

 

Orlando Bosch, one of the masterminds behind the October 6, 1976

bombing of a Cuban passenger plane, blown out of the sky with 73

people on board, including the entire young Cuban fencing team,

interviewed April 8 by Juan Manuel Cao of Channel 41 in Miami:

 

Cao: Did you down that plane in 1976?

Bosch: If I tell you that I was involved, I will be inculpating myself

.... and if I tell you that I did not participate in that action, you

would say that I am lying. I am therefore not going to answer one

thing or the other.

 

Cao: In that action 73 persons were killed ...

Bosch: No chico, in a war such as us Cubans who love liberty wage

against the tyrant [Fidel Castro], you have to down planes, you have

to sink ships, you have to be prepared to attack anything that is

within your reach.

 

Cao: But don't you feel a little bit for those who were killed there,

for their families?

Bosch: Who was on board that plane? Four members of the Communist

Party, five north Koreans, five Guyanese ... Who was there? Our enemies.

 

Cao: And the fencers? The young people on board?

Bosch: I saw the young girls on television. There were six of them.

After the end of the competition, the leader of

the six dedicated their triumph to the tyrant. She gave a speech

filled with praise for the tyrant. We had already agreed in Santo

Domingo, that everyone who comes from Cuba to glorify the tyrant had

to run the same risks as those men and women that fight alongside the

tyranny.

 

Cao: If you ran into the family members who were killed in that plane,

wouldn't you think it difficult ... ?

Bosch: No, because in the end those who were there had to know that

they were cooperating with the tyranny in Cuba.

 

The main difference between Zacarias Moussaoui and Orlando Bosch

is that one of them is on trial for his life while the other walks

around Miami a free man, free enough to be interviewed on television.

 

Bosch had a partner in plotting the bombing of the Cuban

airliner, Luis Posada, a Cuban-born citizen of Venezuela. He's being

held in custody in the United States on a minor immigration charge.

His extradition has been requested by Venezuela for several crimes

including the downing of the airliner, part of the plotting having

taken place in Venezuela. But the Bush administration refuses to send

him to Venezuela because they don't like the Venezuelan government,

nor will they try him in the United States for the crime. However, the

Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of

Civil Aviation (1973), of which the United States is a signatory,

gives Washington no discretion. Article 7 says that the state in which

" the alleged offender is found shall, if it does not extradite him, be

obliged, without exception whatsoever and whether or not the offence

was committed in its territory, to submit the case to its competent

authorities for the purpose of prosecution. " (10) Extradite or

prosecute. The United States does neither.

 

 

This is your mind on anti-communism

Earlier this month, in Miami-Dade County, Florida (where else?) it was

reported that the parent of a schoolchild asked the school board to

ban a book called " Vamos a Cuba " ( " Let's go to Cuba " ), a travel book

that has smiling kids on the cover and inside depicts happy scenes

from a festival held in Cuba. " As a former political prisoner from

Cuba, I find the material to be untruthful, " Juan Amador, wrote to the

school board. " It portrays a life in Cuba that does not exist. I

believe it aims to create an illusion and distort reality. " Mr. Amador

is presumably claiming that no one in Cuba is ever happy or even

smiles. The book is currently being reviewed by a school committee.(11)

 

During his recent election campaign, Italian Premier Silvio

Berlusconi declared that communists in Mao's China boiled babies to

make fertilizer.(12) He defended his remark by citing: " The Black Book

of Communism " , a " history " of communism published in 1997, a book that

is to the study of communism as " The Protocols of the Elders of

Zionism " is to Judaism or the collected statements of George W. Bush

are to understanding why we are fighting in Iraq. Berlusconi's remark

may actually be regarded as progress in the wonderful world of

anti-communism, for following the Russian Revolution of 1917 it was

widely and long proclaimed that the Bolsheviks killed and ate babies

(as the early pagans believed the Christians guilty of devouring their

children; the same was believed of Jews in the Middle Ages). It's

interesting to note (Well, to me at least) that in 2003, when my book

Killing Hope was published in Italy, the publisher gave it the title

" Il Libro Nero Degli Stati Uniti " ( " The Black Book of The United

States " ).(13)

 

 

Charles Taylor and that fake opposition party known as the Democrats

Some things I have to repeat, because the news makes them relevant

once again, and because the media ignores them once again. Charles

Taylor, former president of Liberia, has been captured and is being

held for trial in a UN-sponsored war-crimes court in neighboring

Sierra Leone. In 2003 Taylor was indicted by this court for " bearing

the greatest responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity

and serious violations of international humanitarian law " during

Sierra Leone's civil war. The United States, along with the rest of

the world, condemns Taylor, applauds his capture, and calls for his

punishment. What we're not reminded of is this:

 

In 1998, President Clinton sent Rev. Jesse Jackson as his

special envoy to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the latter being in the

midst of one of the great horrors of the 20th century -- You may

remember the army of mostly young boys, the Revolutionary United Front

(RUF), who went around raping and chopping off people's arms and legs.

African and world opinion was enraged against the RUF, which was

committed to protecting the diamond mines they controlled. Taylor was

an indispensable ally and supporter of the RUF and Jackson was an old

friend of his. Jesse was not sent to the region to try to curtail the

RUF's atrocities, nor to hound Taylor about his widespread human

rights violations, but instead, in June 1999, Jackson and other

American officials drafted entire sections of an accord that made RUF

leader, Foday Sankoh, Sierra Leone's vice president, and gave him

official control over the diamond mines, the country's major source of

wealth.(14)

 

And what was the Clinton administration's interest in all this?

It's been speculated that the answer lies with certain individuals

with ties to the diamond industry and to Clinton, while he was

president or while governor of Arkansas; for example, Maurice

Tempelsman, generous contributor to the Democratic Party and escort of

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright around this time, whose Antwerp,

Amsterdam and Tel Aviv diamond marts arranged for Sierra Leone diamond

sales to Tiffany and Cartier.(15)

 

Good ol' Bill? Good ol' Jess? I know, I know, I keep tearing

down your heroes. Who will you have left? But remember the words of

the two characters in Bertolt Brecht's " Galileo " :

" Unhappy the land that has no heroes, " says the first.

" No, " says the other, " Unhappy the land that needs heroes. "

Or as Abbie Hoffman said: " Sacred cows make the best hamburger. "

 

 

After the war-crimes trial we'll need a second tribunal for shameless

lying, gross insults to our intelligence, and just plain weird

stupidity and stupid weirdness.

 

George W. Bush, speaking March 29, 2006 to the Freedom House

organization in Washington: " We're a country of deep compassion. We

care. One of the great things about America, one of the beauties of

our country, is that when we see a young, innocent child blown up by

an IED [improvised explosive device], we cry. We don't care what the

child's religion may be, or where that child may live, we cry. It

upsets us. The enemy knows that, and they're willing to -- they're

willing to kill to shake our confidence. That's what they're trying to

do. " (16)

 

" Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit

atrocities. " Voltaire

 

 

Is this any way to organize a society of human beings?

 

April 18 was the 100th anniversary of the historic, catastrophic San

Francisco earthquake of 1906. Studies predict that the next big quake

in the city will take a much greater human toll because so many of the

residents live in apartments and houses built before building codes

were tightened in 1970.

 

And because many units are rent-controlled apartments, we are told,

landlords have few incentives to seismic retrofit.(17) There are those

who would use this as an argument against rent control. There are

others who would use it as an argument against free enterprise or

private ownership of housing. Think of it. Over the years, California

has learned very well how to modernize buildings to prepare them to

withstand earthquakes much better than in the past. That this works

has been proven again and again, even dramatically, such as in Los

Angeles, hit by a 7.4 quake in 1994, with relatively little damage. (I

was asleep in my bed in Hollywood when it hit in the early morning of

January 17 and was rudely and frighteningly awakened, but the

apartment building was fine.) Yet large numbers of people in

California are still living in dwellings very vulnerable to a quake

because to correct the situation would adversely affect the profit and

loss statements of the owners of those dwellings.

 

 

NOTES

 

(1) Letter to Clinton:

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

 

(2) Agence France Presse, March 20, 2006

 

(3) Newsweek, April 3, 2006

 

(4) Washington Post, April 15, 2006, p.2

 

(5) Associated Press, March 27, 2006

 

(6) Philadelphia Inquirer, March 26, 2006

 

(7) Dahlia Lithwick, Slate.com, March 28, 2006

 

(8) Washington Post, April 14, 2006, p.1

 

(9) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 13, 2006

 

(10) www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism_convention_civil_aviation.html

 

(11) Washington Post, April 9, 2006, p.2

 

(12) Associated Press, March 29, 2006

 

(13) For many other examples of the mind on anti-communism, see

William Blum, " Freeing the World to Death " , chapter 12 ( " Before there

were terrorists there were communists and the wonderful world of

anti-communism " )

 

(14) Ryan Lizza, " Where angels fear to tread " , New Republic, July 24, 2000

 

(15) The Washington Post, August 2, 1997, p.A1 and February 6, 1998,

p.B1 re Tempelsman. Other speculation in various places has concerned

diamond investors Jean Raymond Boulle and Robert Friedland, each with

alleged ties to Clinton.

 

(16) Federal Information and News Dispatch, Inc., State Department

Documents and Publications, March 29, 2006

 

(17) Washington Post, April 17, 2006, p.3

 

 

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

 

http://www.killinghope.org

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