coldtype reader 14 2007

TheREADERColdType

W R I T I N G W O R T H R E A D I N G � I S S U E 1 4 � M A Y 2 0 0 7

INSIDE: LOVE BOMBING FOR JESUS � DEBTORNATION � LOOKING BACK IN ANGER � EMPEROROF AFRICA � A TIMETABLE FOR MURDER � & MORE

The dark sideof our craze fordesigner water

BOTTLEDINSANITY

BY MICHAEL I. NIMAN

2 TheREADER | May 2007

TheREADERColdType

3. LOVE BOMBING FOR JESUSBy Chris Hedges

8. DEBTOR NATIONBy Danny Schechter

11 TONY BLAIR: EMPEROR OF AFRICABy George Monbiot

14. COVER STORY – BOTTLED INSANITYBy Michael I. Niman

16. LOOKING BACK IN ANGERBy Sheila Samples

19. NEWS: ANOTHER CASUALTY OF WARBy Dahr Jamail

23. A TIMETABLE FOR MURDERBy Jon Ronson

26. DANA’S DEATH WISHBy Ann Wright

30. LAND OF THE FREE, HOME OF TERRORBy William Blum

37. THE GREAT CRISIS OF MODERN TIMESBy John Pilger

42. THE KING YOU DON’T SEE ON TVBy Norman Solomon & Jeff Cohen

47. CRUSHING FEAR STALKS NORTH AMERICABy Robert Fisk

50. DON’T FIRE ALBERTO GONZALEZBy Greg Palast

52. ERASING HISTORYBy Felicity Arbuthnot

55. THE BED OF SODOMBy Uri Avnery

61. THE ZUCCHINI PROSECUTIONBy Mike Whitney

Editor:Tony [email protected]

ISSUE 14 | MAY 2007

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There is a false,but effective, fic-tion that one has to be bornagain to be a Christian. TheChristian right refuses to ac-

knowledge the worth of anyone’s reli-gious experience unless, in the words ofits tired and opaque cliché, one has ac-cepted “Jesus Christ as my personalLord and Savior.”The emotional meltdown that leads

to the conversion experience – oneoften induced in crowds skillfully ma-nipulated and broken down by dema-gogues – is one of the most pernicioustools of the movement. Through con-version one surrenders to a higher au-thority. And the higher authority,rather than God, is the preacher whosteps in to take over one’s life. Beingborn again, and the process it entails,has far more in common with recruit-ment into a cult than it does with gen-uine belief.I attended a five-day seminar in Fort

Lauderdale, Fla., where I was taughtthe techniques of conversion, often byD. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Min-istries. The callousness of these tech-

niques – targeting the vulnerable,building false friendships with thelonely or troubled, promising to relievepeople of themost fundamental dreadsof human existence, from the fear ofmortality to the numbing pain of grief –gave to the process an awful crueltyand dishonesty.The seminar, which I attended as

part of the work I did on my book“American Fascists: The Christian Rightand the War on America,” gave me awindow into the subtle and pernicioustechniques this movement uses to ma-nipulate and control its followers.Ken-nedy openly called converts “recruits”and spoke about them joining a newpolitical force sweeping across thecountry to reshape and reform Amer-ica into a Christian state.“I would always go in first, introduce

myself, Jim Kennedy,” he told us. “I’mchecking the lay of the land and I willlook around the living room and see ifthere’s something there that I can com-ment about. Frequently, there will be alarge picture somewhere andwhere didthey put it, this picture ... why would

Being bornagain, andthe process itentails, hasfar more incommon withrecruitmentinto a cult thanit does withgenuine belief

May 2007 | TheREADER 3

BEING REBORN

LOVE BOMBINGFOR JESUSBYCHRIS HEDGES

they put it over the fireplace? Signifi-cant.”“In Fort Lauderdale you don’t find

too many fireplaces,” he added, smil-ing, “but there’s some kind of centralfocus.Maybe ... golf trophies ... I’m overhere looking at these golf trophies ...painting ... I say ... beautiful painting,did you paint that? The first rule aboutlooking at trophies, don’t touch them...did youwin all those trophies? Sowehave a little conversation about golf,but I know enough about golf to havethis conversation ... now what have Idone? I’m making a friend.”“Compliment them on whatever

you can,” Kennedy said, “discuss whatthey do, you’re going to find out whatare their hobbies, maybe right there inthe living room. Then you’re going toask them about what they do, wherethey’re from, how long they’ve beenthere ... something to discuss withthem ... in doing this, you have made afriend.”He tells us to “emphasize the posi-

tive” and “identify with your prospect.”We are encouraged in the green “Evan-gelism Explosion” instruction manualto use sentences such as “It is wonder-ful to know when I lay my head on mypillow tonight that if I do not awakenin bed in the morning, I will awaken inparadise with God” or paint graphicpictures of personal tragedy that Godhas helped solve, such as: “I had aChristian son killed in Vietnam,yet myheart is filled with peace because Iknow he has eternal life. Even thoughhe was killed by an enemy mortar, hehas a home now in heaven, and oneday we’ll be reunited there.”

We are told to pepper our testi-monies with words like love, peace,faithfulness, forgiveness,hope,purposeand obedience and remember to talkabout how we have found, in our ownconversion, “courage in the face ofdeath.”Kennedy warns us not to carry a

large Bible,but to keep a small one hid-den in a pocket, saying “don’t showyour gun until you’re ready to shoot it.”The conversion,at first blush, is sim-

ply euphoric. It is about new friends,loving and accepting friends, about thefinal conquering of human anxieties,fears and addictions, about attainmentthrough God of wealth, power, successand happiness. For those who haveknown personal and economic despairit feels like a new life, a new beginning.The new church friends call the con-

verts, invite them to dinner and havetime to listen to their troubles and an-swer their questions. Kennedy tells usthat we must keep in touch in the daysafter conversion. He encourages us tokeep detailed files on those we prose-lytize. We must be sure new convertsare never left standing alone at church.We must care when no one else seemsto care. The new converts are assigneda “discipler” or prayer partner, a newfriend,who is wiser than they are in theways of the Lord and able to instructthem in their new life.

Love bombing

Intense interest by a group of three orfour evangelists in a potential convert,an essential part of the conversionprocess, the flattery and feigned affec-tion, the rapt attention to those being

Kennedy warnsus not to carrya large Bible,but to keepa small onehidden ina pocket,saying“don’t showyour gun untilyou’re readyto shoot it”


BEING REBORN

recruited and the flurry of “sincere”compliments are a form of “love bomb-ing.”It is the same technique employed

by most cults, such as the UnificationChurch, or “Moonies,” to attractprospects. It was a well-developed tac-tic of the Russian and Chinese commu-nist parties, which share many of thecommunal and repressive characteris-tics of the Christian right.“Love bombing is a coordinated ef-

fort, usually under the direction ofleadership, that involves long-termmembers flooding recruits and newermembers with flattery, verbal seduc-tion, affectionate but usually nonsex-ual touching, and lots of attention totheir every remark,” the psychiatristMargaret Thaler Singer wrote. “Lovebombing – or the offer of instant com-panionship – is a deceptive ploy ac-counting for many successfulrecruitment drives.”The new convert is gradually drawn

into a host of church activities by his orher new friends, leaving little time foroutside socializing. But the warmthand embrace soon bring new rules.When you violate the rules, you sin,you flirt with rebellion, with becominga “backslider,” someone who was con-verted but has fallen and is once againon the wrong side of God.And as the new converts are increas-

ingly invested in the church commu-nity, as they cut ties with their oldcommunity, it is harder to dismiss thedemands of the “discipler” and churchleaders.The only proper relationship issubmission to those above you, theabandonment of critical thought and

the mouthing of thought-terminatingclichés that are morally charged. “Jesusis my personal Lord and Savior” or “thewages of sin are death” is used to endall discussion.Rules are incorporated slowly and

deliberately into the convert’s beliefsystem. These include blind obedienceto church leaders, the teaching of anexclusive, spiritual elitism that demo-nizes all other ways of being and be-lieving, and a persecution complex thatkeeps followers mobilized and distrust-ful of outsiders.

Total submission

The rules create a system of total sub-mission to church doctrine. They dis-courage independent thought andaction.And the result is the destructionof old communities and old friendships.Believers are soon enclosed in thechurch community. They are taught toplace an emphasis on personal experi-ence rather than reasoning, and to re-ject the rational, reality-based world.For those who defy the system, whowalk away, there is a collective banish-ment.There is a gradual establishment of

new standards for every aspect of life.Those who choose spouses mustchoose Christian spouses.Families andfriends are divided into groups of“saved” and “unsaved.” The move-ment, while it purports to be aboutfamilies, is in practice the great dividerof families, friends and communities. Itcompetes with the family for loyalty. Itseeks to place itself above the family, ei-ther drawing all family members intoits embrace or pushing aside those who

When youviolate the rules,you sin, you flirtwith rebellion,with becominga “backslider,”someone whowas convertedbut hasfallen andis once againon the wrongside of God


BEING REBORN

resist conversion.There were frequent prayers during

the seminar I attended for relativeswho were “unsaved,” those who re-mained beyond the control of themovement. Many of these prayers, in-cluding one by a woman for her un-saved grandchildren, were deeplyemotional. It was not unusual to seethese saved Christians sobbing over thedamnation of those they loved.The new ideology gives the believers

a cause, a sense of purpose, meaning,feelings of superiority and away to jus-tify and sanctify their hatreds. Formany, the rewards of cleaning up theirlives, of repairing their damaged self-esteem, of joining an elite and blessedgroup are worth the cost of submission.They now know how to define andidentify themselves. They do not haveto make moral choice. It is made forthem. They submerge their individualpersonas into the single persona of theChristian crowd.

New world of magic

Their hope lies not in the real world,but in this newworld of magic andmir-acles. For most, the conformity, theflight away from themselves, the dis-missal of facts and logic, the destruc-tion of personal autonomy, even withits latent totalitarianism, cause a wel-come and joyous relief. The flight intothe arms of the religious right, intoblind acceptance of a holy cause, com-pensates for the convert’s despair andlack of faith in himself or herself.And the more corrupted and soiled

the converts feel – the more profoundthe despair – the more militant they

become, shouting, organizing and agi-tating to create a pure and sanctifiedChristian nation, a purity they believewill offset their own feelings of shameand guilt. Many want to be deceivedand directed. It makes life easier tobear.Freedom from fear, especially the

fear of death, is what is being sold. It isa lie, as everyone who works to writeand rewrite his or her testimony in theseminar – all corrected and handedback to us by our instructors – has toknow on some level.But admitting thisin front of other believers is impossible.Such an admission is interpreted as alack of faith. And this too is part of theprocess, for it fosters internally a dreadof being found out, a morbid guilt thatone is not as good or as Christian asthose all around.The estrangement does not go away

with conversion or blind obedience orsubmission. Belief systems that preacha utopian and unachievable ideal drivethis angst underground, forcing theconvert to measure himself or herselfagainst an impossible end.Wewere instructed in the seminar to

inform potential converts that Jesuscame to Earth and died “to pay thepenalty for our sins and to purchase aplace in heaven for us” and that “to re-ceive eternal life youmust transfer yourtrust from yourself to Jesus Christ alonefor eternal life.”Wewere told to ask the convert if he

or she is willing “to turn fromwhat youhave been doing that is not pleasing toHim and follow Him as He reveals Hiswill to you in His Word.” If the covertagrees to accept a new way of life we

They now knowhow to defineand identifythemselves.They do not haveto make moralchoice. It ismade for them.They submergetheir individualpersonas intothe singlepersona of theChristian crowd


BEING REBORN

are to bow our heads and pray, withthe convert repeating each line after us.“Lord Jesus, I want You to come in

and take over my life right now. I am asinner. I have been trusting in myselfand my own good works. But now Iplace my trust in You. I accept You asmy own personal Savior. I believe youdied for me. I receive You as Lord andMaster of my life.Help me to turn frommy sins and to follow You. I accept thefree gift of eternal life. I am not worthyof it, but I thank You for it. Amen.”And when it is over, the new believ-

ers are told, “Welcome to the family ofGod.” They are told to read a chapter aday in the Gospel of John and that theywill be visited again in a week to talkabout the Bible. They are encouragedto pray,because God “promised to hear

and answer our prayers.” They are toldto find “a good Bible-believing churchand become a part of it.” They are toldto join a Christian fellowship group.And they are told to witness to thosein their family.With this, the process of decon-

structing an individual and building asubmissive follower,one who no longerhas any allegiance to the values of theopen society and the democratic state,begins. CT

Chris Hedges, who graduated fromseminary at Harvard Divinity School, isthe author of “American Fascists: TheChristian Right and the War onAmerica.” He is a senior fellow at TheNation Institue and a Lannan LiteraryFellow.

They are told tojoin a Christianfellowshipgroup.And they aretold to witnessto those intheir family


BEING REBORN

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Well over a year ago, Iwrote an article for Har-vard’s journalism journalNieman Reports com-

plaining about deeply flawed mediacoverage of credit and debt issues inAmerica.“There is a credit divide in America

that fuels our economic divide,” Iwrote,warning of a potential economicimplosion because so many Americansare trapped by a debt squeeze. I wasnot alone in projecting a crisis, al-though my focus was more on the fail-ure of many media outlets to track theproblem and ask deeper questions.“Ours has become a nation in which

the carrot of instant affluence is quicklymenaced by the harsh stick of bill col-lectors, lawsuits,and foreclosures,” I ar-gued.“And yet, this bubble can burst and

has:The slickest of our bankers and thesavviest of our marketers have beenable to undo the law of gravity, thatwhat goes up must come down.”One didn’t have to be an expert to

see the warning signs which have since

led to a massive market meltdown, acollapse of the sub-prime mortgagemarket, bankruptcies by leading finan-cial lenders, billions of dollars in lossesby top banks and financial lenders, andpredictions of more pain to come fornearly two million Americans facingforeclosures.When I started making a film on the

subject, “In DebtWe Trust,” colleagueswarned me that the issue might be tooobscure to rate media coverage. “Noone likes to talk about money,” said aproducer friend. “This could be such adowner.”Now what are they saying?It doesn’t feel good to be right when

so many people are being wronged. Atthe time I called on media outlets totake some steps to beef up their report-ing. Most didn’t, but it’s never too late.Here’s what I proposed then,and re-

peat now:• Report more regularly on thesecredit issues; billions of dollars areinvolved, not to mention millions oflives.• Identify the key corporate institu-

When I startedmaking a filmon the subject,“In Debt WeTrust,” acolleagueswarned methat the issuemight be tooobscure to ratemedia coverage


IN HOCK

DEBTOR NATIONBYDANNY SCHECHTER

tions and contrast the compensationof their executives with the financialcircumstances of their customers.Look into the process of “financial-ization” that is transferring morewealth from the people with theleast at the bottom to the peoplewiTh the most at the top of society.• Shine a spotlight on how specialinterests and lobbyists for financialinstitutions contribute to membersof Congress and other politicians,across party lines, to ensure their de-sired policies and curb effective reg-ulations.• Expose political influence driven bycampaign contributions. Some re-porting about this took place duringthe bankruptcy debate, but therehas been little follow-up.• Examine the influence credit cardcompanies have on media coveragethrough their extensive and expen-sive advertising.• Take a hard look at the predatoryreal estate practices in poor neigh-borhoods – and crimes committedagainst poor people, who are leastable to defend themselves. Legalservice lawyers tell me that they areoverwhelmed by the scale of mort-gage scams involving homes whosevalue have been artificially inflated.• Focus attention on what con-sumers can do to fight back. RobertManning, author of “Credit CardNation,” explains: “If ten percent ofAmerican credit cardholders with-held their monthly payments, itwould bring the financial services in-dustry to a standstill. At a largerissue, what we have to do is to get

people involved at the state level, gettheir state attorney generals in-volved, aggressively filing class ac-tion lawsuits and then puttingpressure on key legislators to say,‘This is unacceptable that they’re notrepresenting and balancing the is-sues of commerce with consumers.The balance is tilted dramaticallyagainst the average American.’’’• Report on initiatives like Ameri-cans For Debt Relief Now that aresetting up community, church andgrass roots house party screenings ofthe film “In Debt We Trust.”

We need to educate the public aboutthe deeper forces at work and the needfor structural changes, urgent reformsand regulations and new consumerprotections. We need to stop restatingproblems and start exploring solutionsincluding debt relefief.The globalization of our economy is

about more than the outsourcing ofjobs. There is a deeper shift under wayfrom a society based around produc-tion, with the factory as the symbol ofAmerican economic prowess, to a cul-ture driven by consumption, with themall as its new dominant icon.

New form of class struggle

Class struggle today is assuming a newform in the conflict between creditorsand lenders that reaches into manyAmericans’ homes, where each monthbills are juggled and rejuggled withtoday’s credit card bills paid by tomor-row’s new card.Meanwhile,with inter-est compounding at usurious rates,indebtness grows and people sink even

There is a deepershift under wayfrom a societybased aroundproduction,with the factoryas the symbolof Americaneconomicprowess,to a culturedriven byconsumption,with the mallas its newdominant icon


IN HOCK

deeper into debts they cannot manage.No wonder we are becoming a nationof scammers with consumers usingevery trick they can think of againstbanks that then hide their own preda-tory practices in legalese.In this conflict, financial institutions

function as well-organized collectionmachines while individual borrowersare forced to react as individuals.Manyare browbeaten with lectures about“personal responsibility” by corpora-tions that only pay lip service to anyform of social responsibility while com-pensating their own executives ob-scenely high salaries.Centuries ago, we had debtors pris-

ons. Today, many of our homes aresimilar kinds of prisons,where debtorsstruggle for survival with personalfinance pressures.Who is really respon-sible for this? Few of us seem to know.And fewer appear to knowwhat can

be done about it. “They’re never goingto be repaid,” says economic historianMichael Hudson who for many years

worked at Chase Bank. “Adam Smithsaid that no government had ever re-paid its debts and the same can be saidof the private sector. The U.S. govern-ment does not intend to repay its tril-lion dollar debt to foreign central banksand, even if it did intend to, there’s noway in which it could.Most of the cor-porations now are avoiding payingtheir pension fund debts and theirhealth care debts.”Yes, these can be complicated issues

that lead to tune-out,what TV produc-ers call the ‘Mego Effect” – “my eyesglaze over.” Yet because somany peopleare involved, it is urgent that our mediapush these issues from the businesspages to the front pages and humanizethem so we can try to wrestle our livesback from the ravages of a relentlessdebt machine. CT

“News Dissector” Danny Schechter editsMediaChannel.org, where this articlefirst appeared. His film “In Debt WeTrust,” is now in release.

Centuries ago,we haddebtorsprisons.Today, manyof our homesare similarkinds ofprisons,where debtorsstruggle forsurvival withpersonalfinancepressures


IN HOCK

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The disease that afflicts allBritish governments is an in-ability to let go. Unable to ac-cept the end of empire, they

cling to past glories. However muchthey speak of modernity and democ-racy, they cannot help managing otherpeople’s lives, preserving foreigners –often at gunpoint – from the mistakesthey would make if they were allowedto govern themselves.I was going to call this an imperial

delusion, but the United Kingdom hasbeen remarkably successful at defend-ing its powers.Our government has re-tained a permanent seat on the UNSecurity Council. Its membership of theG8 is unchallenged. Most importantly,it has preserved its unwarranted shareof the vote on the boards of the Inter-national Monetary Fund and theWorld Bank.And it has no intention ofgiving this up.In advance of the IMF’s spring meet-

ing (which has just concluded inWash-ington) France and the UnitedKingdom rejected any political reform.It is true that the fund’s proposals are

feeble. It is true that even after far moreambitious reforms the IMF would re-main the wrong body, constitutionallydestined to fail. But this is not why ourgovernment is holding out. It is resist-ing change because it wants to preserveits imperial rank.The United Kingdom,with 1% of the

world’s population,has 5% of the IMF’svotes. Sub-Saharan Africa,with 12% ofthe population, has 4.6%. The UK’sshare equals that of China and Indiaput together. It is five times as big asArgentina’s, 19 times Bangladesh’s, 35times Kenya’s, 124 times bigger thanMalawi’s.The G7 nations – the UK,US,Japan, Germany, France, Canada andItaly – together possess 45% of thevote. The other 177 members are left tosquabble over the remains.Even these numbers tell only half

the story. The five countries with thebiggest quotas – the US, UK, Japan,Germany and France – are each al-lowed to appoint their own executivedirector to the IMF’s board. The restmust submit their candidates for elec-tion. Because poor nations don’t know

However muchthey speakof modernityand democracy,they cannot helpmanaging otherpeople’s lives,preservingforeigners– often atgunpoint– from themistakes theywould makeif they wereallowed togovernthemselves


LEGACY OF MISERY

TONY BLAIR:EMPEROR OF AFRICABYGEORGEMONBIOT

what’s good for them, they are assignedto the tutelage of richer ones.The votesof the English-speaking Caribbeancountries are given to Canada.Mongo-lia is represented by Australia, Kaza-khstan by Belgium.The reason the UKand France are resisting even the mosttimid reforms is that these would tipthem below the threshold for auto-matic election: like the other countriesthey would be represented on theboard as part of a bloc.Power is distributed like this because

the IMF is a plutocracy. A country’svote represents its “quota”, which is afunction of its gross domestic product.In theory the quota reflects countries’financial contributions to the fund.Thisis no longer the case, as the IMF re-ceives much of its income from loan re-payments from poorer nations.But theold formula has resisted 60 years ofcomplaints.The result is that the governments

which are never made subject to theIMF’s strictures control it, while thosewhose countries have been reduced toan IMF franchise have no say in theway it runs. The fund’s allocation ofvotes is a perfect inversion of democ-racy.

Broken promises

A new report by ActionAid gives us aglimpse of how this unfair distributionof power affects the poor.After years ofprotests by poor countries and theirsupporters in the rich world, the IMFand the World Bank at last permittedthem to provide healthcare and educa-tion without charge. The rich nationsalso promised, in 2000, to ensure that

by 2015 every child on earth wouldhave primary education. It looked like agreat victory for the global justicemovement. But the IMF is ensuringthat the promise won’t be met. It has,in effect, forbidden the poorest nationsto hire sufficient teachers.No one disputes that public sector

wage rises can contribute to inflation.No one denies that governments haveto exercise some degree of restraint.But the paternalists who run the

IMF – who are fixated on creating safehavens for foreign capital – cannot helpmicromanaging the economies of thepoor nations, without reference to theneeds of the people who live there.Thelimits they have imposed on the publicsector pay bill ensure that schoolingcan’t be improved.ActionAid studied three very poor

countries with major education prob-lems: Malawi,Mozambique and SierraLeone. After they abolished user fees(andwhen the civil war ended in SierraLeone), vast numbers of pupils en-rolled.But a combination of the rich na-

tions’ failure to provide the foreign aidthey had promised and the restrictionsimposed by the IMF has preventedthese countries from meeting the newdemand.As a result, the pupil to teacher ratio

in Sierra Leone is 57:1; in Malawi 72:1and inMozambique 74:1.That’s the av-erage: in rural areas it can be muchhigher. Many of the teachers are un-trained; many give up because theycannot survive on their wages. InMalawi, for example, the goods re-quired for the most basic level of sub-

Thegovernmentswhich are nevermade subjectto the IMF’sstricturescontrol it, whilethose whosecountries havebeen reducedto an IMFfranchise haveno say in theway it runs


LEGACY OF MISERY

sistence cost $107 a month. A trainedteacher receives $55.So crowds of pupils strain to hear a

scarcely-literate teacher somewhere inthe middle distance seeking to instructthem without books, chalk, paper orpens. We should not be surprised todiscover that 40% of children fail tocomplete primary school in SierraLeone and Mozambique, and 70% inMalawi.Most of the drop-outs are girls.As a result, these countries are stuck

in a vicious circle of misery. Until edu-cation improves, GDP remains low.Until GDP rises, there’s little money foreducation.As one of the agencies charged with

rescuing countries from poverty, theIMF should be seeking to break this cir-cle. But the conditions it attaches to itsloans keep these countries in theirplace.In Malawi the IMF sets the ceiling

for public sector wages directly; inSierra Leone and Mozambique thebroader macroeconomic rules it im-poses have the same effect. ActionAidargues that its fiscal targets are out-dated and unnecessary: all these coun-tries have now achieved sufficientstability to start raising teachers’ pay.But in no case did the IMF consult

either the public or the state’s ownministry of education before layingdown the law.

The amount of money a teacher inrural Malawi is paid is decided by themen in Horse Guards Road and Penn-sylvania Avenue. Except for the districtcommissioners in pith helmets, littlehas changed since the country wascalled Nyasaland.Last year Tony Blair acknowledged

that the IMF “must become more rep-resentative of emerging economic pow-ers and give greater voice to developingcountries.” But he just can’t let go. Theproposed reforms do nothing to de-mocratise the IMF;by linking the quotato purchasing power parity rather thanraw GDP, they simply turn it into amore sophisticated plutocracy.But they would have the effect of

very slightly empowering somemiddle-income countries while taking a fewvotes away from some of the rich ones.Even that is too much for the Emperorof Africa.If the British government wants to

help the poor, it must first give up itspower to tell them how to live. Untilthat happens, everything the primeminister says about “partnership” and“solidarity” with the world’s oppressedis humbug. CT

George Monbiot’s latest book is Heat(Doubleday Canada). This articleoriginally appeared in London’sGuardian newspaper.

The amount ofmoney a teacherin rural Malawiis paid isdecided by themen in HorseGuards RoadandPennsylvaniaAvenue. Exceptfor the districtcommissionersin pith helmets,little haschanged sincethe countrywas calledNyasaland


LEGACY OF MISERY

Read a 20-page excerpt from George Monbiot’s book,

THE AGE OF DISSENT: A MANIFESTO FOR A NEWWORLD ORDERat: www.coldtype.net/archives.html

http://www.coldtype.net/archives.html

It’s got to be one of life’s cheapestescapes: a mini buck fifty sojournto the rainforests of Fiji, all from theconvenience of your own cubicle.

America is mad for Fiji water – anemerging victor in the designer waterwars.According to the Los Angeles-based

Fiji Water Company, their bottled-in-Fiji artesian water is “untouched byman” (which I would hope is prettystandard for drinking water) and, dueto a high-tech bottling plant,has nevercome in contact with 21st-century air.The hype positions it as the fossil fuel ofwaters – one more heirloom fluid to beravenously plundered.On one level it’s refreshing to see

people excited about water. For themost part, each bottle of water Ameri-cans drink represents one less sugar-and chemical-laden bottle of soda popconsumed.With sugary soft drinks (liq-uid candy averaging 11 teaspoons ofsugar per 12-ounce bottle) emerging asa major culprit in our obesity epidemic,our newfound taste for water is cer-tainly good news.

But there’s a dark side to our newwater craze. And in many ways, FijiWater optimizes the self-destructive in-sanity of consumer culture. The prob-lem is not Fiji Water per se. The com-pany has built hospitals and water sys-tems in Fiji, and I’m sure their water isgreat. The problem is bottled water ingeneral, and Fiji Water makes a greatcase study.I’m inWestern New York State wat-

ching people drink Fiji Water out of lit-tle, indestructible plastic tanks adornedwith colorful images of tropical flowersand waterfalls. But there’s somethingvery wrong here. Something very un-natural about this natural treat. Some-thing that threatens the very existenceof the tropical paradise depicted on thebottle.Something that lays bare the in-sanity of consumerism.Here we are sitting on the edge of

the Great Lakes – home to one fifth ofthe fresh water on the planet. We’rehours away from pristine Adirondackmountain aquifers. Yet we buy waterthat is transported to northeasternNorth America from a small South Pa-

Here we aresitting on theedge of theGreat Lakes– home to onefifth of thefresh wateron the planet.Yet we buywater thatis transportedto northeasternNorth Americafrom a smallSouth Pacificatoll whosepopulationsuffers fromchronic watershortages


DRINK PROBLEM

BOTTLED INSANITYBYMICHAEL I.NIMAN

cific atoll whose population suffersfrom chronic water shortages. Thiswater is packaged in plastic bottlesmade from dwindling oil reserves.Cur-rently it takes about 63 million gallonsof oil per year to manufacture dispos-able water bottles for US consumption.Fiji Water bottles are made on-site

in Fiji from polyethylene terephthalate(PET). The manufacturing process isenergy-intensive and produces toxicbyproducts. The plant that makes thebottles is one part of Fiji you’ll neversee pictured on a Fiji Water bottle.When we’re done drinking our water,over 85 percent of these bottles windup in landfills (where they take up to1,000 years to degrade) and incinerators– the latter of which can release a pot-pourri of deadly toxics into the envi-ronment. Recycling plastic bottles isstill often cost-prohibitive.Bringing these bottles of water here

from the other side of the earth in-volves packing them into cardboardboxes. In the South Pacific this oftenmeans rainforest cardboard.The boxesof bottles are then trucked from thebottling plant to a sea cargo terminal inFiji, then shipped across the ocean onfossil-fuel-powered freighters to the USPacific coast.There they’re loaded onto trains and

trucks, all powered by fossil fuels, andeventually warehoused, prodded withforklifts, loaded onto other trucks,shipped to other warehouses and even-tually delivered to your local conven-ience store or drink machine. Envir-onmental impact-wise, you might aswell be swigging down a pint of oil.We’re being sold a fantasy. A mo-

ment in Fiji.A taste of Fiji.And I’m suresomeone out there will tell me there’sno other water like it, or Perrier, orPoland Springs, on the planet.But the insane reality is we’re ship-

ping water across an ocean and conti-nent, to a region that already has theworld’s most abundant reserves ofsome of the best water on the planet –water that is also shipped around theworld to other water snobs who willargue it’s all worthwhile since there’s noother water quite like New York’sAdirondack spring water.This behavior is killing the planet.

And the places our designer watercomes from,such as Fiji and themoun-tains of New York and Maine, areamong the most vulnerable environ-ments susceptible to the ravages ofglobal warming.Years ago I clipped a small newspa-

per story and stuck it to the wall of myoffice. It was a three-column-inch re-port of a northbound train haulingmu-nicipal waste crashing into a southbound train hauling, yes, municipalwaste.The story was just a simple nar-rative. One train was on the wrongtack. A mistake was made. Never ad-dressed was the obvious question:Why are we moving identical trains ofgarbage in opposite directions for azero sum gain?I guess this is the magic of the free

market: Trains full of garbage or waterpassing in the night. The problem isthat this madness is no longer sustain-able. It never was. CT

Dr. Michael I. Niman is a professor ofjournalism at Buffalo State College

I guess thisis the magicof the freemarket:Trains fullof garbageor waterpassingin the night


DRINK PROBLEM

“...the high office of the President hasbeen used to ferment a plot to destroythe American’s freedom, and before Ileave office, I must inform the citizens ofthis plight.” John F. Kennedy (November12, 1963, Columbia U, 10 days before hisassassination)

Icannot recall a single day sinceVulcans’ Godfather James Bakersent his thuggish henchman JohnBolton to Florida’s Palm Beach

County to screw up the vote count thathas not been filled with horror, anger,shame – despair. On Dec. 9, 2000 –three days before the Florida deadline– the US Republic shuddered on itsaxis when Bolton crashed through thedoors of a Tallahassee library whereMiami-Dade ballots were being re-counted and shouted triumphantly –“I’m with the Bush-Cheney team, andI’m here to stop the count!”In that instant we lost most of what

had taken more than two centuries tobuild. In one fell swoop, Americanswere thrust into the mire of an Or-wellian World spinning out of control

on the other side of the Looking Glass.What a tragedy – not that so manyfailed to realize their government hadjust been seized in a coup de’etat – butthat the few who did refused to ac-knowledge it.The sudden unconstitutional deci-

sion by five unelected right-wing ac-tivist Supreme Court justices toblatantly steal an election for one oftheir own – to stop the vote count soBush would not be “embarassed” bylosing – was a frightening assault uponthe separation of powers, the Americanpeople, and upon democracy itself.Having upset the national equilib-

rium, George Bush and Dick Cheneyhit the deck at a dead run, trashingeverything in their path. Like a coupleof deranged Benny Hills with “YaketySax” blaring in the background, theytrashed treaties, insulted other worldleaders, and undermined Constitu-tional restraints on everything thatstood between them and their goal ofworldwide corporate pillage and totalexecutive power.Those who dare to look back will be

Like a coupleof derangedBenny Hills with“Yakety Sax”blaring in thebackground,they trashedtreaties,insulted otherworld leaders,and underminedConstitutionalrestraints oneverything thatstood betweenthem andtheir goalof worldwidecorporate pillageand totalexecutive power


GLOBAL DISGRACE

LOOKING BACKIN ANGERBY SHEILA SAMPLES

struck by the speed at which they res-urrected the zombies of the Iran-Con-tra era, the tyrannical neo-Straussians,and the godless right-wing evangelicalwarmongers, Talk about an Axis! Thestage was set for their long-plannedcrusade to gain control of not only theworld and its resources but of spaceand cyberspace as well. The only thinglacking was an incident to catapaultthem into the war for which theylusted – an incident of such magnitudethat cries of dissent would be lost in theroar for war.Their vision of global dominance

supplied them with moral justificationfor the filthy lies that took us into twowars and is threatening a third. “It isironic,” writes Canadian author andprofessor Shadia Drury, “that Americanneoconservatives have decided to con-quer the world in the name of libertyand democracy, when they have so lit-tle regard for either.” Drury has writtentwo books on the philosophy of LeoStrauss,and she writes that Strauss be-lieved “religion and war – perpetualwar – would lift the masses from theanimality of bourgeois consumptionand the pre-occupation with ‘creaturecomforts’. Instead of personal happi-ness, they would live their lives in per-petual sacrifice to God and the nation.”

Nasty, deceptive and repressive

Neoconservatives such as Paul Wol-fowitz, Irving and Bill Kristol, RichardPerle, Douglas Feith, David Wurmser,John Negroponte, and many others,took from Strauss a doctrine of “all pol-itics all the time” – nasty,deceptive andrepressive – whatever it takes for the

elite to exercise control over the vulgarunwashed.That would be you andme,fellow Americans, and Strauss said wecould be inspired to rise above our“brutish existence only by fear of im-pending death or catastrophe.” The liesthey told, and continue to tell, accord-ing to Drury,are “noble lies for the con-sumption of the masses.”We are in the clutches of an evil, evil

group of psychopaths – warmongeringmoral cowards whose faux leader,George W. Bush, is a shallow, self-de-structive little bully who deserted hismilitary post during a time of war.Perhaps themost frightening of all is

Michael Ledeen. Looking back, somemight remember that Ledeen was Sec-retary of State Alexander Haig’s advi-sor, a member of the National SecurityCouncil and a consultant for RonaldReagan’s Department of Defense. Heplayed a central role in the Iran-Contrascandal. It was Ledeen who made theinitial contact with Iranian arms deal-ers, which launched the arms-for-hostages affair and could have – shouldhave – brought down the Reagan pres-idency.Anyone reading Ledeen’s book,

“Machiavelli on Modern Leadership”,will recognize the Bush doctrine andknow that the horror of 9-11 was a fore-gone conclusion – a “done deal” – theminute they seized the 2000 election.Ledeen wrote, “To be an effectiveleader, the most prudent method is toensure that your people are afraid ofyou. To instill that fear, you mustdemonstrate that those who attackyou will not survive.”On the evening of 9-11, Bush went

We are in theclutchesof an evil, evilgroupof psychopaths– warmongeringmoral cowardswhose fauxleader, GeorgeW. Bush,is a shallow,self-destructivelittle bullywho desertedhis militarypost duringa timeof war


GLOBAL DISGRACE

before a paralyzed nation and, after abrief comment about praying, grievingand mourning for the 3,000 victims ofthat terrible day,he announced,“Thou-sands of lives were suddenly ended byevil.”Then, warming to his subject, Bush

rammed homewhat would become hismantra for the next six years – “Theseacts shattered steel, but they cannotdent the steel of American resolve.” Hethen assured themasses that he wouldmake no distinction between the “ter-rorists” and the regimes that harboredthem. Bush’s vision for revenge was tochase them all over the world and killthem all...

Destroying a nation

But a vision is not a plan.Looking back,it appears that Bush’s plan for perpet-ual war is sending Americans to theirdeaths, unequipped and untrained,while bellowing, “Support the Troops!”Bush’s plan is destroying an entirenation, its culture, its infrastructure –raping, torturing and slaughtering itspeople for no reason other than he can.It is creating a humanitarian crisis ofmind-boggling proportions – morethan 3.9 million Iraqis have fled theirhomes to safer areas in Iraq and inneighboring countriesFor Americans, it is more than amo-

mentary inconvenience that 3,302 of

their sons and daughters have need-lessly been killed, and that more than26,000 have been wounded, broken,maimed – their lives and those of theirloved ones utterly destroyed. Stretch-ing our military with its proud andhonorable tradition of protecting thiscountry until it breaks and then out-sourcing legions of mercenaries to doour dirty work of preemptive attacksand occupation of other countries isnot a plan that Americans will support.Bush reminds us on a daily basis

that our world changed on “Septemberthe 11th.” That is true. But we mustdare to look back even further to thatdark December daywhen five SupremeCourt judges made the ghastly decisionthat spawned the horrors of not only9-11, but of the carnage in which we areembroiled today.Before that bleak day, I had never

used the f-word nor uttered the Lord’sname in vain. However, as this nationteeters on the cusp of spiritual, physi-cal and political death, I can only praythat God will damn them. Every lastfucking one of them.Please God.Damnthem all. CT

Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writerand a former civilian US Army PublicInformation Officer. She is a regularcontributor for a variety of Internet sites.Contact her at: [email protected]

For Americans,it is more thana momentaryinconveniencethat 3,302of their sonsand daughtershave needlesslybeen killed,and that morethan 26,000have beenwounded,broken, maimed– their livesand thoseof their lovedones utterlydestroyed


GLOBAL DISGRACE

ARE YOU A JOE BAGEANT FAN?Download and read his political and humorous essays,

all in pdf format, all FREE, at:

www.coldtype.net/joe.html

http://www.coldtype.net/joe.html

Iraq is the most dangerous place inthe world for journalists. Alongwith names and dates, the BrusselsTribunal has listed the circum-

stances under which Iraqi media per--sonnel have been killed since theU.S.-led invasion of Iraq inMarch 2003.This extremely credible report cites 195as dead. If non-Iraqi media representa-tives are included, the figure goes be-yond 200. Both figures are well inexcess of the media fatalities sufferedin Vietnam or during World War II.The primary reason why reporting

from Iraq is dangerous for all journal-ists is the horrific security situation.Iraqi journalists reporting from thestreets are in perpetual danger. If any ofthe countless militias does not want acertain story made public, it will makesure that the journalist has filed his orher last story. Not to mention thescores of reporter deaths which havebeen the combined handiwork of theIraqi government, occupation forcesand/or criminal gangs.Despite President Bush’s assertion

that life in Iraq is improving, a senior

Iraqi journalist was found dead in thecapital on March 3, 2007. On the sameday the body of the managing editor ofBaghdad’s al-Safir newspaper, Jamal al-Zubaidi, was found shot in the head.

The realities of repression

The United States continues to claimthat its military operations in Iraq bringfreedom and democracy.But such free-dom apparently doesn’t extend to Iraqijournalists.Several journalists critical ofthe United States or the U.S.-backedIraqi government have been killed. Forinstance, on March 4, 2007 gunmenkilled prominent journalist Mohan alZaher in his home. That Sunday, hiscolumn concluded with the lament,“...if this is the democracy that we(Iraqis) dreamt of.” His earlier articlesquestioned U.S. policies in Iraq.The U.S.military has also conducted

direct raids on media establishmentsand representatives. During the inva-sion, on April 8, 2003, a U.S. warplanebombed the al-Jazeera bureau in Bagh-dad, killing 35-year-old journalist TareqAyoub.Britain’s DailyMirror later cited

If any of thecountlessmilitiasdoes not wanta certain storymade public,it will makesure thatthe journalisthas filed his orher last story


DANGER AT WORK

NEWS: ANOTHERCASUALTY OF WARBY DAHR JAMAIL

the “top secret” minutes of a meetingduring November 2004 where GeorgeW.Bush attempted to get British PrimeMinister Tony Blair to consent to thebombing of the al-Jazeera headquar-ters in Doha,Qatar.More recently, on February 23, 2007,

U.S. soldiers raided and ransacked theoffices of the Iraq Syndicate of Journal-ists (ISJ) in central Baghdad. The sol-diers arrested ten armed guards andseized ten computers and 15 small elec-tricity generators meant to be donatedto families of killed journalists.Youssif al-Tamimi of the ISJ in Bagh-

dad told one of my close colleagues,“The Americans have delivered somanymessages to us,but we simply ig-nored all of them. They killed our col-leagues, shut down our newspapers,arrested hundreds of us and now theyare shooting at our hearts by raidingour headquarters. This is the freedomof speechwe received.”Many Iraqis be-lieve that the U.S. soldiers were con-veying from their leadership to Iraqijournalists the message of zero toler-ance for criticism of the U.S.-led occu-pation.The U.S.-backed Iraqi government

also directly controls the media. TheCoalition Provisional Authority underthe U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer,created the Media and Communica-tions Commission as an instrument ofcontrol.This commission, incorporatedinto the Iraqi constitution, regulates li-censing, telecommunications, broad-casting, information services, and allother media establishments.Under theauthority of this commission, in July2004, security forces of the interim Iraqi

government raided and shut down theBaghdad office of the Arabic satellitechannel al-Jazeera. Initially the net-work faced a month-long ban on re-porting out of Iraq. In November 2004the Iraqi government announced thatany al-Jazeera journalist found report-ing in Iraq would be detained. Subse-quently the ban was extended indef-initely and continues today.Another instance of blatant media

repression by the Iraqi state took placeon November 11, 2004.During the siegeof Fallujah when Iraqi journalists alongwith this writer were reporting thekilling of civilians and the use of pro-hibited weapons such as white phos-phorous by the U.S. military, Iraq’sMedia High Commission issued awarning on the official letterhead of theprimeminister.The letter instructed re-porters to, “Stick to the governmentline on the U.S. led offensive in Fallu-jah or face legal action” and also to “setaside space in your news coverage tomake the position of the Iraqi govern-ment, which expresses the aspirationsof most Iraqis, clear.”The international NGO Reporters

Without Borders, which advocatesfreedom of the press, releases an an-nual worldwide press freedom index.Countries are ranked on the basis ofsurveys designed to record any kind ofharassment of journalists and state vi-olence against them that forces them toflee or abandon their work. In 2002,under Saddam Hussein and his dra-conian control of the media, Iraqranked a dismal 130. In 2006,after threeyears of U.S.occupation, Iraq fell to 154.The NGO has also declared Iraq to be

“The Americanshave deliveredso manymessages to us,but we simplyignoredall of them.They killedour colleagues,shut down ournewspapers,arrestedhundreds of usand now theyare shootingat our heartsby raiding ourheadquarters.This is thefreedomof speechwe received”


DANGER AT WORK

among the world’s worst hostage mar-ket, with 38 journalist kidnappings inthree years.

Direct Manipulation

Currently there are two main channelsfor information on Iraq: the Pentagonand the Iraqi stringers who work forArab media outlets. For audiences un-familiar with Arabic or alternativenews sources on Iraq, the only availablenews comes from daily press releasesby the U.S. military that are parrotedby the establishment media.Another dubious source of informa-

tion is the U.S.-sponsored Iraqi televi-sion station al-Iraqiyah that beganbroadcasting in May 2003. In January2004, the U.S. Defense Departmentawarded the Florida-based Harris Cor-poration a 12-month contract to man-age the Iraqi Media Network, includingal-Iraqiyah, and provided the physicalinfrastructure for the expansion of thenetwork.The U.S. military also hired the

Washington-based public relations firmLincoln Group to manipulate Iraqipublic opinion in favor of the UnitedStates. The group’s covert program,worth millions of dollars, included var-ious media activities that faked inde-pendent journalism in order to concealthe fact that it was U.S. state and mili-tary propaganda. Former LincolnGroup employees claim that U.S. mili-tary officials were aware of paymentsto Iraqi newspapers to print pro-U.S.articles and editorials.Such state control has a boomerang

effect. False news generated for theIraqi public in local papers also comes

to the United States as “news.” This in-direct state-meddling abroad, coupledwith direct repression of the media athome, is also reflected in the ReportersWithout Borders press freedom index.In 2002, the United States ranked 17th.In 2006, after six years of Bush admin-istration, the rank has fallen to 56th.

Covering the War at Home

Unlike in Iraq, the problem in theUnited States began before the 2003 in-vasion. In the prestigious New YorkTimes, Judith Miller dutifully parrotedthe propaganda issued by the Bush ad-ministration about Iraq’s weapons ofmass destruction during the lead-up tothe invasion. Quoting one anonymoussource after another, she became ahighly effective vehicle of the Bush ad-ministration in disseminating misinfor-mation and lies about Saddam Hus-sein’s possession of and attempt to ac-quire WMDs.Later, during an interview with PBS

Frontline conducted on July 13, 2006, inthe presence of her lawyer, Millerbrazenly defied criticism of her WMDcoverage saying, “I didn’t feel that I hadanything to apologize for with myWMD coverage.”Once the invasionwas launched,an-

chorman Tom Brokaw of NBC NightlyNews announced to viewers nation-wide, “One of the things that we don’twant to do...is to destroy the infra-structure of Iraq because in a few dayswe’re going to own that country.”The Pentagon’s “embedded” pro-

gram where mainstream media jour-nalists volunteer to act as propa-gandists requires a journalist to sign a

The group’scovert program,worth millionsof dollars,included variousmedia activitiesthat fakedindependentjournalism inorder to concealthe fact that itwas U.S. stateand militarypropaganda


DANGER AT WORK

contract giving themilitary control overher or his output which amounts tototal censorship.Embedding continuesto this day, as does corporate owner-ship of themedia.Together they ensurecoverage of the occupation that is bi-ased in favor of the state as the mediawatchdog group Fairness and AccuracyIn Reporting (FAIR) has exposed.Corporate ownership of the media

has much to do with the transforma-tion of nationally televised news per-sonalities into cheerleaders for war.Take the example of the AssociatedPress. Its board of directors includes theCEOs and presidents of ABC, Mc-Clatchy, Hearst, Tribune, and theWashington Post. Two of the directorsbelong to extremely conservative pol-icy councils like the Hoover Institute, aRepublican policy research center lo-cated on the campus of Stanford Uni-versity and referred to as “Bush’s braintrust.” Douglas McCorkindale, anothermember of the AP board, is on theboard of Lockheed Martin, the world’slargest defense contract company. Theboard of AP displays a clear tilt towardright-wing conservative views, repre-sented by a huge corporate media net-work of the largest publishers in theU.S.Today in the United States, our

media is more homogenized than ever.Only six corporations control themajor

U.S. media: Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorporation, General Electric, TimeWarner, Disney, Viacom, and Bertels-mann. These corporations also happento be heavy financial supporters of theelite political groups (Republicans andDemocrats alike) that control thiscountry. They put politics ahead of re-sponsible journalism.“As news outlets fall into the hands

of large conglomerates with holdings inmany industries, conflicts of interest in-evitably interfere with news gathering,”according to FAIR. “Independentmedia are essential to a democratic so-ciety, and...aggressive antitrust actionmust be taken to break up monopolis-tic media conglomerates.”Until that happens in the United

States, media coverage of Iraq is likelyto worsen.As for Iraqi journalists, pro-mises of free speech and freedom of thepress– just like the earlier promises ofliberation, economic opportunity, andfreedom for the Iraqi people – will notmaterialize before the end of the U.S.occupation of the country. CT

Dahr Jamail has reported from insideIraq and is a Middle East expert.He writes for Inter Press Service, wheretyhis essay first appeared, The AsiaTimes, and is a contributor to ForeignPolicy In Focus. His web site isdahrjamailiraq.com

Corporateownershipof the mediahas muchto do with thetransformationof nationallytelevised newspersonalitiesintocheerleadersfor war


DANGER AT WORK

SUBSCRIBE TO THE COLDTYPE READERIf you enjoy The ColdType Readersubscribe to future issues – it’s free!E-mail: [email protected]

Mid-April is the time of theyear for school shootingsin the US. This week in2006 there were four foiled

plots – at Riverton High School,Kansas; North Pole Middle School,Alaska; Pearl Junior High School, Mis-sissippi, and one in Puyallup,Washing-ton. The Columbine High School shoo-tings took place on April 20 1999.Last October, I travelled to North

Pole,Alaska, the site of one of the failedschool shootings, to make a documen-tary about it for More 4.The documen-tary – Travels With My Camera – willbe shown on May 2.So far there's noword of the Virginia

shooter's motive,although the tabloidsare saying he was a jilted boyfriend. Isuppose we'll never know what wasgoing through his head, nor theColumbine shooters' heads, nor theheads of the many other school shoot-ers who ended the day by killing them-selves. Perhaps the most instructivething about our visit to North Pole wasmeeting the father of one of the ring-leaders of the shooting plot. Hearing

his story, I think, goes some way to-wards understanding why Americankids so frequently decide to enact thisdark fantasy.The father's name is Joe, and he was

fighting in Iraq when he learned thathis 13-year-old son had been arrestedfor being in the final stages of planninga school shooting. Six boys – Joe's sonincluded – had made a list, and theirplan was to kill the kids on the list, andto do it in the cafeteria. The plot failedbecause the boy who was supposed tobe bringing in the weapons didn't showup for school that Monday (schoolshootings frequently happen on aMonday). The kids were discussing re-arranging when their plans were over-heard.“Were they serious?” I asked Joe

when I met him last October.“I've asked my son that point

blank,” Joe replied. “I said, 'Would youhave done this?' He said, 'Yes. I wouldhave'. And he maintains that to thisday.He says they would have done it.”Joe paused.“They were going to fire somewarn-

The plot failedbecause theboy who wassupposedto be bringingin the weaponsdidn't show upfor school thatMonday


CHILD ’S PLAY

A TIMETABLEFORMURDERBY JON RONSON

ing shots,” he said. “There were otherkids that were indirectly involved –they'd been told about the plan – theywere to get certain other kids out of thecafeteria when the warning shots werefired. My son was to go to the officewith a rifle and disable the communi-cations equipment,and then they weregoing to start shooting the kids fromthe list.”(Disabling communications equip-

ment was a bit of a childish flourish –most children and teachers have mo-bile phones nowadays.)“Howmany kids were on the list?” I

asked Joe.“Fifteeen or 20,” Joe said. “And there

was a comment on there: 'And all theother cool kids.'Who knowswhat thatmeans? That's kind of open-ended,right? That's kind of subjective.”After Joe's wife told Joe the news of

the plot, he sought emergency leave.He told me it was hard to leave Iraq. “Ihad a sense of responsibility to mycomrades,” he said. “Youwant to comehome with your unit.”Sometimes,during our interview, Joe

sounded like a soldier making a verbalreport to his commanding officer. Hesaid things like, “At this time my sonstated to me ... “ And so on. But therewere other occasions when he wasdoing all he could to stop himself frombreaking down in tears.Joe's son was in custodywhen he re-

turned from Iraq. The charge was con-spiracy to commit first degree murder.“I really didn't know how to react,”

Joe said. “Part of me wanted to grabhim and shake him and say, 'What isyour problem?' And the other part

wanted to hug him and say, 'We'll pro-tect you from this'.”“What did you do?” I asked.“I gave him a hug,” Joe said. “I said,

'I love you', and then I said, 'Sit down.'I could tell he was kind of scared. Iasked him, 'Why would you do this?'He said, 'I don't know'.”Joe said he doesn't know either. It's

not like his son is a Goth, he said.“He likes to fish,” said Joe. “He likes

to go camping.He likes to make up hisown jokes. The counsellor is trying tofigure out why they'd do this. Thesekids don't fit the mould. He doesn'tcome from a dysfunctional family. Imean, we have our dysfunctions, buthe's not abused. I don't use drugs. Idon't consider myself an alcoholic. Ispend time with him. I coached base-ball for him when he was younger.”Joe paused. “We have rules. He

doesn't dress Goth.He's not allowed todress Goth. He's not allowed to havebaggy pants that hang down.He's notallowed to wear his hat cocked to theside and walk around looking like a lit-tle punk.We never let him have violentposters on his walls. He's not allowedto play violent video games.He's neverbeen to the mall by himself. He does-n't have any CDs, like rap CDs,with vi-olent themes. That kind of stuff justdoesn't fit in with our lives.”Apparently, Joe's son behaved per-

fectly normally over breakfast thatMonday morning. He was jokingaround as usual, even though he be-lieved that within a few hours he wasto commit mass murder.“His sister goes here,” Joe said. “I

said to him: 'Did you tell her, so she

Apparently,Joe's sonbehavedperfectlynormally overbreakfast thatMondaymorning.He was jokingaround as usual,even thoughhe believedthat withina few hours hewas to commitmass murder


CHILD ’S PLAY

could get out when the shootingstarted?' And he said: 'No.' I said:'What if your sister heard the shooting,worried about you, ran to see what youwere doing and one of the kids shother?' And I could see from the look onhis face that those thoughts had nevercrossed his mind. He said to me: 'Wewere just going to shoot the bad kids.'And I said: 'Bullets don't care who theyhit or who they kill. They go throughpeople. They tear flesh and they gothrough. It doesn't matter who's on theother side.' He had not thought aboutthat. It was not in his thought process.”The Noth Pole kids had an ex-

tremely ill-thought-out escape plan.After the shootings, they were going torun to the station and catch a train toAnchorage, where they'd create newlives for themselves using aliases. Oneboy's alias was going to be JohnWayne.The thing is, they hadn't checked thetrain timetables. The shootings weregoing to occur at lunchtime in the cafe-teria. Even if they gave themselves anhour to kill their enemies and get to the

station, they would still have had afive-hour wait on the platform for theAnchorage train.“To even think they were going to

get out of the school without beingkilled by the police,” Joe said.Joe's son got off quite lightly – with

probation, a 5,000-word essay on theeffects of school shootings acrossAmerica, 100 hours of community serv-ice, and some anger regression therapy.Joe said he's pleased and relieved

nobody has thrown a brick throughtheir window.“I don't want people taking the law

into their own hands,” he said, “be-cause I have an obligation to protectmy son and the rest of my family. So ifthey push I'm going to have to pushback. And, if that happens, it's notgoing to be pretty.” CT

Jon Ronson is the author of THEM:Adventures With Extremists;The Men Who Stare at Goats; andOut of the Ordinary. His web ste isjonronson.com

Even if theygave themselvesan hour to killtheir enemiesand get to thestation, theywould still havehad a five-hourwait on theplatform for theAnchorage train


CHILD ’S PLAY

Read these excerpts from JonRonson’s best-selling books

THEM: AdventuresWith Extremistsand

The Men WhoStare at GoatsDownload your FREE copies athttp://www.coldtype.net/archives.html


I hope it’s your familymembers thatdie” said US Representative DanaRohrabacker to American citizenswho questioned the Bush Admin-

istration’s unlawful extraordinary ren-dition policies.Congressional hearings provide a

deep insight into the inner spirit of ourelected representatives – and some-times, the insight is not pretty.On April 17,we witnessed Represen-

tative Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) un-leash his unbridled anger onto mem-bers of the European Parliament’s com-mittee on Human rights who were in-vited guests and witnesses in theHouse Foreign Affairs European sub-committee hearing.The European Parliamentary human

rights committee had issued a report inJanuary, 2007 sharply critical of theBush administration’s extraordinaryrendition program in which personsfrom all over the world were detainedby either CIA or local police and thenflown by CIA jet (torture taxi) to othercountries where they were imprisoned(Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Djibouti,

Morocco, Yemen.) The report wasequally critical of European govern-ments for allowing the unlawful flightsto take place.From 2001 through 2005, the govern-

ments of fourteen countries in Europeallowed at least 1,245 CIA flights withillegally abducted terrorist suspects tobe flown through their airspace or toland on their territory. Germany,Britain, Ireland and Portugal allowedthe highest numbers of covert flights.As well as at least 1,245 flights operatedby the CIA, there were an unspecifiednumber of US military flights for thesame purpose.The European Parliament report dif-

fereniated between lawful extraditionof criminal suspects for trial in anothercountry and the unlawful abduction,sending to a third country usuallynoted for torture of prisoners and im-prisoning for years without trial per-sons suspected of criminal terroristacts.The report acknowledged that ter-

rorism is a threat to European coun-tries as well as to the United States,but

From 2001through 2005,the governmentsof fourteencountries inEurope allowedat least 1,245CIA flights withillegallyabductedterroristsuspects to beflown throughtheir airspaceor to land ontheir territory


MIND GAMES

DANA’S DEATHWISHBYANNWRIGHT

“

the European Parlimentary committeesaid that terrorist acts must be handledlawfully by both European countriesand by the United States. The reportsaid: “After 11 September 2001, the so-called ‘war on terror’ – in its excesses–has produced a serious and danger-ous erosion of human rights and fun-damental freedoms.”The extraordinary rendidition pro-

gram undercuts the exact liberties weare defending, the rule of law, the rightfor a fair and speedy trial, the right toknow the evidence on which one isheld and prosecuted.Some who were kidnapped ended

up in Guantanamo.Others were flownto prisons in other countries for interro-gation and torture.Many of those whowere subjected to extraordinary rendi-tion are still in Guantanano.Many havebeen there for more than five years.Over 400 of the 770 persons who havebeen imprisoned in Guantanamo overthe five years it has been opened, havebeen released.Only 380 are left imprisoned in

Guantanamo. Only three have beencharged by the Military Commissionand only one tried in Guantanamo.After five years of being held prisoner,Australian citizen David Hicks wasconvicted in March, 2007 of materialsupport to terrorism and sentenced toonly seven months further imprison-ment which he is serving in Australia.The Bush administration has said itwill try only 50-70 of the 380 remainingin Guantanamo. That means that of770 who have been in Guantanamo,only 50-70 will be tried. The otherseventually will be freed due to lack of

evidence of a crime. Many will havespent five years or more in imprison-ment.According to virtually every prisoner

so far released, they were torturedwhile imprisoned in countries such asSyria, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Pakistan andAfghanistan.Some prisoners say they were tor-

tured by police or interrogators. Somesay they heard American voices in thebackground while they were tortured.None were charged with any crimes.None went to trial. They were ab-ducted by CIA or local authorities atthe request of the United States.The United States did not present

evidence of criminal actions nor requestextradition from the country where theperson was detained.Nor did a centralapproving authority look at the ration-ale for spiriting a person to the controlof a third country for interrogation.Per-sons were “rendered” many times onthe say-so of junior CIA officials.

Memories of Joe McCarthy

Back to the Congressional hearing.With eyes narrowed and mouth in acontorted grimace, Congressman Roh-rabacker attacked the two British andone Italian members of the EuropeanParliament who testified before thecommittee. Reminding one of Joe Mc-Carthy in tone and substance, Rohra-backer demeaned and degraded thereport and chastised, belittled and be-rated the Parliamentarians.Remarkably, Rohrabacker said the

most of the CIA private flights thatlanded in Europewere to transport CIAagents all over the world, not to move

Of 770 who havebeen inGuantanamo,only 50-70 willbe tried.The otherseventuallwill be freeddue to lackof evidenceof a crime.Many will havespent five yearsor more inimprisonment


MIND GAMES

prisoners.Yet the logs of the 1245 flightshave been tied by date and location tothe movement of specific individualprisoners from one location to another.Rohrabacher railed against anyone

who questioned the right of the Bushadministration to do whatever itwanted, legal or illegal, to prevent ter-rorist acts and said that by not sup-porting the Bush policies wasconsigning their country to the terror-ists. In particular he said that anyAmericans who questioned the ex-traordinary rendition were un-Ameri-can.Citing historic examples of other

countries kidnapping persons, Rohra-backer said Israel had every right tokidnap Nazi official Adolph EichmannfromArgentina,bring him to Israel andexecute him.Rohrabacher convenientlyforgot to mention that the Israeli gov-ernment did put Eichmann on trial, atrial which none of those who havebeen extraordinarily rendered havehad.Rohrabacher then attacked and be-

littled the European Community foroutlawing the death penalty sayingthat “You in the European communitywon’t stand up to evil people, youwon’t execute them. Eichmann de-served to be executed, just like theseterrorists must be executed.”Rohrabacher never once mentioned

due process, the rule of law, right to atrial for anyone picked up in the ex-traordinary rendition program.Merelybecause persons were “rendered” andimprisoned by the US meant to Rohr-backer they were guilty.Rohrabacher said if European coun-

tries did not cooperate with the UnitedStates and go along with whatever theBush administrationwanted, theywerecondemning their countrymen to deathby not using extralegal methods to im-prison terrorist suspects.When citizens attending the hear-

ing, including members of CodepinkWomen for Peace and Veterans forPeace, heard Rohrabacher’s statement,they collectively groaned. Then, muchto the shock and disbelief of everyonein the hearing room, Rorhbacker saidto those who had expressed displeas-ure at his statements: “I hope it’s yourfamily members that die when terror-ists strike.”At that point, I had had enough of

Rohrabacher. I stood up and said “I didnot serve 29 years in the US militaryand 16 years in the US diplomatic corpsto see demise of the rule of law and vi-olation of our own laws. Rohrback’sstatements are outrageous.Nowonderthe world hates us!”

Police escort

Chairman Delahunt gaveled for me tostop speaking and I was escorted bythe police out of the committee room. Iwas not arrested.Remarkably, I do agree with one

thing Rohrabacker said. “They hate us.”Rohrabacker finished his sentence

with “They hate us because they hateour way of life.” Unfortunately, manypeople do hate us, but it’s not for ourway of life.It’s for exactly the talk and actions

that Rohrabacker and the Bush admin-istration represent: illegal and unlawfulactions, an arrogant attitude that

Then, muchto the shockand disbeliefof everyone inthe hearingroom,Rorhbackersaid to thosewho hadexpresseddispleasureat hisstatements:“I hope it’s yourfamily membersthat die whenterrorists strike”


MIND GAMES

America is always right and everyoneelse is wrong, that the world’s resourcesare for the exclusive use of the UnitedStates and we have the right to invadeand occupy any country.”Until we change the manner in

which Presidential administrations andthe Congress operate and the way weapproach our membership in the com-munity of nations, the world will con-tinue to question what America standsfor. CT

AnnWright retired as a Colonel afterserving 13 years on active duty and 16years in the US Army Reserves. After 16years in the US diplomatic corps, sheresigned in March, 2003 in opposition tothe war on Iraq. She had been assignedin Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia,Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone,Micronesia and Mongolia. She helpedreopen the US Embassy in Kabul,Afghanistan in December, 2001.This article originally appeared on theweb site AfterDowningStreet.org


MIND GAMES

SUBSCRIBE TOCOLDTYPEAND GET A FREEE-BOOK BY DANNYSCHECHTEREverone who takes out aFREE subscription to ColdTypegets a FREE copy ofDanny Schechter’s book,“Embedded:Weaponsof Mass Deception”

Get yours by [email protected] “SUBSCRIBE” in the subject line

They told us this was one of theworld’s worst terrorists,and hegot the sentence of a drunkendriver,” said Ben Wizner, an

attorney for the American Civil Liber-ties Union, referring to David Hicks, a31-year-old Australian who in a pleabargain with a US military court willserve nine months in prison, largely inAustralia. That’s after five years atGuantánamo Bay, Cuba without beingcharged with a crime, without a trial,without a conviction.Under the deal, Hicks agreed not to

talk to reporters for one year (a slap inthe face of free speech), to forever waiveany profit from telling his story (a slap– mon Dieu! – in the face of free enter-prise), to submit to US interrogationand testify at future US trials or inter-national tribunals (an open invitationto the US government to hound theyoungman for the rest of his life), to re-nounce any claims of mistreatment orunlawful detention (a requirementwhich would be unconstitutional in acivilian US court).“If the United States were not

ashamed of its conduct, it wouldn’thide behind a gag order,” said Wiz-ner.)[1]

Like so many other “terrorists” heldby the United States in recent years,Hicks had been “sold” to the Americanmilitary for a bounty offered by the US,a phenomenon repeated frequently inAfghanistan and Pakistan. US officialshad to know that once they offeredpayments to a very poor area to turn inbodies that almost anyone was fairgame.Other “terrorists” have been turned

in as reprisals for all sorts of personalhatreds and feuds.Many others – abroad and in the

United States – have been incarceratedby the United States simply for work-ing for, or merely contributing moneyto, charitable organizations with al-leged or real ties to a “terrorist organi-zation”, as determined by a list kept bythe State Department, a list conspicu-ously political.It was recently disclosed that an

Iraqi resident of Britain is being re-leased from Guantánamo after four

US officialshad to knowthat once theyofferedpaymentsto a very poorarea to turnin bodies thatalmost anyonewasfair game


ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT

LANDOF THE FREE,HOMEOF TERRORBYWILLIAM BLUM

“

years.His crime? He refused to work asan informer for the CIA and MI5, theBritish security service. His businesspartner is still being held in Guantá-namo, for the same crime.[2]

Finally, there are those many otherpoor souls who have been picked upsimply for being in the wrong place atthe wrong time. “Most of these guysweren’t fighting. They were running,”General Martin Lucenti, former deputycommander of Guantánamo, haspointed out.[3]

Thousands of people thrown intohell on earth for no earthly good rea-son. The world media has been over-flowing with their individual tales ofhorror and sadness for five very longyears.Said Guantánamo’s former com-mander, General Jay Hood: “Some-times we just didn’t get the rightfolks.”[4] Not that the torture they wereput through would be justified if theywere in fact “the right folks”.Hicks was taken into custody in

Afghanistan in 2001. He was a convertto Islam and like many others frommany countries had gone to Afghan-istan for religious reasons, had woundup on the side of the Taliban in the civilwar that had been going on since theearly 1990s, and had received militarytraining at a Taliban camp.The United States has insisted on

calling such camps “terrorist trainingcamps”, or “anti-American terroristtraining camps”, or “al-Qaeda terroristtraining camps”. Almost every individ-ual or group not in love with US foreignpolicy, which Washington wants tostigmatize, is charged with being asso-ciated with, or being a member of, al

Qaeda,as if there’s a precise andmean-ingful distinction between people retal-iating against American imperialismwhile being a member of al Qaeda andretaliating against American imperial-ism while NOT being a member of alQaeda; as if al Qaeda gives out mem-bership cards to fit into your wallet, asif there are chapters of al Qaeda thatput out a weekly newsletter and holda potluck on the first Monday of eachmonth.It should be noted that for nearly

half a century much of southernFlorida has been one big training campfor anti-Castro terrorists.None of theirgroups – which have carried out manyhundreds of serious terrorist acts in theUS as well as abroad, including bomb-ing a passenger airplane in flight – areon the State Department list.Nor werethe Contras of Nicaragua in the 1980s,heavily supported by the UnitedStates, about whom former CIA Direc-tor Stansfield Turner testified: “I believeit is irrefutable that a number of theContras’ actions have to be character-ized as terrorism, as State-supportedterrorism.”[5]

The same applies to groups inKosovo and Bosnia,with close ties to alQaeda, including Osama bin Laden, inthe recent past, but which have alliedthemselves with Washington’s agendain the former Yugoslavia since the1990s. Now we learn of US support fora Pakistani group, called Jundullah andled by a Taliban, which has taken re-sponsibility for the recent kidnapingsand deaths and of more than a dozenIranian soldiers and officials in cross-border attacks.[6] Do not hold your

It shouldbe noted thatfor nearly halfa century muchof southernFlorida hasbeen one bigtraining campfor anti-Castroterrorists.None of theirgroups are onthe StateDepartment list


ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT

breath waiting for the name Jundallahto appear on the State Department listof terrorist organizations; nor any of theseveral other ethnic militias being sup-ported by the CIA to carry out terroristbombing and assassination attacks inIran.[7]

The same political selectivity appliestomany of the groups which are on thelist, particularly those opposed toAmerican or Israeli policies.Amid pres-sure from their home countries and in-ternational human rights advocates,scores of Guantánamo detainees havebeen quietly repatriated in the pastthree years.Now,a new analysis by lawyers who

have represented detainees at this 21stcentury Devil’s Island says this policyundermines Washington’s own claimsabout the threat posed by many of theprison camp’s residents. The report,based on US government case files forSaudi detainees sent home over thepast three years, shows inmates beingsystematically freed from custodywithin weeks of their return. In half thecases studied, the detainees had beenturned over to US forces by Pakistanipolice or troops in return for financialrewards.Many others were accused of terror-

ism connections in part because theirArab nicknames matched those foundin a computer database of al-Qaedamembers, documents show. In Decem-ber, a survey by the Associated Pressfound that 84 percent of released de-tainees – 205 out of 245 individualswhose cases could be tracked – wereset free after being released to the cus-tody of their native countries.

“There are certainly bad people inGuantánamo Bay, but there are alsoother cases where it’s hard to under-stand why the people are still there,”said Anant Raut, co-author of the re-port, who has visited the detentioncamp three times. “We were strugglingto find some rationality, something tocomfort us that it wasn’t just random.But we didn’t find it.”The report states that many of the

US attempts to link the detainees toterrorism groups were based on evi-dence the authors describe as circum-stantial and “highly questionable”,such as the travel routes the detaineeshad followed in flying commerciallyfrom one Middle East country to an-other.American officials have associated

certain travel routes with al Qaeda,when in fact, says the report, the routes“involve ordinary connecting flights inmajor international airports.” With re-gard to accusations based on similarnames, the report states: “This accusa-tion appears to be based upon littlemore than similarities in the transliter-ations of a detainee’s name and a namefound on one of the hard drives.”Raut said he was most struck by the

high percentage of Saudi detaineeswho had been captured and turnedover by Pakistani forces. In effect, hesaid, for at least half of the group in thestudy, the United States “had no first-hand knowledge of their activities” inAfghanistan before their capture andimprisonment.[8]

When Michael Scheuer, former CIAofficer who headed the Agency’s Osa-ma bin Laden unit, was told that the

Americanofficials haveassociatedcertain travelroutes withal Qaeda, whenin fact, saysthe report,the routes“involve ordinaryconnectingflights in majorinternationalairports”


ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT

largest group in Guantánamo camefrom custody in Pakistan, he said: “Weabsolutely got the wrong people.”[9]

Never mind. They were all treatedequally. All thrown into solitary con-finement. Shackled,blindfolded,excru-ciating physical contortions for longperiods,deniedmedicine.Sensory dep-rivation, sleep deprivation. And twodozen other methods of torture whichAmerican officials do not call torture. (Ifyou torture these officials, they mightadmit that it “torture lite”.)“The idea is to build an antiterrorist

global environment,” a senior Americandefense official said in 2003, “so that in20 to 30 years, terrorism will be likeslave-trading, completely discred-ited.”[10]

Whenwill the dropping of bombs oninnocent civilians by the United States,and invading and occupying theircountry, without their country attack-ing or threatening the US, becomecompletely discredited? When will theuse of depleted uranium and clusterbombs and CIA torture renditions be-come things that evenmen like GeorgeW. Bush, Dick Cheney, and DonaldRumsfeld will be too embarrassed todefend?Australian/British journalist John

Pilger has noted that in George Or-well’s 1984 “three slogans dominate so-ciety: war is peace, freedom is slaveryand ignorance is strength. Today’s slo-gan, war on terrorism, also reversesmeaning. The war is terrorism.”

Throwing the earth onthe mercy of the market

Al Gore appeared before a House En-

ergy and Commerce Committee hear-ing on global warming on March 21.The star of “An Inconvenient Truth”was told by Cong. Joe Barton of Texas:“You’re not just off a little – you’re to-tally wrong.” In the afternoonGore tes-tified before the Senate Environmentand Public Works Committee, duringwhich the former vice president wastold by Sen. James Inhofe of Okla-homa: “You’ve been so extreme insome of your expressions that you’relosing some of your own people.”[11]

These members of Congress knowthe facts of economic life in the UnitedStates. Fighting global warming is athreat to the principal human genera-tor of it – corporations – who availthemselves of the best congress mem-bers money can buy to keep govern-ment regulations as weak as can be.Does Al Gore know the same facts

of American economic life? Of course,but you would have a hard time dis-cerning that from his film. It’s as cow-ardly in dealing with the corporationsas Gore was in fighting the theft of the2000 election. In the film’s hour and ahalf, the words “corporations” or “pro-fit” are not heard.The closest he comes to ascribing a

link between the rape of the environ-ment and the incessant corporate driveto optimize profits is a single passingmention of American automakers’ re-luctance to increase car gas mileage.He discusses the link between to-

bacco and lung cancer, as an exampleof how we have to “connect the dots”on environmental issues,with nomen-tion of the tobacco corporations ortheir gross and deliberate deception of

The star of“An InconvenientTruth” was toldby Cong.Joe Bartonof Texas:“You’re notjust off a little– you’retotally wrong”


ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT

the American people. He states at an-other point that we must choose theenvironment over the economy, with-out any elucidation at all. Otherwise,the film’s message is that it’s up to theindividual to change his habits, to cam-paign for renewable energy, and towrite his congress member about thisor that. In summary, the basic problem,he tells us, is that we’re lacking “politi-cal will”.It would be most interesting if Al

Gore were the president to see howtough he’d get with the corporations,which every day, around the clock, arefaced with choices: one method of op-eration available being the least harm-ful to the environment, anothermethod being the least harmful to thebottom line.Of course, Gore was vice-president

for eight years and was in a fantasticand enviable position to pressure thecorporations to mend their ways andCongress to enact tougher regulations;as well as to educate the public onmore than their own bad habits.But what exactly did he do? Can any

readers enlightenme as to what extentthe man used his position and hispower then in a manner consistentwith the image and the word of hisnew film?But could Gore be elected without

corporate money? And how much ofthat money would reach his pocket ifhe advocated (choke, gasp!) free gov-ernment-paid public transportation –rail, bus, ferry, etc.?That would give birth to a breath-

taking – or rather, breath enhancing –reduction in automobile pollution; eas-

ily paid for by ceasing America’s impe-rialist wars.

Microsoft and the NationalSecurity Agency

I have long felt that the Americanmedia’s gravest shortcoming is its er-rors of omission, rather than its errorsof commission. It’s what they leave outthat distorts the news more than anyfactual errors or out-and-out lies. InJanuary the Washington Post reportedthat Microsoft had announced that itsnew operating system,Vista,was beingbrought to us with the assistance of theNational Security Agency.The NSA said it helped to protect

the operating system fromworms,Tro-jan horses and other insidious com-puter attackers. “Our intention is tohelp everyone with security,” said theNSA’s chief of vulnerability analysisand operations group. The spy agency,which provided its service free, said itwas Microsoft’s idea to acknowledgeNSA’s role, although the software giantdeclined to be specific about NSA’s con-tributions to Vista.[12]

What the Post – and most likely theentirety of mainstream Americanmedia – do not remind us of is whatcame out in 1999 and 2000,although it’sall over the Internet.In September 1999, leading European

investigative reporter Duncan Camp-bell revealed that NSA had arrangedwith Microsoft to insert special “keys”into Windows operating systems, be-ginning with Windows 95. An Ameri-can computer scientist, Andrew Fer-nandez of Cryptonym in North Car-olina, had disassembled parts of the

LeadingEuropeaninvestigativereporterDuncanCampbellrevealedthat NSA hadarrangedwith Microsoftto insertspecial “keys”into Windowsoperatingsystems,beginning withWindows 95


ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT

Windows instruction code and foundthe smoking gun –Microsoft’s develop-ers had failed to remove the debuggingsymbols used to test this software be-fore they released it. Inside the codewere the labels for two keys. One wascalled “KEY”. The other was called“NSAKEY”. Fernandez presented hisfinding at a conference at which someWindows developers were also in at-tendance.The developers did not deny that

the NSA key was built into their soft-ware, but they refused to talk aboutwhat the key did, or why it had beenput there without users’ knowledge.Fernandez says that NSA’s “back door”in the world’s most commonly used op-erating systemmakes it “orders of mag-nitude easier for the US government toaccess your computer.”[13]

In February 2000, it was disclosedthat the Strategic Affairs Delegation(DAS), the intelligence arm of theFrench Defense Ministry, had prepareda report in 1999 which also assertedthat NSA had helped to install secretprograms in Microsoft software. Ac-cording to the DAS report, “it wouldseem that the creation ofMicrosoft waslargely supported, not least financially,by the NSA,and that IBMwasmade toaccept the [Microsoft] MS-DOS oper-ating system by the same administra-tion.”The report stated that there had

been a “strong suspicion of a lack of se-curity fed by insistent rumours aboutthe existence of spy programmes onMicrosoft, and by the presence of NSApersonnel in Bill Gates’ developmentteams.” Microsoft categorically denied

all the charges and the French DefenseMinistry said that it did not necessarilystand by the report,which was writtenby “outside experts”.[14]

In case the above disturbs yourimage of Bill Gates and his buddies asa bunch of long-haired, liberal, peace-nik computer geeks, and the companyas one of the non-military-orientedhalfway decent corporations, the DASreport states that the Pentagon at thetime was Microsoft’s biggest client inthe world.The Israeli military has also been an

important client. In 2002, the companyerected enormous billboards in Israelwhich bore the Microsoft logo underthe text “From the depth of our heart –thanks to The Israeli Defense Forces”,with the Israeli national flag in thebackground.[15]

The myth of the Good War

Readers of this report will be awarethat one of the points I try very hard toconvey is that the reason so manyAmericans support US atrocitiesabroad is that they’re convinced thatno matter how bad things may look,the government means well.American leaders may make mis-

takes, they may blunder, they may lie,they may even on the odd occasioncause more harm than good, but theydomeanwell.Their intentions are hon-orable. Of that most Americans are cer-tain. And one of the foundation stonesfor this edifice of patriotic faith is theSecond World War, an historical sagathat all Americans are taught aboutfrom childhood on.We all know whatits real name is: “The Good War”.

Fernandezsays that NSA’s“back door”in the world’smost commonlyused operatingsystem makesit “ordersof magnitudeeasierfor the USgovernmentto access yourcomputer”


ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT

Which leads me to recommend abook, “TheMyth of the GoodWar”,byJacques Pauwels, published in 2002. It’svery well done, well argued and docu-mented, an easy read.I particularly like the sections deal-

ing with the closing months of the Eu-ropean campaign, during which theUnited States and Great Britain con-templated stabbing their Soviet ally inthe back with maneuvers like a sepa-rate peace with Germany, using Ger-man troops to fight the Russians, andsabotaging legal attempts by variousCommunist Parties and other elementsof the European left to share in (highlyearned) political power after the war.This last was of course very effectivelyrealized.Stalin learned enough about these

schemes to at least partially explain hispost-war suspiciousmanner toward his“allies”. In the West we called it “para-noia”.[16] CT

NOTES

[1] Seattle Times,March 31, 2007[2] Washington Post, March 30, 2007,p.11[3] Financial Times (London), Oct 4,2004[4]Wall Street Journal, January 26, 2005[5] Testimony before the House Sub-committee onWestern Hemisphere Af-fairs, April 16, 1985

[6] ABC News, April 3, 2007[7] Sunday Telegraph (London),Febru-ary 25, 2007[8] Washington Post,March 18, 2007[9] Richard Ackland, “Innocence ig-nored at Guantanamo”,SydneyMorn-ing Herald, February 24, 2006.[10] New York Times, January 17, 2003,p.10[11] Washington Post, March 22, 2007,p.2[12] Washington Post, January 9, 2007.p.D1[13] Duncan Campbell’s article of Sep-tember 3, 1999 can be found on thewebsite of TechWeb: http://www.tech-web.com/wire/29110640[14] Agence France Presse, February 18and 21, 2000[15] To see one of the billboards:www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-news-0022.html[16] http://www.alys.be/pauwels/2publi_the_myth.htmAvailable in English, Spanish, French,German, Italian, and Dutch editions

William Blum is the author ofKilling Hope: US Military and CIAInterventions Since World War 2;Rogue State: A Guide to the World’sOnly SuperpowerWest-BlocDissident: A Cold War Memoir;and Freeing the World to Death:Essays on the American Empire

Stalin learnedenough aboutthese schemesto at leastpartially explainhis post-warsuspiciousmanner towardhis “allies”


ANTI-EMPIRE REPORT

READ EXCERPTS FROMWILLIAM BLUM’SBOOK ‘KILLING HOPE’ AT COLDTYPE

Download ‘Desert Holocaust’ and ‘A Hammer and Sickle Stampedon Your Child’s Forehead’ – in pdf format, both FREE, at:

www.coldtype.net/blum.html

http://www.tech-web

http://www.alys.be/pauwels/2

http://www.coldtype.net/blum.html

The Israeli journalist AmiraHass describes the momenther mother, Hannah, wasmarched from a cattle train to

the Nazi concentration camp atBergen-Belsen. “They were sick andsome were dying,” she says. “Then mymother saw these German womenlooking at the prisoners, just looking.This image became very formative inmy upbringing, this despicable ‘lookingfrom the side’.”It is time we in Britain and other

Western countries stopped lookingfrom the side.We are being led towardsperhaps themost serious crisis in mod-ern history as the Bush-Cheney-Blair“long war” edges closer to Iran for noreason other than that nation’s inde-pendence from rapacious America.Thesafe delivery of the 15 British sailors intothe hands of Rupert Murdoch and hisrivals (with tales of their “ordeal” al-most certainly authored by the Min-istry of Defence – until it got the windup) is both a farce and a distraction.The Bush administration, in secret con-nivance with Blair,has spent four years

preparing for “Operation Iranian Free-dom”. Forty-five cruise missiles areprimed to strike. According to Russia’sleading strategic thinker GeneralLeonid Ivashov: “Nuclear facilities willbe secondary targets... at least 20 suchfacilities need to be destroyed.Combatnuclear weaponsmay be used.This willresult in the radioactive contaminationof all the Iranian territory,and beyond.”And yet there is a surreal silence,

save for the noise of “news” in whichour powerful broadcasters gesturecryptically at the obvious but dare notmake sense of it, lest the one-waymoral screen erected between us andthe consequences of an imperial foreignpolicy collapse and the truth be re-vealed. John Bolton, formerly Bush’sman at the United Nations, recentlyspelled out the truth: that the Bush-Cheney-Blair plan for the Middle Eastis an agenda to maintain division andinstability. In other words, bloodshedand chaos equals control.Hewas refer-ring to Iraq, but he also meant Iran.One million Iraqis fill the streets of

Najaf demanding that Bush and Blair

John Bolton,formerly Bush’sman at theUnited Nations,recently spelledout the truth:that theBush-Cheney-Blair planfor the MiddleEast is anagendato maintaindivision andinstability.In other words,bloodshed andchaos equalscontrol


DEADLY LECACY

THE GREAT CRISISOFMODERN TIMESBY JOHN PILGER

get out of their homeland – that is thereal news: not our nabbed sailor-spies,nor the political danse macabre of thepretenders to Blair’s Duce delusions.Whether it is treasurer Gordon

Brown, the paymaster of the Iraqbloodbath, or John Reid, who sentBritish troops to pointless deaths inAfghanistan, or any of the others whosat through cabinet meetings knowingthat Blair and his acolytes were lyingthrough their teeth, only mutual dis-trust separates them now. They knewabout Blair’s plotting with Bush. Theyknew about the fake 45-minute “warn-ing”. They knew about the fitting up ofIran as the next “enemy”.Declared Brown to the Daily Mail:

“The days of Britain having to apolo-gise for its colonial history are over.Weshould celebrate much of our pastrather than apologise for it.” In hisbook, Late Victorian Holocausts, thehistorian Mike Davis documents thatas many as 21 million Indians died un-necessarily in famines criminally im-posed by British colonial policies.Moreover, since the formal demise of

that glorious imperium, declassifiedfiles make it clear that British govern-ments have borne “significant responsi-bility” for the direct or indirect deathsof between 8.6 million and 13.5 millionpeople throughout the world frommil-itary interventions and at the hands ofregimes strongly supported by Britain.The historian Mark Curtis calls thesevictims “unpeople”. Rejoice! said Mar-garet Thatcher. Celebrate! says Brown.Spot the difference.Brown is no different from Hillary

Clinton, John Edwards and the other

warmongering Democrats he admiresand who support an unprovoked at-tack on Iran and the subjugation of theMiddle East to “our interests” – and Is-rael’s, of course. Nothing has changedsince the US and Britain destroyedIran’s democratic government in 1953and installed Reza Shah Pahlavi,whoseregime had “the highest rate of deathpenalties in the world, no valid systemof civilian courts and a history oftorture” that was “beyond belief”(Amnesty).

Humane principles

Look behind the one-waymoral screenand you will distinguish the Blairiteelite by its loathing of the humane prin-ciples that mark a real democracy.Theyused to be discreet about this, but nomore.Two examples spring to mind. In

2004, Blair used the secretive “royalprerogative” to overturn a high courtjudgment that had restored the veryprinciple of human rights set out inMagna Carta to the people of the Cha-gos Islands, a British colony in the In-dian Ocean. There was no debate. Asruthless as any dictator, Blair dealt hiscoup de grâce with the lawless expul-sion of the islanders from their home-land, now a US military base, fromwhich Bush has bombed Iraq andAfghanistan and will bomb Iran.In the second example, only the de-

gree of suffering is different. Last Octo-ber, the Lancet published research byJohns Hopkins University in the USand al-Mustansiriya University inBaghdadwhich calculated that 655,000Iraqis had died as a direct result of the

Declassifiedfiles make itclear thatBritishgovernmentshave borne“significantresponsibility”for the director indirectdeaths ofbetween8.6 million and13.5 millionpeoplethroughoutthe world frommilitaryinterventionsand at the handsof regimesstronglysupportedby Britain


DEADLY LECACY

Anglo-American invasion. DowningStreet officials derided the study as“flawed”. They were lying. They knewthat the chief scientific adviser to theMinistry of Defence, Sir Roy Anderson,had backed the survey, describing itsmethods as “robust” and “close to bestpractice”, and other government offi-cials had secretly approved the “triedand tested way of measuring mortalityin conflict zones”.The figure for Iraqi deaths is now es-

timated at close to a million – carnageequivalent to that caused by the Anglo-American economic siege of Iraq in the1990s, which produced the deaths ofhalf a million infants under the age offive, verified by Unicef. That, too, wasdismissed contemptuously by Blair.“This Labour government,which in-

cludes Gordon Brown as much as itdoes Tony Blair,” wrote Richard Hor-ton, editor of the Lancet, “is party to awar crime of monstrous proportions.Yet our political consensus preventsany judicial or civil society response.Britain is paralysed by its own indiffer-ence.”Such is the scale of the crime and of

our “looking from the side”. Accordingto the Observer of 8 April, the voters’“damning verdict” on the Blair regimeis expressed by a majority who have“lost faith” in their government.No surprise there. Polls have long

shown a widespread revulsion to Blair,demonstrated at the last general elec-tion, which produced the second low-est turnout since the franchise.No mention was made of the Ob-

server’s own contribution to this na-tional loss of faith.Once celebrated as a

bastion of liberalism that stood againstAnthony Eden’s lawless attack onEgypt in 1956, the new right-wing, life-style Observer enthusiastically backedBlair’s lawless attack on Iraq, havinghelped lay the ground with major arti-cles falsely linking Iraq with the 9/11 at-tacks – claims now regarded even bythe Pentagon as fake.

Fabricated hysteria

As hysteria is again fabricated, for Iraq,read Iran. According to the former UStreasury secretary Paul O’Neill, theBush cabal decided to attack Iraq on“day one” of Bush’s administration,long before 11 September 2001. Themain reason was oil. O’Neill wasshown a Pentagon document entitled“Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Con-tracts”, which outlined the carve-up ofIraq’s oil wealth among the majorAnglo-American companies. Under alaw written by US and British officials,the Iraqi puppet regime is about tohand over the extraction of the largestconcentration of oil on earth to Anglo-American companies.Nothing like this piracy has hap-

pened before in the modern MiddleEast, where Opec has ensured that oilbusiness is conducted between states.Across the Shatt al-Arab waterway isanother prize: Iran’s vast oilfields. Justas non-existent weapons of mass de-struction or facile concerns for democ-racy had nothing to do with theinvasion of Iraq, so non-existent nu-clear weapons have nothing to do withthe coming American onslaught onIran.Unlike Israel and the United States,

Polls havelong showna widespreadrevulsionto Blair,demonstratedat the lastgeneral election,which producedthe secondlowest turnoutsince thefranchise


DEADLY LECACY

Iran has abided by the rules of the Nu-clear Non-Proliferation Treaty,of whichit was an original signatory, and has al-lowed routine inspections under itslegal obligations. The InternationalAtomic Energy Agency has never citedIran for diverting its civilian pro-gramme to military use. For the pastthree years, IAEA inspectors have saidthey have been allowed to “go any-where”. The recent UN Security Coun-cil sanctions against Iran are the resultof Washington’s bribery.

Abuser of human rights

Until recently, the British were unawarethat their government was one of theworld’s most consistent abusers ofhuman rights and backers of state ter-rorism.Few Britons knew that the Muslim

Brotherhood, the forerunner of al-Qaeda,was sponsored by British intel-ligence as a means of systematicallydestroying secular Arab nationalism,orthat MI6 recruited young British Mus-lims in the 1980s as part of a $4bnAnglo-American-backed jihad againstthe Soviet Union known as “OperationCyclone”.In 2001, few Britons knew that 3,000

innocent Afghan civilians were bombedto death as revenge for the attacks of 11September.No Afghans brought downthe twin towers.Thanks to Bush and Blair, awareness

in Britain and all over the world hasrisen as never before. When home-grown terrorists struck London in July2005, few doubted that the attack onIraq had provoked the atrocity andthat the bombs which killed 52 Lon-

doners were, in effect, Blair’s bombs.In my experience, most people do

not indulge the absurdity and crueltyof the “rules” of rampant power. Theydo not contort their morality and intel-lect to comply with double standardsand the notion of approved evil, ofworthy and unworthy victims. Theywould, if they knew, grieve for all thelives, families, careers, hopes anddreams destroyed by Blair and Bush.The sure evidence is the British pub-

lic’s wholehearted response to the 2004tsunami, shaming that of the govern-ment.Certainly, they would agree whole-

heartedly with Robert H Jackson, chiefof counsel for the United States at theNuremberg trials of Nazi leaders at theend of the Second World War. “Crimesare crimes,” he said, “whether theUnited States does them or whetherGermany does them, and we are notprepared to lay down a rule of criminalconduct which we would not be will-ing to have invoked against us.”As with Henry Kissinger and Don-

ald Rumsfeld, who dare not travel tocertain countries for fear of being pros-ecuted as war criminals, Blair as a pri-vate citizen may no longer beuntouchable.On 20 March, Baltasar Garzón, the

tenacious Spanish judge who pursuedAugusto Pinochet, called for indict-ments against those responsible for“one of the most sordid and unjustifi-able episodes in recent human history”– Iraq. Five days later, the chief prose-cutor of the International CriminalCourt, to which Britain is a signatory,said that Blair could one day face war-

In 2001,few Britonsknew that3,000 innocentAfghan civilianswere bombedto deathas revengefor the attacksof 11 September.No Afghansbrought downthe twin towers


DEADLY LECACY

crimes charges.These are critical changes in the way

the sane world thinks – again, thanksto the Reich of Blair and Bush. How-ever, we live in the most dangerous oftimes. On 6 April, Blair accused “ele-ments of the Iranian regime” of “back-ing, financing, arming and supportingterrorism in Iraq”. He offered no evi-dence, and theMinistry of Defence has

none. This is the same Goebbels-likerefrain with which he and his coterie,Gordon Brown included, brought anepic bloodletting to Iraq.How long willthe rest of us continue looking from theside? CT

John Pilger’s latest book is FreedomNext Time. This essay was firstpublished in Britain’s New Statesman.


DEADLY LECACY

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It’s become a TV ritual: Every yearon April 4, as Americans commem-orate Martin Luther King’s death,we get perfunctory network news

reports about “the slain civil rightsleader.”The remarkable thing about these re-

views of King’s life is that several years –his last years – are totally missing, as ifflushed down a memory hole.What TV viewers see is a closed loop

of familiar file footage:King battling de-segregation in Birmingham (1963); recit-ing his dream of racial harmony at therally inWashington (1963);marching forvoting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965);and finally, lying dead on themotel bal-cony in Memphis (1968).An alert viewermight notice that the

chronology jumps from 1965 to 1968.YetKing didn’t take a sabbatical near theend of his life. In fact, he was speakingand organizing as diligently as ever.Almost all of those speeches were

filmed or taped. But they’re not showntoday on TV.Why? It’s because national news

media have never come to terms with

what Martin Luther King Jr. stood forduring his final years.In the early 1960s,whenKing focused

his challenge on legalized racial discrim-ination in the South,most major mediawere his allies. Network TV and na-tional publications graphically showedthe police dogs and bullwhips and cattleprods used against Southern blackswhosought the right to vote or to eat at apublic lunch counter.But after passage of civil rights acts in

1964 and 1965, King began challengingthe nation’s fundamental priorities. Hemaintained that civil rights laws wereempty without “human rights” – in-cluding economic rights. For people toopoor to eat at a restaurant or afford adecent home, King said, anti-discrimi-nation laws were hollow.Noting that a majority of Americans

below the poverty linewerewhite,Kingdeveloped a class perspective. He de-cried the huge income gaps betweenrich and poor, and called for “radicalchanges in the structure of our society”to redistribute wealth and power.“True compassion,” King declared,“is

Noting thatamajorityof Americansbelow the povertylinewerewhite,King developeda classperspective.He decried thehuge incomegaps betweenrich and poor,and called for“radical changesin the structureof our society”to redistributewealthand power


FORGOTTEN HISTORY

THE KING YOUDON’T SEE ON TVBYNORMAN SOLOMON& JEFF COHEN

more than flinging a coin to a beggar; itcomes to see that an edifice which pro-duces beggars needs restructuring.”By 1967, King had also become the

country’s most prominent opponent ofthe VietnamWar,and a staunch critic ofoverall U.S. foreign policy, which hedeemedmilitaristic. In his “BeyondViet-nam” speech delivered at New York’sRiverside Church on April 4, 1967 – ayear to the day before hewasmurdered– King called the United States “thegreatest purveyor of violence in theworld today.”From Vietnam to South Africa to

Latin America, King said, the U.S. was“on the wrong side of a world revolu-tion.” King questioned “our alliancewith the landed gentry of Latin Amer-ica,” and asked why the U.S. was sup-pressing revolutions “of the shirtless andbarefoot people” in the ThirdWorld, in-stead of supporting them.

Problems of capitalism

In foreign policy, King also offered aneconomic critique, complaining about“capitalists of the West investing hugesums ofmoney inAsia,Africa and SouthAmerica, only to take the profits outwith no concern for the social better-ment of the countries.”You haven’t heard the “Beyond Viet-

nam” speech on network news retro-spectives, but national media heard itloud and clear back in 1967 -– and loudlydenounced it. Time magazine called it“demagogic slander that sounded like ascript for Radio Hanoi.” The Washing-ton Post patronized that “King has di-minished his usefulness to his cause,hiscountry, his people.”

In his last months,Kingwas organiz-ing the most militant project of his life:the Poor People’s Campaign. He criss-crossed the country to assemble “amul-tiracial army of the poor” that woulddescend on Washington – engaging innonviolent civil disobedience at theCapitol, if need be – until Congress en-acted a poor people’s bill of rights.Reader’s Digest warned of an “insurrec-tion.”King’s economic bill of rights called

for massive government jobs programsto rebuild America’s cities.He saw a cry-ing need to confront a Congress thathad demonstrated its “hostility to thepoor” – appropriating “military fundswith alacrity and generosity,” but pro-viding “poverty fundswithmiserliness.”How familiar that sounds today,

nearly 40 years after King’s efforts on be-half of the poor people’s mobilizationwere cut short by an assassin’s bullet.In 2007, in this nation of immense

wealth, the White House and most inCongress continue to accept the perpet-uation of poverty. They fund foreignwars with “alacrity and generosity,”while being miserly in dispensing fundsfor education and healthcare and envi-ronmental cleanup.And those priorities are largely un-

questioned by mainstream media. Nosurprise that they tell us so little aboutthe last years of Martin Luther King’slife. CT

Norman Solomon is the author of “WarMade Easy: How Presidents and PunditsKeep Spinning Us to Death.” Jeff Cohen isthe author of “Cable News Confidential:My Misadventures in Corporate Media.”

From Vietnamto South Africato Latin America,King said,the U.S. was“on the wrongside of a worldrevolution”


FORGOTTEN HISTORY

Ayear ago,DonaldVance learnedwhat it’s like to be falsely ac-cused by the U.S. military ofaiding terrorists. He was held

without charge for more than threemonths in a high-security prison in Iraq,and interrogated daily after sleeplessnights without legal counsel or even aphone call to his family.Last month, the former private secu-

rity contractorwas honored for his ordealin Washington and for speaking outagainst the incident. At a luncheon atthe National Press Club, Vance receivedthe Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling,anaward named in memory of Army heli-copter gunner Ron Ridenhour whostruggled to bring the horrificmassmur-ders at My Lai to the attention of Con-gress and the Pentagon during the Viet-namWar.Vancewas joined by former president

Jimmy Carter, who won a lifetimeachievement award,and journalist RajivChandrasekaran of TheWashington Postwho was recognised for his recent book,“EmeraldCity: Inside Iraq’sGreenZone”.As hundreds at the luncheon finished

their salad, Vance, a two-time GeorgeW. Bush voter and Navy veteran, re-counted the events of his imprisonmentand the grief of his fiancé and family.They did not know if he was alive ordead,he said.Theywere alreadymakinginquiries to theU.S.StateDepartment onhow to ship his body home.He then drew a wider circle around

his ordeal to include the countless otherswho have been held falsely withoutcharge and denied normal legal constitu-tional protections under law. “My nameused to be 200343,” Vance said recallinghis prisoner ID. “If they can do this to aformer Navy man and an American,what is happening to people in facilitiesall over the world run by the Americangovernment?”Vance’s nightmare began last year on

Apr. 15 when he and co-worker NathanErtel barricaded themselves in a Baghdadoffice after their employer, an Iraqi pri-vate security firm, took away their IDtags. They feared for their lives becausethey suspected the company was in-volved in selling unauthorised guns onthe blackmarket and other nefarious ac-

“If they cando thisto a formerNavy man andan American,what ishappeningto peoplein facilitiesall over theworld runby theAmericangovernment?”


SPEAKING OUT

MYNAME USEDTO BE #200343BYDAVID PHINNEY

tivity. A U.S. military squad freed themfrom the red zone in Baghdad after afriend at theU.S.embassy advised him tocall for help.Once they reached theU.S.-controlled

Green Zone, government officials tookthem inside the embassy, listened to theirindividual accounts and then sent themto a trailer outside for sleep.Two or threehours later, before the crack of dawn,U.S.military personnel woke them.Thistime, however, Vance and Ertel, ShieldSecurity’s contract manager,were underarrest. Soldiers bound their wrists withzip ties and covered their eyes with gog-gles blacked out with duct tape.The two were then escorted to a

humvee and driven first to possiblyCamp Prosperity and then to CampCropper, a high-security prison near theBaghdad airport where Saddam Hus-sein was once kept. Vance says he wasdenied body armour and helmet whiletraveling through the perilous Baghdadstreets outside the safety of the GreenZone or a U.S.military installation.It was not theway the tall 29-year-old

with an easy charm and keen mind hadexpected to be treated.Vance claims thatduring the months leading up to his ar-rest, he worked as an unpaid informantfor the Federal Bureau of Investigation.Sometimes twice a day, he would shareinformation with an agent in Chicagoabout the Iraqi-owned ShieldGroup Se-curity, whose principals and managersappeared to be involved in weaponsdeals and violence against Iraqi civilians.One company employee regularlybartered alcohol with U.S. military per-sonnel in exchange for ammunition theydelivered,Vance said.

“He called it the bullets for beer pro-gramme,” Vance claimed while relatingthe incident during an interview thisweek at a cigar bar just walking distancefrom theWhite House.But his interrogators at CampCropper

weren’t impressed. Instead,his jailers in-sisted that Vance and Ertel had been de-tained and imprisoned because the twoworked for ShieldGroup Securitywherelarge caches ofweapons have been found–weapons thatmay have been intendedfor possible distribution to insurgentsand terrorist groups,Vance said.In a lawsuit now pending against for-

merDefence SecretaryDonald Rumsfeldand “other unidentified agents,” Vanceand Ertel accuse their U.S. governmentcaptors of subjecting them to psycholog-ical torture day and night. Lights werekept on in their cell around the clock.They endured solitary confinement.Theyhad only thin plastic mattresses on con-crete for sleeping. Meals were of pow-deredmilk and bread or rice and chicken,interrupted by selective deprivation offood and water.Heavy metal and coun-trymusic screamed in their ears for hourson end, their legal complaint alleges.They lived through “conditions of

confinement and interrogation tanta-mount to torture”, says the lawsuit filedin northern Illinois U.S. District Court.“Their interrogators utilised the types ofphysically and mentally coercive tacticsthat are supposedly reserved for terror-ists and so-called enemy combatants.”Rumsfeld is singled out as the key de-

fendant because he played a critical rolein establishing a policy of “unlawful de-tention and torment” that Vance, Erteland countless others in the “war on ter-

He was deniedbody armourand helmetwhile travelingthrough theperilousBaghdad streetsoutside thesafety of theGreen Zoneor a U.S.militaryinstallation


SPEAKING OUT

ror” have endured, the lawsuit asserts,noting that the former defence secretaryand other high-levelmilitary command-ers acting at his direction developed andauthorised a policy that allows govern-ment officials unilateral discretion to des-ignate possible enemies of the UnitedStates. Because the incident and allega-tions are in litigation, the Pentagon hasno comment, spokesman Army Lieut.Col.Mark Ballesteros said.He referred allinquires to the U.S. Justice Department,which also had no comment for similarreasons.

Darker allegations

But darker allegations are included inthe complaint over false imprisonment.Because he worked with the FBI, Vancecontends, U.S. government officials inIraq decided to retaliate against him andErtel.He believes these officials conspiredto jail the two not because they workedfor a security company suspected of sell-ing weapons to insurgents, but becausethey were sharing information with lawenforcement agents outside the controlof U.S. officials in Baghdad.“In other words,” claims the lawsuit,

“United States officials in Iraqwere con-cerned and wanted to find out aboutwhat intelligence agents in the UnitedStates knew about their territory andtheir operations. The unconstitutionalpolicies that Rumsfeld and other uniden-tified agents had implemented for ‘ene-mies’ provided ample cover to detainplaintiffs and interrogate them towardthat end.”It may take some time to sort out the

allegations as the legal process grindsforward, but, in the meantime, Vance is

raising new questions about his deten-tion.He still wonderswhy his jailers did-n’t just call the FBI and have him cleared.They had access to his computer andcell phone to determine if his claimsweretrue.“When I told them to do that, they

just got angry and told me to stop an-swering questions I wasn’t being asked,”Vance said. “I think they were buttingheads with the State Department. I justsnitched on thewrong people. I took thebull by the horns and got the horn.”And why weren’t managers with the

Shield Group held and interrogated?Interrogatorswere certainly interested

in these other individuals, according tothe lawsuit.Theywanted to knowaboutthe company’s structure, its political con-tacts, and its owners –most ofwhomarerelated to a long-established Iraqi familywho fled Iraq during the years the coun-trywas ruled by SaddamHussein,Vancesaid.More startling even now is that the

company has reformed.At the time theyleft, Shield Security held U.S.-fundedcontracts with the Iraqi government,Iraqi companies, NGOs and U.S. con-tractors. As far as Vance knows,the com-pany still does – but under a differentname:National Shield Security.“I built their web site,” he said. “And

they are still being awarded millions ofdollars in contracts.” CT

David Phinney is a journalist and broad-caster based inWashington, DC, whosework has appeared in The Los AngelesTimes, New York Times and on ABC andPBS. He can be contacted at: [email protected].

He believesthese officialsconspired to jailthe two notbecause theyworked fora securitycompanysuspectedof sellingweapons toinsurgents,but becausethey weresharinginformation withlaw enforcementagents outsidethe controlof U.S. officialsin Baghdad


SPEAKING OUT

There’s a helluva difference be-tween Cairo University andthe campus of Valdosta in theDeep South of the United

States. I visited both recently and I feellike I’ve been travelling on a gloomyspaceship – ormaybe a timemachine –with just two distant constellations toguidemy journey.One is clearly namedIraq; the other is Fear. They have a lotin common.The politics department at Cairo’s

vast campus is run by Dr Mona El-Ba-radei – yes, she is indeed the sister ofthe head of the International AtomicEnergy Agency – and her students,most of them young women,almost allscarved,duly wrote out their questionsat the end of the turgid Fisk lecture onthe failings of journalism in the MiddleEast.“Why did you invade Iraq?” was

one. I didn’t like the “you” bit, but theanswer was “oil”. “What do you thinkof the Egyptian government?”At this, I looked at my watch. I

reckon, I told the students, that I justhad time to reach Cairo airport for my

flight before Hosni Mubarak’s intelli-gence lads heard of my reply.Much nervous laughter.Well, I said, new constitutional

amendments to enshrine emergencylegislation into common law and thearrest of Muslim Brotherhood support-ers was not a path to democracy.And Iran through the US State Department’slist of Egyptian arbitrary detentions,routine torture and unfair trials. I did-n’t see how the local constabularycould do much about condemnationfrom Mubarak’s American friends. Butit was purely a symbolic moment.These cheerful, intelligent students

wanted to see if they would hear thetruth or get palmed off with anotherbromide about Egypt’s steadymarch todemocracy, its stability – versus the dis-aster of Iraq – and its supposedly roar-ing success. No one doubts thatMubarak’s boys keep a close eye on hiscountry’s students.But the questions I was asked after

class told it all. Why didn’t “we” leaveIraq? Are “we” going to attack Iran?Did “we” really believe in democracy in

These cheerful,intelligentstudents wantedto see if theywould hearthe truth or getpalmed off withanother bromideabout Egypt’ssteady marchto democracy,its stability– versus thedisaster of Iraq– and itssupposedlyroaring success


FEAR AND LOATHING

CRUSHING FEARSTALKS AMERICABYROBERT FISK

the Middle East? In fact “our” shadowclearly hung over these young people.Thirty hours later, I flicked on the

television in my Valdosta, Georgia,hotel room and there was a bejewelledlady on Fox TV telling American view-ers that if “we” left Iraq, the “jihadists”would come after us.“They want a Caliphate that will

take over the world,” she shriekedabout a report that two children haddeliberately been placed in an Iraqi carbombwhich then exploded.She rantedon about how Muslim “jihadists” hadbeen doing this “since the 1970s inLebanon”.It was tosh, of course.Children were

never locked into car bombs in Beirut –and there weren’t any “jihadists”around in the Lebanese civil war of the1970s. But fear had been sown. Nowthat the House of Representatives istalking about the US withdrawal byAugust 2008, fear seems to drip off thetrees in America.

Looking for omens

Up in the town of Tiger,Georgia,KathyBarnes is reported to be looking foromens as she fears for the life of herson, Captain Edward Berg of the 4thBrigade,US 3rd Infantry Division,off toIraq for a second tour of duty, this timein George Bush’s infamous “surge”.Last time he was there, Mrs Barnes

saw a dead snake and took it as a badsign. Then she saw two Canadiangeese, soaring over the treetops. Thatwas a good sign.“A rational mind plays this game in

war time,” as the Atlanta Journal-Con-stitution eloquently pointed out. “A

thunderclap becomes a herald, a bird’ssong a prophecy.”Dr Michael Noll’s students at Val-

dosta are as smart and bright-eyed asDr El-Baradei’s in Cairo. They packedinto the same lecture I had given inEgypt and seemed to share a lot of thesame fears about Iraq. But a sullenseminar that samemorning was a mis-erable affair in which a young womanseemed to break down in anger. If “we”left Iraq, she said in a quavering voice,the jihadists, the “terrorists”, couldcome here to America. They would at-tack us right here.I sighed with frustration. I was lis-

tening to her voice but it was also thevoice of the woman on Fox TV, the re-peated, hopeless fantasy of Bush andBlair: that if we fail in Iraq, “they”, themonstrous enemy, will arrive on ourshores.Every day in the American papers

now, I read the same “fear” trans-formed into irrationality. Luke Boggs –God, how I’d love that byline – an-nounces in his local paper: “I say let theterrorists rot in Guantanamo. And letthe Europeans ... howl. We are a seri-ous nation,engaged in the serious busi-ness of trying to kill or capture the badguys before they can do us moreharm.” He calls Guantanamo’s inmates“hardcore jihadists”.And I realise that the girl in Dr Noll’s

seminar isn’t spouting this stuff about“jihadists” travelling from Iraq toAmerica because she supports Bush.She is just frightened. She is genuinelyafraid of all the “terror” warnings, thesupposed “jihadists” threats, the red“terror” alerts and the purple alerts and

If “we” leftIraq, she saidin a quaveringvoice, thejihadists,the “terrorists”,could comehere to America.They wouldattack usright here


FEAR AND LOATHING

all the other colour-coded instrumentsof fear. She believes her president, andher president has done Osama binLaden’s job for him:he has crushed thisyoung woman’s spirit and courage.But America is not at war. There are

no electricity cuts on Valdosta’s warmgreen campus, with its Spanish styledepartment blocks and its narrow,beautiful church. There is no food ra-tioning. There are no air-raid sheltersor bombs or “jihadists” stalking theseGod-fearing folk. It is the US militarythat is at war, engaged in an Iraqi con-flict that is doing damage of a far moresubtle kind to America’s social fabric.Off campus, I meet a gentle, sensitive

man, a Vietnam veteran with two doc-tor sons.One is a lieutenant colonel, anarmy medical officer heading back toBaghdad this week for Bush’s “surge”,bravely doing his duty in the face of

great danger. The other is a civiliandoctor who hates the war. And nowthe two boys – divided by Iraq – canhardly bring themselves to speak toeach other.The soldier son called this week

from his transit camp in Kuwait. “Ithink he is frightened,” his father toldme. A middle-aged lady asked me tosign a copy of my book, which she in-tends to send to her Marine Corps sonin Baghdad. She palpably shakes withconcern as she speaks of him.“Take thegreatest care,” I find myself writing onthe flyleaf to her marine son. “Andcome safe home.” CT

Robert Fisk’s latest book is The GreatWar for Civilsation: The Conquest ofthe Middle East.This article was originally published inLondon’s Independent newspaper

But Americais not at war.There are noelectricity cutson Valdosta’swarm greencampus, withits Spanish styledepartmentblocks andits narrow,beautiful church


FEAR AND LOATHING

ROBERT FISK

RETURN TO KANDAHARTo mark the anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on theWorld Trade Center and Pentagon and US-led ‘war on terror,’Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent of London’sIndependent returned to Afghanistan where he wrotescathing essays on a bombing offensive to rid the country ofits Taliban rulers and Bin Laden’s al-Qa’ida leaders.

Download your FREE copy athttp://www.coldtype.net/archives.html

GET THIS FREE E-BOOK FROM COLDTYPE


Before President Bush fired hissorry ass, US Attorney DavidIglesias of NewMexico, in a lastsad attempt to suck up to his

Republican padrones, allowed his chiefmouthpiece,NormCairns, to speakwithme. He shouldn’t have.That was two years back,while I was

investigating strange doings inNewMex-ico and Arizona, where, simultaneously,state legislators,Republicans all, claimedthey had evidence of “voter fraud.”Psychiatrists call this kind of mutual

delusional behavior folie a deux. I sus-pected something else: I smelled KarlRove.In the NewMexico legislature, a sub-

urban Albuquerque political hackette,Justine Fox-Young (her real name), clai-med to have “several” specific cases ofvote identity rustling. Like Joe McCarthywaving his list of “Communists,” shewaived documents of “evidence” of illegalvoting on the floor of the Legislature.I called Ms. Fox-Young and asked her

to send me the papers. The “evidence”never arrived. Maybe her fax machinewas broken. I called Justine.

Q. Justine, you’ve uncovered crimi-nals! Did you turn their names over tothe US AttorneyA.Well, no, but someone did.Whose initials are Karl Rove?She swore to me that US Attorney

Iglesias would back up her story: he wasinvestigating the evil voters and wasabout to indict them.So I got Iglesias’s guy Norm on the

phone. Was Iglesias prosecuting, or ac-tively investigating,one single real case ofvoter fraud? Norm went into a lengthyswirly-whirly river of diving,ducking bull-shit. I dove in.Me: In otherwords,you can’t back her

story?Norm: Well, yeah, uh, I guess you’d

say that’s true.I guess I will say that, Norm. Fox-

Young had just plain made it up; fibbed,lied, faked the evidence. There was amulti-state con in operation. But whatwas it? Each of these bogus claims ofvoter fraud was attached to a sales pitchfor a state law to tighten voter ID re-quirements – to prevent these ne’er-do-wells from voting twice. In Arizona, one

Each of thesebogus claimsof voter fraudwas attachedto a sales pitchfor a state lawto tighten voter IDrequirements– to prevent thesene’er-do-wellsfrom voting twice


BOOK EXCERPT

DON’T FIREALBERTO GONZALEZBYGREG PALAST

crack-pot Republican legislator, theHon.Russell Pearce, claimed he had evidencethat five million Mexicans had illegallycrossed the border to vote.The point: Rove knew that a “chal-

lenge” operation by the Republican Party,run from his office, knocked out 300,000voters – mainly poor ones, voters ofcolor. His crew wanted to hike thathigher.The notable thing about this crime of

voter identity theft is that it doesn’t hap-pen. You are more likely to encounterballot boxes that spontaneously com-bust. I found cases of voters struck bylightening – but out of 120 million votescast, I couldn’t find a dozen criminal casesof a bandit stealing someone’s identity tovote.Since the Republicans couldn’t find

such criminals, they had to make themup. Force prosecutors to bring falsecharges against innocent voters (one didjust that in Wisconsin) or at least claimthey were hot on the trail of the fraudu-lent voters. Iglesias, though a Republi-can, wouldn’t bring bogus charges. Andhe wouldn’t lie about active investiga-tions that didn’t exist except in Rove’simagination.That was his mistake.Rove’s right-hand hit-man, Tim Grif-

fin, added Iglesias to the hit list of prose-cutorswhowere cut down onDecember7, 2006.Griffin himself, after the Decem-ber 7 firings,was appointed by AttorneyGeneral Gonzales, at Rove’s personal re-quest, to one of the newly-vacated slotsasUSAttorney for Arkansas. The sleepercell of Rove-bot US attorneys is now inplace to bless voter suppression games in2008.

I’ve previously reported for BBC thatGriffin was the Man in the Memos whodirected the massive, wrongful purge ofAfrican-American soldiers in 2004 – the‘caging’ list scam. Based on that expose,voting rights lawyer Robert F. KennedyJr., said, “Griffin and Rove should be injail, not in office.”That,too is another story – but the im-

portant thing to pick up here is:1. It’s all about the 2008 election.2. It’s not about Gonzales.We’ve been here before. Gonzales is

getting Libby’d. Takes the bullet for KarlRove and theWhite House. If you won-dered why the Republican jackals likethe sinister Senator Specter piled onGon-zales – it’s because they were told to.These guys learned from Richard

Nixon. In 1973,when Nixon was gettinghammered overWatergate,he threw theSenate Committee his AttorneyGeneral,a schmuck named Kleindeist. Famously,Nixon’s own Rove, a devious creepnamed John Erlichman, told Nixon toleave the Attorney General, “twistingslowly in the wind.”Rove and Bush are doing the Nixon

Twist on Gonzales.Look, I have no sympathy for Alberto

theDoomed. He’s guilty of a crime I em-ployed in racketeering cases: “Willful fail-ure to know.” It’s a kind of fraud;Albertowas going way out of his way to notknow what he had to know, that Roveand the Presidentwere toyingwith pros-ecutors.Gonzales is their glove-puppet. Why

fire him? The nationwatches these hear-ings and wants to kill something. Butwhy shoot the puppet? It’s time to fire thepuppeteer. Eh,Mr.Rove? CT

April 2007 | TheREADER 51

BOOK EXCERPT

This excerpt isbased on “TheTheft of 2008,”from the new,expandededition ofArmedMadhouse:From NewOrleans toBaghdad –Sordid Secretsand StrangeTales of aWhite HouseGoneWild,recently releasedby Penguin.

Order the bookfromgregpalast.com

http://www.gregpalast.com

Who is erasing Iraq’s his-tory? A visitor only hasto be in the countrymin-utes before someone in-

forms them: “We are the cradle ofcivilization”, and launches in to thepride and passion of historical jewelsand archeological wonders stetchingback seemingly beyond time. They arenot Sunni, Shia, Christian, Turkoman,Yazidi jewels; they are Mesapotamia’sand have been proudly nurtured sincethe mists of time.Samarra’s great golden domes, de-

stroyed on 22nd February last year, aShia shrine in a largely Sunni city, hadbeen tended and protected by residentsfor centuries. The southern holy citiesof Najav and Kerbala were placeswhere Iraqis of all or no religion, de-manded to take visitors.Before the invasion it was unthink-

able to even wonder whether a host,driver, shopkeeper was of a particularreligion, sect. They were Iraqis, inter-married, living mostly side by side.From the day all Iraq was reduced toan intensive care unit (9th April 2003)

“mission accomplished”, patient criti-cal, suddenly there were “Sunni”,“Shia”, “tribes”, in the US and UK lex-icon. They were a people “unable yetto take responsibility for their country”(which they hadmanaged pretty imag-inatively even under the 13 years ofcrippling sanctions, which will foreverbe former weak-willed UN SecretaryGeneral Kofi Annan’s murderous leg-acy for not being able to stand up toUS/UK pressure.)So having presented a divided,back-

ward nation to the world, why notshow them as such – and “divide andrule” and sew doubt where none hadexisted and demolish all that is cohe-sive: history itself?A bit of modern – by Iraq standards

– history destroyed this week is the AlSarafiya Bridge, built by the British inanother Mesapotamian adventure, inthe early 1900’s. Unlike many of Iraq’swonderous bridges spanning the Tigrisand the Euphrates, it survived the 1991carpet bombing, but not now the inva-sion. While accounts differ, a truckbomb (and there are plenty of reports

Before theinvasion itwas unthinkableto even wonderwhether a host,driver,shopkeeperwas of aparticularreligion, sect.They wereIraqis,intermarried,living mostlyside by side


CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS

ERASINGHISTORYBY FELICITY ARBUTHNOT

of trucks, vans, cars being stopped theallied troops and their owners laterfinding bombs in them) one eyewit-ness, Farhan Sudani, states he saw amissile dropped from a US helicopter.“It is one of Baghdad’s monu-

ments.We are losing a lot of our historyevery day”, Ahmed Adul-Karim, wholives nearby is quoted as saying.“It is one of our famousmonuments,

linked to Baghdad’s modern history”,said architect Haider Ghazala.Iraq’s bridges are its very arteries,

they feed the country's heart and ex-tremities. When they were bombed in1991, almost all were rebuit with ex-traordinary ingenuity, inspite of theembargo on materials. The Fourteenthof July Bridge,named to commemoratethe 1958 revolution against the British(who had opened to doors for monop-olies to plunder the oil wealth) was thelast to be rebuilt. Iraqis had watchedthe complexities with baited breath,many thinking it could not be done.When it was, they flocked to Baghdad,from throughout the country, manylying on it to kiss the concrete.

Ruinbed by troops

The Roman processional and most ofBabylon has been ruined by US andPolish troops,archeological barbarians,as Ur, believed birthplace of Abraham.And who has the courage to travel in“liberated” Iraq, to make an inventoryof the destruction of the thousands ofIraq’s other ochre and golden historicalgems?Today it is Kerbala, site of one of the

two most revered Shia shrines, restingplace of Imam Hussein Bin Ali and his

brother Abbas who left their mark onIslamic history at the Battle of Tuff(622), Imam Hussein mercilesslyslaughtered, who is believed to havedied with a Koran in one hand and asword in the other.His words: “Death with dignity is

better than a life of humiliation”, havenot only a deep resonance with hisShia followers,but throughout Iraq.Orindeed, would strike resonance withany invaded nation.As I write they willbe gathering the body parts.Before the invasion, suicide bomb-

ings were unheard of in Iraq.The 1990’shad some car bombs in Baghdad,which bewildered Iraqis and it wouldseem were generated by former USdarling Iyad Allawi’s Iraq National Ac-cord. American spokespersons have amantra: “Al Qaeda”.But there was no Al Qaeda (anyway

a CIA creation) in Iraq before the inva-sion. Has the most powerful army onearth no ability to control Iraq’s bor-ders? Saddam Hussein never had aproblem.Anyway, the USmilitary itselfhas stated that only aminimal percent-age of attacks are by foreign fightersand Iraqis have lived together for cen-turies.When a friend – and many others –

said, just prior to the invasion: “Letthem come, we have been fighting in-vaders for centuries”, she was talkingabout just that. Not Iraqis fightingIraqis.Would Sunnis attack Kerbala? Dur-

ing the siege of Falluja the people ofNajav and Kerbala travelled the per-ilous route north west, to take trucks offood,goods andmedicines.Would they

Who has thecourageto travel in“liberated”Iraq, to makean inventoryof thedestructionof thethousandsof Iraq’s otherochre andgoldenhistoricalgems?



repay with this, or is there an enemywithin, closer to the occupiers?“Even in the Iran-Iraq war, our

archeological sites, our history andtheirs were respected, said a near tear-ful archeologist in 1991, referring to theindiscrimate destruction from the air ofhumanity’s history and utter disregardfor civilian life, throwing to the winds,then as now, every international con-vention and treaty on the rules of war.It also happens to be a Zionist trait

to destroy the ancient, the beautiful,the very historic soul of a nation andpeople, America's indivisable ally. Is-raeli Defence Force personnel and oth-ers, certainly came in with the US andBritish troops.Who else did?And remember the bomb which

went off under a bridge in Iran’s neigh-bouring province to Basra? “This bombhas a British accent”, said an Iraniangovernment spokesman.Maybe ormaybe not, but “stuff happens”, through-out the region – to quote Rumsfeldafter the invasion's looting and decima-tion – that was not happening before9th April 2003.British Forces (some of whom were

caught in Arab dress with a carload ofexplosives last year,who were arrestedand for whom the British demolished a

police station to rescue) are due tohand over Kerbala to Iraqis later thismonth. They had to hand it back afterinvading it in 1915, too.Over Easter, the British and the

Czech invaders in southern Iraq had acompetition involving pulling fire en-gines to raise money for charity (theCzechs won) and raised £2.000 sterling.The charity was for their fellow injuredservice personnel in one of the richestcountries on earth, the UK.Not for themaimed parents and children of south-ern Iraq, for whose injuries they are re-sponsible.It would be good to think they are

winging their way up to Kerbala to do-nate it to the decimated as a partinggift and rushing the sort of aid thatNajav and Kerbala,despite poverty anddeprivation, did to Falluja. But nobreath holding. And WHO IS erasingIraq’s history?

Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist andactivist who has visited the Arab andMuslim world on numerous occasions.She has written and broadcast on Iraq,and was also senior researcher for JohnPilger’s award-winning documentary,Paying the Price: Killing the Childrenof Iraq. CT

It also happensto be a Zionisttrait to destroythe ancient,the beautiful,the very historicsoul of a nationand people



ARE YOU A JOE BAGEANT FAN?Download and read his political and humorous essays,

all in pdf format, all FREE, at:

www.coldtype.net/joe.html

http://www.coldtype.net/joe.html

In Hebrew legend, the bed ofSodom is a symbol of evil. TheBible tells how God decided toobliterate Sodom because of the

wickedness of its people (Genesis, 18).The legend gives us an example of thiswickedness: the special bed for visitors.When a stranger came to Sodom, hewas put in this bed. If he was too tall,his legs were shortened. If he was tooshort, his limbs were stretched to fit.In political life, there is more than

one bed like this. On the Right and onthe Left, there are people who putevery problem in such a bed, cut offlimbs and stretch limbs, until realitymatches theory.From the sixties on, doctrinaire left-

ists tended to put every situation intothe bed of Vietnam. Everything – be itthe murderous tyranny in Chile or theAmerican threats against Cuba – hadto fit the Vietnam example. Applyingthis model, it was easy to decide whowere the good guys and who the bad,what to do and how to solve the prob-lem.That was convenient. It is much eas-

ier to draw conclusions when there isno need to consider the complexities ofa particular conflict, its historical back-ground and its local circumstances.Lately, a new bed of sodom has

gained currency: South Africa. in somecircles of the radical left there is a ten-dency to force every conflict into thisbed.Every new case of evil and oppres-sion in the world is seen as a new ver-sion of the apartheid regime, and it isdecided accordingly how to solve theproblem and what to do to achieve thedesired end.True, the South African situation

arose in particular historical circum-stances that took centuries to mature.It was not identical with the problemof the aborigines in Australia or the set-tlement of the Whites in North Amer-ica, nor to Northern Ireland or thesituation in Iraq.But it is certainly con-venient to give one and the same an-swer to all problems.Of course, there is always a superfi-

cial similarity between differentregimes of oppression. But if one is notready to see the differences between

Every new caseof evil andoppressionin the worldis seen as anew versionof theapartheidregime, andit is decidedaccordinglyhow to solvethe problemand what to doto achievethe desired end


A NEW ISRAEL

THE BED OF SODOMBYURI AVNERY

the diseases, one is liable to prescribefalse medicines – and risk killing thepatient in the process.Now this is happening here.It is easy to put the Israeli-Palestin-

ian conflict in the South African bed,since the similarities between thesymptoms are obvious. The Israeli oc-cupation of the Palestinian territorieshas been going on for 40 years now,andalmost 60 years have passed since theNaqba – the armed conflict of 1948 inwhich the State of Israel came intobeing and in which more than half thePalestinians lost their homes and land.Relations between the settlers and thePalestinians are in many ways reminis-cent of apartheid; and even in Israelproper, the Arab citizens are far fromreal equality.What to do? One has to learn from

South Africa that there is nothing to begained from appealing to the con-science of the ruling people.Among thewhite minority in South Africa, therewas no real difference between Left andRight, between open racists and liber-als, who were but better disguisedracists, with the exception of a fewwhite heroes who joined the fight forfreedom.Therefore, redemption could only

come from the outside. And indeed,world public opinion saw the injusticeof apartheid and imposed a world-wide boycott on South Africa, till in theend the white minority capitulated.Power in the united South African statepassed into the hands of the black ma-jority, Nelson Mandela was releasedfrom prison and became president, andall this took place –wonder of wonders

– without bloodshed.If this happened in South Africa, the

proponents of this view say, it musthappen here, too.The idea of establish-ing a Palestinian state next to the Stateof Israel (the “Two-State Solution”)must be discarded, and the single statebetween the Mediterranean Sea andthe Jordan River (the “One-State Solu-tion”) must become the aim.This mustbe achieved by the ultimate weaponwhich proved itself in South Africa:boycott.This is how it is going to happen:

justice-lovers throughout the worldwill convince world public opinion toimpose a general boycott on the Stateof Israel.The state will collapse and dis-integrate. Between the sea and theriver there will come into being one sin-gle state, in which Israelis and Pales-tinians will live peacefully together, asequal citizens. The settlers can staywhere they are, there will be no prob-lem of borders, and all that remains isto decide who will be the PalestinianMandela.

No change from the inside?

I listened to a lecture by Professor IlanPappe of Haifa University, one of theleading spokesmen for this idea. Theaudience consisted of Palestinian, Is-raeli and international activists in Bil'in,the village that has become a symbol ofresistance to the occupation. He pre-sented a well-structured set of ideas,expressed with eloquence and enthusi-asm. These were the principles:There is no sense in opposing just

the occupation, nor any other particu-lar policy of the Israeli government.The

Among thewhite minorityin South Africa,there wasno realdifferencebetweenLeft and Right,between openracists andliberals, whowere but betterdisguisedracists, withthe exception ofa few whiteheroes whojoined the fightfor freedom


A NEW ISRAEL

problem is the very essence of Israel asa Zionist state. This essence is un-changeable as long as the state exists.No change from the inside is possible,because in Israel there is no essentialdifference between Right and Left.Bothare accomplices in a policy whose realaim is ethnic cleansing, the expulsion ofthe Palestinians not only from the oc-cupied territories, but also from Israelproper.Therefore, everyone who strives for

a just solution must aim at the estab-lishment of a single state, to which therefugees of 1948 and 1967 will be invitedto return. This will be a joint and egal-itarian state, like today's South Africa.There is no sense in trying to change

Israel from the inside. Salvation willcome from the outside: a world-wideboycott of Israel, which will cause thestate to collapse and convince the Is-raeli public that there is no escape fromthe One-State Solution.It sounded logical and convincing,

and the speaker did indeed gain ap-plause.This theorietical structure contains

several assumptions with which I haveno quarrel. The Zionist Left has indeedcollapsed in the last few years, and itsabsence from the field of struggle is apainful and dangerous fact. In today'sKnesset, there is no effective Zionistparty that is seriously fighting for realequality for the Arab citizens. Nobodyis able today to call out into the streethundreds of thousands, or even tens ofthousands, in order to pressure thegovernment to accept the peace pro-posal of the whole Arab world.There is no doubt that the real dis-

ease is not the 40-year long occupation.The occupation is a symptom of amoreprofound disease, which is connectedwith the official ideology of the state.The aim of ethnic cleansing and the es-tablishment of a Jewish State from thesea to the river is dear to the hearts ofmany Israelis, and perhaps Rabbi MeirKahane was right when he assertedthat this is everybody's unspoken de-sire.

Change: the real battlefield

But unlike professor Pappe, I am con-vinced that it is possible to change thehistorical direction of Israel. I am con-vinced that this is the real battlefield forthe Israeli peace forces, and I myselfhave been engaged in it for decades.Moreover, I believe that we have al-

ready attained impressive achieve-ments: the recognition of the existenceof the Palestinian people has becomegeneral, and so has the readiness ofmost Israelis to accept the idea of aPalestinian state with Jerusalem as thecapital of both states.We have compelled our government

to recognize the PLO, and we shallcompel them to recognize Hamas.True,all this would not have happenedwithout the steadfastness of the Pales-tinian people and (sometimes) favor-able international circumstances, butthe contribution of the Israeli peaceforces, which pioneered these ideas,was significant.Also, the notion has lately gained ac-

ceptance in Israel and other countries,that peace will be achieved only if wesucceed in overcoming the gap be-tween the Israeli and the Palestinian

In today'sKnesset, thereis no effectiveZionist partythat is seriouslyfighting forreal equalityfor theArab citizens


A NEW ISRAEL

narratives and in integrating them intoone single historical account,whichwillrecognize the injustices which havebeen committed and which are stillgoing on. Nothing is more important.(Our path-breaking booklet “TruthAgainst Truth” was the beginning ofthis process.)On the surface, it appears that we

have failed. We have not succeeded incompelling our government to stop thebuilding of the wall or the enlargementof the settlements,nor to restore to thePalestinians their freedom of move-ment. In short, we have not succeededin putting an end to the occupation.The Arab citizens of Israel have not at-tained real equality. But beneath thesurface, in the depths of national con-sciousness, we are succeeding. Thequestion is how to turn the hidden suc-cess into an open political fact. In otherwords: how to change the policy of theIsraeli government.The idea of the “One-State Solu-

tion” will harm this effort very much.It diverts the effort from a solution

that has now,after many years,a broadpublic basis, in favor of a solution thathas no chance at all.There is no doubt that 99.99% of

Jewish Israelis want the State of Israelto exist as a state with a robust Jewishmajority,whatever its borders.The belief that a world-wide boycott

could change this is a complete illusion.Immediately after his lecture, my col-league Adam Keller asked the profes-sor a simple question: “The entireworld has imposed a blockade on thePalestinian people. But in spite of theterrible misery of the Palestinians, they

have not been brought to their knees.Why do you think that a boycottwould break the Israeli public,which isfar stronger economically, so that theywould give up the Jewish character ofthe state?” (There was no answer.)

Boycott impossible

In any case, such a boycott is quite im-possible. Here and there, an organiza-tion can declare a boycott, small circlesof justice-lovers can keep it, but thereis no chance that in the coming decadesa world-wide boycott movement, likethe one that broke the racist regime inSouth Africa, will come about. Thatregime was headed by declared asmir-ers of the Nazis.A boycott of the “Jew-ish State”, which is identified with thevictims of the Nazis, just will not hap-pen. It will be enough to remind peo-ple that the long road to the gaschambers started with the 1933 Nazislogan “Kauft nicht bei Juden” (“Don'tbuy from Jews”).(The obnoxious fact that the govern-

ment of the “State of the HolocaustSurvivors” had close relations with theApartheid State does not change thissituation.)That is the problem with the bed of

Sodom: one size does not fit all.Whenthe circumstances are different, theremedies must be different, too.The idea of the “One-State Solu-

tion” can attract people who despair ofthe struggle for the soul of Israel. I dounderstand them.But it is a dangerousidea, especially for the Palestinians.Statistically, the Israeli Jews consti-

tute, as of now, the absolute majoritybetween the sea and the river. To that,

A boycott of the“Jewish State”,which isidentifiedwith the victimsof the Nazis,just will nothappen.It will be enoughto remind peoplethat the longroad to the gaschambersstarted withthe 1933 Nazislogan“Kauft nicht beiJuden” (“Don'tbuy from Jews”)


A NEW ISRAEL

one must add an even more importantfact: the average annual income of anArab Palestinian is about 800 dollars,that of a Jewish Israeli is about 20,000dollars – 25 times (!) higher. The Israelieconomy is growing every year. ThePalestinians would be “hewers of woodand drawers of water”. That meansthat if the imaginary joint state did in-deed come into being, the Jews therewould wield in it absolute power.Theywould,of course,use this power to con-solidate their dominance and preventthe return of refugees.Thus the South African example

could come true retroactively: in theSingle State, an apartheid-like regimewould indeed come into being. Notonly would the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict not be solved, but on the contrary,it would move into an even more dan-gerous phase.Pappe put forward an argument that

looked a bit strange to me: that a Sin-gle State already exists in practice, sinceIsrael rules from the sea to the river.Butthat is not so. There is no single state,neither formally nor in practice,but onestate occupying another. Such a state,in which a dominant nation controlsthe others, will eventually disintegrate– as did the Soviet Union and Yu-goslavia.The One State will not come into

being.Not only the Israelis,but most ofthe Palestinians, too, will not give uptheir right to a national state of theirown. They can applaud an Israeli pro-fessor who advocates the dismantlingof the State of Israel, but they have notime to wait for utopian solutions thatcould be realized in a hundred years.

They need an end to the occupationand to achieve a solution to the conflicthere and now, in the near future.All who wholeheartedly want to

help the occupied Palestinian peoplewould be well advised to keep wellaway from the idea of a general boycottof Israel. It would push all Israelis intothe arms of the extreme Right, becauseit would reinforce the right-wing beliefthat “All the world is against us” – a be-lief that took root in the years of theHolocaust,when “all the world lookedon and kept silent”. Every Israeli childlearns this in school.

Isolating the peace activists

A focused boycott against specific or-ganizations and corporations that ac-tively contribute to the occupation canindeed help in convincing the Israelipublic that the occupation is notworthwhile.Such a boycott can achievea specific aim – if it is not aimed at thecollapse of the State of Israel. GushShalom, to which I belong, has for 10years been organizing a boycott of theproducts of the settlements. The aim isto isolate the settlers and their accom-plices. But a general boycott on theState of Israel would achieve the veryopposite – to isolate the Israeli peaceactivists.The “Two-State Solution” was and

still is the only solution.When we putit forward immediately after the 1948war,we could be counted on the fingersof two hands not only in Israel but inthe entire world. Now there exists aworld-wide consensus about it. Thepath to this solution is not smooth,many dangers lurk on the way, but it is

There is nosingle state,neither formallynor in practice,but one stateoccupyinganother.Such a state,in which adominant nationcontrols theothers, willeventuallydisintegrate– as did theSoviet Unionand Yugoslavia


A NEW ISRAEL

a realistic solution that can beachieved.One can say: OK,we will accept the

Two-State Solution because it is realis-tic, but after its realization we shall en-deavor to abolish the two states andestablish one joint state. That is alrightwith me. As for myself, I hope that inthe course of time a federation of thetwo states will come into being,and re-lations between the two will becomeclose. I also hope that a regional union,like the EU,will be established, consist-ing of all the Arab states and Israel, andperhaps also Turkey and Iran.But first of all we must treat the

wound fromwhich we are all suffering:the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Not bypatent medicines, certainly not by abed of Sodom, but with the medicinesthat are on the shelf.The 18th Chapter of Genesis tells of

Abraham trying to convince theAlmighty not to obliterate Sodom.

“Peradventure there be fifty righteouswithin the city; wilt thou also destroyand not spare the place for the fiftyrighteous that are therein?”God promised him not to destroy

the town if there were 50 righteous init. Abraham haggled and brought theAlmighty down to 45, then 40, 30 and20, finally settling for 10. But in Sodomthere were no 10 righteous to be found,and so its fate was sealed.I believe that in Israel there are

many, many more than ten righteouspeople. All public opinion polls showthat the great majority of Israelis notonly want peace, but are ready to payits price. But they are afraid. They lacktrust. They are shackled by the beliefsthey acquired in early childhood. Theymust be freed from them – and I be-lieve that it can be done.

Uri Avneri is an Irgun veteran turnedIsraeli peace activist

All publicopinion pollsshow that thegreat majorityof Israelisnot only wantpeace, but arereadyto pay its price.But theyare afraid


A NEW ISRAEL

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The case against Jose Padillawould be funny if a man’s lifehadn’t been ruined in theprocess – but it has. The Bush

administration has leapt from one ab-surd accusation to the next completelyundisturbed by the glaring inconsisten-cies of their case.The prosecution’s ob-jective is the same now as it was fiveyears ago when the Chicago gang-banger was first arrested at O’Hare Air-port as an alleged “dirty bomber”, thatis, keep Padilla behind bars for the restof his life.The government has no case against

Padilla and they know it.He’s merely alab-rat in their experiment to expandpresidential powers.TheWashington Post even admitted

this in an article at the end of April,“Few Specifics Evident as Padilla TrialNears” 4-23-07. Padilla had no nuclearmaterial, no plan to attack apartmentbuildings, and no part in any terroristconspiracy. It’s all baloney. In five years,the government hasn’t produced ashred of evidence that Padilla is guiltyof anything.

Nothing – zippo! In fact, accordingto the Washington Post, the govern-ment’s case “lacks anything about thedefendant being involved in ANY par-ticular plot in the United States ORANYWHERE ELSE”.So, why has this travesty been al-

lowed to continue for so long?Padilla has been in solitary confine-

ment for the last five years.During thattime he was drugged, humiliated, andtortured – all of the practices whichhave become commonplace underBush.For the first four years he was de-prived of habeas corpus and legal coun-sel. During that period, he was nevercharged with a crime. He was simplydeclared an “enemy combatant” andstripped of his rights. His arrest hasbeen used to establish the precedentthat Bush can arbitrarily imprisonAmerican citizens without filingcharges. It is the very definition oftyranny.But this is old news. What’s new is

that themedia’s coverage of Padilla hasgrown strangely sympathetic. TheWashington Post, which has been one

His arresthas been usedto establishthe precedentthat Bush canarbitrarilyimprisonAmericancitizenswithout filingcharges.It is the verydefinitionof tyranny


LAW & ORDER?

THE ZUCCHINIPROSECUTIONBYMIKEWHITNEY

of the strongest backers of Bush’s for-eign adventurism, has been consider-ably less supportive of his attack oncivil liberties. The Post criticized theweakness of the government’s case andthe woeful lack of evidence connectingPadilla to a crime. The prosecutioneven admits that the charges are “hardto particularize” and that the defen-dant cannot be “linked to a particularviolent act or terrorist group.” This ex-plains the skepticism of U.S. DistrictJudge Marcia G.Cooke who said (withsome irony) that the indictment “isvery light on facts”.Nevertheless, the Padilla case is

going forward even though there is noevidence of a crime – just the possibil-ity that Padilla might do something il-legal in the future. The parallels toFranz Kafka’s “The Trial” have notbeen lost on Padilla’s defense teamwhocharacterized the government’s case as“the ethereal nature of an alleged con-spiracy.”By “ethereal” we assume they mean

hogwash.The Post does a good job of exposing

the flaws in the prosecution’s case, butstops short of saying the charges arebaseless andwithoutmerit.They knowwhat Bush and his legal team are up toand what extraordinary steps they willtake to reach their goal. They are try-ing to convict a man (and possibly sendhim to his death) without producingany witnesses or evidence of a crime. Ifthey succeed, Bush will be able to ig-nore the law and arrest whomever hechooses. That doesn’t mean the out-come of the trial is certain. Far from it.In fact, it’ll be hard to prove Padilla’s

guilt with nothing but conjecture anddemagoguery.Presently, the government is charg-

ing Padilla as a material witness in a“conspiracy to murder, kidnap andmaim”. But they have no proof.They say that he is part of a “North

American support cell that’s part of avast international movement of footsoldiers, recruiters and financiers whofoment violent jihad around the globe.”Again, there is no of this.They say that he signed a “mu-

jahideen data form”; an “applicationform that was recovered from a re-puted Al Qaida base.”Even if Padilla did sign this silly-

sounding jihad application, (which isstill in doubt) that's guilt by association– it doesn’t prove that he was involvedin the commission of a crime.The prosecution’s case depends on

convincing jurors that Padilla was se-cretly preparing Al Qaida forces for an-other terrorist attack. They havesubmittedwiretapped phone conversa-tions which (they believe) implicatehim in a conspiracy. But do they? Theconversations prove nothing. In fact,they're ridiculous. They are merelyrecordings of Padilla with some un-known person talking in code aboutspending “$3500 to buy zucchini”.“Zucchini”?Is that it? Is that the government's

case? Is it really worth keeping a manbehind bars for 5 years and driving himmad because he talks about zucchinion the phone?What about rhubarb?Even the Post cannot relay the de-

tails of the “The Zucchini Prosecution”

They are tryingto convict a man(and possiblysend him tohis death)withoutproducingany witnessesor evidenceof a crime.If they succeed,Bush willbe ableto ignore thelaw and arrestwhomeverhe chooses


LAW & ORDER?

without a hint of derision. The Post’sreporter, Peter Whoriskey, mockinglynotes that while the government’s caseis short on “violent specifics”; it is “richin atmospherics.”Indeed. The entire case appears to

be built on “atmospherics” rather thanfacts. The prosecution has no more ev-idence now than they did when theybegan this witch-hunt. Federal Prose-cutor Brian Frazier admitted as muchwhen he was asked about the vaguenature of the charges.Frazier said they were “hard to par-

ticularize” and that they revolvearound an “inchoate crime…ratherthan any completed operation”.“Inchoate”?So, Frazier is admitting that the al-

leged crime was still in its embryonicstages? That it hadn’t yet been commit-ted!?!

Get this: Jose Padilla just spent fiveyears in solitary confinement for acrime, which the government now ad-mits, never took place.The notion that a man can be im-

prisoned without proof of a crime is“preemptive justice”, which is no jus-tice at all. It denies the “presumption ofinnocence” and cedes absolute powerto the state.The court needs to put an end to

this nonsense and dismiss the case forlack of evidence. This fiasco has goneon long enough. No one should becaged like an animal for half a decadefor talking about zucchini on thephone.Padilla should be released.

Mike Whitney lives in Washington state.He can be reached at:[email protected]

So, Frazier isadmitting thatthe allegedcrime wasstill in itsembryonicstages?That it hadn’tyet beencommitted!?!


LAW & ORDER?

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