coldtype reader 5 2006

TheREADERColdType

W R I T I N G W O R T H R E A D I N G l I S S U E 5 l M A Y 2 0 0 6

IS THERE A RIGHT WAY TO WAGE A WRONG WAR?

INSIDE: THE REAL HERO OF ‘HOTEL RWANDA’ l EVENTHE KING HAS A BAD DAY l WHY THE GENERALSHATE RUMSFELD l HARD TIMES FOR SOFT DRINKS

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A PROJECT OF

ISSUE 5 | MAY 20063. EVEN THE KING HAS A BAD DAY By Andy Moore

6. HARD TIMES FOR SOFT DRINKS By Michael Blanding

12. I WAS A BEAUTY PAGEANT DROP-OUTBy Amanda Angelotti

16. LIES, INVASION AND THE ZIONIST LOBBY By William Blum

23. NEW TENANTS FOR ABU GHRAIBBy Ron Jacobs

26. WHY THE GENERALS HATE RUMSFELDBy Tony Karon

29. DIGGING UP THE PAST IN ‘ANOTHER COUNTRY’ By Stan Winer

32. NO WAY TO FIGHT A WRONG WAR By Norman Solomon

34. THE REAL HERO OF ‘HOTEL RWANDA’By Paul Rusesabagina and Tom Zoellner

Cover Story on page 32

Editor: Tony [email protected]

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EVEN THE KING HAS A BAD DAY

He can’t sing, so he’s not an Elvis impersonator. But Andy Moore’s got the hair. Give him a boombox, an Elvis Presley Economy Adult Jumpsuit and the element of surprise, and you’ll think The King is still in the building. But first make surethe boombox is working, or your big night could resemble this one . . .

When Jeanne called, it hadbeen three months sinceI’d dressed up as Elvis. Alittle longer stretch than

usual, so her call was well timed.Could I ask the Pelvis to make anappearance at her annual office par-ty? No problemo.

Elvis would have been 71 (and aweek) on the night of the big do. Itwas, appropriately enough, the Dr.King holiday. I’ve been dressing up asElvis for six years. It started as a nut-ty gag at family camp. Time passed.Soon I needed no excuse whatsoeverto reach for the costume bag, climb-ing into my get-up with a determina-tion shared by men who like to try ontheir wife’s clothes.

Nowadays my neighbors barelylook up from their yardworkwhen Elvis strolls by. “Hi, Andy,”they say. “Are you going to thePTG meeting tomorrow night?”

My transformation into Elviseasier thanyou’d think.Any old cheapostore-bought costume

will do. I favor gold shades and thepre-packaged Elvis Presley EconomyAdult Jumpsuit. “One size fits most.”A Vegas value at $42.99.

The snap flares reveal an excitingcrimson flash within the ankle in-serts. The sequined eagle cummer-bund falls just below the deep cleav-age in the high-collared show blouse.The suit treats your audience to theswollen but not yet obese Elvis. Onhis way to Hawaii. Not yet bath-room-bound.

At 6:30 on Dr. King night, I excusemyself from the family and headupstairs to get my Elvis on. Showtime is 7:45.

The main trick in doing Elvis is thehair – a constant esthetic in the star’s

life. On this front, I’m as natural-ly endowed as a woman with a44-D bustline who likes to

impersonate Dolly Parton.Tooth-brushing the inky-black dye into my locks

is a labor of love. Mydaughter Maggie helpsme with the back, anddrips of dye turn our

The main trickin doing Elvis is the hair – a constantesthetic in the star’s life.On this front,I’m as naturallyendowed as a womanwith a 44-Dbustline who likes toimpersonateDolly Parton

N I G H T L I F E

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N I G H T L I F E

bathroom’s white tile floor into acheckerboard.

Lei or no lei? I ask Elvis in the mir-ror, turning profile-to-profile to com-pare sideburn uniformity. Sans lei forthis gig, I decide, then clomp down-stairs and enter the living room walk-ing backward, arms spread out.

“I’ll pick up the kids at swim prac-tice,” says Peggy’s voice. I spin aroundand brush my thumb across my nose.“Thank you very much,” I reply.

Jeanne meets me in the lobby ofthe Prime Quarter Steak House. Mypayment for this engagement is oneT-bone to go, medium-well. Elvis willtake questions from the crowdtonight, always a popular part of theact, and Jeanne feeds me inside officejokes to salt my responses.

I’ve instructed Jeanne to have aboombox in place and “JailhouseRock” cued for my entrance. Fullblast. The element of surprise is themost powerful part of any Elvisappearance. The crowd is startled bythe loud rock ‘n’ roll. Then the Kinghimself emerges. Pure magic.

I’m supposed to loosen up the par-ty for karaoke later in the evening. Soafter “Jailhouse” I’ll take some ques-tions, crack some jokes, then make anexit to “Suspicious Minds.” Piece ofcake. I wait for the music to start,standing outside the basement ban-quet space next to the men’s room. Aguy comes out of the john, tucking inhis shirt. “Whoa! Elvis!” he says.“How ya doin’ tonight?” I ask. Heblinks. “Elvis!” he says again.

Jeanne appears. “It’s time!” I don’thear any music. “Where’s the music?”

I ask. She tells me it’s on but the CDplayer isn’t working right. “JailhouseRock” is playing out there, she says,only it’s “kinda soft.” This is a set-back. It’s supposed to be rattling thewindows. Oily bubbles surface on thepond in my stomach.

I decide to go around back, come infrom the rear and strengthen the sur-prise value. Once there I realize themusic isn’t soft. It’s absent altogether.I scan the place. The banquet hall is aspray of a half-dozen large tablesringed with well-dressed people qui-etly chatting, finishing dinner.

Across the room Jeanne waves tome with the excitement of a promdate, points down to the CD player,about the size of a textbook, on thetable next to her. Big smile. She givesme a giddy thumbs-up. A waitresssinks a tall stack of dirty plates into abus bin with a sharp clatter. All headsturn toward her.

I make my entrance.Moving as Elvis without music is

like flying as Superman without acape. The first couple of people whonotice me are startled, the desiredeffect, but without music I may aswell be wearing a coconut bra andtighty-whities. They turn their atten-tion back to the sawing of steak.

Oh, this is not good. Not good atall, I think to myself. Self-doubt is theworst thing you can do in an Elvissuit, something that requires, if noth-ing else, complete confidence.

Never in this story have you heardme say I’m an Elvis impersonator.That requires a passable vocalimpression of the King. I have none.

Moving as Elvis withoutmusic is like flying as Supermanwithout a cape.The first coupleof people who notice meare startled, the desiredeffect, but withoutmusic I may as well bewearing a coconut braand tighty-whities

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N I G H T L I F E

I can move like the King.I’m anaccomplishedair kick-boxer.My hair,particularly the curlicue I sculpt over my forehead, is the real deal.And I can talk with aMemphisaccent likenobody’sbusiness. Fact: I was inMemphis theday Elvis died

However, I do have core skills neces-sary to honor the life and legacy ofElvis Aaron.

I can move like the King. I’m anaccomplished air kick-boxer. My hair,particularly the curlicue I sculpt overmy forehead, is the real deal. And Ican talk with a Memphis accent likenobody’s business. Fact: I was inMemphis the day Elvis died.

But I don’t sing him. My actrequires Elvis to do the singing whileI move and vamp and lip snarl. Andnow, through the quiet clink ofspoons into coffee cups, I cruise to thenext table, an iceberg to my Titanic.

“How y’all tonight?” I ask theyoungest group of women in thehouse. “Y’all all right?” Eyes down,the women shift uneasily in theirchairs. Jeanne hands me a wirelessmicrophone. It doesn’t work. Elvis isreduced to saying “Is this thang on?”

These nice medical professionalsnow sit in silence and witness mymatrix of Elvis skills shut down, blinkoff one-by-one the way organs dowhen the body enters hypothermia.

I try to riff together a few of theinside jokes Jeanne fed me. But theysmush together into one long, unin-telligible sentence. I rap the head ofthe dead mike again with my hand.The fires at the massive stone grillflick out with a sickening spurt.

Things go downhill from here. Onekind soul leads the King by the elbowover to a side table. “Maybe Elvis canget the karaoke machine started forus!” she announces. The real Elvisloved to fiddle with electronics. I can’teven tune a car radio.

I fumble with the machine for aminute until a neurosurgeon comesforward and turns it on. I sing a pass-able “Blue Christmas” in a duet witha nurse, and then signal Jeanne thatElvis is about to leave the steakhouse.

The boombox suddenly works andJeanne cranks up “Suspicious Minds.”My semi-successful duet performancerestores a fragment of inspiration. Igrab some napkins and make a finallap around the room, mopping sweatfrom my brow with the faux scarves.I offer one to a game-looking womanat the front table. She pulls back as ifit were dabbed with Ebola virus.

Back in the lobby, Jeanne hands mea hot T-bone and baked potato in aStyrofoam box. I head out into thedark parking lot and climb into ourvan. For a moment I consider walkingnext door into Visions to freak out thesaps at the strip show. But that strikesme as the same kind of pathetic thingthat happens when a poor-shootingguard continues to heave up three-point attempts.

Oh well. D.W.E., Driving WhileElvis, is always a hoot. Honks andwaves the whole way home downEast Wash. I’m almost feeling myself,if that makes any sense, when I pullinto Graceland. “How’d it go?” asksMaggie as I kick off my show boots.“Not so good, darlin’,” I drawl andhand her the box. “How ‘bout heatin’daddy up some of them steak ‘n’taters?” CT

This article originally appeared inIsthmus, the alternative newsweeklyfor Madison, Wisconsin

It could be nearing high noon forthe soda industry. After years ofrepeated battering over the issuesof childhood obesity and tooth

decay, sugary beverages have sufferedan unprecedented backlash. The NewYork Times reported recently that softdrink sales are down for the first timein 20 years, and sales of bottled water,juices and energy drinks are continu-ing to eat into the soda market.

Into this anti-carbonated climatecomes a potentially bigger bombshellthat could spell disaster for the indus-try. The FDA quietly revealed thatsome soft drinks were found to con-tain the human carcinogen benzene inlevels up to 10-20 parts per billion(ppb) – four times the acceptable lim-it found in drinking water. Benzene, achemical linked to leukemia and oth-er forms of cancer, forms in certainbeverages under certain conditions,such as exposure to heat and light.

The agency immediately down-played the risk, saying that such smallamounts did not pose a significantdanger to health. “Levels like thatwith benzene, our only concern

would be lifetime consumption,” saysGeorge Pauli, associate director of sci-ence and policy in the office of foodadditive safety.

While scientists and doctors disagreeon how hazardous benzene is tohuman health, the Environmental Pro-tection Agency requires public notifica-tion and alternative water supply fordrinking water contaminated with lev-els of 5 ppb. Even “relatively short peri-ods” of exposure at that level can“potentially cause temporary nervoussystem disorders, immune systemdepression [and] anemia,” according tothe agency. A lifetime of exposure, saysthe EPA, can cause “chromosome aber-rations [and] cancer.”

The FDA has not set an acceptablelevel of benzene for beverages, arguingthat the public consumes soft drinksand other beverages in far loweramounts than they do drinking water –a contention that any parent of ateenager might find laughable. Youngerchildren may have already had a life-time of benzene consumption.

Almost as alarming as the existenceof benzene in soft drinks is that the

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The FDA quietly revealed that some soft drinks were found to contain the humancarcinogenbenzene in levels up to 10-20parts per billion (ppb) – four times the acceptablelimit found in drinkingwater

I N V E S T I G A T I O N

HARD TIMES FOR SOFT DRINKS

There’s an assumption in the market place that soft drinks are at least as safe to drink as, well, tap water. Not so, says a whistleblower who discovered that some of them contain up to four times the legal limit of the human carcinogen benzene. Michael Blanding reports on the scandal

FDA knew about the problem formore than 15 years, yet never revealedit to the public or took adequatemeasures to fix it. Even the latestround of tests would not have beenconducted if it weren’t for documentsposted on the internet late last yearby an industry whistleblower namedLarry Alibrandi. Those papers concernan undisclosed study at Cadbury-Schweppes in 1990 called Project Den-ver, which found that certain softdrinks, particularly diet orange-fla-vored sodas, had the tendency toform benzene when exposed to heatand light.

While the industry contends theproblem was corrected in the mostpopular sodas, no public recall wasdone at the time. Judging from theiringredients, dozens of products nowon the shelves could potentially havethe same problem, including suchpopular brands as Sunny Delight, fla-vored Diet Pepsi and Fanta Orange.(The Environmental Working Grouphas posted a partial list of possiblyrisky products.)

“The question is, how much doesthis problem still exist today?” saysAlibrandi, who is now head of Amer-ican Quality Beverages, a small NewYork producer of health drinks. “Wehave hundreds of examples from thetrade, and many of them could poten-tially be a problem. What’s especiallydisconcerting is the products engi-neered for children, where it’s apotentially bigger problem for themsince their body mass is very small.”

In November 1990, Alibrandi wasworking in product development at

the Connecticut labs of the Britishcompany Cadbury-Schweppes, whenhe says he was called into his super-visor’s office one morning. “He closedthe door and had a very, very con-cerned look on his face,” recounts Ali-brandi. “He said that a carcinogenwas found in beverages, and theywere concerned because they didn’tknow what the source was.” Thatsame day, Alibrandi booked a flight toFlorida to test samples in a special labcapable of exposing them to extremesof heat and light.

After several trials, Cadbury-Schweppes’ chemists determined thatthe benzene was caused by a chemi-cal reaction between the preservativesodium benzoate and ascorbic acid(Vitamin C). The effect was found tobe especially prevalent in diet sodas,and shot up to even higher levels afterproducts were subjected to extremesof heat and light.

According to the documents, Cad-bury-Schweppes’ Diet Crush wasfound to contain benzene at 25 partsper billion (ppb) – five times theacceptable EPA limit. After exposureto 16 hours of ultraviolet light at tem-peratures around 30 C (86 F), that lev-el jumped to a whopping 82 ppb. DietSlice (made by Pepsi) contained 1 ppbbefore exposure, and 41.5 ppb afterexposure. Diet Minute Maid (made byCoca-Cola) contained less than 0.5ppb before exposure and 4.5 ppbafterwards, the documents say.

Despite the comparatively highlevels found in these cases, however,the products tested in Project Denverwere never recalled. By law, the FDA

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“What’sespeciallydisconcerting is the productsengineered for children,where it’s a potentiallybigger problem for them since theirbody mass is very small”


is not allowed to order a recall of aproduct – but it can issue a requestfor a voluntary recall and, in extremecases, can order seizure of products.On Dec. 7, 1990, representatives of softdrink manufacturers met with FDAofficials to share their findings.According to a memo of that meeting,they “expressed their concern aboutthe presence of benzene traces in theirproducts and the potential foradverse publicity associated with thisproblem.” The FDA ruled that theproblem was not large enough towarrant a recall, “agree[ing] that lowppb level of benzene found in theseproducts do not constitute an immi-nent health hazard.” [sic]

That finding, however, flies in theface of other beverage scares involvingbenzene at the time, and may have hadmore to do with companies’ fear ofdamage to their bottom lines thanlegitimate health concerns. In January1990, Perrier sparkling water in theUnited States had been found contam-inated with benzene at levels up to 22ppb. More than 160 million bottles ofwater were recalled worldwide,at a lossof $263 million to the company.Perrier’sreputation took a hit as well, as thecompany was condemned for its failureto act quickly and for continuing toadvertise during the recall.

A few months later, an Australiancompany named Koala Springs Inter-national ordered a recall in November1990, when a Florida health agencyfound benzene levels of 11 to 18 ppb inits sparkling water with fruit additive –which was formed by the same combi-nation of sodium benzoate and ascor-

bic acid as in the Project Denver tests(in fact, the Koala Springs incident pre-cipitated the tests in the first place).

Other recalls have taken place sincethe Project Denver findings. In the Unit-ed Kingdom in 1998, Coca Cola-Schweppes ordered a recall of Malvernsparkling water,as well as cans of Coke,Sprite, Fanta and Dr. Pepper found tocontain benzene at levels up to 20 ppbdue to contaminated carbon dioxide.Britvic Soft Drinks shortly followedsuit, recalling more than 2 million cansof soda, including Regular and DietOrange Tango,Lemon Tango,Pepsi and7-Up, which had also been made withthe contaminated gas. At the time, theBritish Soft Drink Association statedthat the products were being with-drawn for “quality reasons,” notbecause they posed a health threat,butreaffirmed a vow to recall any bever-ages contaminated with benzene atmore than 10 ppb.

And in June 1999, Coca-Cola wasforced to recall 65 million cans of Cokein Belgium and France after more than200 people became mysteriously sick.The company’s initial stonewalling onthe issue caused a public relations dis-aster that led to a 10 percent drop instock price and temporary bans in sev-eral countries. While the companyeventually determined that the con-tamination was due to bad carbondioxide and pallets contaminated by abenzene derivative, a European com-mission later concluded that Coca-Cola’s explanation was “highly unlike-ly,” leaving lingering questions aboutthe source of that contamination.

Apart from the potential bad public-

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In June 1999,Coca-Cola was forced to recall 65million cans of Coke in Belgium and Franceafter more than 200 people becamemysteriouslysick


ity, Alibrandi speculates that the BigThree soft drink makers (Coca-Cola,Pepsi and Cadbury-Schweppes) didn’tpublicly recall their products in 1990because of fears that they might have toreplace sodium benzoate – an impor-tant anti-microbial preservative. With-out it or its cousin potassium benzoate,he says, drink makers would be unableto cold-bottle their drinks, instead hav-ing to undertake the more costlyprocess of heat pasteurization. “The BigThree are going to safeguard that pre-servative,” says Alibrandi. “If they toldauthorities the magnitude of it, maybethe risk was to have the preservativepulled. I imagine that would create atechnical nightmare for these folks.”

After the Project Denver tests, theindustry moved quickly to minimizethe problem. In less than a month,Cad-bury-Schweppes changed the formulafor Orange Crush, removing ascorbicacid from the drink.Later, chemists dis-covered that the benzene-causing reac-tion could be slowed by a “technicalfix” – the addition of other chemicalscalled “chelating agents,” of which themost common is called calcium disodi-um EDTA. “The soft drink industrypromptly took steps to address thecauses of benzene formation, and thematter was resolved through improvedmanufacturing procedures,” said Amer-ican Beverage Association (ABA)spokesperson Kathleen Dezio in astatement, when the whistleblowerdocuments were posted last year.

After the most recent revelations,ABA vice president Mike Redman, whowas at the 1990 meeting with the FDA,reiterated that point in a letter to the

Raleigh News & Observer: “Productsthat contain sodium benzoate andascorbic acid are not inherently unsafe,”he wrote. “Steps can be taken,and havebeen taken, in the formulation processto address reactions that may lead tobenzene.You do not necessarily need toremove one of these ingredients to pre-vent benzene.”

Spokespeople for Pepsi and Coke,which makes Fanta, referred calls to theABA. A spokesperson for Sunny De-light, Sydney McHugh, denied that thecompany’s products were dangerous.“We have a deliberate strategy to pre-vent benzene from forming in any ofour products,” she says, adding thecompany has gotten a clean bill ofhealth from independent analysis. “Ifwe ever find evidence of benzene in anyour products, we will reformulate ourproducts.”

But recently, Alibrandi says he wasshocked when he pulled trade samplesof hundreds of beverages and found thesame combination of sodium or potas-sium benzoate and ascorbic acid,including some without the “technicalfix” of one of the chelating agents. “Iwas astounded to see the number ofproducts that contained this combina-tion,” says Alibrandi. “If this broke 15years ago, why wasn’t this rectifiedacross the industry? The consumers ofAmerica deserve better.”

Alibrandi and his lawyer, Ross Get-man, alerted the FDA to the problemlast November, but the agency initial-ly denied the need for new tests, say-ing that it had adequately dealt withthe issue in the early 1990s. To itscredit, the FDA had commissioned a

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“If this broke 15 years ago,why wasn’t this rectifiedacross theindustry? The consumersof Americadeserve better.”


study of the benzene problem short-ly after the Project Denver findings. Inthat study, which appeared in a med-ical journal in 1993, FDA chemiststested 50 different types of foods andbeverages, including soft drinks, andfound that none had a level of morethan 2 ppb.

Another study released around thesame time by a chemist who consult-ed with the FDA isolated the processwhereby sodium benzoate and ascor-bic acid could form benzene. In sam-ples made to approximate soft drinks,it found benzene was formed in levelsof less than 1 ppb. Even so, the studyrecommended “the combination ofascorbic acid and sodium benzoate infoods and beverages should be evalu-ated more carefully.”

Other findings in the FDA’s studyare more worrisome. In that study,beverages were kept refrigerated,despite the indications in the whistle-blower documents that results wereexacerbated by heat and light. As apostscript to the study, however,researchers prepared solutions ofsodium or potassium benzoate andascorbic acid, similar to those foundin some soft drinks, and exposedthem to heat and light. After 20 hoursat room temperature, these solutionshad formed benzene in levels of 4ppb. After another 8 days, that shotoff the charts to 266 ppb. Exposingthe solutions to “strong UV light”and/or temperatures of 45 C (113 F) for20 hours shot the levels up even fur-ther, to 300 ppb. The study conclud-ed that the “benzene formed is asso-ciated with the interaction of these

two compounds. In these cases, theremoval of one of the compoundsmay mitigate benzene formation.”

Despite these findings, Paulidefends the agency’s decision not tocommission further testing at thetime, saying that products wereunlikely to be exposed to extremes ofheat and light. “With the amount ofstaff we have, there is no way wecould test more than a small sampleof products,” he says. “There are moreimportant things for our people todo.” Lawyer Getman, however, arguesit’s not unreasonable to think thatsoft drinks could regularly be exposedto extreme conditions. “What arethey doing in New Delhi?” he says.“Many of these countries involve ven-dors who don’t refrigerate their prod-ucts. It’s sold out of a cart along withthe chicken kabobs.”

Getman questions industry claimsthat all products have been reformu-lated to fix the problem. Because theBig Three producers and the FDAkept the benzene problem out of thepress, other smaller manufacturersmay have been unaware of the needfor the technical fix. In addition, someEuropean countries don’t allow suchchelating agents as calcium disodiumEDTA, making it unclear how the BigThree’s products may have beenreformulated to correct the problemin those countries.

After being rebuffed by the FDA,Alibrandi and Getman organizedtheir own series of independent testsin November, acquiring samples fromas far away as Italy and Argentinaand submitting them to a lab in New

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“Many of these countriesinvolve vendors who don’trefrigerate their products.It’s sold out of a cart along with the chickenkabobs”


York. Of the dozen beverages theytested, three were found to containlevels more than 20 ppb. They sentthe results to the FDA, finally alarm-ing the agency enough to conduct itsown tests.

Two weeks ago, Pauli confirmed toreporters that a small number of bev-erages in their study had tested posi-tive for elevated levels of benzene upto 10-20 ppb. Since then, however,other countries including the UnitedKingdom, Canada, Australia, Ger-many and China have followedthrough with their own tests. Lastweek, tests in Britain returned morealarming results: of 230 beveragestested, 130 had benzene levels inexcess of the European Union Limitfor drinking water of 1 ppb, with somecontaining up to eight times that lim-it, according to The Times of London.

Neither American nor Britishauthorities have so far released theirtesting results, and the FDA has yet tomake a public announcement aboutthe danger. That’s unacceptable, saysTim Kropp, a senior scientist with theEnvironmental Working Group, awatchdog organization that hascalled on the FDA to release datafrom its study. “Without the publicknowing, there is no incentive to doanything,” he says. “Industry doesn’tmove unless they have to.”

After all, says Kropp, if the publichad been notified back in 1990, thecurrent scare might have been pre-vented. “We’ve known this is a prob-lem for over a decade, and it hasn’tbeen fixed. This is what happenswhen you have a voluntary agree-

ment that is not even made public. Itboggles my mind that anyone wouldthink that would work.”

A good start to preventing futureproblems, says Kropp, is to set levelsfor harmful chemicals like benzene forfood and drink similar to those thatare in place for drinking water. “Ben-zene doesn’t care whether you aredrinking soda or water, and neitherdoes your body,” he says. Lawyer Get-man agrees. “Consider, which doesthe average 5-year-old drink more of,pop or water?” he says. “You are notgoing to find a parent who says mykid drinks eight glasses of water aday.”

Getman and Alibrandi are nowawaiting the results of further testingin the United States and other coun-tries to determine the extent of theproblem that was first discovered in alab 16 years ago. As more detailsabout what the industry did and did-n’t do emerge, there is a possibilitythat companies could be held legallyat fault, adding another crisis to a softdrink industry that has had no short-age of bad news. Getman ticks off along list of legal questions presentedby the issue, including product liabil-ity and deceptive consumer practices.“Especially in hot climates abroadwhere no technical fix was put in,” hesays, “the potential implications forliability are huge.” CT

Michael Blanding is a freelance writerliving in Boston. Read more of hiswriting at MichaelBlanding.com. This article originally appeared atwww.alternet.org

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“We’ve knownthis is a problem for over a decade, and it hasn’tbeen fixed. This is whathappens when you havea voluntaryagreement that is not even madepublic. It boggles my mind thatanyone wouldthink thatwould work.”


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It was like Little League,but with highheels andbustiersinstead of cleatsand jerseys

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It was with a combination of con-tradictory emotions – familiarity,estrangement, anticipation, dis-dain, and even a twinge of regret

– that I tuned in and watched therecent Miss America pageant. Why?I’m not your average viewer or loyalfan.

No, I was a teenage beauty queen.It might have been a long shot, but

had circumstances been slightly dif-ferent, I could have been in Las Vegascompeting for that crown myself. Asan insider, I want to correct some ofthe most common misperceptionsabout Miss America’s image ofwomen, but I also understand someof the deepest flaws in the organiza-tion’s brand of feminism.

Raised in a conservative Republi-can family, I entered and won my firstpageant at the age of 11. I was con-stantly encouraged to look beautiful,even sexy, from very early on. It wasfun, and it was a mutually beneficialexperience. I got to dress up in gor-geous, expensive gowns and com-mand the attention of hundreds ofpeople while on stage, and my mom

got to dote on me and rake in qualitytime as we drove all over SouthernCalifornia on weekends for differentcompetitions. It was like LittleLeague, but with high heels andbustiers instead of cleats and jerseys.

After we moved to Texas when Istarted high school, I went on to earnsuch titles as “Miss Teen NorthTexas” and “Miss Dallas Teen” in theyounger age categories of the MissAmerica and Miss USA systems.Toward the end of high school, I burntout on pageants and stopped enter-ing, much to the very vocal dismay ofmy mother.

During college, I experienced a dra-matic ideological leftward shift (alsoto the very vocal dismay of my moth-er), which at first made me ashamedof my prior participation in the pag-eant circuit. Ultimately, however, mynewfound progressive beliefs broughtme full circle, and I returned to pag-eants more determined than ever tomake it to Miss America.

To be sure, I do not defend all pag-eants. Some are entirely without mer-it. The Jon-Benet-style contests I

T H E B E A U T Y J U N G L E

I WAS A BEAUTY PAGEANT DROP-OUT

After a childhood as a beauty pageant winner, Amanda Angelotti decided to take a shot at the Miss America title, choosing as her advocacy platform a discussion of a universal health service for all Americans. Then a week afterwinning the Miss Arlington pageant she gave up her crown. Here’s why …

TheREADER 13

Why else would a proudlefty feministlike myselfwant to enter a localpreliminarywith dreams of winning a state andthen nationaltitle? The shortanswer: money,celebrity, and a cause

entered as a child are decided almostexclusively on the basis of appear-ance. Winners earn little more than agaudy tiara and a 5-foot trophy, andthe pageant directors walk away witha ton of cash bilked from gullible par-ents who unfailingly believe – and tryto prove – that their child is just thecutest kid in the whole world.

Or, for instance, though the MissUSA Pageant (part of the Miss Uni-verse system) includes an interviewphase and the winner does somecharitable work, it is a for-profitenterprise owned by Donald “TheDonald” Trump and NBC. Founded in1952 by Catalina Swimsuits as a prod-uct promotion tool, it seeks women asmodels.

Just watch the show and you can’tmiss all of the product placementinterspersed throughout – the reign-ing Miss USA hawks everything fromsuntan lotion to flashy diamonds. Sothe formula is simple: the most attrac-tive woman makes the bestspokesmodel and, therefore, the bestMiss USA.

But, I swear, Miss America is differ-ent! Why else would a proud leftyfeminist like myself want to enter alocal preliminary with dreams of win-ning a state and then national title?The short answer: money, celebrity,and a cause.

The non-profit Miss America Orga-nization proudly proclaims itself to bethe world’s leading provider of schol-arship money for women, offeringover $45 million to American womenlast year alone to pay for higher edu-cation. After crowning the new win-

ner on Saturday, Deidre Downs, MissAmerica 2005 and a Rhodes Scholarfinalist, will enter medical school atthe University of Alabama with thehelp of a whopping $50,000 scholar-ship. I have designs on medical schoolmyself and could certainly use theassistance.

The organization’s stated purposeis to “[empower] young women toachieve their personal and profession-al goals, while providing a forum inwhich to express their opinions, tal-ent and intelligence.” In fact, despitethe high profile of the swimsuit com-petition, a substantial majority of acontestant’s score is based on the tal-ent and interview competitions. Thescoring system ensures that, often, thewinner isn’t necessarily the one withthe most obviously comely figure orbrightest smile.

Every contestant is required toenter with a platform, a cause toadvocate during a year-long speakingtour should she win, about which apanel of judges asks rapid-fire ques-tions during the interview. The mostcommon selections are comfortablynon-controversial, such as literacyeducation or breast cancer awareness,while some women have venturedinto hotter topics with surprisingease; Miss America 1998’s platformwas a relatively progressive vision ofAIDS prevention and treatment.

It was this aspect of the competi-tion that appealed to my own pro-gressive activist ideals. I had fantasiesof using the built-in fame and PRresources of the Miss America title toadvance my personal vision of large-


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14 TheREADER

I thought I could showthe MissAmericaOrganization,my fellowcontestants,and the publicthat even a borderlinehippie could win the Miss Americatitle and do some goodthroughrelativelyunorthodoxtitleholderadvocacy (and maybe,just once in a while,trade in thosecolorful tailoredbusiness suitsfor some worn-out cords)

scale public health reform in the Unit-ed States. My plan involved advocat-ing for universal health insurance,expansion of the National Health Ser-vice Corps and public health infra-structure, incentives for the practice ofevidence-based health care, and man-dated adoption of electronic medicalrecords by all hospitals and clinics,among other reforms.

Anyone can speak to studentgroups in vague platitudes about“awareness” of drugs or diseases. Iwanted to make a concrete differencein policy and thought I could getmore press attention now as MissAmerica than I’ll probably ever beable to get once I become a publichealth official.

Yes, it would be a purely strategicmove. But Miss America advocatingprogressive public health reformwould be sort of like Nixon going toChina, right? My platform, whileadmittedly overly ambitious, stoodout in its detail and goals. Plus, Ithought I could show the Miss Amer-ica Organization, my fellow contest-ants, and the public that even a bor-derline hippie could win the MissAmerica title and do some goodthrough relatively unorthodox title-holder advocacy (and maybe, justonce in a while, trade in those color-ful tailored business suits for someworn-out cords).

So it was with some excitementthat I entered the Miss Arlington pag-eant in February of 2005. But my delu-sions of grandeur quickly evaporated.All of my prior reasons for quittingcame flooding back to me. The heavy

make-up, the smothering smell ofendless cans of hairspray, the excitedbackstage patter about wardrobeselections, pushy stage mothersprimping and fussing over theirdaughters, spending hours on endwith my body bound up in tightundergarments.

And I remembered the subtle dis-honesty of it all. I found the localcompetition utterly oblivious to thetrue substance of contestants’ lives.When the Miss America finalists wereasked on Saturday about a childhoodexperience that challenged them, nei-ther the judges nor the audience real-ly wanted to hear about the deepproblems that I’m certain many ofthese women have experienced be-cause doing so would simply beuncomfortable.

Take the first runner-up, MissGeorgia, a young woman who grewup in the South with a blonde momand an Asian dad. She took anunusually bold move for a pageantcontestant by even mentioning race,noting that in her youth, she experi-enced taunts because of her back-ground. But still, she glossed over themammoth issue of racial rifts inAmerican culture with perfect pag-eant sheen.

She acted as if her encounters withracism were only discrete momentsthat existed exclusively in the past,that the ongoing racial dynamics ofAmerica couldn’t puncture the sup-posedly color blind pageant worldbubble.

It seemed that she was “over it,”having purged her childhood trauma


from her perfect heart, body andbrain.

But that’s what viewers want. Theywant “cute,” they want neatly pack-aged problems articulated as profun-dity, and many of the contestantswere eager to oblige. I chose my dad-dy as my escort for the evening wearcompetition. Kids made fun of mebecause of my big glasses and ganglylimbs, and it made me a stronger per-son. Viewers and pageant organizersdon’t want to confront the process ofbeing a woman. They want to see theproduct of being a woman – a com-plete package with challenges over-come, plus honor roll status and arockin’ bod.

I enjoyed or at least tolerated all ofthese things as a teenager. But in themidst of the Miss Arlington pageant,I realized I had changed too much toendure them for even a day as anadult.

And then, of course, I won – thefirst step toward the 2005 Miss Amer-ica pageant – based largely on myplatform-based interview score, thehighest of the contestants.

I gave up my crown just one weeklater, after what was for me the finalstraw: I learned how little say I wouldhave if I were to win the national oreven state title. Miss America mustsign her life away for a year in a con-tract that obligates her to be, first andforemost, a public relations tool forthe pageant – wearing what they tellher to wear and giving preparedspeeches at fundraising events. Timeto pursue her own cause is limited atbest.

Under the weight of so many com-promises, I finally gave up on pag-eants once and for all. Still, the mediahype about this year’s culminatingcontest compelled me to be one of3.06 million people to tune in to theMiss America Pageant. They said itwas going to be a return to tradition,and I wanted to see what that mightlook like.

After watching, I found the changesto be minor and irrelevant. Theybrought back the Miss Congenialityaward and did away with reality show-style gimmicks that had been adoptedin recent years to try to boost ratings.But those were replaced with new gim-micks, hardly traditional, such as livesatellite feeds from a Miss Americahouse party in Maine, live bloggingfrom the pageant, and a hunky hostfrom one of the most popular (and sex-filled) shows on television.

Watching the show in light of myown complicated pageant history, itwasn’t tradition or lack thereof thatstruck me. Instead, it was my sensethat the Miss America Organization’santi-feminism is found less in its eter-nally popular swimsuit competitionand more in its ironic ability to takesmart, talented women – many ofwhom will go on to become physi-cians, attorneys, professional operasingers, and teachers – and transformthem into living, breathing publicrelations props who must ignore theirwhole selves that got them that luckygig in the first place. CT

This articles was originally publishedat www.campusprogress.org

TheREADER 15

Viewers andpageantorganizers don’t want to confront the process of being a woman. They want to see theproduct of being a woman– a completepackage with challengesovercome, plus honor rollstatus and a rockin’ bod


16 TheREADER

In 1998, afterseven years of relentless US bombingand draconiansanctions, Iraq was but a pitifulshell of itsformer self and no longer a threateven to itsneighbors,much less“the world”

Whatever ambiguity may remain about the role of the the ‘Israel Lobby’ in the invasion of Iraq, says William Blum, it’s clear that if and when the sociopaths who call themselves America’s leaders attack Iran, Israeli security will be the main reason, with the euro in second place

T he recent paper by twoprominent academics, JohnMearsheimer and StephenWalt, on “The Israel Lobby”,

has spurred considerable discussionboth in the mainstream media and onthe Internet about the significance ofthe role played by this lobby in insti-gating the US invasion and occupa-tion of Iraq.

The answer to this question mayreside ultimately, and solely, in theminds of the neo-conservatives, in orclose to official government positions,who lobbied for years to invade Iraqand overthrow Saddam Hussein; anearly instance of this being their now-famous letter to President Clinton inJanuary 1998, which, in no uncertainterms, called for an American strategythat “should aim, above all, at theremoval of Saddam Hussein’s regimefrom power”. Warning of Saddam’spotential for acquiring weapons ofmass destruction, the neo-cons, inlanguage at times sounding frenzied,insisted that his removal wasabsolutely vital to “the security of theworld in the first part of the 21st cen-

tury” and for “the safety of Americantroops in the region, of our friendsand allies like Israel and the moderateArab states, and a significant portionof the world’s supply of oil.”

This of course was a gross exagger-ation. In 1998, after seven years ofrelentless US bombing and draconiansanctions, Iraq was but a pitiful shellof its former self and no longer athreat even to its neighbors, muchless “the world”. There were thosewho hated Saddam, but the onlycountry that had any good reason tofear Iraq, then or later, was Israel, asretaliation for Israel’s unprovokedbombing of Iraq in 1981. The letter toClinton was signed by Elliott Abrams,Richard L. Armitage, William J. Ben-nett, Jeffrey Bergner, John Bolton,Paula Dobriansky, Francis Fukuyama,Robert Kagan, Zalmay Khalilzad,William Kristol, Richard Perle, PeterW. Rodman, Donald Rumsfeld, Wil-liam Schneider, Jr., Vin Weber, PaulWolfowitz, R. James Woolsey, andRobert B. Zoellick(1), most of whom,if not all, could be categorized as alliesof Israel; most of whom were soon to

T H E A N T I - E M P I R E R E P O R T

LIES, INVASION ANDTHE ZIONIST LOBBY

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Whateverambiguity may remainabout the roleof the Israellobby in theinvasion of Iraq,it’s clear that if and when the sociopathswho callthemselves our leadersattack Iran,Israeli securitywill be the main reason,with the euro in second place

join the Busheviks. What could haveprompted these individuals to writesuch a letter to the president otherthan a desire to eliminate a threat tothe safety of Israel? And when theycame into power some began imme-diately to campaign for regime changein Iraq.

There are those who argue that theUnited States has invaded numerouscountries without requiring instiga-tion by Israel. This is of course true,it’s what the empire does for a living.But to say that the Israel lobby playeda vital role in the invasion of Iraq in2003 is not to suggest an explanationfor the whole history of US foreigninterventions.

To the role of the Israel lobby wemust add two other factors carryingunknown degrees of weight in thedecision to invade Iraq: controllingvast amounts of oil, and saving thedollar from the euro by reversing Sad-dam Hussein’s decision to use the lat-ter in Iraq’s oil transactions (and thisreversal was one of the first edicts ofthe occupation).

Whatever ambiguity may remainabout the role of the Israel lobby inthe invasion of Iraq, it’s clear that ifand when the sociopaths who callthemselves our leaders attack Iran,Israeli security will be the main rea-son, with the euro in second placebecause Iran has been taking – or atleast threatening to take – serioussteps to replace the dollar with theeuro in oil transactions. Iran of coursealso has lots of oil, but unless theUnited States aims at conquest andoccupation of the country – and

where will Los Socios find a few hun-dred thousand more clueless Ameri-can bodies – access to and control ofthe oil would not be very feasible. TheIsrael lobby appears to be the onlymajor organized force that is activelypushing the United States toward cri-sis in Iran. Along with the lobby’sleading member, the American-IsraelPublic Affairs Committee (AIPAC),there’s the American Jewish Commit-tee (AJC), which has taken out full-page ads in major US newspaperswith the less-than-subtle heading: “ANuclear Iran Threatens All”, depictingradiating circles on an Iran-centeredmap to show where its missiles couldstrike.

“The threat from Iran is, of course,their stated objective to destroy ourstrong ally Israel,” declared George W.last month. “That’s a threat, a seriousthreat. It’s a threat to world peace. Imade it clear, and I’ll make it clearagain, that we will use military mightto protect our ally Israel.”(2)

Chutzpah of an imperial size

Do you remember the classic exampleof “chutzpah”? It’s the young manwho kills his parents and then asksthe court for mercy on the groundsthat he’s an orphan.

The Bush administration’s updatedversion of that is starting a whollyillegal, immoral, and devastating warand then dismissing all kinds of criti-cism of its action on the grounds that“We’re at war.”

They use this excuse to defendwarrantless spying, to defend theimprisonment of people for years


18 TheREADER

Very few of the poorsouls werecaptured on any kind of battlefield,few had even a gun in theirhand; mostwere just in the wrongplace at thewrong time or were turnedin by aninformer for an Americanbounty or a personalgrudge

TheREADER 18


without charging them with a crime,to abuse and torture them, to ignorethe Geneva Convention and otherinternational treaties; they use itagainst Democrats, accusing them ofpartisanship during “a time of war”;they use it to justify the expansion ofpresidential powers and the weaken-ing of checks and balances. In short,they claim “We can do whatever wewant about anything at all related tothis war, because we’re at war.”

“War is war,” says Supreme CourtJustice Antonin Scalia, “and it has nev-er been the case that when you cap-tured a combatant you have to givethem a jury trial in your civil courts.Give me a break.”(3) Scalia, in his pub-lic talks, implies that prisoners held inthe far-flung American gulag were all“captured on the battlefield”.(4) Butthis is simply false.Very few of the poorsouls were captured on any kind of bat-tlefield, few had even a gun in theirhand; most were just in the wrongplace at the wrong time or were turnedin by an informer for an Americanbounty or a personal grudge.

The American public, like all pub-lics, requires only sufficient repetitionfrom “respectable” sources to learnhow to play the game: Earlier thismonth many cities of Wisconsin heldreferendums on bringing the troopshome from Iraq. Here’s Jim Martin, 48,a handyman in Evansville. He thinksthat his city shouldn’t waste taxpay-ers’ money running a referendum thatmeans nothing. “The fact of the mat-ter remains, we’re at war,” he said ashe ate his lunch at the Night Owlbar.(5)

And here now is Chris Simcox aleader in the Minuteman movementthat patrols the Mexican border: “If Icatch you breaking into my country inthe middle of the night and we’re atwar ... you’re a potential enemy. Idon’t care if you’re a busboy comingto wash dishes.”(6)

One observer has summed up thelegal arguments put forth by the Bushadministration thusly: “The existinglaws do not apply because this is adifferent kind of war. It’s a differentkind of war because the presidentsays so. The president gets to say sobecause he is president. ... We followthe laws of war except to the extentthat they do not apply to us. Theseprisoners have all the rights to whichthey are entitled by law, except to theextent that we have changed the lawto limit their rights.”(7)

Yet, George W. has cut taxes tre-mendously, something probablyunprecedented while at war.

Facing calls for impeachment,plummeting popularity, a loomingRepublican electoral disaster, andmassive failure in Mesopotamia,Georgie looks toward Persia. He andthe other gang members will be ableto get away with almost anythingthey can think of if they can say“We’re in two wars!”

A tale of two terrorists

Zacarias Moussaoui, the only personcharged to date in the United Statesin connection with the September 11,2001 attacks, testifying at his trial inAlexandria, Virginia:

The sobbing September 11 survivors

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The maindifferencebetweenZacariasMoussaoui and OrlandoBosch is thatone of them is on trial for his life while the otherwalks aroundMiami a freeman, freeenough to beinterviewed on television


and family members who testifiedagainst him were “disgusting” ... Heand other Muslims want to “extermi-nate” American Jews ... executedOklahoma City bomber TimothyMcVeigh was “the greatest Ameri-can”(8) He expressed his willingnessto kill Americans “any time, any-where” ... “I wish it had happened notonly on the 11th, but the 12th, 13th,14th, 15th and 16th.”(9)

Orlando Bosch, one of the master-minds behind the October 6, 1976bombing of a Cuban passenger plane,blown out of the sky with 73 peopleon board, including the entire youngCuban fencing team, interviewedApril 8 by Juan Manuel Cao of Chan-nel 41 in Miami:

CCaaoo:: Did you down that plane in1976?

BBoosscchh:: If I tell you that I wasinvolved, I will be inculpating myself... and if I tell you that I did not par-ticipate in that action, you would saythat I am lying. I am therefore notgoing to answer one thing or the oth-er.

CCaaoo:: In that action 73 persons werekilled ...

BBoosscchh:: No chico, in a war such asus Cubans who love liberty wageagainst the tyrant [Fidel Castro], youhave to down planes, you have to sinkships, you have to be prepared toattack anything that is within yourreach.

CCaaoo:: But don’t you feel a little bitfor those who were killed there, fortheir families?

BBoosscchh:: Who was on board thatplane? Four members of the Commu-

nist Party, five north Koreans, fiveGuyanese ... Who was there? Ourenemies.

CCaaoo:: And the fencers? The youngpeople on board?

BBoosscchh:: I saw the young girls on tel-evision. There were six of them. Afterthe end of the competition, the leaderof the six dedicated their triumph tothe tyrant. She gave a speech filledwith praise for the tyrant. We hadalready agreed in Santo Domingo,that everyone who comes from Cubato glorify the tyrant had to run thesame risks as those men and womenthat fight alongside the tyranny.

CCaaoo:: If you ran into the familymembers who were killed in thatplane, wouldn’t you think it difficult... ?

BBoosscchh:: No, because in the endthose who were there had to knowthat they were cooperating with thetyranny in Cuba.

The main difference betweenZacarias Moussaoui and OrlandoBosch is that one of them is on trialfor his life while the other walksaround Miami a free man, freeenough to be interviewed on televi-sion. Bosch had a partner in plottingthe bombing of the Cuban airliner,Luis Posada, a Cuban-born citizen ofVenezuela. He’s being held in custodyin the United States on a minor immi-gration charge. His extradition hasbeen requested by Venezuela for sev-eral crimes including the downing ofthe airliner, part of the plotting havingtaken place in Venezuela. But theBush administration refuses to sendhim to Venezuela because they don’t

20 TheREADER

Mr. Amador is presumablyclaiming that no one in Cuba is ever happy or even smiles.The book is currently being reviewedby a schoolcommittee

TheREADER 20


like the Venezuelan government, norwill they try him in the United Statesfor the crime. However, the Conven-tion for the Suppression of UnlawfulActs Against the Safety of Civil Avia-tion (1973), of which the United Statesis a signatory, gives Washington nodiscretion. Article 7 says that the statein which “the alleged offender isfound shall, if it does not extraditehim, be obliged, without exceptionwhatsoever and whether or not theoffence was committed in its territory,to submit the case to its competentauthorities for the purpose of prose-cution.”(10) Extradite or prosecute.The United States does neither.

This is your mind on anti-communism

Earlier this month, in Miami-DadeCounty, Florida (where else?) it wasreported that the parent of a school-child asked the school board to ban abook called “Vamos a Cuba” (“Let’sgo to Cuba”), a travel book that hassmiling kids on the cover and insidedepicts happy scenes from a festivalheld in Cuba. “As a former politicalprisoner from Cuba, I find the materi-al to be untruthful,” Juan Amador,wrote to the school board. “It por-trays a life in Cuba that does notexist. I believe it aims to create an illu-sion and distort reality.” Mr. Amadoris presumably claiming that no one inCuba is ever happy or even smiles.The book is currently being reviewedby a school committee.(11)

During his recent election cam-paign, Italian Premier Silvio Berlus-coni declared that communists in

Mao’s China boiled babies to makefertilizer.(12) He defended his remarkby citing: “The Black Book of Com-munism”, a “history” of communismpublished in 1997, a book that is to thestudy of communism as “The Proto-cols of the Elders of Zionism” is toJudaism or the collected statements ofGeorge W. Bush are to understandingwhy we are fighting in Iraq. Berlus-coni’s remark may actually be regard-ed as progress in the wonderful worldof anti-communism, for following theRussian Revolution of 1917 it waswidely and long proclaimed that theBolsheviks killed and ate babies (asthe early pagans believed the Chris-tians guilty of devouring their chil-dren; the same was believed of Jews inthe Middle Ages). It’s interesting tonote (Well, to me at least) that in2003, when my book Killing Hope waspublished in Italy, the publisher gaveit the title “Il Libro Nero Degli StatiUniti” (“The Black Book of The Unit-ed States”).(13)

Charles Taylor and that fakeopposition party known as theDemocrats

Some things I have to repeat, becausethe news makes them relevant onceagain, and because the media ignoresthem once again. Charles Taylor, for-mer president of Liberia, has beencaptured and is being held for trial ina UN-sponsored war-crimes court inneighboring Sierra Leone. In 2003 Tay-lor was indicted by this court for“bearing the greatest responsibilityfor war crimes, crimes against human-ity and serious violations of interna-

TheREADER 21

“One of thegreat thingsabout America,one of thebeauties of our country,is that when we see a young,innocent childblown up by an IED[improvisedexplosivedevice], we cry. We don’t carewhat the child’s religionmay be, or where thatchild may live,we cry”


tional humanitarian law” during Sier-ra Leone’s civil war. The UnitedStates, along with the rest of theworld, condemns Taylor, applauds hiscapture, and calls for his punishment.What we’re not reminded of is this:

In 1998, President Clinton sent Rev.Jesse Jackson as his special envoy toLiberia and Sierra Leone, the latterbeing in the midst of one of the greathorrors of the 20th century – You mayremember the army of mostly youngboys, the Revolutionary United Front(RUF), who went around raping andchopping off people’s arms and legs.African and world opinion was enragedagainst the RUF, which was committedto protecting the diamond mines theycontrolled.Taylor was an indispensableally and supporter of the RUF and Jack-son was an old friend of his. Jesse wasnot sent to the region to try to curtailthe RUF’s atrocities, nor to hound Tay-lor about his widespread human rightsviolations, but instead, in June 1999,Jackson and other American officialsdrafted entire sections of an accord thatmade RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, Sier-ra Leone’s vice president, and gave himofficial control over the diamond mines,the country’s major source ofwealth.(14)

And what was the Clinton admin-istration’s interest in all this? It’s beenspeculated that the answer lies withcertain individuals with ties to thediamond industry and to Clinton,while he was president or while gov-ernor of Arkansas; for example, Mau-rice Tempelsman, generous contribu-tor to the Democratic Party andescort of Secretary of State Madeleine

Albright around this time, whoseAntwerp, Amsterdam and Tel Avivdiamond marts arranged for SierraLeone diamond sales to Tiffany andCartier.(15)

Good ol’ Bill? Good ol’ Jess? Iknow, I know, I keep tearing downyour heroes. Who will you have left?But remember the words of the twocharacters in Bertolt Brecht’s “Ga-lileo”:

“Unhappy the land that has noheroes,” says the first.

“No,” says the other, “Unhappy theland that needs heroes.”

Or as Abbie Hoffman said: “Sacredcows make the best hamburger.”

After the war-crimes trial we’llneed a second tribunal forshameless lying, gross insults to our intelligence, and just plain weird stupidity and stupid weirdness

George W. Bush, speaking March 29,2006 to the Freedom House organiza-tion in Washington: “We’re a countryof deep compassion. We care. One ofthe great things about America, oneof the beauties of our country, is thatwhen we see a young, innocent childblown up by an IED [improvisedexplosive device], we cry. We don’tcare what the child’s religion may be,or where that child may live, we cry. Itupsets us. The enemy knows that,and they’re willing to – they’re willingto kill to shake our confidence. That’swhat they’re trying to do.”(16)

“Those who can make you believeabsurdities can make you commitatrocities.” Voltaire

Is this any way to organize asociety of human beings?April 18 was the 100th anniversary ofthe historic, catastrophic San Francis-co earthquake of 1906. Studies predictthat the next big quake in the city willtake a much greater human tollbecause so many of the residents livein apartments and houses built beforebuilding codes were tightened in 1970.And because many units are rent-controlled apartments, we are told,landlords have few incentives to seis-mic retrofit.(17)

There are those who would usethis as an argument against rent con-trol. There are others who would useit as an argument against free enter-prise or private ownership of housing.Think of it.

Over the years, California haslearned very well how to modernizebuildings to prepare them to with-stand earthquakes much better thanin the past. That this works has beenproven again and again, even dramat-ically, such as in Los Angeles, hit by a7.4 quake in 1994, with relatively littledamage. (I was asleep in my bed inHollywood when it hit in the earlymorning of January 17 and was rude-ly and frighteningly awakened, butthe apartment building was fine.) Yetlarge numbers of people in Californiaare still living in dwellings very vul-nerable to a quake because to correctthe situation would adversely affectthe profit and loss statements of theowners of those dwellings. CT

NOTES(1) Letter to Clinton: http://www.newameri-

cancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

(2) Agence France Presse, March 20, 2006

(3) Newsweek, April 3, 2006

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

(5) Associated Press, March 27, 2006

(6) Philadelphia Inquirer, March 26, 2006

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

2006


(9) Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 13, ‘06

(10) www.unodc.org/unodc/terrorism_ con-

vention_civil_aviation.html


(12) Associated Press, March 29, 2006

(13) For many other examples of the mind on

anti-communism, see William Blum, “Freeing

the World to Death”, chapter 12 (“Before

there were terrorists there were communists

and the wonderful world of anti-commu-

nism”)

(14) Ryan Lizza, “Where angels fear to tread”,

New Republic, July 24, 2000

(15) The Washington Post, August 2, 1997,

p.A1 and February 6, 1998, p.B1 re Tempels-

man. Other speculation in various places has

concerned diamond investors Jean Raymond

Boulle and Robert Friedland, each with

alleged ties to Clinton.

(16) Federal Information and News Dispatch,

Inc., State Department Documents and Pub-

lications, March 29, 2006


William Blum is the author of: KillingHope: US Military and CIAInterventions Since World War 2;Rogue State: A Guide to the World’sOnly Superpower West-Bloc Dissident:A Cold War Memoir,;Freeing theWorld to Death: Essays on theAmerican Empire. His web site is www.killinghope.org

22 TheREADER

Many units arerent-controlledapartments, we are told,landlords have fewincentives to seismicretrofit.There are those whowould usethis as anargumentagainst rentcontrol. There areothers whowould use it as anargumentagainst freeenterprise or privateownership of housing


TheREADER 23

R emember those big head-lines about the closing ofAbu Ghraib? According tothe media splash, the US

was preparing to shut down thosenotorious chambers within threemonths. That would mean by June2006. Well, guess what? Those storieswere just another piece of disinforma-tion. According to the US Departmentof Defense news service DefenseLink,“News reports that the U.S. militaryintends to close Abu Ghraib withinthe next few months and to transferits prisoners to other jails are inaccu-rate.”

Like everything else in Iraq, theactual timetable for any closure of theprison will be based on “the readinessof Iraq’s security forces to assumecontrol of them” and some kind ofinfrastructure improvements at otherfacilities. (DefenseLink 3/12/06) If pre-vious reality holds true in thisinstance, that means that the AbuGhraib facility will not be closing anytime soon. Just like the reports ofsoon-to-come troop withdrawalsrumored every few months, the sto-

ries of the closure of Abu Ghraib arejust one more part of the govern-ment’s attempts to keep us hopefullyconfused. Whether the media’s inten-tion is to deceive or clarify by report-ing these statements, the objectivereality is the former.

Once again, it becomes clear thatthe only way the troops will comehome alive is by consistent and loudpopular demand. Polls showing thatmost Americans favor such a with-drawal are obviously not enough.Neither are votes for antiwar legisla-tors. More is needed.

Of course, if one listens to Alexan-der Haig and Henry Kissinger – twoarchitects of the last major US foreigndisaster in Vietnam – they mightthink that the only way to get out ofIraq is by blowing the country and itsinhabitants to hell. Indeed, Mr. Haig,who was a general, Secretary of Stateunder Reagan, and an advisor toRichard Nixon (even serving as hisChief of Staff during the final monthsof Nixon’s presidency), told an audi-ence of a conference on the VietnamWar at the John F. Kennedy Presiden-

W A R G A M E S 1

Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig, two of the main architect’s of the lastAmerican military debacle in Vietnam, are still in demand to defend their actions and talk about the current military adventure in Iraq. Ron Jacobssuggests another place where the two ‘heroes’ might have their next meeting

TWO NEW TENANTSFOR ABU GHRAIB

Of course,if one listens to AlexanderHaig and HenryKissinger – two

architectsof the lastmajor USforeign disaster inVietnam – they mightthink that the only way to get out of Iraq is by blowingthe country and itsinhabitants to hell

24 TheREADER

tial Library and Museum, “Every assetof the nation must be applied to theconflict to bring about a quick andsuccessful outcome, or don’t do it.”This is from a man, who helped engi-neer (among other things) the Christ-mas bombings of 1972, the mining ofHaiphong harbor and the bombing ofHanoi and the dikes of northern Viet-nam, and the invasion of Cambodia.What does he suggest the US do inIraq? Break out some tactical nuclearweapons? The mindset that Haig rep-resents seriously believes that the USmilitary was restrained in Vietnamand that a similar situation exists inIraq. This is despite the fact that moreordnance has been dropped on thosetwo countries than on any othercountry in history.

His fellow panel member, HenryKissinger, would probably like thatidea. After all, it was Mr. Kissingerwho considered the use of nuclearweapons against northern Vietnam in1969, but was convinced such an ideamight be a bad move after hundredsof thousands of US residents filled thestreets of DC and several other citieson November 15, 1969 in a nationalmobilization to end the war in Viet-nam.

Both of these men should be inadjoining cells in the Hague. Instead,they are guests of honor at the JFKLibrary. It’s not that they werebesmirching Kennedy’s legacy bybeing there. Indeed, Mr. Kissinger saidhe admired the Kennedys – a state-ment that should not surprise anyserious student of US history givenKissinger’s tenure as a consultant on

security matters to various U.S. agen-cies from 1955 to 1968. Indeed,Kissinger’s treatise on nuclear wea-pons and foreign policy was a majorinfluence on the strategic policies ofthe Kennedy and Johnson administra-tions. Given that treatise’s emphasison the use of tactical nuclear weaponstogether with conventional forces andthe current discussion of just such apolicy, one could say that Kissinger’sinfluence continues to steer US warpolicy.

According to a report on Boston TVstation Channel 4 of the conferenceattended by Haig and Kissinger, hewas met by antiwar protestors on hisway to the meeting. In addition, dur-ing the question and answer sessionMr. Kissinger was asked if he wantedto apologize for the hundreds of thou-sands of deaths in Vietnam. Hisanswer was typical Kissinger, arrogantand dismissive: “This is not the occa-sion,’’ he said. “We have to start fromthe assumption that serious peoplewere making serious decisions. Sothat’s the sort of question that’s high-ly inappropriate.’’ (CBS4boston.com3/12/06) When asked about the pos-sibility that the US bombing of Cam-bodia helped create the Khmer Rougeand the ensuing killing that followed,Mr. Kissinger dismissed the possibili-ty. In fact, he minimized the extent ofthe US bombing, telling the audiencethat it only took place along a “five-mile strip” of that country. Accordingto Globalsecurity.org this is simplynot true:

“Many of the bombs that fell inCambodia struck relatively uninhab-

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The mindsetthat Haigrepresentsseriouslybelieves that the US military was restrainedin Vietnam and that a similarsituation exists in Iraq.This is despitethe fact thatmore ordnancehas beendropped on those twocountries than on anyother country in history

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TheREADER 25

ited mountain or forest regions; how-ever, as declassified United States AirForce maps show, others fell oversome of the most densely inhabitedareas of the country, such as SiemreabProvince, Kampong Chhnang Prov-ince, and the countryside aroundPhnom Penh. Deaths from the bomb-ing are extremely difficult to estimate,and figures range from a low of 30,000to a high of 500,000. Whatever thereal extent of the casualties, the Arc-light missions over Cambodia, whichwere halted in August 15, 1973, by theUnited States Congress, deliveredshattering blows to the structure oflife in many of the country’s villages.”

It wasn’t all warmongering at theconference. Former aide to LyndonJohnson, Jack Valenti told the audi-ence that Washington has forgottenthe major lesson of Vietnam. That les-son, said Valenti, who is retired fromthe presidency of the Motion PictureAssociation of America, “No presidentcan win a war when public supportfor that war begins to decline andevaporate.” Of course, this fact didn’tstop Messrs. Haig and Kissinger fromtrying their damnedest and it doesn’tseem to be preventing their modern-day incarnations from doing thesame.

Back to Abu Ghraib.It is public knowledge that this

prison has been the site of torture andmurder of prisoners by the US mili-tary and intelligence agencies. It isalso public knowledge that AbuGhraib is but one of several such pris-ons operated by the US governmentaround the world, with the one at

Guantanamo Bay in Cuba being themost (in)famous. Back in 1970, the USpublic was told about similar prisonsin Vietnam. These were known astiger cages and were used to hold andtorture so-called enemy no-combat-ants and political prisoners. Despitethe fact that the tiger cages wereexposed and decried by human rightsorganizations and some US congress-men, the cages were not shut downuntil the United States military andits southern Vietnamese cohorts weredefeated in May 1975.

As I wrote this, a story appeared onmy computer’s news ticker that U.S.State Department Deputy AssistantSecretary Colleen Graffy told BBCthat Washington wants to close downGitmo. Upon closer reading, however,such a closure is just something underdiscussion and will hopefully happen“over the years.” (Reuters 3/12/06)

So, the question remains, how longwill it be before today’s cages areclosed? CT

Ron Jacobs is author of The Way theWind Blew: a history of the WeatherUnderground, which is justrepublished by Verso. Jacobs’ essay on Big Bill Broonzy isfeatured in CounterPunch’s newcollection on music, art and sex,Serpents in the Garden. He can be reached [email protected]

Despite the fact that thetiger cages were exposedand decried by humanrightsorganizationsand some UScongressmen,the cages were not shutdown until the UnitedStates militaryand itssouthernVietnamesecohorts were defeated in May 1975

W A R G A M E S 1

26 TheREADER

The retired generals (presum-ably, as is typical in U.S. pub-lic life, speaking on behalf ofthose still on active duty, since

they can’t speak for themselves) whohave – in a political sense – dumpedDonald Rumsfeld’s body on the WhiteHouse lawn, are not men prone tolaunching offensives on the impulse ofvengeance or any other whim. Theyhave spent years in military academiesand on battlefields learning the art ofpicking their battles with a view toadvancing an overall strategy, withtheir targets and their timing alwayschosen not simply with the optimalconditions for winning a particularengagement in mind, but also with anoverriding sense of how that particularengagement advances the overall aimsof the war. (Trust me, it’s there inClausewitz’s definitions of strategy andtactics; I never kept the page reference.)

While we may all enjoy the specta-cle of the most stupendously arrogantmember of Bush’s cabinet being takendown by those entrusted with defen-ding America – even as a couple ofgenerals he appointed rush to his

defense, along with President Bush(“You’re doing a heck of a job, Rum-my…”), we still need to ask why this ishappening, and why now.

After all, the egregious errors ofwhich Rumsfeld is being accused weremade in 2003, and America has chafedunder the burden in blood and treas-ure that the Iraq misadventure has costfor at least the past two years. So whyhave the military men chosen thismoment to break their silence? And,for that matter, why have they chosenRummy as their target?

While they accuse the Defense Sec-retary of resisting sound militaryadvice and authoring spectacular tacti-cal errors, it’s long been pretty obviousthat the military brass regarded invad-ing Iraq as a colossal strategic erroreven before the tactical mistakes cameinto play. It was the likes of formerMarine commander Anthony Zinniwho warned that taking down Sad-dam’s regime was a bad idea because itwould produce precisely the sectarianequation we see today. And whenmembers of the top brass, such asShinseki, told the Pentagon civilian

TheREADER 26

So why havethe militarymen chosenthis moment to break their silence? And, forthat matter, why have they chosen Rummy as their target?

W A R G A M E S 2

Why have the retired generals decided to break their silence on Donald Rumsfeld’sconduct of the war on Iraq? Because, writes Tony Karon, they’re sending a signal to the US public, in this election year, that Bush, Cheney and co arestrategically incompetent and should not be allowed to open a second front in Iran

WHY THE GENERALSHATE RUMSFELD

TheREADER 27

leadership that they’d need at least300,000 or more troops to pacify Iraq,this was not simply because theybelieved it was true, but also becausethey believed that these numberswould render invading Iraq politicallyprohibitive for the Bush administra-tion. And for the same reason, thewar’s most fervent advocates, such asPaul Wolfowitz, shot down those esti-mates without even seriously contem-plating them – they were seen as anattempt to delay or even cancel themarch to war.

So, again, why Rummy, and whynow?

Rumsfeld is, in some ways, lowhanging fruit for the generals. After all,he’s the civilian political appointee whotranslates administration policy intothe military, and as such is the obvioustarget of a backlash by the uniformedprofessional military against theadministration. If the generals weregoing on Sunday talk shows calling forPresident Bush to resign, they’d bedeemed to be part of a coup. The gen-erals’ grievances over Iraq, and the no-win situation in which it has placed theU.S. military (and the epic weakeningof the U.S. strategic position more gen-erally it has occasioned) obviouslyextends to President Bush, Vice Presi-dent Cheney and others. But to avoidappearing insubordinate, the generalsare couching their criticism in terms ofpolicy choices made in the Pentagon,their immediate overseers. (In corpo-rate culture, disgruntled employees arepermitted to complain to HumanResources about their immediate man-agers, but nobody in the company is

going to hear out any complaints theymay have about the strategic choicesmade by the CEO – thus the generalstargeting Rumsfeld, rather than Bush.)

But Rumsfeld represents far morethan a manager to the generals; he’swidely viewed along with Cheney asone of the key architects of a relentless-ly hawkish policy, or set of policies, thathas placed the military in a quagmirein Iraq and weakened its ability to dealwith a number of other challenges. It’snot just Rummy the cost-cutting tech-nocrat who is drawing the fire of thegenerals, but Rummy the Strangelovishchampion of a “forward-leaning strat-egy of freedom.”

And the timing, of course, is every-thing.

There’s no obvious reason by thelogic of the current situation in Iraq, ordecisions that may be made shortly, forthe generals to choose this moment tolaunch their offensive. They all believethat the U.S. needs to remain in Iraq aslong as it takes to stabilize it in someway (although they may well differwith the administration on what thatmight involve).

But given what Seymour Hersh’ssources in the military and intelligencecommunities are telling him aboutplans for military action against Iran,there’s certainly a clear motive forthose seeking to save the U.S. militaryfrom further calamitous misadventuresto pick a very public battle with theadministration over its handling ofstrategic matters.

Having watched the Iraq debacletake shape in no small part becausethose from the military establishment

It’s not justRummy thecost-cuttingtechnocrat who is drawingthe fire of the generals,but Rummy theStrangelovishchampion of a “forward-leaningstrategy of freedom”

W A R G A M E S 2

28 TheREADER

in a position to do so (think Colin Pow-ell) failed to publicly challenge whatthey could see was a disaster in themaking, the generals are clearlyinclined to act preemptively this time.And given the diverse range of pres-sures and variables in the Iran equa-tion, they also know that an attack onIran is not a done deal, and can be pre-vented.

Smart military minds know thatinvading and occupying Iran is simplynot an option (it has three times thesize and population of Iraq, where asubstantial portion of the U.S. mili-tary’s combat units remain em-broiled), and also that simply bombingIran’s nuclear facilities – those that areknown, at least – is unlikely to deterIran from seeking nuclear weapons.Indeed, it is more likely to spur them toaccelerate their efforts. (If the Israeli airstrike on Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981 isthe model of preemptive action, thenits limits should be made abundantlyclear by the fact that ten years later, theIAEA found Iraq far more advanced inits covert bomb program than anyonehad thought possible.)

Despite the insistence of the sametalk-TV zealots in the pre-Iraq daysthat a bit of shock and awe wouldpresage the collapse of the mullahs, themilitary also knows that attacking Iranwould almost certainly shore up thepower of the regime, and tilt mostdebates in favor of its most hardlineelement. And the likely response fromIran, both in terms of direct strikes onU.S. personnel stationed in Iraq, as wellas proxy terror strikes throughout theregion – and also the likelihood that

such an attack would crank up thehostility of Iraq’s Shiite majority to theU.S. presence – would imperil U.S.strategic interests across a wide front.And that, in turn, would force the U.S.to escalate its own response, opening anew war of attrition even if the originalintention was simply to destroy partic-ular Iranian assets.

While the arm-chair warriors of theRumsfeld stripe pursue regime changethrough the Che Guevara type focomodel – blow up a few things, and themasses will rise – the military would inall likelihood side with the grownups inthe intel and diplomatic communitywho believe President Bush is makingan adolescent blunder in simply refus-ing to talk to Iran because he doesn’tdeem it a legitimate regime when thatregime is offering a dialogue designedto address all issues of U.S. concern.

So why go after Rummy if the goal isto stop another bout of reckless adven-turism for which the men and womenin uniform pay the price? Well, it’s akey battle in pursuit of that goal,because by publicly challenging Rum-my’s handling of Iraq, the generals senda none-too-subtle signal to the U.S.public, in an election year, that theBush administration is strategicallyincompetent. And that would make itharder for Messrs. Cheney and Rums-feld and co. to open a second front inIran. CT

Tony Karon is a senior editor atTIME.com. This was taken frompersonal web site, RootlessCosmopolitan, at tonykaron.com

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The militarywould in alllikelihood side with thegrownups in the intel and diplomaticcommunity who believePresident Bushis making an adolescentblunder in simplyrefusing to talkto Iran becausehe doesn’tdeem it alegitimateregime whenthat regime is offering adialogue signedto address all issues ofU.S. concern

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TheREADER 29TheREADER 29

There willalways beexceptionalpeople to stand up for justice, and to resistthe scourge of an ageturned apathetic

29 TheREADER

W A R G A M E S 3

No wonder capitalist soci-eties are coming apart atthe seams. Trust is sup-posed to be the bond that

holds a society together, and trust isbased on truth. But so often have gov-ernment leaders asserted their “right”to lie, to manage the news and con-trive to deceive the public, that largenumbers people in the West no longerbelieve much of what their govern-ments say about anything. There hasof course always been some degree ofscepticism about politics and politi-cians – but that was something quitedifferent from today’s automatic per-ception that they are all liars andcheats. Watergate, Iran-Contra, andIraq’s non-existent weapons of massdestruction are just some of the his-torical milestones along the path todisillusionment. There are many oth-ers, already buried and forgotten,because people tend forget that thepresent derives from the past and thefuture from both. The officially endor-sed public attitude seems to be that,if the past is another country, let’sdeclare independence from it.

The end result is that people nowa-days don’t even care if public officialslie to them. Others seem to expect it.This is not mere, healthy questioningof those in authority. It reflects adestructive phenomenon of the times:mass cynicism and a sense that weare powerless victims at the mercy ofuncontrollable forces. Yet, there is noreason to believe that the process ofhuman progress has come to an end,or that it ever will. There will alwaysbe exceptional people to stand up forjustice, and to resist the scourge of anage turned apathetic.

A leftward tilt in Latin Americanpolitics, for example, has meant thatsocialist governments throughout theregion have recently started diggingup the past and prosecuting humanrights violations that occurred, insome cases, 30 years ago or more.These were of course all countrieswhere for decades the United Statespropped up right-wing dictatorships,conducted covert operations, andhelped train “anti-terrorist” deathsquads.

Chile, for instance, has offered rep-

DIGGING UP THE PASTIN ‘ANOTHER COUNTRY’

Should politicians be forced to account for their lies while in office? Yes, says Stan Winer, who tells of efforts in Latin America to bring former dictators and their death squads to justice. This trend has also extended to South Africa,where ex-defence minister Magnus Malan may finally find himself in the dock

30 TheREADER

LeftwingVenezuelan vice presidentJose VicenteRangel haslashed out atPresident Bush,calling him “the NorthAmericanHitler” and comparingBush’sadministrationto the NaziThird Reich

arations to torture victims and forcedthe army to apologize for its abuses,while the Supreme Court in Argenti-na has declared unconstitutional apair of amnesty laws from the 1980’s.In Uruguay, a leftist government, ledby Tabaré Vázquez, has taken powerand a former president, Juan MaríaBordaberry, has been indicted for the1976 murders of two political leaders.Mexico under President NéstorKirchner last year charged one of itsformer presidents, Luis Echeverría,with genocide for his role in a “dirtywar” against students and leftists inthe late 1960’s and early 1970’s. And inPeru, military, intelligence and policeofficials involved in abuses during theauthoritarian rule of Alberto K. Fuji-mori in the 1990’s are also facingcharges. In Bolivia, newly electedsocialist president Evo Morales haswasted no time in expelling 28 right-wing generals from the police, army,navy and air force after a govern-ment-appointed commission de-nounced high-command complicityin a US covert operation to demolishBolivia’s anti-aircraft defenses. BothBolivia and Venezuela are cementingties with Cuba. Leftwing Venezuelanvice president Jose Vicente Rangelhas lashed out at President Bush,calling him “the North AmericanHitler” and comparing Bush’s admin-istration to the Nazi Third Reich.

In Cambodia, meanwhile, 27 yearsafter the ruthless Khmer Rouge lead-ership under Pol Pot was driven frompower, some of its top figures areexpected to soon be put on trial forcausing the deaths of nearly one-

fourth of the Cambodian population.Britain and America, which for yearshave done their utmost to forget theirpast support for the Khmer Rouge,may now have to confront eventsthey once thought were safely buried.

Much the same might also apply toformer senior officers of the apartheidSouth Africa military establishmentwho were either absolved or grantedgenerous amnesties after the coun-try’s transition to democratic rule in1994. Former defence minister Gener-al Magnus Malan, for example, wasabsolved of any criminal offence inthe in the context of South Africancounter-insurgency operations thattook place during the 1980s.

A South African Supreme Courtjudge ruled in 1996 that, in the con-text of those operations, “offensive”actually meant “protective”. It was apost-apartheid measure of the extentto which words have become denud-ed of significance, to mean the veryopposite of what they were supposedto convey.

Brigadier Wouter Basson, formerlyin charge of the South African Army’schemical and biological warfare pro-gram, was another leading militaryfigure who got away with murderduring the apartheid years. Bassonwas allegedly involved in the murdersof more than 200 South West AfricanPeople’s Organisation (SWAPO) pris-oners of war. According to eye-wit-ness evidence presented at the SouthAfrican Truth Commission, the pris-oners were injected with musclerelaxants before their bodies weredumped into the Atlantic Ocean from

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Depending of the results,Malan, Bassonand theircohorts maywell findthemselves in the dock yet again, to confrontevents theyonce thoughtwere safelyburied

an aircraft. Basson also allegedly con-spired to contaminate the water sup-ply of a SWAPO refugee camp withcholera. However, all charges againstBasson were subsequently withdrawnby the State during a marathon 30-month trial in the Pretoria High Courtthree years ago.

In a classic case of legal bungling, ifnot an outright travesty of justice, thecourt ruled that it had no jurisdictionin respect of crimes committed inSouth West Africa – or Namibia as itis now named. An appeal court lateroverturned the decision on the basisthat South West Africa was in fact aSouth African colony during theapartheid era. It was illegally occupiedand administered by the former SouthAfrican regime. But the Directorate ofPublic Prosecutions decided last yearnot to reopen the case against of Bas-son because of the legal principle ofdouble jeopardy, which means ineffect that an alleged perpetrator can-not be tried twice on the samecharges.

Since then, however, a number ofsecret mass graves were discovered

last year near several former SouthAfrican Army bases in Namibia. Thegraves are believed to contain theremains of hundreds of SWAPO guer-rilla prisoners of war, who weresecretly executed by South Africanpolice and military intelligence units.Extensive forensic tests on theexhumed remains are currentlyunderway. Depending on the results,Malan, Basson and their cohorts maywell find themselves in the dock yetagain, to confront events they oncethought were safely buried. For them,as for other alleged war criminalsaround the Third World who oncethought they would get away with it,the past might no longer be anothercountry from which they can claimindependence. CT

South African journalist Stan Winer isauthor of the book Between the Lies:Rise of the media-military-industrialcomplex (London: SouthernUniversities Press, 2004). Buy this book fromwww.amazon.co.uk or download itfree of charge at www.coldtype.net

W A R G A M E S 3

ARE YOU A JOE BAGEANT FAN?Download and read all of his political andhumorous essays, all in pdf format, at

www.coldtype.net

32 TheREADER

During a national radioresponse to the president,Senator Dianne Feinsteinaccused the Bush adminis-

tration of “incompetence” in the Iraqwar.

What would be a competent wayto pursue the war in Iraq?

How would you drop huge bombson urban neighborhoods in a compe-tent way? How would you deploycluster munitions that shred the bod-ies of children in a competent way?How would you take hundreds ofthousands of people from their homeland and send them to a country tokill and be killed – based on lies – ina competent way?

How do you ravage the housingand health care and education ofcommunities across the UnitedStates, while war-profiteering corpo-rations post bigger profits – howwould you do that in a competentway?

Senator Feinstein went on to saythat it’s so important, for the war inIraq, for the United States govern-ment to “do it right.”

How does one do this war right,when every day it brings more car-nage? The only way to do this warright is to not do it at all.

Reporting on a new assault by theU.S. military in Iraq, a headline on thefront page of the San FranciscoChronicle said: “Biggest air attacksince the invasion seen as delivering amessage.”

Forty years ago, Secretary ofDefense Robert McNamara said itwas necessary to drop bombs onNorth Vietnam in order to deliver amessage to the Communist leaders inHanoi. The former war correspondentChris Hedges, in his book “War Is aForce That Gives Us Meaning,” recallsthat when he was reporting from ElSalvador, one morning he and otherreporters woke up at their hotel anddiscovered that death squads haddumped corpses in front of the build-ing overnight, and in the mouths ofthose corpses were written messagesthreatening the journalists.

In Yugoslavia, during the spring of1999, the bombs fell with the U.S.-ledNATO forces delivering a message.

How do youravage thehousing andhealth care and educationof communitiesacross theUnited States,while war-profiteeringcorporationspost biggerprofits – how wouldyou do thatin a competentway?

G I V E P E A C E A C H A N C E

Speaking to an antiwar rally on the third anniversary of the war on Iraq, media critic Norman Solomon questions how it is possible to drop bombs on urban neighborhoods in a competent way. The problem is not, he says, that the the war isn’t winnable – but that it was and is and always will be wrong

NO WAY TO WAGE A WRONG WAR

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And when, at noontime one Friday inthe city of Nis, cluster bombs fellcourtesy of U.S. taxpayers and rippedinto the body of a woman holding abag of carrots from the market, thattoo was an instance of sending a mes-sage.

Time after time, leaders send mes-sages by inflicting death. On Septem-ber 11, 2001, Osama bin Laden sent amessage at the World Trade Center.And in the fall of 2001 the U.S. mili-tary sent a message to Afghanistan,where the civilians who died, if we aregoing to count numbers, were at leastas numerous as those who died at theWorld Trade Center.

And now, George W. Bush contin-ues to send a message with thebombs and the bullets. And we’reencouraged – if not to avidly support– to be passive. To defer. To be inac-tive.

When people across the UnitedStates gather to oppose this war, theyare refusing to participate in sendingthe message of death.

Almost 40 years ago Martin LutherKing talked about what he called “themadness of militarism.” And it’s withus, here and now; it’s with us in theUnited States every time a child ismalnourished, every time people needmedical care and don’t get it and suf-fer and sometimes lose their lives,while the military budgets of thiscountry – over half a trillion dollars ayear – are spent not on defense buton military expenditures, which dwarfanything that could be accuratelydescribed as defense. The madness ofmilitarism that Dr. King talked about

is expressed every day by the likes ofSenator Feinstein, who demands“competence” in war and says that itmust be done right.

We need a peace effort, not a wareffort, from the United States. Insteadof doing a better job of killing, there’sa movement around this country tocompel what is said to be our owngovernment to do a much muchmuch better job of sustaining life –instead of taking it.

The problem isn’t that this warmay not be winnable. The problem isthe war was and is and always will bewrong, and must be stopped.

At every demonstration for peaceand social justice, why are we here?Because those are values we want tolive for.

And why are we here on this earth?Why are any of us here? Not an easyquestion to answer. But activism is away of insisting that we’re not here tobe part of war machinery. We’re nothere to be part of the killing, we’re nothere to aid and abet or enable thoselike George W. Bush who lead thecharge to slaughter in the name offreedom to serve profit. We’re herewith a very different mission. CT

This article is excerpted from NormanSolomon’s speech to an antiwar rallyin Sebastopol, California, on Sunday,March 19. His latest book is War Made Easy – to read excerpts, go towww.warmadeeasy.com

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George W. Bushcontinues to send a message with the bombsand the bullets.And we’reencouraged – if not to avidlysupport – to be passive. To defer. To be inactive

G I V E P E A C E A C H A N C E

34 TheREADER

B O O K E X C E R P T

My name is Paul Rus-esabagina. I am a hotelmanager. In April 1994,when a wave of mass

murder broke out in my country, I wasable to hide 1,268 people inside thehotel where I worked.

When the militia and the Armycame with orders to kill my guests, Itook them into my office, treatedthem like friends, offered them beerand cognac, and then persuadedthem to neglect their task that day.And when they cameback, I poured more drinksand kept telling them theyshould leave in peace onceagain. It went on like thisfor seventy-six days. I wasnot particularly eloquentin these conversations.They were no differentfrom the words I wouldhave used in saner times toorder a shipment of pil-lowcases, for example, ortell the shuttle van driverto pick up a guest at theairport. I still don’t under-

stand why those men in the militiasdidn’t just put a bullet in my head andexecute every last person in therooms upstairs but they didn’t. Noneof the refugees in my hotel werekilled. Nobody was beaten. Nobodywas taken away and made to disap-pear. People were being hacked todeath with machetes all over Rwan-da, but that five-story buildingbecame a refuge for anyone whocould make it to our doors. The hotelcould offer only an illusion of safety,

but for whatever reason,the illusion prevailed and Isurvived to tell the story,along with those I shel-tered. There was nothingparticularly heroic about it.My only pride in the mat-ter is that I stayed at mypost and continued to domy job as manager whenall other aspects of decentlife vanished. I kept theHotel Mille Collines open,even as the nation de-scended into chaos andeight hundred thousand

I kept the Hotel MilleCollines open,even as the nationdescended into chaos andeight hundredthousandpeople werebutchered by their friends,neighbors, andcountrymen

When Rwanda exploded into civil war in 1994, an unassuming hotel managersaved the lives of 1,268 people. In this extract from his autobiography, PaulRusesabagina tells how, with drinks, cash and sweet talk, he persuaded leaders of the killer militias to spare the lives of refugees at Kigali’s Hotel Mille Collines

THE REAL HERO OF ‘HOTEL RWANDA’

AN ORDINARYMAN

Paul Rusesabaginawith Tom Zoellner

Viking$23.95


And the waythey died… I can’t bear to think about it for long. Many wentslowly fromslash wounds,watching their own blood gatherin pools in the

dirt, perhaps looking at their ownsevered limbs,oftentimes with thescreams of their parents or their childrenor theirhusbands in their ears


people were butchered by theirfriends, neighbors, and countrymen.

It happened because of racialhatred. Most of the people hiding inmy hotel were Tutsis, descendants ofwhat had once been the ruling class ofRwanda. The people who wanted tokill them were mostly Hutus, whowere traditionally farmers. The usualstereotype is that Tutsis are tall andthin with delicate noses, and Hutusare short and stocky with widernoses, but most people in Rwanda fitneither description. This divide ismostly artificial, a leftover from histo-ry, but people take it very seriously,and the two groups have been livinguneasily alongside each other formore than five hundred years.

You might say the divide also livesinside me. I am the son of a Hutufarmer and his Tutsi wife. My familycared not the least bit about thiswhen I was growing up, but sincebloodlines are passed through thefather in Rwanda, I am technically aHutu.

I married a Tutsi woman, whom Ilove with a fierce passion, and we hada child of mixed descent together.This type of blended family is typicalin Rwanda, even with our long histo-ry of racial prejudice. Very often wecan’t tell each other apart just bylooking at one another. But the differ-ence between Hutu and Tutsi meanseverything in Rwanda. In the latespring and early summer of 1994 itmeant the difference between life anddeath.

Between April 6, when the plane ofPresident Juvenal Habyarimana was

shot down with a missile, and July 4,when the Tutsi rebel army capturedthe capital of Kigali, approximatelyeight hundred thousand Rwandanswere slaughtered. This is a numberthat cannot be grasped with therational mind. It is like trying – all atonce – to understand that the earth issurrounded by billions of balls of gasjust like our sun across a vast black-ness. You cannot understand themagnitude. Just try! Eight hundredthousand lives snuffed out in onehundred days. That’s eight thousandlives a day. More than five lives perminute. Each one of those lives waslike a little world in itself. Some per-son who laughed and cried and ateand thought and felt and hurt justlike any other person, just like youand me. A mother’s child, every oneirreplaceable.

And the way they died...I can’tbear to think about it for long. Manywent slowly from slash wounds,watching their own blood gather inpools in the dirt, perhaps looking attheir own severed limbs, oftentimeswith the screams of their parents ortheir children or their husbands intheir ears. Their bodies were castaside like garbage, left to rot in thesun, shoveled into mass graves withbulldozers when it was all over. It wasnot the largest genocide in the histo-ry of the world, but it was the fastestand most efficient.

At the end, the best you can say isthat my hotel saved about four hours’worth of people. Take four hoursaway from one hundred days and youhave an idea of just how little I was

36 TheREADER

It would havebeen better if the soldiershad never beenthere to offerthe illusion of safety. Even thevaguest rumorof rescue had been fatalto those on the wrongside of theracial divide.They hadclustered in one spot and made it easy for theirexecutioners to find them


able to accomplish against the granddesign.

What did I have to work with? Ihad a five-story building. I had a cool-er full of drinks. I had a small stack ofcash in the safe. And I had a workingtelephone and I had my tongue. Itwasn’t much. Anybody with a gun ora machete could have taken thesethings away from me quite easily. Mydisappearance – and that of my fam-ily – would have barely been noticedin the torrents of blood coursingthrough Rwanda in those months.Our bodies would have joined thethousands in the east-running riversfloating toward Lake Victoria, theirskins turning white with water rot.

I wonder today what exactly it wasthat allowed me to stop the killingclock for four hours.

There were a few things in myfavor, but they do not explain every-thing. I was a Hutu because my fatherwas Hutu, and this gave me a certainamount of protection against imme-diate execution. But it was not onlyTutsis who were slaughtered in thegenocide; it was also the thousands ofmoderate Hutus who were suspectedof sympathizing with or even helpingthe Tutsi “cockroaches.” I was cer-tainly one of these cockroach-lovers.Under the standards of mad extrem-ism at work then I was a prime candi-date for a beheading.

Another surface advantage: I hadcontrol of a luxury hotel, which wasone of the few places during the geno-cide that had the image of being pro-tected by soldiers. But the importantword in that sentence is image. In the

opening days of the slaughter, theUnited Nations had left four unarmedsoldiers staying at the hotel as guests.This was a symbolic gesture. I wasalso able to bargain for the service offive Kigali policemen. But I knewthese men were like a wall of tissuepaper standing between us and aflash flood.

I remembered all too well whathad happened at a place called Offi-cial Technical School in a suburbcalled Kicukiro, where nearly twothousand terrified refugees had gath-ered because there was a smalldetachment of United Nations sol-diers staying there. The refugeesthought – and I don’t blame them –that the blue helmets of the UNwould save them from the mobs andtheir machetes. But after all the for-eign nationals at the school were putonto airplanes safely, the Belgiansthemselves left the country, leavingbehind a huge crowd of refugees beg-ging for protection, even begging to beshot in the head so they wouldn’thave to face the machetes. The killingand dismemberment started just min-utes later. It would have been better ifthe soldiers had never been there tooffer the illusion of safety. Even thevaguest rumor of rescue had beenfatal to those on the wrong side of theracial divide. They had clustered inone spot and made it easy for theirexecutioners to find them. And Iknew my hotel could become anabattoir just like that school.

Yet another of my advantages wasa very strange one. I knew many ofthe architects of the genocide and had

TheREADER 37

been friendly with them. It was, in away, part of my job. I was the generalmanager of a hotel called the Diplo-mates, but I was eventually asked totake charge of a sister property, thenearby Hotel Mille Collines, wheremost of the events described in thisbook took place. The Mille Collineswas the place in Kigali where thepower classes of Rwanda came tomeet Western businessmen and dig-nitaries. Before the killing started Ihad shared drinks with most of thesemen, served them complimentaryplates of lobster, lit their cigarettes. Iknew the names of their wives andtheir children. I had stored up a largebank of favors. I cashed them all in –and then borrowed heavily – duringthe genocide. My preexisting friend-ship with General Augustin Biz-imungu in particular helped save theMille Collines from being raided manytimes over. But alliances always shift,particularly in the chaos of war, and Iknew my supply of liquor and favorswould run dry in some crucial quar-ters. Before the hundred days wereover a squad of soldiers was dis-patched to kill me. I survived onlyafter a desperate half hour duringwhich I called in even more favors.

All these things helped me duringthe genocide. But they don’t explaineverything.

• • •

Let me tell you what I think was themost important thing of all.

I will never forget walking out ofmy house the first day of the killings.There were people in the streets who

I had known for seven years, neigh-bors of mine who had come over toour place for our regular Sundaycookouts. These people were wearingmilitary uniforms that had beenhanded out by the militia. They wereholding machetes and were trying toget inside the houses of those theyknew to be Tutsi, those who had Tut-si relatives, or those who refused to goalong with the murders.

There was one man in particularwhom I will call Peter, though that isnot his real name. He was a truckdriver, about thirty years old, with ayoung wife. The best word I can useto describe him is an American word:cool. Peter was just a cool guy; so niceto children, very gentle, kind of a kid-der, but never mean with his humor.I saw him that morning wearing amilitary uniform and holding amachete dripping in blood. Watchingthis happen in my own neighborhoodwas like looking up at a blue summersky and seeing it suddenly turning topurple. The entire world had gonemad around me.

What had caused this to happen?Very simple: words.

The parents of these people hadbeen told over and over again thatthey were uglier and stupider thanthe Tutsis. They were told they wouldnever be as physically attractive or ascapable of running the affairs of thecountry. It was a poisonous stream ofrhetoric designed to reinforce thepower of the elite. When the Hutuscame to power they spoke evil wordsof their own, fanning the old resent-ments, exciting the hysterical dark

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Peter was just a cool guy;so nice to children,very gentle,kind of a kidder, but never meanwith his humor.I saw him that morningwearing a militaryuniform and holding a machetedripping in blood


38 TheREADER

places in the heart.The words put out by radio station

announcers were a major cause of theviolence. There were explicit exhorta-tions for ordinary citizens to breakinto the homes of their neighbors andkill them where they stood. Thosecommands that weren’t direct werephrased in code language that every-body understood: “Cut the tall trees.Clean your neighborhood. Do yourduty.” The names and addresses oftargets were read over the air. If a per-son was able to run away his positionand direction of travel were broadcastand the crowd followed the chaseover the radio like a sports event.

The avalanche of words celebratingracial supremacy and encouragingpeople to do their duty created analternate reality in Rwanda for thosethree months. It was an atmospherewhere the insane was made to seemnormal and disagreement with themob was fatal.

Rwanda was a failure on so manylevels. It started as a failure of theEuropean colonists who exploitedtrivial differences for the sake of adivide-and-rule strategy. It was thefailure of Africa to get beyond its eth-nic divisions and form true coalitiongovernments. It was a failure of West-ern democracies to step in and avertthe catastrophe when abundant evi-dence was available. It was a failure ofthe United States for not calling agenocide by its right name. It was thefailure of the United Nations to liveup to its commitments as a peace-making body.

All of these come down to a failure

of words. And this is what I want totell you: Words are the most effectiveweapons of death in man’s arsenal.But they can also be powerful tools oflife. They may be the only ones.

Today I am convinced that the onlything that saved those 1,268 people inmy hotel was words. Not the liquor,not money, not the UN. Just ordinarywords directed against the darkness.They are so important. I used wordsin many ways during the genocide –to plead, intimidate, coax, cajole, andnegotiate. I was slippery and evasivewhen I needed to be. I acted friendlytoward despicable people. I put car-tons of champagne into their cartrunks. I flattered them shamelessly. Isaid whatever I thought it would taketo keep the people in my hotel frombeing killed. I had no cause toadvance, no ideology to promotebeyond that one simple goal. Thosewords were my connection to a sanerworld, to life as it ought to be lived.

I am not a politician or a poet. Ibuilt my career on words that areplain and ordinary and concernedwith everyday details. I am nothingmore or less than a hotel manager,trained to negotiate contracts andcharged to give shelter to those whoneed it. My job did not change in thegenocide, even though I was thrustinto a sea of fire. I only spoke thewords that seemed normal and saneto me. I did what I believed to be theordinary things that an ordinary manwould do. I said no to outrageousactions the way I thought that any-body would, and it still mystifies methat so many others could say yes. CT

Today I amconvinced that the onlything thatsaved those1,268 people in my hotel was words. Not the liquor,not money, not the UN. Just ordinarywords directedagainst the darkness


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