Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Birth Of Israel
A Tale Of Lies, Deceit, And Terrorism
The Untold Story of the Zionist intent to turn Palestine into a Jewish State
(Based on classified documents from the Jewish Agency and its affiliated organizations seized by the British Mandate Police, materials that confirm that the Zionist controlled Jewish community intended to remove the Arab inhabitants of Palestine from their land and make the whole of Mandate Palestine a Jewish State, an intent that continues to the present day as the new book, The Plight of the Palestinians: a Long History of Destruction, available at Macmillan.com, demonstrates.)
A Tale of Lies, Deceit, and Terrorism: the Birth of Israel
"Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because Geography books no longer exist, not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either … There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population." (Moshe Dayan, Address to the Technion, Haifa, as quoted in Haaretz, 4-4-1969)
Thus began in November of 1947 what is euphemistically called the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the combined forces of the Jewish armies, the Haganah, the Stern, and the Irgun as they drove more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes leaving them destitute, homeless and abandoned without a country in what is now the largest refugee Diaspora in the world.
More truthfully, the plight of the Palestinians that began so ruthlessly in 1947, and is now called the Nakba, was an intentional, calculated campaign to force the Palestinian Arabs out of Palestine, a systematic genocide of a people as defined by the United Nations in its adoption of Genocide Convention, Article II.
The United Kingdom had mandatory authority from the League of Nations to govern the Palestine area with the establishment of the Palestine Mandate in 1922. Prior to the official implementation of the Mandate in 1922, the British Government had enunciated a "declaration" concerning the desirability of His Majesty’s Government in the "establishment of a national home for the Jewish people," called the Balfour Declaration. Command Paper 1922 from the Avalon Project at Yale Law School underlines this intent: "His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is no part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State."
The View from Inside the Mandate
One of the curious ambiguities that surrounds the decade that preceded the declaration by the Jewish leaders in Palestine of the state of Israel is the dearth of information and perspective from the British Mandate forces governing Palestine between 1940 and May 15, 1948, the date of implementation of the partition resolution. Fortunately, Sir Richard C. Catling has left us a file that provides insight into conditions that prevailed in Jerusalem while he was Deputy Head of the Special Branch of the Criminal Investigation Division in Jerusalem in 1944 and a year later Assistant Inspector General. Catling’s "TOP SECRET" file has lain untouched in the Rhodes House archives of the Bodleian Libraries of Oxford University until two years ago.
Two documents dominate the file with 62 appendices of evidence totaling close to 500 pages of materials. The first is a dispatch sent to the Secretary of State, dated 16th of October, 1941, by the High Commissioner of Palestine, Harold MacMichael, labeled "Most Secret"; the second, a Top Secret "Memorandum on the Participation of the Jewish National Institutions in Palestine in Acts of Lawlessness and Violence," prepared by the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters, The Palestine Police, Jerusalem, dated July 31st, 1947. [Sir Richard C. Catling, #145, Mss.Med. S20]
What should be obvious now, with the materials preserved by Sir Richard C. Catling, is the truth about the creation of the state of Israel: acceptance of UN Resolution 181 by the Jewish Agency Provisional Government as the designated Jewish state was not done with intent to abide by the goal of the UN General Assembly, to provide a state for two peoples in the land of Palestine, but rather to use it as a means to gain eventual control of all the land and cleanse that land of its indigenous people to whatever extent possible. Put bluntly, as the chapters in Macmillan’s new book, The Plight of the Palestinians attests (to be released in June), the current government in Israel continues the practices of past Israeli governments: cleanse the land of its rightful inhabitants to make that land part of the Jewish state. This is what is termed in numerous chapters in this volume, "slow motion genocide."
Jump Starting the State
Consider the events of April 9-11, 1948, the eradication of the citizens of the town of Deir Yassin, a month before the Agency declared the existence of the Israeli state and the implementation of the UN Resolution to partition. This massacre became then and remains the signature example of the intent of the Zionist Consultancy and its agents to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its non-Jewish inhabitants.
During the six months between the adoption of UN Resolution 181 and in subsequent months, the new state of Israel launched a massive military incursion into territory designated by that same Resolution for the Palestinian people, creating in its wake "three quarters of a million Palestinian refugees," the destruction of "hundreds of entire villages … not only depopulated but obliterated …and houses blown up or bulldozed." Walid Khalidi’s massive study focuses on 418 villages, once the homes of Palestinians, 292 completely destroyed, 90 others "largely destroyed," the remainder replaced by Jews called Israeli settlers.
Perceiving the Reality
The "despatch" sent by MacMichael to the Secretary of State resulted from an investigation into the funding practices and use of those funds by various Jewish organizations.
The memorandum illustrates … the fact that the Mandatory is faced potentially with as grave a danger in Palestine from Jewish violence as it has ever faced from Arab violence, a danger infinitely less easy to meet by the methods of repression which have been employed against Arabs. In the first place, the Jews … have the moral and political support … of considerable sections of public opinion both in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. … all the influence and political ability of the Zionists would be brought to bear to show that the Jews in Palestine were the victims of aggression, and that a substantial body of opinion abroad would be persuaded of the truth of the contention.
Quite obviously, MacMichael understands that the Mandatory has little power at home over the zealous actions of the Zionists as they manipulate public and political opinion even as they expand their terrorism against the British Mandate government in Palestine. This is an untenable position to be in, responsible for government control and security of those under its authority, i.e. Palestinians as well as Jews, knowing that the Jews are set on driving the British out of Palestine, and knowing that the home government can offer little help.
To bolster his points, MacMichael offers the following:
… the Jews in Palestine are by no means untrained in the use of arms … large numbers have received training in the Palestine Police… or in His Majesty’s Forces. At the present time, in addition to approximately 10,000 Jews in His Majesty’s Forces, there are 5,800 in various units of the police force and 15,400 special policemen (31,000) … When to those men … are added the illicit 'defence’ organizations of the Jews (Haganah alone had an estimated 60-70,000 men by 1945, see Mss, Med. S20 Appendix XXI), it will be evident that the Jewish people in arms would numerically and in calibre be a very formidable adversary.
This is in 1941before the full deployment of Jewish terrorism against the legitimate Palestine government got under way.
MacMichael and Catling found themselves missing one of Catling’s primary supports for the waging of "irregular warfare" drawn from his image of the 3-legged stool that required the support of the people, the commander and his army and the government, an image, no doubt, from his childhood in Suffolk where his family were butchers and farmers. But the situation only got worse as the end of WWII loomed. The Haganah carried out anti-British military operations, including the kidnapping, killing and booby trapping of soldiers’ bodies, conducted against the Mandate Government while the home government remained silent under the pall of Israeli Zionist propaganda.
But recording the acts of terrorism does not do justice to the conditions the Mandate government faced. MacMichael describes the reality of the forces aligned against the police in Palestine.
A second matter which deeply impressed me is the almost Nazi control exercised by the official Jewish organizations over the Jewish community, willy nilly, through the administration of funds from abroad, the issue of labor certificates in connection with the immigration quota…. The Royal Commission were, in my view, fundamentally at error in describing the Jewish community in Palestine as "intensely democratic". … The Zionist organization, the whole social structure which it has created in Palestine, has the trappings but none of the essentials of democracy. The community is under the closed oligarchy of the Jewish official organizations which control Zionist policy and circumscribe the lives of the Jewish community in all directions…. The reality of power is in the Agency, with the Haganah, the illegal military organization, always in the background.
And so the authorities in Palestine, the legal authorities, have no power to enforce measures that would curtail terrorism against their own police. "The use of force cannot be contemplated at present as any such action would have to be on a very large scale." MacMichael understands that he can get no help from the Jewish community, even from those who find themselves at odds with the Agency’s methods or morality. The consequences to the individual Jew for disobedience is horrendous as the second document seized from the Zionists in 1947 attests.
Between Two Worlds
Nothing makes more obvious the meaning of the "Zionist Juggernaut" than Catling’s TOP SECRET "Memorandum of the Criminal Investigation Department" of July 31, 1947.
The purpose of this memorandum is to furnish documentary evidence of the extent to which the supreme Jewish national institutions in Palestine and their principal officials have been parties to acts of sedition, violence, incitement and other offences against the laws of Palestine….The bulk of the memorandum concerns the war and post war years… the memorandum will therefore concern itself solely with an attempt to establish the links between the supreme Jewish bodies and illegal activity…
Catling’s memorandum begins with an understanding of the "intricate Jewish political, social and economic structure in Palestine." A series of appendices chart these structures marking in passing that "…the Palestine Royal Commission Report of 1937 understood 'The Agency is obviously not a 'governing body’; it can only advise and cooperate in a certain wide field.’ But allied as it is with the Vaad Leumi, and commanding the allegiance of the great majority of Jews in Palestine, it unquestionably exercises, both in Jerusalem and in London, a considerable influence on the conduct of government" [emphasis mine]. Catling’s frustration with the actual control of the Jews over British policy in Palestine glares through this document. "This powerful and efficient organization amounts, in fact, to a government existing side by side with the Mandatory Government…" (2-3) [emphasis mine].
What Catling doesn’t state in that sentence, but what he demonstrates in the memorandum, is that the Jewish Agency and its affiliated organizations are at war with the UN authority in Palestine, the British Mandate Palestine Government. The appendices include detailed information on the personnel in interlocking Jewish organizations and the function of each. The memorandum goes further. It notes that the activities of the Jewish Agency through its controlled organizations send emissaries and instructors abroad "to stir up Zionist sentiments among the Jewish communities and displaced persons, to bring pressure to bear upon the Palestine problem, to organize illegal immigration and engage in espionage." As a result of its investigations, the Department itemizes six areas of subversive activities undertaken by the Jewish Agency against the British Mandate Government:
- Maintenance of a secret army and espionage system;
- Smuggling, theft and manufacture of arms;
- Illegal immigration;
- Violence and civil disobedience;
- Seditious and hostile propaganda;
- Encroachment upon the civil rights of Jewish citizens.
In short, the Zionist controlled Jewish Agency, the Yishuv, actively undermined the legal authority in Palestine even as it operated to undermine support for that government in Britain, placing UK forces in harms way as they attempted to fulfill their authorized responsibilities in Palestine. It also demonstrates the determination of the Agency’s leadership in undermining the very nation that gave it a means of establishing a "homeland" in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration. Needless to say, Catling and his CID forces recognized the impossible position this defiance placed them in and understood the deception and violent means used by the Zionists to ensure that their will and theirs alone would be fulfilled at any cost.
However, the real power behind their efforts, what effectively held together the multiple strands of the web, was the use of extortion on all the Jewish people in Palestine, "…the extortion of money for unauthorized funds and self imposed taxes to further the illicit political ends of the national institutions" (42). Catling’s Memorandum provides evidence of how effective this consolidation of the web’s network operated including the systematic compilation of all wage earners, measures to be adopted in event of refusal to pay, publishing of names of those who failed to contribute, deductions from salary, sanctions on businesses, compulsory assessment, withholding of immigrants certificates, and Jewish Agency officials assessments.
There follows the measures to be taken against shirkers including actions to be taken against anyone aiding a shirker. There is no need to go into the details of these imposed actions; the consequences amount to total ostracism of an individual from his/her community to kidnapping and disappearance.
For those entering the military forces of the Jewish Agency, the Hagana, there is the Hagana Oath (XVI A 157).
I hereby declare that of my own free will and in free recognition I enter the Jewish defence organization of the Land of Israel, (Irgun Haganana Haivri Be’Eretz Israel).
I hearby swear to remain loyal all the days of my life to the defense organization, its laws and its tasks as defined in its basic regulations by the High Command.
I hearby swear to remain at the disposal of the defense organization all my life, to accept its discipline unconditionally and without limit, and at its call to enlist for active service at any time and in any place, to obey all its orders and to fulfill all its instructions.
I hearby swear to devote all my strength, and even to sacrifice my life, to defense and battle for my people and my Homeland, for the freedom of Israel and for the redemption of Zion.
In one sense, these two methodologies of control, one imposed by fear, the second by moral obligation, make comprehensible the complete control the Zionists were able to achieve over a protracted period of time toward their distant goals. The fear imposed by extortion rests on its use in providing access to jobs, the protection offered by the "gangs" and Haganah forces, and the enforcement of the rules and regulations as itemized above.
The Haganah Oath goes deeper than fear. In effect, it declares that an individual has turned his/her conscience over to the High Command thus accepting what is right and what is wrong as determined by that authority regardless of local, state or international law, indeed, regardless of the morals, values and traditions of Judaism. This commitment is forever, to death. It is bolstered by a document issued to the Commander and Troops of the Haganah labeled "Security Instructions" that notes at the outset, "Remember, you are a member of an illegal military organization according to the Laws of the government, its existence, activity and membership of it is forbidden" The remainder of the document obligates the recruit to unconditional obedience, absolute silence, and the pragmatic and utilitarian virtues of deceit and lying.
Selling the Soul
From the moment an individual takes the oath, they are committed to a life of secrecy and hence of disloyalty and betrayal to those they are most intimate with in their day to day life. Neither their actions nor their true identity is discernible to those with whom they interact regularly. This is a life that encapsulates the necessity of lies, deceit, coercion, extortion, and obedience to a group that dictates the actions one must pursue; freedom no longer exists, self-direction no longer exists, loyalty to others no longer exists, indeed, friendship with others is compromised or impossible, one becomes the subject of that group, a veritable slave to their desires and wills. The mindset that promotes such control allows for spying, for deception of friends, for ostracism in one’s own community for thinking differently, for imprisonment without due process, for torture, even for extrajudicial executions. It is a total commitment to a cause that supersedes all others determined and dictated by an oligarchy in silence and subject to no legitimate institution and to no one.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Reflections Of Fidel
OUR era is characterized by an unprecedented fact: the threat to human survival imposed on the world by imperialism.
The painful reality should not come as a surprise to anybody. We have seen it coming at an accelerated pace in recent decades, at a rate difficult to imagine.
Does this mean that Obama is responsible for or the promoter of that threat? No! It simply demonstrates that he is ignoring reality and neither wants to or would to able to overcome it. Or rather, he is dreaming of the unreal in an unreal world. "Ideas without words, words without meaning," as a brilliant poet once stated.
Although the U.S. writer Gay Talese, considered to be one of the principal representatives of the new journalism, affirmed on May 5 – according to a European news agency – that Barack Obama embodies the finest history of the United States in the last century, an opinion that could be shared in certain aspects, in no way does that alter the objective reality of the human destiny.
Events are happening, like the ecological disaster that has just occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, which demonstrate how little governments can do against those who control capital; those who, in both the United States and Europe, via the economy of our globalized planet, are the ones who decide the destiny of the peoples. We could take as one example measures coming from the U.S. Congress itself, published in the most influential media of that country and Europe, just as they have been circulated on Internet, without altering one word.
"Radio and TV Martí blatantly lie while broadcasting unfounded information, states a report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which recommends that both stations be permanently moved from Miami and relocated in Washington and be ‘fully’ integrated into the propaganda framework of Voice of America (VOA).
"Besides deceiving the public… both broadcasting stations use ‘offensive and incendiary language,’ which discredits them.
"After 18 years, Radio and TV Martí have failed to ‘make any discernable inroads into Cuban society or to influence the Cuban government…’
"The report, which was circulated this Monday [May 3], recommends that the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB) become part of VOA, the official propaganda radio of the U.S. government.
"’Problems with adherence to traditional journalistic standards, miniscule audience size, Cuban government jamming, and allegations of cronyism have dogged the program since its creation,’" recognized the committee, headed by Democrat John Kerry."
"The committee recommends urgently removing both stations from Miami, highlighting the need to hire personnel in a more balanced way to produce a ‘depoliticized and professional product.’
"In the report, Kerry makes reference to Alberto Mascaró, the nephew of Pedro Roig’s wife—Roig is the general director of Radio and TV Marti—who was hired as the director of VOA Latin America thanks to his relative.
"The document reports in detail how, in February 2007, the former director of the TV Marti programs, "along with a relative of a member of Congress" (who was not named), pleaded guilty in the Federal Court to receiving $112,000 in illegal kickbacks from an OCB contractor. "The former OCB employee was sentenced to 27 months in jail and fined $5,000 after being found guilty for taking as much as 50% of all monies paid by TV Martí for the production of television programming by vendor Perfect Image."
Up to here, the Jean Guy Allard article that appeared on the Telesur website.
Another article, by U.S. professors Paul Drain and Michele Barry, from Stanford University (California), translated on the Rebelión website, states:
"The US blockade on Cuba proclaimed after Fidel Castro’s revolution ousted Batista’s regime is 50 years old this 2010. Its stated objective has been to help the Cuban people to attain democracy but a U.S. Senate report from 2009 concluded that ‘the unilateral blockade on Cuba has failed.’
"…despite the blockade, Cuba has achieved better healthcare results than most Latin American countries and comparable with those of most of the developed nations. Cuba’s average life expectancy is the highest (78.6 years) and it also has the highest density of medical doctors per capita – 59 doctors to 10,000 people – and the lowest mortality rate for children under one year of age (5.0 per 1,000 life births) and infant mortality (7.0 per 1,000 live births) among the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
"In 2006, the Cuban government allocated about $355 per capita for healthcare" … "The annual healthcare cost assigned to an American citizen that same year was $6,714… Cuba also assigned less funds to healthcare than most of the European countries. But, the low costs of healthcare do not explain Cuba’s successes, which could be attributed to a greater emphasis on prevention and primary care that the island has been cultivating during the American commercial blockade.
"Cuba has one of the most advanced primary care systems of the world. The education of its population in disease prevention and healthcare promotion has made the Cubans less dependent on medical products to keep the population healthy. The opposite happens in the United States, which is highly dependent on medical provisions and technologies to keep its population healthy, but at a very high economic cost.
"Cuba has the highest rates of vaccination in the world as well as the highest number of births assisted by expert healthcare workers. The clinical care provided in doctors’ offices, policlinics and the largest regional and national hospitals are free of charge for patients…
"On March 2010, the U.S. Congress introduced a bill to strengthen healthcare systems and increase the number of healthcare experts sent to developing countries… "Cuba continues sending doctors to work in some of the poorest nations on the planet, something it started doing in 1961.
"Given the recent support for healthcare reform in the United States, the possibility exists of learning some good lessons from Cuba on how to develop a really universal healthcare system with an emphasis on primary care. The adoption of some of Cuba’s most successful healthcare policies could be a first step toward the normalization of relations. The U.S. Congress could instruct the Medicine Institute to study the successes of Cuba’s healthcare system and how to start a new era of cooperation between American and Cuban scientists."
For its part, the Tribuna Latina news website recently published an article on the new Immigration Law in Arizona:
"According to a survey published by the CBS network and The New York Times, 51% consider that the law is an appropriate focus in relation to immigration, while 9% consider that it should go even further on this matter. Opposing them, 36% think that Arizona has gone ‘too far.’"
"…two out of every three Republicans are backing the measure"… "while just 38% of Democrats say that they are in favor of the law…"
"On the other hand, one out of every two recognizes that, as a consequence of this regulation, it is ‘highly probable that persons from certain racial or ethnic groups will be detained more frequently than others,’ and 78% recognize that it will pose more burdens for the police.
"At the same time, 70% consider it probable, as a consequence of this measure, that the number of illegal residents and the arrival of new immigrants in the country will be reduced…’"
On Tuesday, May 6, 2010, under the headline "Arizona: a pretentious death from hunger," an article by journalist Vicky Peláez was published in Argenpress, which begins by recalling a phrase by Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Remember, always remember, that we are all descendants of immigrants and revolutionaries."
It is such a well-argued document that I do not wish to conclude this Reflection without including it.
"The huge marches of this May Day condemning the pernicious anti-immigration law passed in Arizona, have shaken all of the United States. At the same time, thousands of Americans, politicians, jurists, artists, organizations, civil organizations demanded that the federal government declare unconstitutional Law SB170, which resembles laws passed in Nazi Germany or South Africa in the apartheid period.
"However, despite fierce pressure against the pernicious law, neither their government nor 70% of the inhabitants of that state wish to accept the gravity of the situation that they have created in order to blame undocumented immigrants for the severe economic crisis that they are experiencing. Meanwhile, they are asking Barack Obama for money to pay 15,000 police; they are radicalizing their racist policies. Governor Jan Brewer stated that ‘illegal immigration implies rising crime and the emergence of terrorism in the state.’
"Placing undocumented immigrants on the same plane as terrorists authorizes the police to fire on people simply on the basis of the color of their skin, their clothing, what they are carrying in their hands or even their way of walking. Without any doubt, this will also affect the 280,000 Native Americans who live marginalized and in extreme poverty, as well as other minorities in addition to Hispanics, who have found refuge and work in this arid zone of the United States.
"Following the line of Republican Pat Buchanan, who says, ‘The United States must make a stronger crusade for America’s liberation from the barbarian hordes of hungry foreigners carrying exotic diseases,’ after hitting out at undocumented day laborers, construction workers, domestic employees, gardeners and cleaners, Governor Brewer has now directed her campaign against teachers of Hispanic origin.
"According to her new decree, teachers with a marked accent will not be able to teach in schools. But her crusade does not end there because, in all historical periods, ‘ethnic cleansing’ has always been accompanied by ideology. From now on, ‘ethnic studies and projects’ are abolished in schools. They are also banning the teaching of subjects that could promote resentment of a certain race or social class. This implies politicizing knowledge, converting myths created by the U.S. system into a reality. It also signifies exhuming the most respected thinkers in the United States such as Alexis de Tocqueville who, in 1835, said that ‘the place where an Anglo-American sets his boot is forever his. The province of Texas still belongs to Mexicans but soon there will not be one Mexican there. And that will happen anywhere.
"The sole consciousness of racists is hatred and the only weapon that can overcome it is the solidarity of human beings. This state was already defeated when it refused to make Martin Luther King Day a public holiday; the boycott was solid and overwhelming…"
7 May, 2010
Fidel Castro Ruz
Monday, May 10, 2010
L.A. Teacher Calls
For Mexican Revolt In The U.S.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Burn Pits
by Matthew Nasuti
Kabul Press, May 8, 2010
More than 350 toxic sites need to be studied
The American military continues to operate burn pits in Afghanistan eighteen months after the U.S. Congress banned their use. See the February 1, 2010, article by Lindsay Wise and Lise Olsen of the Houston Chronicle. They used the burn pit at Camp Taji in Iraq as an example. It continues to open-burn 120 tons of waste each day. This provides a glimpse as to the volume of waste that is being illegally burned on American bases every day. Multiple that times hundreds of bases and posts in Afghanistan, and factor in that it has occurred every day for the past nine years and the scope of the problem becomes evident. The burn pits are only part of the problem. Other pollution results from spills, releases, illegal ash disposals and secret burials into unmarked landfills.
Last month the American military withdrew from its combat outposts in the Korengal Valley of Kunar Province and ceded the area to the Taliban. While the Western media reported on the American withdrawal, no one asked the question:
"Did the Americans remove all the hazardous waste that they spilled, released or disposed of in the Korengal Valley, and did they restore the locations to their original condition?"
The answer appears to be "No." There is no evidence of any environmental investigation or soil sampling, let alone environmental cleanup and restoration at these outposts. All the hazardous waste generated by the American military appears to have simply been abandoned.
Similarly when the Americans withdrew in 2008, from Combat Outpost Wanat in Nuristan Province, there does not appear to have been a cleanup of the contamination at that location. The fear is that this is the Pentagon’s model for all American bases in Afghanistan. The underlying (and undisclosed) policy seems to be "cut and run." Cutting out on their responsibilities and running away from the toxic consequences.
In the mid-1980’s, the American military closed down a number of old radar sites along Canada’s northern border that had been part of a defense system called the DEW Line. During decades of operations hazardous materials had spilled or been released at these facilities, including PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls). The Government of Canada insisted that the Pentagon dig up all the contaminated soil and ship it back to the United States for disposal. Similar measures were ordered by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after the liberation of Kuwait and invasion of Iraq in Operation Desert Storm. These are the models that the Government of Afghanistan should follow. At the other end of the spectrum are examples of countries which have not insisted on American accountability and responsibility. These include the Philippines, Somalia, Iraq, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos etc. They will have to continue to bear the toxic legacy of Pentagon "assistance" to their countries.
The Pentagon has its own environmental cleanup program which it calls the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP). DERP has been a lackluster effort. See "Superfund: Greater EPA Enforcement and Reporting Are Needed to Enhance Cleanup at DOD Sites." GAO-09-278 March 13, 2009.
Originally 985 American military bases were evaluated due to the contamination present. 140 bases were listed as major problems and were assigned to what is called the Superfund program. Each base might have dozens of separate toxic sites. The balance of the bases was given a lesser priority. They were assigned to different programs or transferred to local cleanup authorities. There is no total list of every toxic site created by the Pentagon within the United States, but the number is believed to exceed 2,000. Virtually none of these sites have been completely cleaned up (i.e., all contamination removed). Major American cities such as Tuscon, Sacramento, Denver, San Diego, Irvine and others are threatened due to pollution from these bases that has spread into the groundwater.
This author has worked on DERP sites. Unfortunately, the Pentagon cannot be relied on to conduct a comprehensive investigation of its illegal waste practices. It has too much of a conflict of interest. The Government of Afghanistan must insist on independent experts being in charge.
The format for an investigation of the estimated 350+ American military toxic sites in Afghanistan is well-known. It begins with a listing of all known and suspected sites or facilities where any American hazardous material was present. Then, there is a historical investigation of each site, followed by an analysis and environmental assessment of the data for each site. The next step is to conduct soil and water sampling at each site. Then there is more analysis and finally remediation of all the properties begins, with each being restored to its original condition.
Saturday, May 08, 2010
A Racist Occupation
May 8, 2010
This is one of my favorite quotes from Albert Memmi. And it must be read several times...slowly, carefully....
Racism does not limit itself to biology or economics or psychology or metaphysics; it attacks along many fronts and in many forms, deploying whatever is at hand, and even what is not, inventing when the need arises. (Albert Memmi, Racism)
The discourse around the Anglo-American-Iranian occupation of Iraq, a racist, sectarian, chauvinistic occupation -- contains much bullshit and partial truths.
I'd hear over and over again --- it's the oil, it's economics, it's capitalism, it's corporations, it's big business, it's geopolitics, it's strategy, it's imperialism...every kind of ism would be put forward...except one
RACISM.
And I abide by the Albert Memmi's definition of racism...an all encompassing one, that goes beyond economics and geopolitics...
The Occupation of Iraq is based on Pure Racism...religious racism, racial racism, sectarian racism, ethnic racism, ideological racism, political racism, economic racism...etc...
Your "Marxist, leftist, liberal, progressive..." theories and analysis are way too limited to explain this occupation...
And I think I know why...
And another quote by Albert Memmi will give it to you, in plain language...
There is a strange kind of tragic enigma associated with the problem of racism. No one, or almost no one, wishes to see themselves as racist; still racism persists, real and tenacious.
For Mother's Day
A Letter From A Palestinian Mother
A letter from the heart of a Muslim woman to the American people who support Israel and its wars
Dear friends
I am writing this letter to you because of the devastation that is caused by your government in our lands, and because of the immanent threat to world peace that I see your government pushing for, again.
The way things are moving now, I foresee great danger, and terrible risk to peace and security to the whole world.
I am writing to you because I care very much about humanity and I love our planet, with all its inhabitants.
I am writing to you because I believe in civilised dialogues, where people can express themselves freely, without being patronized, silenced, ridiculed, imprisoned or even killed for their beliefs.
I am writing to you to build bridges not walls, and to take you on a short journey so you may see things from our perspective.
I am writing to you for the purpose of advancing more realistic and humanistic understanding and for trying together to achieve a more tolerant and peaceful world.
I see systematic efforts by most of your media pundits, to work endlessly at dehumanizing Muslims and their faith, and I see that as pre-emptive justification for more military attacks against more innocent civilians, aiming at our total destruction.
When a group of people (Muslims in this case) are seen as intrinsically evil, and when their faith and beliefs are portrayed as violent, malicious, and aggressive, then, anything done to those people is acceptable and defensible.
Without talking to one another, and without trying sincerely to put extra effort to understand the other, we will all be losers, and we’ll be driving our beautiful world towards catastrophe and devastation… that breaks my heart, as a mother, and as a human being.
Is it too much to ask “to open our hearts and our minds and listen to what the other has to say” ?
Can we learn something from little children; where prejudice and bigotry are non-existent ?
Words in your media are used and manipulated to imply deceptive meanings, so you are kept in a state of constant fear, watching over your shoulders in panic from “Islamist monsters bent on invading and destroying you”, never mind how absurd and ridiculous such allegations in reality are.
The zionist-controlled media has hijacked our language, and vocabulary and disfigured our religion
They drilled in people’s heads that:
Islam is terror
Jihad is holy war
Fatwa is death penalty
Muslim women are the manifestation of oppression, uneducated, forced into wearing the veil, and enslaved by their men.
Muslim men are fanatics, cruel, sadistic wife beaters
Muslim children are terrorists in the making
When a crime is committed, the criminal is a criminal, but when a Muslim commits a crime, even a petty one, he is immediately labelled a “Muslim criminal” irrespective the fact that his faith opposes such crimes. A Muslim criminal committing a crime becomes “a Muslim terrorist”, and he committed the crime because he is a Muslim and his faith teaches evil!
If only Americans could understand that what is published in US medias and blogs, is not the truth, but as much a lie as when your bankers all told you could borrow almost limitless and never suffer any economic consequences.
The hard facts about Islam and Muslims, are different, and the vast majority of Muslims would not fit to this ugly stereotype.
Islam is peace: the root of the word Islam is Salam, which is one of the Holy Names of God. Salam is Arabic for Peace. The meaning of the word Islam is beautiful as Islam is Arabic for bring into Peace.
The word Salam is used for greeting others. Saying “as’Salam alaikum” to someone means “Peace be upon you!”
When a Muslim greets another person with “Peace be upon you,” the greeter is in fact proclaiming a contract of Peace with the other person. Hence, if the greeter has non-peaceful intentions towards the other person, he would be engaging in hypocrisy, which is one of the Major Sins in Islam!
“When a (courteous) greeting is offered you, meet it with a greeting still more courteous, or (at least) of equal courtesy. God takes careful account of all things” Quran (4:86)
Jihad is an Arabic word that means the endeavour to do your best to make this world a better one:
Any effort to help achieve that is called jihad, or struggle, going to school to learn is a form of jihad, being a mother rearing children is jihad, spreading knowledge through teaching or writing is jihad, treating patients is jihad, looking after sick parents is jihad, also defending yourself when attacked is jihad, and struggling against oppression is jihad.
Any action that one undertakes in order to bring good to mankind is jihad
Life with all its ups and downs is a jihad
The highest form of Jihad, however, is the inner Jihad, which is the Major Jihad that means the never ending inner struggle against one’s arrogance, greed, and selfishness in order to achieve the Generous Temperaments.
The Prophet Muhammad, Peace be upon him, declared “Verily I was sent to this World to define (and live by) the Generous Temperament.”
According to him, the codes of Generous Temperament (makarem elakhlaq) are seven:
“Pardoning those who have oppressed you
Giving to those who have deprived you
Connecting with those who have shunned you
Benefiting those who have abused you
Counselling those who have deceived you
Forgiving those who have maligned you
Forbearing with those who have angered you.”
Contrary to common beliefs, the concept of holy war does NOT exist in Islam; it is a European concept from the days of the crusaders, and has absolutely no equivalent in Islam, it does however in the minds of the new crusaders as it seems from so many video clip we have seen, of your hypocrite politicians and zionist “evangelists”, and in the sick minds of those who invaded our lands and murdered our people.
To translate the concept of Holy War into Arabic is almost impossible. It would sound something like “Harb Muqaddassah” which does not exist in Arabic, even the concept of it is unheard of, never used in spoken or written language, as it is too contrary to Islamic principles and values !
How misleading and dishonest is the translation and misconception of jihad as a holy war then!
By writing this, all I am doing is reclaiming my language back.
Fatwa is nothing but an expression of an opinion by an informed person:
Being what it is, it is not for any one to enforce their “fatwa” / opinion upon anyone.
There is no hierarchy system, no priesthood, no church institution, and no clergy in Islam; and that is something totally misunderstood, and rarely ever mentioned.
Any Muslim is entitled to make his/ her opinion from their understanding of the Qur’anic text.
If those opinions are expressed by some knowledgeable person, they are called “fatwa”.
All this falsification, distortion, and misrepresentation of Islam (deliberate or not) if not addressed and sorted out urgently, logically and with open-mindedness and compassion, then our world is doomed!
Being a Muslim woman and knowing exactly what Islam teaches, I feel dismayed and heartbroken at the image that you are made to believe as a true representation of us and of our faith
Now, if I come to you and say: “well, no in fact Islam teach this or does not teach that” would you take my word for it?
Of course not, so, I “quote” some of the specific teachings in order to reflect-precisely- the position of Islam, from the most authentic source to Muslims: the Qur’an.
Democracy and Freedom of choice:
“No compulsion in religion or ideology” (2:256).
“Say: O you that reject Faith! I worship not that which you worship, and you do not worship that which I worship… To you be your Way, and to me mine”. (109:1-6)
“We showed him the Way: whether he be grateful or ungrateful (rests on his will)”. (76:3)
“Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: They are the ones to attain felicity”. (3:104)
“And their affairs are (conducted) through consultation among themselves.” (42:38)
“If any one does a righteous deed, it ensures to the benefit of his own soul; if he does evil, it works against (his own soul). In the end will you (all) be brought back to your Lord”. (45; 15)
Relations with others:
‘O mankind! We created you from a single soul, male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, so that you may come to know one another. Truly, the most honoured of you in God’s sight is the greatest of you in righteousness. God is All-Knowing, All-Aware’. (49.13)
“And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your languages and your colours: verily in that are Signs for those who know”.(30-22)
Women’s’ issues
“Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has Faith, verily, to him will We give a new Life, a life that is good and pure and We will bestow on such their reward according to the best of their actions”. (16-97)
“The Believers, men and women, are protectors one of another: they enjoin what is just, and forbid what is evil: they observe regular prayers, practise regular charity, and obey God and His Messenger. On them will God pour His mercy: for God is Exalted in power, Wise”. (9:71)
“If any do deeds of righteousness, be they male or female – and have faith, they will enter Heaven, and not the least injustice will be done to them”. (3-124)
“Then shall anyone who has done an atom’s weight of good, see it! And anyone who has done an atom’s weight of evil, shall see it”. (99:7-8)
“It is He who created you from a single soul, and made its mate of like nature, in order that he might dwell with her (in love)”. (7:189)
“And among His Signs is this: He created for you mates from among yourselves that ye may dwell in tranquillity with them, and He plants love and mercy between your (hearts): verily in that are Signs for those who reflect. 30-21
“For Muslim men and women, for believing men and women, for devout men and women, for truthful men and women, for men and women who are patient and constant, for men and women who humble themselves, for men and women who give in Charity, for men and women who fast (and deny themselves), for men and women who guard their chastity, and for men and women who engage much in God’s praise; for them has God prepared forgiveness and great reward”. (33:35)
War and peace:
The general rule is:
Fighting is only allowed in case of self-defence, against Aggression (odwan) or Persecution (fitnah).
‘You may fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not initiate aggression. God does not love transgressors.’ (2.190)
“O believers, be you guardians of justice, witness for God. Let not a group’s hostility to you cause you to deviate from justice; be equitable – that is nearer to being God-conscious.” (5:8)
“To those against whom war is made, permission is given (to fight back), because they are wronged; and verily, God is most powerful for their aid; (They are) those who have been expelled from their homes in defiance of right,-(for no cause) except that they say, our Lord is God”. (22:39-40)
“God commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin, and He forbids all shameful deeds, and injustice and antagonism: He advices you, that ye may be reminded.” (16-90)
“No soul shall be made to bear the burden (liability) of another.” (35:18)
“But show them forgiveness, and say “Peace!” and soon shall they know!” (43; 89)
“The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto (in degree): but if a person forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is due from God; for (God) loveth not those who are wrong-doers”. (42:40)
‘If they seek peace, then seek you peace. And trust in God for He is the One that heareth and knoweth all things.’ (8.61)
“But God does call to the Home of Peace” (10-25)
“Ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for God can best protect both. Follow not the desires (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily God is well-acquainted with all that ye do. Thus, have We made of you a nation justly balanced, that ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves” (2-143)
“Show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant.” (7:199)
“It may well be that God will bring about love (and friendship) between you and those with whom you are now at odds.” (60:7)
“Nor can goodness and evil be equal. Repel evil with what is best: if you do so, he who is your enemy will become a close friend.” (41.34)
**********************
I am only a mother, and I am also a person who detests violence, war, weapons, killings…etc
I am sick to death with war and violence
And I wish what I have seen and what my people had seen on nobody.
Centuries of imperialism, and illiteracy followed by the brutal uprooting of a whole nation from their homeland in order to give it away to people from other parts of the world just because of their Jewish-ness, and to free the European’s mind of the guilt of the holocaust (which we –Muslims and Palestinians- had nothing to do with, but ended up having to pay the price for Europe’s crimes)
Year after year, decade after decade of injustice towards the Palestinians, accompanied by unequivocal support from USA and Europe to the Zionist entity, led the Muslims to resent the hypocritical policies of the Western world.
This blind support of the Zionists was/ is perceived by Muslims as an act of aggression and grave injustice.
Yet those fundamental basic facts are not represented to you, what you led to believe is that Muslims hate your freedom, your democracy, they are jealous of your way of life, and they hate peace… what a load of nonsense!!!
Muslims feel oppressed and persecuted by YOUR government, its unjust policies, its unconditional support of the terrorist zionist regime and its criminal wars and aggression
They feel that justice had been denied to them, and that they have been constantly under attack.
Exposed to so much injustice and oppression it is only natural that people would have resentments and would look for ways to liberate themselves from oppression and modern slavery, which is precisely the case in many Muslim countries nowadays.
And instead of trying to right the wrongs you’ve done over decades of oppression and injustice, what do you do?
You go yet again and attack more Muslim countries; you bomb Afghanistan and Iraq reducing them to rubble! And go on to threaten Iran with nukes!
You kill over a million more!
And what is more ridiculous is that you are doing so whilst claiming that you’re doing it for the sake of liberating us from our backwardness, ignorance, and our fanatics…
What are you thinking? Do you think we are idiots?
We are sick to death with your interference in our lands, and our countries
We are sick to death with your domination and your attitude of superiority towards us and the rest of the world.
We are sick to death of you trying to impose on us your ways, your thinking, your problems and your solutions.
Imperialism has no room in the future of our world, and most certainly, that must include thought imperialism.
WE WANT TO BE FREE
We want to be free in our homelands
We want to be able to exercise our rights to choose our representatives and our governments
We want our human rights that enable live peacefully and with dignity with no threat of bombing or ethnic cleansing
We want our right to go home and not to live forever as refugees
We want our right to believe in God or not to believe if we so wish to
We want our right to be equal human beings with equal value to our lives
We want to be free to solve the ills of our societies in our own ways not by copy-pasting your experiences and your solutions.
It’s not good enough to try to justify the horrors that you’ve inflected and still inflecting upon us, by dehumanizing us and belittling our faith. Period
Where to go from there?
Yes indeed, where to go from there?
Is there a way out?
As an optimist, yes of course there is always a way out:
To begin with, you must start with opening your hearts and minds to see us as equal human beings, worthy of life, love, and freedom.
Remove your prejudice against us, and with sincere efforts open dialogues with us, not to tell us what should we do or how should we think, or whom to elect as our leaders, but to listen to us as your equals in humanity. A dialogue is a two way system.
It’s also good to start educating yourselves a bit more about us, not taking your information from Hollywood but from us and our authentic sources.
We have so much to tell you, so much to share, so much good we can offer you and the world.
And that is not exaggeration; that is simply the truth. Because we are humans just like you. We all have so much to offer the world.
May I give some suggestion towards a solution?
Why not end your occupation of our lands?
Why not stop supporting those puppet regime and dictators your successive governments have forces upon Arabs for the sake of “Nation Building” which is the most heinous word one can imagine, and why not continuing by accepting our FREELY elected representatives, whom we chose through democracy ?
Why not visit and even come and live in Muslim countries without your army uniform, and without offering your bombs and missiles as gifts?
Why not drop your arms and come to us with open arms rather than coming carrying machine guns and riding offensive tanks?
Instead of pushing like crazy towards Armageddon; why not gently, lovingly, tenderly and with compassion, why not embrace a world of justice, tolerance and respect, as Jesus “peace be upon him” would’ve done if he was alive today?
Why not attentively listen to each other? Why not dream and work for a more peaceful world built upon diversity and richness of multiplicity, a world where humanity is celebrated and variety is rejoiced, a world where all are respected, where all are free to think, to believe, and to live their own way without infringing on each other, or imposing our ways upon each other?
As of now, the world already can see that the American dream is a nightmare, your s-elected and corrupt governments have made your country the most loathed country, and they have robbed you exactly as they robbed those “Arabs out there”
If you look more vigilantly, more attentively, and closer to home, you will find the REAL terrorist worthy of your alarm and disgust, are the ones amongst your midst, ruling your country, robbing your resources, thriving on your poverty, rejoicing your misery.
So why not transform this mad nightmare and ideologically driven devastation, back into a dream…. a reality?
Who is there?
Oh human
Can’t you see!
I am precisely like you
I don’t like being humiliated
I am no one’s doormat
I’m person in my own right
When I was born
I was born innocent
Happy and free
And I want to live
A normal life
With dignity
Wouldn’t you?
I realise there is a dawn
Waiting to be born
And that… after hardship… passes away
Ease will come to life… very soon
But… they’ve inflected so much
Pain and cruelty
Upon this little girl
And upon her homeland
The world is watching
Eyes open wide
In bewilderment
And disbelief
“What we are watching
Is a fiction movie
It’s not really true”
While in exile
Puzzled… I agonize
Wiping tears off my saddened face
Searching around
Any one there?
Looking up… into sky
Did You hear my cries?
Did You witness the crime?
Suddenly
Knock… knock
A gentle tap
Yes, coming
Who is there?
Hope is here
Smiling at my heart
Standing by my door
Friday, May 07, 2010
The American
Expatriation Guide
A reader and former US citizen provides this extensive guide for American expatriation. As noted, "For Americans, reliable information about how to exercise the right of expatriation is very difficult to find without incurring substantial costs. Many high net worth individuals never consider it simply because the subject seems so mysterious and intimidating. Yet freeing yourself from the global U.S. tax net provides the highest guaranteed return on capital that any American will ever know. The purpose of this guide is to demystify expatriation, highlight its many benefits, and provide a roadmap to follow should Americans choose to exercise the right. I hope it will be an invaluable resource to your readers. I am the sole author of the guide, and it is my desire to remain anonymous. As I note in the document, I give unrestricted, royalty-free permission to any and all parties to reproduce, publish and distribute this guide, in whole or in part, on any form of media in all territories throughout the world."
American Expatriation Guide
The Greeks Know
What Is Being Done To Them.
Do You?
Oil Spill Disaster
Gulf Oil Spill Disaster: The oil drilling platform that burned and sank was drilling a well about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The derrick, the Deepwater Horizon, is owned by Transocean Ltd., and was leased to British Petroleum (BP). It was connected to the ocean floor by a “riser”…a 5,000 foot pipe that is now kinked like a garden hose. But the leaks are at the sea floor, not in the pipe. If BP, the lessee, cannot close the valve at the mile-deep wellhead, they may have to drill another well to relieve pressure. Some experts estimate that it could take two months to cap the well at the mile-deep ocean floor. And every day, somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 BARRELS (200,000 to 1 million gallons) of crude oil float to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
The leading edge of the oil slick is about to make landfall at the Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi coasts. But there exists the possibility that the oil spill may be caught by the Gulf Stream…the powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic Ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico, exits through the Strait of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
And, we are just about to enter the Hurricane season, which extends from June 1st to November 30th. Any hurricane that enters the Gulf of Mexico will disperse the surface oil to parts unknown. There is no predicting which coastlines could be coated with crude oil. Any Gulf hurricane will impede and stall cleanup efforts as well as vastly expanding the geographic footprint of the spill. Cleanup cost could multiply exponentially.
So, we may be witnessing the humble beginnings of a disaster that could potentially affect the American coastline from Texas to Newfoundland.
Insurance Claims Issues
First Party Claims
There will be a flood of first-party claims, which are claims for direct loss or damage to covered property. But most Commercial Property insurance policies exclude pollution-related losses unless the loss was caused by a “specified cause of loss,” usually named in the policy…and usually confined to occurring on the insured premises.
Tens of thousands of claims will be filed under the Business Income and Extra Expense sections of commercial insurance policies. Untold number of businesses will be adversely affected by the oil spill, such as resort owners, commercial fishermen and shrimpers, coastal rental property owners, seafood wholesalers, most tourist-related business at the seashore, and charter fishermen.
But once again, BI and EE coverage requires direct physical loss to covered property. So, many businesses will be shocked to discover that even though they have Business Interruption insurance, it does not mean that they have a legitimate BI claim.
Even those policyholders that do have acceptable and covered BI claims may be limited in their monetary recovery by the policy language. The period of restoration usually does not include any increased period of time due to the enforcement of any ordinance or law that may require a policyholder to mitigate the effects of, or clean up the pollutants.
So most policyholders will be out of luck by filing claims with their own insurance companies. More on this later.
This denial of coverage will spell the bankruptcy and end of tens of thousands of coastal businesses. The ripple effect from those businesses to their customers and suppliers, as well as the families employed by all parties, will be catastrophic.
Third-Party Claims
Another huge consideration is the certainty of third-party claims. First-party insurers that pay claims related to the oil spill will subrogate (seek recovery) against those parties responsible and liable for the damages. Then consider all of the business that will file third-party claims directly against the parties responsible and liable for the damages. The list will continue to mount over the coming decade or longer. Timing will be crucial in this matter, since many of the responsible parties may have already exhausted their liability coverage and their corporate assets. Lawyers may find that many responsible parties will close their doors, effectively barring recovery.
Post-Katrina Insurance Industry Reality
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, scores of insurance companies paid claims that they had originally denied. But sympathetic courts ordered them to pay claims that were arguably not covered. The same kinds of pressures will be brought to bear on ALL insurance companies in the aftermath of this oil spill disaster. In these kinds of widespread catastrophes, insurers will be required to pay claims that they may not owe simply because they CAN PAY. That takes some of the political pressure off of states and Washington.
Monstrous insurance loss payments can bankrupt insurance companies. But even worse are these politically-motivated claims for which the insurance company had not collected a premium. Do not be surprised to see many insurance companies fold in the wake of this ecological disaster if they are required to settle claims politically. And all insurance companies are backed up by reinsurance companies. The reinsurers will be hit with losses also, adding more ripples throughout the worldwide economy.
Lawsuits
In war, there is an old saying; “Kill them all…let God sort ‘em out.” That is kind of the philosophy of trial lawyers. In giant commercial enterprises such as BP, there will be dozens of entities that are involved…the parent company, subsidiary companies, contractors and suppliers. Trial lawyers customarily target the entities with the deepest pockets…plus everyone else. The lawsuits have already begun, and will name every business entity even remotely connected to the operation of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. Every entity named in the lawsuits will be forced to defend itself.
And here’s where it gets even more complicated.
Many contracts between businesses and contractors contain a Hold Harmless clause that forces the contractor or vendor to absolve the business from liability, or at least to provide legal defense for the business. Common sense will tell you that subcontractors or vendors will have lower liability limits than the controlling entity, like BP. So lower liability limits will max out quickly.
The lawsuits will continue to be filed, and it will take years of legal wrangling to begin seeing damage awards meted out by all the various courts that will be involved.
Gigantic lawsuits and gigantic jury awards have the very real possibility of bankrupting the companies responsible for this oil spill.
Political Realities
Your Washington politicians have already passed legislation that protects their oil company buddies while exposing Americans to immense cleanup costs and business losses. A law passed in response to the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska makes BP responsible for cleanup costs. But the law sets a $75 million limit on other kinds of non-cleanup damages. So, Federal law limits how much BP has to pay for damages such as lost wages and economic suffering in the Gulf Coast oil spill, despite President Barack Obama’s assurances that taxpayers will not be on the hook.
But the hue and cry from the Gulf Coast will be so great that Washington will feel entirely compelled to swoop in and start writing checks. The Hurricane Katrina/Rita debacle of 2005 is a scab on Washington’s skin that they don’t want torn off. And no Congressman is going to take a position against helping the poor Gulf fishermen and the rest of the populace that makes their living from Gulf and gulf-shore businesses. And despite Obama’s assurances, there is no way that he would refuse to sign a disaster relief law.
All of that means that the Federal Government will print more paper money and go deeper in debt. But printing paper money will hasten hyperinflation. And in order for Washington to go deeper in debt, foreign nations must by American debt securities. Eventually, foreign nations will cease cutting their own throats and say no to Washington.
Tens of thousands of Gulf Coast businesses will cease operations in the months to come. Banks that hold loans and mortgages on those businesses…as well as the loans and mortgages of the employees now thrown out of work…will suffer financial losses. Hundreds of thousands of coastal residences will be unemployed. Cars will be repossessed. Home foreclosures will escalate. Credit card companies will hold uncollectible accounts. Even the local Dairy Queen could suffer economic losses when the surrounding coastal community’s economy collapses.
And we haven’t even left the Gulf of Mexico yet. If the Gulf Stream moves the oil up the Eastern Seaboard, multiply all these predictions by an X factor.
Conclusion
As you see, the economic impact of the oil spill will reach around the world. Companies in the UK will be affected. Likely some insurers at Lloyd’s of London are involved. Reinsurance companies will take hits, which might affect companies in Germany, Switzerland, France and Bermuda. Domestic insurers will likely pay claims due to political pressure. Banks will suffer losses. Businesses will close. Unemployment will spike. Most importantly, it will place crushing pressure on Washington to fix the problem with money…and Washington withstands pressure like a Dixie cup under an elephant’s foot.
Therefore, I submit to you that the April 20th Gulf of Mexico oil disaster could very likely be the trigger of the collapse of the American economy.
© Copyright 2010, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Osama in Washington
Published: 2:27PM BST 05 May 2010
Without backing up the claim, the Iranian leader said he had 'heard' that bin Laden was in the US capital .
"Rest assured that he's in Washington. I think there's a high chance he's there," the Iranian leader told ABC television in an interview.
Without backing up the claim, the Iranian leader said he had "heard" that bin Laden was in the US capital.
Iran receives al Qaeda praise for role in terrorist attacks"Yes, I did. He's there. Because he was a previous partner of Mr. Bush," he said referring to former President George W. Bush.
"They were colleagues, in fact, in the old days. You know that. They were in the oil business together. They worked together. Mr bin Laden never co-operated with Iran but he co-operated with Mr. Bush," Mr Ahmadinejad said.
He added that, at any rate, US officials ought to know the extremist Islamic leaders whereabouts.
"The US government has invaded Afghanistan in order to arrest bin Laden. They probably know where bin Laden is. If they don't know he is, why did they invade? Could we know the intelligence?" he asked ABC.
"First they should have tried to find his location, then invade, those who did not know about his location first they invaded and then they tried to find out where he is, is that logical?"
Monday, May 03, 2010
Plundering Haiti
May 1, 2010
Over 15 weeks post-quake, Haiti’s imperial takeover is proceeding. It began straightaway after the calamity, Haitians victimized by denied aid, appalling repression, and now dispossession of their land, homes, and communities. More on that below.
On April 16, the New York Times carried Reuters and AP reports stating Haiti’s parliament approved the participation of foreign investors to rebuild the country, meaning, of course, seize, occupy, own, control, and colonize it for profit, using Haitians as exploited serfs.
AP stated: "Haiti’s soon-to-expire parliament has approved the creation of (an Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission – IHRC) co-chaired by former US President Bill Clinton to oversee billions in post-quake reconstruction aid, the Ministry of Communications said Friday (April 16)."
The vote also extended Haiti’s state of emergency for 18 months, leaving the Rene Preval-Jean-Max Bellerive government in charge, effectively a dictatorship like Preval instituted in 1999 by not renewing parliament and ruling by decree pending new elections.
Reuters explained that a March 31 "donors" conference established the IHRC to oversee their investment, Preval to have nominal veto power over commission decisions. In fact, he’ll rubber stamp what Washington and corporate interests dictate, supervised by the World Bank, a longstanding imperial tool.
Preval asked, "Do we lose our sovereignty because of the creation of this commission? I think the answer is no."
Except for the Aristide years (1991, 1994-96, and 2001-2004), early in Preval’s first term (1996-2001), and its brief 1804 liberation, Haiti lacked sovereignty throughout its history. Post-quake, it has even less, its people more than ever in jeopardy with imperial plans to gravely harm them, perhaps exterminate hundreds of thousands through neglect or other means.
Laying Imperial Plans
On March 10, prior to the March 31 "donors" conference, Preval was received at the White House, held a joint press conference, ignored the plight of his people, yet Obama thanked him for "showing great courage and determination," when, in fact, he’s been largely invisible, and to date has done nothing to engage Haitians directly, including in their makeshift camps the way Jean-Bertrand Aristide would have done straightaway, with a hands-on approach for long hours daily.
Preval prefers White House photo-ops in deference to power and privilege, increasing — not alleviating — his peoples’ suffering.
The Predators Ball: Nations Gather in New York for Their Share
The web site www.haiticonference.org announced the "International Donors’ Conference Toward a New Future for Haiti" explaining: "The United States and the United Nations (UN), in cooperation with the Government of Haiti, and with the support Brazil, Canada, the European Union, France, and Spain co-hosted" the conference and received "over US $5 billion pledged for Haiti’s recovery" — around $1 billion promised by Washington, less than the EU’s $1.7 billion and Venezuela’s $1.3 billion. In total, however, it’s a fraction of what Haitians need, and "redevelopment" won’t reach them as it’s earmarked for profit-making ventures, not poverty-stricken neighborhoods and essential infrastructure to support them.
A recovery and development roadmap outlined short and longer-term priorities, with participating countries lining up for their take, the lion’s share, of course, for America, then France and Canada, and what they have in mind is more sweatshops, gentrified elite areas, expanded tourism, free trade zones, and the grand prize — exploiting Haiti’s resources, including what’s believed to be abundant untapped oil reserves, what US oil giants made plans for decades ago. They intend deep water ports, refineries, and other facilities to fully exploit the treasure, not mentioned in major media reports, now largely silent on Haiti and its long-suffering people.
Ahead of the conference on March 27, a New York Times editorial headlined, "Making Haiti Whole," endorsed it, saying: It marks "the beginning of the long, slow birth of a new Haiti. Representative of the Haitian government, the United States and other nations and aid organizations will be discussing large, ambitious, farsighted plans," far different ones from what The Times suggests.
On April 28, Reuters headlined, "Lawmakers agree on trade bill to help Haiti," saying: "Top US lawmakers said on Wednesday they have reached a bipartisan deal to help Haiti rebuild its earthquake-shattered economy by opening the US market to more Haitian clothing and textiles" — to be produced in rebuilt sweatshops, where workers are treated like slaves, not human beings. They pay starvation wages, no benefits, and no overtime for up to 70 hours a week in harsh or hazardous environments. They’re inhumane workplaces, dimly lit in stifling heat, with no way to organize for redress or avoid being fired if complain.
Yet according to Congressman Charles Rangel (representing his black Harlem constituents): "The Haitian garment sector, Haiti’s flagship industry, was making important strides prior to the earthquake and helping the country’s economy establish a stable foothold. With this legislation, we will help to get the garment sector and Haiti’s economy back on that critical trajectory," mindless of how it affects exploited workers.
Mindless also of haitian-truth.org’s April 27 report headlined, "Preval Instigated Fire rips through major Haitian market," saying: "A large incendiary fire" destroyed much of Port-au-Prince’s main public market, Marche du Port, affecting hundreds of stalls and two surrounding blocks. UN Blue Helmets (MINUSTAH) were notably absent. Firefighters had inadequate resources, and shopkeepers rushed to save what they could.
One seller, Pierre Elian, said: "The front of the market place is already burned down. We don’t know if the area where we kept our merchandise is also burning, because they won’t let us go near it."
Merchants blamed Preval-controlled instigators, saying "recognized gang members were seen pouring gasoline over material to" ignite the blaze — as "political pressure against the poor" who need the food and merchandise to survive.
Patrick Servius, who lost his clothing business, said: "Preval is angry with us for our refusal to sell relief supplies in our places. These are (donated goods) for the earthquake victims, not for Preval’s profits. Now we pay for our patriotism."
They’ll soon know what else Preval has in mind. More on that below.
The Next Shoe to Drop: Forced Relocations
On April 7, the Haiti Response Coalition (HRC, a network of urban and rural civil society groups) issued an alert saying: An encampment of 11,000 Haitians on Saint Louis de Gonzague school land face forced displacement. They’ve "been offered a plot of land that will hold 500 in a different location. No regard has been given to the fact that the majority of the 11,000 will end up in the street," or that mass forced relocations are coming next.
On April 12, AFP headlined, "Haiti evacuates quake victims camp, faces critics," saying: "… authorities ramped up moves to forcibly evacuate dozens of tent cities across the capital…. After evicting some 7,000 people at the weekend (from the national stadium), the government began the forced removal of a further 10,000″ from camps around the city, early steps preceding mass numbers to follow, ahead of preparing the area for redevelopment.
One camp member said he was given a week to leave for Tabarre Issa, a UN camp where there are "No toilets, no showers… there’s nothing there."
On April 11, Reuters reported that "Haiti starts moving quake victims to safer refuge," saying: "Haiti’s government and foreign aid agencies started an operation… to move thousands of earthquake survivors," on the pretext of sending them to safer areas ahead of seasonal rains that cause flooding.
On April 29, Los Angeles Times writer Ken Ellingwood headlined, "Tensions rise over Haiti tent camps," saying: Tensions are "playing out at stadiums, in churchyards and factory lots, almost anywhere there is enough land to pitch a tent. (Authorities face) the tricky task of balancing the needs of more than a million homeless with the urge of many others to resume a more normal life," ignoring the real "urge" for imperial plunder.
Haiti’s constitution recognizes the rights of all citizens to "decent housing, education, food and social security."
The "United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement… reflect and are consistent with international human rights law and international humanitarian law." They:
– assure "full equality, the same rights and freedoms under international and domestic law as do other persons in their country. They shall not be discriminated against in the enjoyment of any rights and freedoms on the ground that they are internally displaced;
– shall be observed by all authorities….;
– (assure) protection and humanitarian assistance from these authorities….without discrimination of any kind….;
– (guarantee) "the right to be protected against forcible return to or resettlement in any place where their life, safety, liberty, and/or health would be at risk," among other provisions, 30 in all recognizing the needs of displaced people when they’re most vulnerable.
TransArica Forum Alert
On April 12, Transafricaforum.org issued a memorandum headlined "Forced IDP Relocations," saying: "Throughout our network of contacts (on the ground in Haiti), we received a report of a forceful removal of an IDP camp in Caradeux Delas 75, Port-au-Prince. The exact number affected isn’t yet known….all reported a complete lack of latrines… no water sources… and no food distributions.
The Refugee Camp community members reported that they did not receive warning before the large Conseil Nationale Equipements (CNE) bulldozers and graters came to their community with Haitian National Police escorts late on Sunday evening (April 4)… threaten(ing) the families with violence if they did not leave their home immediately."
Batons were used, firearms discharged in the air, and their homes were destroyed, by officers, then bulldozers. The process continued for three days and nights. Where those displaced were sent isn’t known. The only answer given was they’re "now living on the streets."
Around 1.2 million Haitians remain in makeshift tent cities throughout Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas with little aid or concern for their welfare or safety. Now in preparation for redevelopment, hundreds of thousands, perhaps all, will be ordered to move or be forcibly displaced to even grimmer locations, on their own, with little beyond their own ingenuity to survive.
This is Washington’s imperial plan, being implemented for exploitation and plunder. This writer’s previous article explained Haiti is no stranger to adversity and anguish, having endured over 500 years of oppression, slavery, despotism, colonization, reparations, embargoes, sanctions, extreme poverty, starvation, unrepayable debt, and calamities like the January 12 quake killing around 300,000, destroying their homes and belongings, and leaving them vulnerable to imperial plunder of their land, resources and lives — again, on their own, out of luck, and out of major media focus that ignores the greater disaster awaiting them, and the trashing of their human rights and freedoms.
American Priorities
Global Research, May 1, 2010
The priorities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the area of bacteriology have been “catastrophically re-ordered” by emphasizing bioweapons research over non-bioweapons research, a prominent authority states.
Giving priority to bioweapons research at NIH, started under the Bush Administration and continuing under President Obama, “diverts resources from critical public-health and scientific objectives,” says Richard Ebright, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.
“The negative impact has been most severe in bacteriology, in which NIH research priorities have been catastrophically re-ordered---with research on bacterial bioweapons receiving more support than research on the top five bacterial causes of death combined---and in which non-bioweapons research has suffered catastrophic losses in resources and personnel,” Ebright said.
Ebright cited the examples of research into two bacterial pathogens: “Streptococcus pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus, which claim 40,000 and 20,000 U.S. lives each year, respectively. Each kills more Americans than HIV-AIDS (15,000 U.S. lives) “but neither of these bacterial pathogens is on the list of NIAID Priority Pathogens,” Ebright pointed out. (NIAID, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is the subdivision of NIH responsible for infectious-disease research.)
“These two killer bacterial pathogens are not in NIAID’s ‘Category A’, with the anthrax bacterium and the smallpox virus, or even in NIAID’s ‘Category B’ or ‘Category C,’" Ebright says. “Something is wrong---very wrong---when NIAID fails to prioritize the top infectious cause of U.S. death,” he said in an email to this reporter.
Other top bacterial causes of U.S. deaths include Enterococcus faecium/faecalis, Clostridium difficile, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. “Of these, only the last is on the NIAID Priority Pathogens list and this pathogen is only in Category C,” Ebright said.
Asked “What is the mood of the scientific life sciences community at this time toward the Administration?” Ebright responded, “Hopeful expectation” but “growing concern that, thus far, there has been more continuity [from the Bush Administration] than change.”
The scope of the government’s involvement in bioweapons research, may be gauged from its estimated expenditure of $70 billion since 9/11 and the fact that, according to Ebright, more than 400 U.S. institutions are engaged in such work.
Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Champaign, said that in constant dollars the $70 billion “is twice what they spent on the Manhattan Project to develop the A-bomb---ergo, this is a weapons program.”
Boyle, who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 for the U.S., said President Bush “turned the NIH into a front organization for biowarfare work,” and “(President) Obama is simply continuing the Bush policies” and is “now even exporting biowarfare capabilities to Third World Countries.”
Asked about the scope of the nation’s biowarfare activities, Boyle estimated there are “about 13,000 death scientists involved…(so) Dr. (Josef) Mengele has arrived on American campuses all over and the universities’ Institutional Review Boards (to review biowarfare research programs) are a joke and a fraud, too.” (Mengele was a German SS officer and physician who, during WWII, performed diabolical experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.)
Boyle said, “There is so much money involved that universities simply are not going to turn down these proposals no matter how reprehensible they might read…”
At his own University of Illinois, Boyle said, previous biowarfare research and development contracts with the Pentagon clearly stated: “We have selected pigs (to gas with biowarfare agents) because they have a circulatory system and a respiratory system similar to human beings.”
Boyle said, “I am sure similar type biowarfare contracts that are clearly anti-human, anti-ethical, illegal and criminal on their face alone have been approved all over (at) American universities by now. Money talks. Ethics walks.”
