COSA NOSTRA

United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia. These are the countries of the G8. All of them have been colonial powers. All of them are responsible for massive crimes against humanity, from torture to war crimes to genocide. Their history (our history) has been written with the blood of their victims (our victims), slaughtered on the altar of imperialism. All of them have used complaisant writers, historians and intellectuals to justify their unspeakable crimes and hide them behind the carpet of ‘civilization’.

The much elegant and sophisticated Europe is a continent floating on the blood of its victims. Probably the most violent, cruel and irrational place on earth, our continent has been the theatre of any kind of war, violence and insanity for centuries. We mastered the art of killing and destruction so well to export it all over the world.

From the Roman Empire to the Christian Crusades, from the conquest (read: genocide) of the “new world” to the colonization of much of the globe: this is Europe at its best. We imposed to the rest of the world our artificial construction, the State, responsible for much bloodshed at home. As a metastasis, the cancer propagated everywhere with the result that now it’s the whole world that’s floating on the blood of innocent people.

Slavery, racism, intolerance, persecutions, World War I and World War II, genocide, oppression, poverty… just a short list of our civilization’s products. All this (and much, much more) for the insatiable greed of our elites.

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (1)

These are the words of the Western civilization first messenger to the Americas, Christopher Columbus. A hero much celebrated today. And this is what the G8 represents and stands for.

“The G8 is a completely illegitimate and unaccountable body of global governance; its governments and corporations are historically responsible for most of the problems of developing countries, and remain so today” say Nicola Bullard, of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, the respected international non-government policy research and advocacy organisation. “Lobbying the G8 contradicts the very clear call made by hundreds of social movements, NGOs and trade unions from the South and the North at this year’s World Social Forum to mobilise protests against the G8 summit.” (2)

That’s why “Make Poverty History” is just an empty slogan, a slogan used by the power to hide its own agenda and hijacking genuine dissent. In this regard, it’s not different from “War on Terror”, “Support Our Troops”, “War on Drugs” and many others.

That’s why the G8 has to be regarded as a criminal organization, of the kind of Cosa Nostra.

And that’s why the loud music of these days should not distract us from thinking of what these eight moral dwarfs in Scotland stand for. They must feel our contempt for their homicidal policies and we must hold them accountable for their massive crimes against humanity in Africa, in Afghanistan, in Iraq and anywhere else.

And when they and their servants in the media will hide behind the mask of civilization, let’s reply what Gandhi answered when he was asked what he thought about Western civilization:

“I think it would be a good idea”.

Notes

1) from "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn
2) from "Murky world of Make Poverty History uncovered" by Stuart Hodkinson

World Tribunal on Iraq

Istanbul, 27 June, 2005 - With a Jury of Conscience from 10 different countries hearing the testimonies of 54 members of the Panel of Advocates who came from across the world, including Iraq, the United States and the United Kingdom, this global civil initiative came to an end with a press conference at the Hotel Armada where the chair of the Jury of Conscience, Arundathi Roy, announced the Jury’s conclusions.

Nothing About Us, Without Us

From an excellent article on Red Pepper by Stuart Hodkinson

Kofi Maluwi Klu, a leading Ghanian Pan-African activist and international coordinator of Jubilee 2000 Africa Campaign in the late 1990s, is angered by MPH’s lack of representativeness: “We have a saying in the African liberation movement – ‘nothing about us, without us’. Make Poverty History is a massive step backwards in this regard, even from Jubilee 2000.The campaign is overwhelmingly led by Northern NGOs and its basic message is about white millionaire popstars saving Africa’s helpless. The political movements still fighting for liberation on the ground are completely erased”. The absence of the South in the leadership of MPH inevitably translates into the campaign’s politics. For instance, Southern NGO’s and movements are generally critical of making demands on the G8: “The G8 is a completely illegitimate and unnaccountable body of global governance; its governments and corporations are historically responsible for most of the problems of developing countries, and remain so today” say Nicola Bullard, of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, the respected international non-government policy research and advocacy organisation. “Lobbying the G8 contradicts the very clear call made by hundreds of social movements, NGOs and trade unions from the South and the North at this year’s World Social Forum to mobilise protests against the G8 summit.”

On the same subject:
- Make Poverty History or Make the G8 History?
- Iraq, G8 and a Question for Bono & Sir Bob
- The battle to re-conquest Africa

Brazil and HIV-AIDS

Facts, not Live8 and propaganda:

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's government will break a patent on Abbott Laboratories Inc.'s Kaletra AIDS drug in order to provide a cheaper generic version for its treatment program, Health Minister Humberto Costa said on Friday. "This is the first time that the government of Brazil has broken a patent on a drug," Costa said at a news conference, also attended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. "Brazil is the first country to break a patent for antiretrovirals (anti-AIDS drugs)." The decision was made at a politically sensitive time for Brazil. The U.S. has threatened to cut Brazil's trade benefits unless it steps up its efforts to stop widespread piracy of intellectual property, like CDs and DVDs. U.S.-based trade groups have also lobbied the White House to denounce Brazil's earlier threats to break patents on AIDS drugs.

Bravo Lula!!! To know more about this topic, visit AIDS DRUGS POLICY – MINISTRY OF HEALTH/BRAZIL

A Blair Dynasty?

About hypocrisy:

David Dreier, the Republican congressman expected to mentor Tony Blair's eldest son Euan during a summer internship in Washington, is a hypocritical homosexual with an anti-gay voting record, critics allege.

US congressman with anti-gay voting record to be Euan Blair's mentor. By Cahal Milmo and Andrew Gumbel, The Independent

I don't understand the surprise and the criticism is really out of target. Hypocrisy is certainly well known on both sides of the Atlantic. This is a time of great political conveniences, not convictions. After all, who knows who will teach whom? And does this mean that we'll have a Blair Dynasty as we have had a Bush Dynasty?

John Pilger on G8 and Make Poverty History

Africa's imperial plunder and tragedy have been turned into a circus for the benefit of the so-called G8 leaders due in Scotland next month and those of us willing to be distracted by the barkers of the circus: the establishment media and their "celebrities". The illusion of an anti-establishment crusade led by pop stars - a cultivated, controlling image of rebellion - serves to dilute a great political movement of anger. In summit after summit, not one significant "promise" of the G8 has been kept, and the "victory for millions" is no different. It is a fraud - actually a setback to reducing poverty in Africa. Entirely conditional on vicious, discredited economic programmes imposed by the World Bank and the IMF, the "package" will ensure that the "chosen" countries slip deeper into poverty. (Read the whole article on Global Echo)

The G8 Summit: A Fraud and a Circus
by John Pilger, New Statesman

Censorship

At long last, the culminating session of the World Tribunal on Iraq is upon us. As a witness providing testimony, like the other witnesses I’m being interviewed by many outlets. Today, one of them was by reporters for one of the larger newspapers in Turkey, the Yeni Safak Newspaper. I’ll leave the reporters nameless, for reasons you’ll soon see. The newspaper has been translating various articles of mine into Turkish and running them, particularly those concerning the most recent Fallujah massacre. The report who was interviewing me today told me that the former American consulate here, Eric Edelman, asked the Prime Minister of Turkey to pressure his paper to not run so many of my stories. “Why did he do this,” I asked him. “Edelman said it was the wrong news,” he told me with a smile.

Censorship
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches

Televangelists between the Tigris and the Euphrates

From the Washington Post:

BAGHDAD -- With arms outstretched, the congregation at National Evangelical Baptist Church belted out a praise hymn backed up by drums, electric guitar and keyboard. In the corner, slide images of Jesus filled a large screen. A simple white cross of wood adorned the stage, and worshipers sprinkled the pastor's Bible-based sermon with approving shouts of "Ameen!" National is Iraq's first Baptist congregation and one of at least seven new Christian evangelical churches established in Baghdad in the past two years. Its Sunday afternoon service, in a building behind a house on a quiet street, draws a couple of hundred worshipers who like the lively music and focus on the Bible.

Great! Televangelists, McDonald's and Texan ranches between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Last November this Blog dedicated the song Bella Ciao to the Iraqi Resistance and the City of Falluja. We are doing the same today. A beatiful song that has nothing to do with the hypocrisy of Live 8 and the PR operation known as 'Make Poverty History'.

Una mattina mi son svegliato,
O bella ciao, bella ciao,
Bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
Una mattina mi son svegliato,
E ho trovato l'invasor.

O partigiano portami via,
O bella ciao, bella ciao,
Bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
O partigiano portami via,
Che mi sento di morir.

E so io muoio da partigiano,
O bella ciao, bella ciao,
Bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
E se io muoio da partigiano,
Tu mi devi seppellir.

Mi seppellisci lassù in montagna
O bella ciao, bella ciao,
Bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
Mi seppelisci lassù in montagna
Sotto l'ombra di un bel fior.

Tutte le genti che passeranno
O bella ciao, bella ciao,
Bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
Tutte le genti che passeranno
Mi diranno «che bel fior!».

E questo è il fiore del partigiano
O bella ciao, bella ciao,
Bella ciao, ciao, ciao,
E questo è il fiore del partigiano
Morto per la Libertà.


English translation

This morning I awakened - Oh Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye Goodbye - This morning I awakened And I found the invader

Oh partisan carry me away - Oh Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye Goodbye - Oh partisan carry me away Because I feel death approaching

And if I die as a partisan - Oh Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye Goodbye - And if I die as a partisan Then you must bury me

Bury me up in the mountain - Oh Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye Goodbye - Bury me up in the mountain Under the shade of a beautiful flower

And those who shall pass - Oh Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye Goodbye - And those who shall pass Will tell you what a beautiful flower it is

This is the flower of the partisan - Oh Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye beautiful Goodbye Goodbye - This is the flower of the partisan Who died for freedom

Justice, the only concert worth listening

So, there is a judge in Milan...

MILAN, June 24 - An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 officers and operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency on charges that they seized an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street two years ago and flew him to Egypt for questioning, Italian prosecutors and investigators said Friday. The judge, Chiara Nobili of Milan, signed the arrest warrants on Wednesday for 13 C.I.A. operatives who are suspected of seizing an imam named Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, as he walked to his mosque here for noon prayers on Feb. 17, 2003. It is unclear what prompted the issuance of the warrants, but Judge Guido Salvini said in May that it was "certain" that Mr. Nasr had been seized by "people belonging to foreign intelligence networks interested in interrogating him and neutralizing him, to then hand him over to Egyptian authorities." Mr. Nasr, who was under investigation before his disappearance for possible links to Al Qaeda, is still missing, and his family and friends say he was tortured repeatedly by Egyptian jailers. The detailed warrants remained sealed in a Milan courthouse on Friday. But copies obtained by The New York Times show that 13 American citizens, all identified in the documents as either C.I.A. employees or as having links to the agency, are wanted to stand trial on kidnapping charges, which carry a maximum penalty of 10 years and 8 months in prison. The Americans' whereabouts are unknown. One of those wanted, identified in the court papers as the agency's top officer in Milan, is described as "having coordinated the mission and also guaranteeing connections and assistance to others involved in the crime." He left Milan and flew to Egypt five days after the abduction, the warrant says. In the papers, Judge Nobili wrote that she was persuaded of the Americans' involvement in part because of evidence that their cellphones were "all interacting with one another" at the time and scene of the abduction. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been an ally of the Bush administration in the fight against terrorism and the war in Iraq, had no comment on the warrants. Such judicial documents are issued independently of the government. The chief C.I.A. spokeswoman, Jennifer Millerwise, declined to comment on the charges, as did the American Embassy in Rome and the Consulate in Milan. This is the first time a foreign country has tried to prosecute American agents for the process of rendition, in which terrorism suspects captured abroad are sent by the United States to their home countries or to third countries, some of which have records of torturing prisoners.

Thirteen With the C.I.A. Sought by Italy in a Kidnapping
By STEPHEN GREY and DON VAN NATTA
The New York Times

Will there be other judges who feel the moral duty and have the guts to apply the law to those war criminals responsible for torture and mass murders? We all know their names and addresses. Most of them will celebrate themselves and their crimes in Scotland in a few days. It’s called G8 but it seems to me like a mafia meeting. We also know the names and the faces of their accomplices in the media. Can you imagine if these godfathers, their clans and all their servants in the media would be held accountable for their unspeakable crimes? What a beautiful concert would be!

Iran... but the music is too loud

The Neo-Con Agenda goes on. The corporate media is helping the war criminals and the mass murderers. A few voices are telling us what's going on...

The reality is that the US war with Iran has already begun. As we speak, American over flights of Iranian soil are taking place, using pilotless drones and other, more sophisticated, capabilities. The violation of a sovereign nation's airspace is an act of war in and of itself. But the war with Iran has gone far beyond the intelligence-gathering phase. President Bush has taken advantage of the sweeping powers granted to him in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, to wage a global war against terror and to initiate several covert offensive operations inside Iran. The most visible of these is the CIA-backed actions recently undertaken by the Mujahadeen el-Khalq, or MEK, an Iranian opposition group, once run by Saddam Hussein's dreaded intelligence services, but now working exclusively for the CIA's Directorate of Operations.

The US war with Iran has already begun
By Scott Ritter, Aljazeera

WASHINGTON, Jun 18 (IPS) - A familiar clutch of hardline U.S. hawks who led the march to war against Iraq have tried to carry out yet another pre-emptive strike. But this time it wasn't military. As millions of Iranians prepared to vote for the successor to Pres. Mohammed Khatami Friday, the group, helped along by a strong denunciation by Bush himself, mounted what could only be described as an orchestrated public-relations campaign to discredit the elections even before they took place.

Bush and Hawks Try Pre-Emptive Strike Vs. Iran Vote
by Jim Lobe, IPS

but the world is listening to Bono, Sir Bob and Princess Rice.

WORLD TRIBUNAL on IRAQ

Istanbul, 23-27 June 2005

Click here to know more

George Monbiot on Bono, Geldof & C.

Let me be more precise. The danger is that we will follow the agenda set by Bono and Bob Geldof. The two musicians are genuinely committed to the cause of poverty reduction. They have helped secure aid and debt relief packages worth billions of dollars. They have helped to keep the issue of global poverty on the political agenda. They have mobilised people all over the world. These are astonishing achievements, and it would be stupid to disregard them. The problem is that they have assumed the role of arbiters: of determining on our behalf whether the leaders of the G8 nations should be congratulated or condemned for the decisions they make. They are not qualified to do so, and I fear that they will sell us down the river.

Bards of the Powerful. Far from challenging the G8’s role in Africa’s poverty, Geldof and Bono are legitimising its power. By George Monbiot

Condoleezza Rice's Fairy Tale

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is touring the Middle East "promoting democracy".

"For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither" (...) "Now, we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people"

Another piece of the new Washington PR campaign in action.

Headlines:

- Rice calls for Mid-East democracy (BBC News)

- Rice makes case for democracy in Egypt (Associated Press)

- Rice Makes Case for Democracy in the Middle East (Washington Post)

- Rice Challenges Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Democracy Issues (New York Times)

- Rice speech promotes democracy in Egypt (CNN)

Who knows? Maybe with the help of a big concert with many pop and rock stars, we'll end up to believe her. But we have to wait until after 'Make Poverty History' and 'Live 8'. They are all busy right now.

Princess Rice quoted even King George:

"As President Bush said in his second inaugural address: 'America will not impose our style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own voice, to attain their own freedom, make their own way.' "

and they lived happily ever after...

Make Poverty History or Make the G8 History?

I have just read on CounterPunch this excellent article

When White Band Spells White Feather - How Glo-Bono-Phonies and Trojan Horse NGOs Sabotage the Struggle Against Neoliberalism By PATRICK BOND, DENNIS BRUTUS and VIRGINIA SETSHEDI

I have been writing on this blog for a while about the risks that the campaign "Make Poverty History" may have for the social justice and antiwar movement. As a result, I got lots of criticism and even more insults. I am very glad and grateful to learn now that the same concern and skepticism is coming from experiences with a much more meaningful importance and background than my voice may have. Please, take a moment to read this article and let's make the G8 and everything it means history!

Iraq, G8 and a Question for Bono & Sir Bob

The illegal, immoral war against the Iraqi people continues.

US and British warplanes have bombed suspected resistance hideouts near the Syrian border as US and Iraqi forces pressed a double offensive in Iraq's Al-Anbar province. On Sunday, US marine and British Royal Air Force warplanes attacked vehicles and buildings with laser-guided bombs and missiles in and around the town of Karabilah near the Syrian border, on the third day of an operation against resistance activity called Operation Spear, the US military said. Super Cobra helicopters, British GR-4 Tornados and US F-16s, and 1000 US marines and Iraqi soldiers on the ground were involved in the fight, the military said.

US, British planes bomb Iraq targets
Aljazeera

The US Army is used as a private militia to defend and expand private interests. The few powerful giant corporations own the country, control the political system and manufacture consent through that propaganda apparatus called 'the media'.

The sycophancy of most of the journalists should be remembered and judged as complicity in terrorism, war crimes and mass murders. The ruthless ruling classes of those countries who helped in carrying out this war of aggression and occupation should stand ‘shoulder to shoulder’ with the Bush administration before international justice. The Blair government in the UK, the Berlusconi government in Italy, the Howard government in Australia and so on, should be held accountable and stripped off their immunity, which is just impunity for their massive war crimes.

Will all this happen? The answer to this question depends only on us. If we believe on it, it will happen. If we work for it, it will happen.

Finally, a question for Bono, Sir Geldof & C. - Will you be the accomplices of these war criminals? Will you let them use your faces, your voices and your appeal for their criminal projects? Now that even part of the American Establishment started to distance itself from gangsters like Bush, Blair, Cheney, Brown, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Rice, will you be their life-savers? Your good friends at the G8 are plain and simple a cartel of warlords responsible - and consciously responsible - for much sufference in the world. And they know it.

If you care for children, don't join their torturers. If you want to Make Poverty History, you really chose the wrong side. The limelights are now for you but the light of history is somewhere else. I hope you won't miss it.

The New Dark Age of God and Terror - Part II

After Italy, Spain:

Bishops in full regalia and legions of nuns from all over Spain take to the streets in Madrid today against gay marriages, in the church's biggest political mobilisation since the death of the dictator Francisco Franco. "We face a unique situation in the history of humanity," said Jose Antonio Martinez Campo, a spokesman for Spain's episcopal conference. "The Catholic church has encountered nothing like it in 2,000 years." The bishops' organisation has given unprecedented support to the rally, organised by the Forum for the Family, an association of traditional-minded Catholic groups. Parishes have chartered hundreds of coaches, and the forum expects to attract up to a million people. Fr Martinez Campo called the bishops' political action "exceptional conduct for an exceptional situation". The gay marriage law, which is before Spain's Senate and is expected to be approved this month, "represents the disappearance of marriage as the union of a man and a woman ... with grave consequences for society," he added.

Spain's clergy rally support to oppose gay marriage law
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
The Independent

The 'free world' and torture

What can we do? What can we do when an American president dispatches "suspects" to third countries where they will be stripped, wired up, electrocuted, ripped open and tortured until they wish they had never been born? What can we do with a prime minister - ours - who believes that information from torture victims may be of use to us and may be collected by us? How can we clean our hands when we know that men are being subject to "rendition" through our own airports? Doesn't a policeman have the right to go aboard these CIA contract jets that touch down in Britain and take a look at the victim inside and - if he believes the man may be tortured - take him off the plane?

We are all complicit in these vile acts of torture - but what can we do about it?
If our government uses information drained out of these creatures, it is we who are holding the whips. By Robert Fisk, The Independent
Read the article on Global Echo

What War Criminals Deserve

Prime Minister John Howard could face criminal prosecution overseas for Australia's role in the Iraq war, an international lawyer says. Philippe Sands, QC, director of the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals at University College London, says Mr Howard along with British Prime Minister Tony Blair could face charges amid claims the Iraq war was illegal. United States President George W Bush and US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld could also find themselves in similar predicaments, Professor Sands says. "Under international law an illegal war amounts to the crime of aggression and in some countries around the world a crime of aggression is one in which they exercise jurisdiction," Prof Sands told ABC TV. "So the possibility really can't be excluded that if messrs Blair and Howard at some point in the future travel after they've left office to a country which, for example, has an extradition agreement with another country where you have an independent prosecutor. "A request for extradition or for investigation or questioning ... could happen. There's precedent for it."

PM could face Iraq prosecution
The Australian

Desperation, Police State... and the Clown Charlie

Is the power getting desperate?

Liberty, the human rights group, indicated yesterday that it would consider aiding the first protester arrested under new regulations banning unauthorised demonstrations within half a mile of parliament. The organisation argues that the area proposed is too big and the restrictions too wide ranging. The scale proposed is "ludicrous" a spokesman for Liberty said yesterday. Laws passed earlier this year ban unauthorised protests by even a single person, and allow police to set strict conditions on activists, such as placing time limits on demonstrations or banning placards and loudhailers. Charles Clarke, the home secretary, was given powers to designate an exclusion zone of up to half a mile in legislation passed earlier this year.

Liberty backs exclusion zone protest
by Tania Branigan and David Hencke, The Guardian

Barclays Bank & Apartheid Profits

In apartheid South Africa of the 1960s, Dennis Brutus was an outspoken activist against the racist state. He helped secure South Africa’s suspension from the Olympics, eventually forcing the country to be expelled from the games in 1970. He was arrested in 1963 and sentenced to 18 months of hard labor on Robben Island off Capetown, with Nelson Mandela. Brutus was banned from teaching, writing, and publishing in South Africa. His first collection of poetry, "Sirens, Knuckles and Boots" was published in Nigeria while he was in prison. After he was released, Brutus fled South Africa on a Rhodesian passport. In 1983, after a protracted legal struggle, Brutus won the right to stay in the United States as a political refugee. He is now a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Dennis Brutus recently initiated the launch of a campaign against Barclays Bank, demanding reparations for vast apartheid profits. He joined us in our studio last week and begins by talking about his most recent campaign.

Dennis Brutus, South African poet, activist and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Calls on Barclays Bank to Pay Reparations for Apartheid Profits - Democracy Now!

Bono, Geldof & C.

The spectacle of Bob Geldof and Bono bear-hugging G8 leaders in Genoa on Saturday was revolting. It was not just the manic presumption that they would have an iota of influence, or the phoniness and the crass attention-seeking of the exhibition that was stomach-churning. It was their giddy association with the rulers of the world and their eloquent dissociation from the tens of thousands who had gathered to protest against the unfairness and inequities of the new world order.

The G8 represents the tyranny of the new world order against the interests of the world's poor. Self-chosen on the basis of their military might and capitalist credentials, the G8 seeks to further its hegemony of the world, amid a pretense of compassion for the developing world. (Geldof and Bono unwittingly - one assumes - helped further that pretense by the ghastly photo-opportunity in which they participated.) It represents the damaging consequences of globalization and the marginalization of the Third World.

Published on Wednesday, July 25, 2001 in The Irish Times
Geldof and Bono Out of Tune on G8
by Vincent Browne
Read the article on Common Dreams

Tony Blair: the decline of a war criminal

The "plan for action" to tackle climate change for the G8 summit next month has been drastically watered down following Tony Blair's visit to Washington, according to a leaked draft.

Climate change plan for G8 summit diluted after Blair's US visit
By Saeed Shah, The Independent


American officials lied to British ministers over the use of "internationally reviled" napalm-type firebombs in Iraq. Yesterday's disclosure led to calls by MPs for a full statement to the Commons and opened ministers to allegations that they held back the facts until after the general election.

US lied to Britain over use of napalm in Iraq war
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor, The Independent


Tony Blair sat down for one of the most difficult diplomatic dinners in the history of the EU as leaders of the 25 member states locked horns against the background of a fierce conflict over the bloc's spending plans. Seated along the table from the French President, Jacques Chirac, his bitter rival in the budget battle, Mr Blair went into yesterday's four-course dinner of scallops and veal determined to defend the rebate on Britain's EU contributions, which is under attack from 24 other nations.

EU summit: The dinner from hell
Blair isolated over Britain's rebate as vital EU summit begins in Brussels with acrimony the main course on the menu
By Stephen Castle and Andrew Grice in Brussels, The Independent

What's going on in Iraq?

Yesterday at a conference in Baghdad, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a prominent Shia leader who is also the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq announced, "In gratitude to the efforts, sacrifices and heroic positions of our brothers and brave sons from the Badr Organization." "We must give them the priority in bearing administrative and government responsibilities especially in the security field," he added, while the "President" of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, listened on. The Badr Organization (formerly known as the Badr Brigade) was formed by al-Hakim's brother in the '80's to fight Saddam Hussein. It has long since received funding and other "support" from Iran. While civilians in Fallujah, Mosul, Ramadi, Baquba, Baghdad, Haditha and other cities in Iraq continue to complain of being beaten, looted and humiliated by the members of the Iraqi Army who are members of both the Badr Organization and Kurdish Peshmerga, these militias now have the overt backing of the interim Iraqi "government." It is also being reported that members of the Badr Organization, who are essentially running much of the "security" in southern Iraq at this point, have been instituting Sharia law. Thus, women are reporting being threatened with death or rape if they attend university, and more conservative clothing rules are being enforced. Recently a Sunni cleric was assassinated in the south. Harith al-Dhari, the head of the influential Sunni group the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), recently accused the Badr of killing members of the AMS, when he bluntly announced, "It is the Badr Brigades which is responsible for these killings."

State Sponsored Civil War
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches

An Open Letter to US Troops By STAN GOFF - US Army (Retired)

I was a soldier for most of the time between 1970 and 1996. I signed out on my retirement from 3rd Special Forces in Ft. Bragg. I had also served in 7th Special Forces, on three Ranger assignments, with Delta for almost four years, as a Cavalry Scout for a while, and in the 82nd Airborne Division as an infantryman. I started my career in Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. I thugged around in eight different places in East Asia, Latin America, and Africa, where I pointed guns at people. Like you, I was an instrument of American foreign policies ­ policies controlled, then as now, by the rich. In the course of that career, I heard everything you have heard and felt everything you have felt about "loyalty." Tricky thing, loyalty. Nowadays, when I talk with some of you, or when I hear conversations recorded with you, I hear many who have very serious reservations about these wars of occupation. I had more than reservations from the get-go about Iraq and Afghanistan, and I opposed them as hard as I could, and so did millions of other people around the world. But that brain-dead piece of shit in the White House who is legally your boss, and all his handlers, starting with Vice President Dick "Halliburton" Cheney they sent you to do this thing anyway.

An Open Letter to US Troops in Afghanistan and Iraq
By STAN GOFF - US Army (Retired)
CounterPunch

Michael Jackson

There's at least one man recently convicted of homosexual misconduct with a minor, now serving a twelve to fifteen-year sentence, who surely received news of Michael Jackson's acquittal with a sigh of envy at the quality of Jackson's defense team and the sturdy independence of a jury that refused to be swayed by the lynch mob atmosphere that has hung over the Jackson trial like a toxic fog. Well return forthwith to that convicted sex offender, Father Paul Shanley, but first, what lessons should we draw from Jackson's acquittal on all counts? The not-guilty verdict for Jackson shows once again what can happen when the prosecution and defense are on at least an equal footing. Jackson had a top-flight lawyer with an unlimited budget. The prosecutors did what most prosecutors do in America: pile up the charges, on the calculation that the defendant will plead out. In most criminal cases the over-charging is accompanied by the allegations of jail-house snitches and by lies on the witness stand from cops. The defendants have either no budget at all or only modest resources. They can't afford expert witnesses, or private investigators to pick the prosecution's case apart. When a defendant can afford a good lawyer, top-flight investigators, expert witnesses and kindred firepower, very often the prosecution's case simply falls apart, starting with sloppy handling of evidence, compromised forensic work and contradictory testimony from the police. In Jackson's case the piling up of the charges led the prosecution into the "conspiracy" disaster. They had to put the mother of the boy with cancer on the stand to elicit testimony about her supposed kidnapping on the Jackson estate. Every minute that mother stayed on the stand, the prosecution took a terrible beating. The twelve did exactly what jurors should do and offered a magnificent example of the abiding importance of the jury as the fundamental bulwark of freedom in this Republic. In their press conference the jurors laid waste the disappointed lynch mob with dignified and articulate responses.

Juries and Lynch Mobs
What If Jackson had been on Trial in Massachusetts?
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

Nazi: Yesterday and Today. And Tomorrow?

Today...

CHICAGO -- Sen. Dick Durbin refused to apologize Wednesday for comments he made on the Senate floor comparing the actions of American soldiers at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis, Soviet gulags and a "mad regime" like Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot's in Cambodia. (...) "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime _ Pol Pot or others _ that had no concern for human beings," Durbin said.

Sen. Durbin Stands by Guantanamo Remarks
By MEGAN REICHGOTT
The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 15, 2005; 10:46 PM
Read the article on The Washington Post

Once upon a time...

240,000 pages of declassified documents were released Thursday that show the US allowed some former Nazi war criminals to live in the United States after World War II. In addition the U.S. government paid other former Nazis to work for West Germany's secret service. According to historian Norman Goda, who wrote "US Intelligence and the Nazis", FBI Director J Edgar Hoover backed allowing former Nazis to live here so they could help report on any Communists inside immigrant communities here in the United States.

U.S. Let Former Nazi War Criminals Live in Country
Democracy Now!
May 14, 2004

The New Dark Age of God and Terror

TOPEKA, Kan. -- A member of Kansas' State Board of Education who's involved in writing new public school science standards calls evolution a "fairy tale" that's sometimes defended with "anti-God contempt and arrogance."

Kansas School Official Calls Evolution 'Fairy Tale'
TheNewOrleansChannel.com

News from the Catholic Republic of Italy: The Vatican succeeded in boycotting four referenda (or referendums?). The referenda were called by the left and the Italian scientific community to abolish a new law made by the right wing government after "suggestions" from the Church hierarchy. Among other things, this law forbids any research on embryonic stem cells. The Church called to boycott the referenda by "inviting" people not to go to vote. 75% of Italians obeyed the Church! The show of politicians (even in the "left") kissing the pope and cardinals’... hands (and not only!) was really embarrassing. Obviously this is just the first step. The next victim will be the law which allows abortion. They will also go against immigration from NON-Catholic countries and use the obedient Italian government to have their say and their will at the EU and behind. Despite what it is commonly believed, the Church has still lots of power in the West, let alone the disastrous consequences of its power in places like South America and Africa. 2000 years of experience in playing with words, manipulating truths and keeping people in need and misery must have taught them something, after all. It seems to live in a New Dark Age of God & Terror, where an emperor from Texas and an Inquisition pope (but have you seen his face!) have finally found unity and common goals. If one adds also most of the other religions, their values and messages...

Guantanamo: a Nazi concentration camp or a Soviet gulag?

WASHINGTON, Jun 14 (IPS) - Two weeks after the Bush administration began attacking Amnesty International for calling the U.S. detention practices against suspected terrorists ”the gulag of our times,” it finds itself increasingly on the defensive on the issue.

Concern Grows Over Guantanamo, Detention Practices
by Jim Lobe, IPS

Read also:

- Concentration camps in AD 2005
- Amnesty International's Response to Rumsfeld
- Civilization

The Anti-Empire Report by William Blum

Some things you need to know before the world ends.
By William Blum

George Monbiot on Make Poverty History

An aura of sanctity is descending upon the world's most powerful men. On Saturday the finance ministers from seven of the G8 nations (Russia was not invited) promised to cancel the debts the poorest countries owe to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The hand that holds the sword has been stayed by angels: angels with guitars rather than harps.

A truckload of nonsense. The G8 plan to save Africa comes with conditions that make it little more than an extortion racket. By George Monbiot, The Guardian

Read also The battle to re-conquest Africa

Uzbekistan, Cowboy George and Human Rights

Defense officials from Russia and the United States last week helped block a new demand for an international probe into the Uzbekistan government's shooting of hundreds of protesters last month, according to U.S. and diplomatic officials.

U.S. Opposed Calls at NATO for Probe of Uzbek Killings
Officials Feared Losing Air Base Access
By R. Jeffrey Smith and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post

If you are interested to know why, read Uzbekistan and Cowboy George from Texas

Concentration camps in AD 2005

Five men who were juveniles when captured by US forces were held at Guantánamo Bay while they were under 18, despite statements by the Pentagon to the contrary, a lawyer who visited the prison has claimed. The US military has admitted in the past to holding three Afghan juveniles in a special camp called Iguana, but said it had released them. In a January 2004 BBC interview a Pentagon spokesperson said no juveniles were held at Guantánamo, where over 500 Muslim men are detained without charge or trial in conditions that have provoked worldwide concern. But British lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith, who returned from visiting clients in Guantánamo last week, claims that at least five people held there were taken to the camp after being arrested, despite being under 18 at the time. One youth, 14 when detained in October 2001 in Pakistan, is still in US custody three-and-a-half years later.

Under-18s held at Guantánamo, says UK lawyer
by Vikram Dodd, The Guardian


Concentration camps in AD 2005. The Western civilization at its best. Hypocrisy and contempt for any human value, for life itself. We care for children so much to become completely obsessed about pedophilia when a celebrity is taken to trial. We are driven completely crazy by the media for any no-news story about this and that. We fill our mouths with morality and religion, hours of broadcasting with smiles and lies, rivers of ink to celebrate ourselves. Journalists, commentators, analysts, intellectuals and artists sing with one voice the greatness of the master who wants to save the world from poverty, famine and diseases. A beautiful affresco of a world that doesn’t exist…

Danny Schechter on Make Poverty History

NEW YORK, JUNE 13, 2005 — Before the telegraph and the phone and the satellite, Africans communicated through a people's technology, the drum. Today, the e-mail list and the Web have become the world's new drum, modern communications tools that operate outside or in the shadows of the glare of the Big Media circus. It's these new drummers that have made African debt the issue it is, not governments or media outlets.

Will African Poverty Become History?
By Danny Schechter
Mediachannel.org

John Pilger on NUJ and Make Poverty History

The National Union of Journalists and the Blair government are planning a "launch" ceremony, at which they will announce their "partnership". According to John Fray, the NUJ's deputy general secretary, this collaboration will "promote awareness among journalists of the issues that surround the struggle against poverty on a world scale . . . We want to help the media to tell it like it is."

In a glossy letter to NUJ members, Fray says that joining hands with the government is "enhancing the understanding of the need for a positive approach to international development amongst those who report and comment on the issues". For this "positive approach", the government is paying the journalists' union £80,000. What a bargain price for the principle of independence from power.

A "partnership" with the NUJ is a master stroke for a rapacious British government whose "aid" and "debt relief" are intended to mask, as Gordon Brown put it, an "obligation" on the poorest countries to "create the conditions for [business] investment" . The chief civil servant at the Department for International Development wrote, "We are extending our support for privatisation in the poorest countries from the power sector in India to the tea industry in Nepal."

Since when did privatisation have anything to do with "the struggle against poverty"? Privatisation is about control of markets and profit. Period.

John Pilger castigates his own trade union
By accepting money from the British government, the National Union of Journalists is undermining its own independence and credibility. By John Pilger, New Statesman

Read the whole article on Global Echo

Read also The battle to re-conquest Africa by Gabriele Zamparini

The battle to re-conquest Africa

Make Poverty History! The G8, the World Bank, the IMF, Blair, Brown, Bush and Wolfowitz have decided to help hundreds of millions of people in Africa. Bono, Sir Bob Geldof, and an ocean of NGOs have been pressing Governments and Financial Institutions about debt and aid. So, what's the problem? We should all be united and keep repeating the mantra: Make Poverty History! The corporate media couldn't possibly miss this opportunity to praise the angelic leaders who want to save Africa after having liberated Iraq.

Now, is it possible to ask a couple of questions about Make Poverty History? Or is this another slogan, another PR campaign like Weapons of Mass Destruction, Support Our Troops, War on Terror, Export Democracy? Also, if this is another propaganda operation, what’s the trick?

Africa and its tragedies. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know where all these tragedies come from? Wouldn’t it be helpful to understand at least some of the reasons why so many people suffer terribly and die of treatable diseases? History, of course. But what about colonialism? Water, food and medicines, of course. But what about the economy and the plans imposed by western powers, the World Bank and the IMF. The never ending wars, of course. But what about selling Africa billions of weapons?

A few days ago I wrote about The Holy Alliance: Bush, Blair, Bono and Sir Bob. Among other things, I was particularly interested in how Make Poverty History will be used by people like Blair, Bush, Wolfowitz, Brown & C. to re-make their public images and wash their bloody hands after the lies and the horrors of Iraq, for which they are the main responsible (although they have not been held accountable, yet!).

Can this be the main reason for the Make Poverty History Show? A very intelligent, though cynical operation of propaganda to clean the stains of mass murders, war crimes and genocide? No, it can’t be. It’s on the menu obviously but it’s not the main course. It would be too expensive when they can use much more economic means. After all, the corporate media is there for a purpose.

So, why Make Poverty History? What’s behind all this love and good feelings we are presented 24-7 on TV? For which reason are people like Blair, Brown, Bush, Wolfowitz so eager to help Africa? I don’t doubt the good intentions and the honest feelings of Bono and Geldof. Maybe too much patronising. Colonialism and racism are centuries old and sometimes we fall their victims without knowing it and even when our intentions are noble.

On the other side, those who have the power to take decisions will use any mean to build consent around their power, hide their real agenda and using the popularity of rock stars and showbiz people at their own advantage. What do you think it’s the reason for all these Sirs and Lords and Ladies, after all?

So, what’s the hidden agenda?

Till now Africa has been conquered, exploited, stolen of its human resources (slavery), stolen of its natural resources (gold, diamonds, oil, etc), used as a market to sell billions of weapons, used as a huge dump to get rid of any toxic and nuclear waste. By whom?

Now the same colonial powers, the same centres of (economic and political) interests, the same countries and often the same multinational corporations, after having sucked the blood from the people of Africa for centuries as an insatiable vampire, now the same actors want to Make Poverty History in Africa. Does it make any sense? I mean, everything is possible, you know! Even the conversion of cruel, ruthless presidents, prime ministers and CEO’s in compassionate human beings cannot be ruled out sometimes. The only problem here is that this conversion to goodness and altruistic purposes has the dimension of a pandemic.

So, shouldn’t we be more skeptical? Shouldn’t skepticism be a moral duty for those who really care for people in Africa, in the Middle East or in any other country or region every time the power tells us its noble and altruistic goals?

Remember Hamlet? "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

One possible scenario (the commissars working in the media would call it “conspiracy theory”, of course!) may be the following:

1. Western powers have exploited Africa in such a destructive way that now they start to realize they have to act, if they want to keep making business in that part of the globe;
2. Their acting is aimed to establish in Africa minimum conditions of survival in order to have an entire continent ready to work for a couple of dollars (or euros) for those corporations that already control the entire worldwide economy (and our lives). So, after t-shirts and toys made by child-workers in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, we’ll finally have the first effects of globalization in Africa: millions of workers saved by starvation and common (yet lethal) diseases ready to work and be exploited by the old masters. Slavery for the new century.
3. Of course, not all the African people will be kissed by the G8-angel. Only those countries that will fully accept the conditions imposed them by the World Bank, the IMF and the priests of the true religion called FREE MARKET will be able to see their debt cancelled (sic!) and more aid for their people’s needs.
4. Which conditions will the G8 impose to Africa and its peoples? Privatizations and wild capitalistic policies in order to reduce those countries in a perpetual state of need and misery for a more profitable control of their resources. This is the 21st Century, after all!
5. Forget human rights and civil liberties. Just a few crumbs to make people in the West happy and sleeping nicely. We did our best, we had a few concerts… and one day we will even buy sneakers made in Tanzania and t-shirts made in Uganda.
6. Among all these new plans and talks to Make Poverty History, something is quite old. Africa is again the battlefield for wars planned somewhere else and it will again be the pie to divide among greedy actors who invited themselves in this great celebration with emperors, kings and princes delighted by jokers, clowns and singers.

$$$ (or the Future Combat Systems)

The Army's plan to transform itself into a futuristic high-technology force has become so expensive that some of the military's strongest supporters in Congress are questioning the program's costs and complexity.

An Army Program to Build a High-Tech Force Hits Cost Snags
By Tim Weiner - The New York Times
Read the article on TruthOut.org


The Future Combat Systems (FCS) is a joint (across all the military services) networked (connected via advanced communications) systems of systems (one large system made up of 18 individual systems plus the network and Soldier- often referred to as 18 plus one plus one). A Soldier, linked to these platforms and sensors, has access to data that can provide a much more accurate picture of what's going on around him. The Warfighter Information Network-Tactical [WIN-T] will be the backbone of the Army's Future Combat Systems. On 22 July 2004 Army officials announced plans to accelerate the delivery of selected future combat systems to the current force. All the changes increased the total cost by $20-$25 billion, about 25% higher than the original estimate of $92 billion. A significant increase to the current System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase funding of $14.78 billion is required to accomplish the changes.

Source: GlobalSecurity.org


BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2005--iRobot Corp. today announced a significant increase in its U.S. Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) contract to develop the next-generation Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV). The new funds -- now $51.4 million, up from $37.3 million previously -- will expedite the development of the FCS SUGV through expanded training, as well as modeling and simulation work. iRobot also plans to hire additional engineers for the project.

Press Release: iRobot's Future Combat Systems Contract Grows to Over $51 Million. Additional Funds Accelerate Development of Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle

Naomi Klein on Make Poverty History

With all this noblesse oblige focused on saving Africa from its misery, it seems like a good time to remember someone else who tried to make poverty history: Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was killed ten years ago this November by the Nigerian government, along with eight other Ogoni activists, sentenced to death by hanging. Their crime was daring to insist that Nigeria was not poor at all but rich, and that it was political decisions made in the interests of Western multinational corporations that kept its people in desperate poverty. Saro-Wiwa gave his life to the idea that the vast oil wealth of the Niger Delta must leave behind more than polluted rivers, charred farmland, rancid air and crumbling schools. He asked not for charity, pity or "relief" but for justice.

A Noose, Not a Bracelet
by Naomi Klein
The Nation

Read also The battle to re-conquest Africa

Mugabe

It's sunrise on the outskirts of Bulawayo. In the orange half-light you can see the huts are little more than bare mud walls. Everything that can be salvaged has been stripped off. The contents of the meagre homes now lie a few feet away in a scrapheap of rusting sheet metal, plastic pots and broken furniture.

Mugabe takes his revenge on poor by destroying thousands of homes
By a Special Correspondent in Bulawayo
The Independent

ALEXANDER COCKBURN

If it's Monday, it must be Bangalore. Thomas Friedman's back in India and the mysterious subcontinent exercises its usual sorcery on the wandering pundit, eliciting paragraphs of ecstatic drivel, as it has from so many Times-men.

CounterPunch Diary
Thomas Friedman's Imaginary World
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
CounterPunch