Re: Bill Blum: Anti-Empire Report (Jan 7 10)

[Sir Arthur C.B.E. Wholeflaffers A.S.A.]

On Jan 7, 5:53 am, Richard Moore <r...@quaylargo.com> wrote:
> http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html
>
> The Anti-Empire Report
>
> January 6th, 2010 by William Blumwww.killinghope.org<http://www.killinghope.org/>
>
> The American elite
>
> Lincoln Gordon died a few weeks ago at the age of 96. He had graduated
> summa cum laude from Harvard at the age of 19, received a doctorate
> from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, published his first book at 22,
> with dozens more to follow on government, economics, and foreign
> policy in Europe and Latin America. He joined the Harvard faculty
> at 23. Dr. Gordon was an executive on the War Production Board
> during World War II, a top administrator of Marshall Plan programs
> in postwar Europe, ambassador to Brazil, held other high positions
> at the State Department and the White House, a fellow at the Woodrow
> Wilson International Center for Scholars, economist at the Brookings
> Institution, president of Johns Hopkins University. President Lyndon
> B. Johnson praised Gordon's diplomatic service as "a rare combination
> of experience, idealism and practical judgment".
>
> You get the picture? Boy wonder, intellectual shining light,
> distinguished leader of men, outstanding American patriot.
>
> Abraham Lincoln Gordon was also Washington's on-site, and very
> active, director in Brazil of the military coup in 1964 which
> overthrew the moderately leftist government of JoC#o Goulart and
> condemned the people of Brazil to more than 20 years of an unspeakably
> brutal dictatorship. Human-rights campaigners have long maintained
> that Brazil's military regime originated the idea of the desaparecidos,
> "the disappeared", and exported torture methods across Latin America.
> In 2007, the Brazilian government published a 500-page book, "The
> Right to Memory and the Truth", which outlines the systematic
> torture, rape and disappearance of nearly 500 left-wing activists,
> and includes photos of corpses and torture victims. Currently,
> Brazilian President Luiz InC!cio Lula da Silva is proposing a
> commission to investigate allegations of torture by the military
> during the 1964-1985 dictatorship. (When will the United States
> create a commission to investigate its own torture?)
>
> In a cable to Washington after the coup, Gordon stated b in a remark
> that might have had difficulty getting past the lips of even John
> Foster Dulles b that without the coup there could have been a "total
> loss to the West of all South American Republics". (It was actually
> the beginning of a series of fascistic anti-communist coups that
> trapped the southern half of South America in a decades-long
> nightmare, culminating in "Operation Condor", in which the various
> dictatorships, aided by the CIA, cooperated in hunting down and
> killing leftists.)
>
> Gordon later testified at a congressional hearing and while denying
> completely any connection to the coup in Brazil he stated that the
> coup was "the single most decisive victory of freedom in the
> mid-twentieth century."
>
> Listen to a phone conversation between President Johnson and Thomas
> Mann, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, April
> 3, 1964, two days after the coup:
>
> MANN: I hope you're as happy about Brazil as I am.
>
> LBJ: I am.
>
> MANN: I think that's the most important thing that's happened in
> the hemisphere in three years.
>
> LBJ: I hope they give us some credit instead of
> hell.1<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#note-1>
>
> So the next time you're faced with a boy wonder from Harvard, try
> to keep your adulation in check no matter what office the man
> attains, even b oh, just choosing a position at random b the
> presidency of the United States. Keep your eyes focused not on these
> "liberal" ... "best and brightest" who come and go, but on US foreign
> policy which remains the same decade after decade. There are dozens
> of Brazils and Lincoln Gordons in America's past. In its present.
> In its future. They're the diplomatic equivalent of the guys who
> ran Enron, AIG and Goldman Sachs.
>
> Of course, not all of our foreign policy officials are like that.
> Some are worse.
>
> And remember the words of convicted spy Alger Hiss: Prison was "a
> good corrective to three years at Harvard."
>
> Mothers, don't let your children grow up to be Nobel Peace Prize
> winners
>
> In November I wrote:
>
> Question: How many countries do you have to be at war with to be
> disqualified from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize?
>
> Answer: Five. Barack Obama has waged war against only Pakistan,
> Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. He's holding off on Iran until he
> actually gets the prize.
>
> Well, on December 10 the president clutched the prize in his
> blood-stained hands. But then the Nobel Laureate surprised us. On
> December 17 the United States fired cruise missiles at people in
> ... not Iran, but Yemen, all "terrorists" of course, who were,
> needless to say, planning "an imminent attack against a U.S.
> asset".2<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#note-2> A week
> later the United States carried out another attack against "senior
> al-Qaeda operatives" in
> Yemen.3<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#note-3>
>
> Reports are that the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in Norway is now
> in conference to determine whether to raise the maximum number of
> wars allowed to ten. Given the committee's ignoble history, I imagine
> that Obama is taking part in the discussion. As is Henry Kissinger.
>
> The targets of these attacks in Yemen reportedly include fighters
> coming from Afghanistan and Iraq, confirmation of the warnings long
> given b even by the CIA and the Pentagon b that those US interventions
> were creating new anti-American terrorists. (That's anti-American
> foreign policy, not necessarily anything else American.) How long
> before the United States will be waging war in some other god-forsaken
> land against anti-American terrorists whose numbers include fighters
> from Yemen? Or Pakistan? Or Somalia? Or Palestine?
>
> Our blessed country is currently involved in so many bloody imperial
> adventures around the world that one needs a scorecard to keep up.
> Rick Rozoff of StopNATO has provided this for us in some
> detail.4<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#note-4>
>
> For this entire century, almost all these anti-American terrorists
> have been typically referred to as "al-Qaeda", as if you have to
> be a member of something called al-Qaeda to resent bombs falling
> on your house or wedding party; as if there's a precise and meaningful
> distinction between people retaliating against American terrorism
> while being a member of al-Qaeda and people retaliating against
> American terrorism while NOT being a member of al-Qaeda. However,
> there is not necessarily even such an animal as a "member of
> al-Qaeda", albeit there now exists "al-Qaeda in Iraq" and "al-Qaeda
> in the Arabian Peninsula". Anti-American terrorists do know how to
> choose a name that attracts attention in the world media, that
> appears formidable, that scares Americans. Governments have learned
> to label their insurgents "al-Qaeda" to start the military aid
> flowing from Washington, just like they yelled "communist" during
> the Cold War. And from the perspective of those conducting the War
> on Terror, the bigger and more threatening the enemy, the better b
> more funding, greater prestige, enhanced career advancement. Just
> like with the creation of something called The International Communist
> Conspiracy.
>
> It's not just the American bombings, invasions and occupations that
> spur the terrorists on, but the American torture. Here's Bowe Robert
> Bergdahl, US soldier captured in Afghanistan, speaking on a video
> made by his Taliban captors: He said he had been well-treated,
> contrasting his fate to that of prisoners held in US military
> prisons, such as the infamous Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "I bear
> witness I was continuously treated as a human being, with dignity,
> and I had nobody deprive me of my clothes and take pictures of me
> naked. I had no dogs barking at me or biting me as my country has
> done to their Muslim prisoners in the jails that I have
> mentioned."5<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#note-5>
>
> Of course the Taliban provided the script, but what was the script
> based on? What inspired them to use such words and images, to make
> such references?
>
> Cuba. Again. Still. Forever.
>
> More than 50 years now it is. The propaganda and hypocrisy of the
> American mainstream media seems endless and unwavering. They can
> not accept the fact that Cuban leaders are humane or rational.
> Here's the Washington Post of December 13 writing about an American
> arrested in Cuba:
>
> "The Cuban government has arrested an American citizen working on
> contract for the U.S. Agency for International Development who was
> distributing cellphones and laptop computers to Cuban activists.
> ... Under Cuban law ... a Cuban citizen or a foreign visitor can
> be arrested for nearly anything under the claim of 'dangerousness'."
>
> That sounds just awful, doesn't it? Imagine being subject to arrest
> for whatever someone may choose to label "dangerousness". But the
> exact same thing has happened repeatedly in the United States since
> the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. We don't use the word "dangerousness".
> We speak of "national security". Or, more recently, "terrorism".
> Or "providing material support to terrorism".
>
> The arrested American works for Development Alternatives, Inc.
> (DAI), a US government contractor that provides services to the
> State Department, the Pentagon and the US Agency for International
> Development (USAID). In 2008, DAI was funded by the US Congress to
> "promote transition to democracy" in Cuba. Yes, Oh Happy Day!, we're
> bringing democracy to Cuba just as we're bringing it to Afghanistan
> and Iraq. In 2002, DAI was contracted by USAID to work in Venezuela
> and proceeded to fund the same groups that a few months earlier had
> worked to stage a coup b temporarily successful b against President
> Hugo ChC!vez. DAI performed other subversive work in Venezuela and
> has also been active in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and other hotspots.
> "Subversive" is what Washington would label an organization like
> DAI if they behaved in the same way in the United States in behalf
> of a foreign government.6<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#note-6>
>
> The American mainstream media never makes its readers aware of the
> following (so I do so repeatedly): The United States is to the Cuban
> government like al-Qaeda is to the government in Washington, only
> much more powerful and much closer. Since the Cuban revolution, the
> United States and anti-Castro Cuban exiles in the US have inflicted
> upon Cuba greater damage and greater loss of life than what happened
> in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. Cuban dissidents
> typically have had very close, indeed intimate, political and
> financial connections to American government agents. Would the US
> government ignore a group of Americans receiving funds or communication
> equipment from al-Qaeda and/or engaging in repeated meetings with
> known leaders of that organization? In the past few years, the
> American government has arrested a great many people in the US and
> abroad solely on the basis of alleged ties to al-Qaeda, with a lot
> less evidence to go by than Cuba has had with its dissidents' ties
> to the United States, evidence usually gathered by Cuban double
> agents. Virtually all of Cuba's "political prisoners" are such
> dissidents.
>
> The Washington Post story continued:
>
> "The Cuban government granted ordinary citizens the right to buy
> cellphones just last year." Period.
>
> What does one make of such a statement without further information?
> How could the Cuban government have been so insensitive to people's
> needs for so many years? Well, that must be just the way a
> "totalitarian" state behaves. But the fact is that because of the
> disintegration of the Soviet bloc, with a major loss to Cuba of its
> foreign trade, combined with the relentless US economic aggression,
> the Caribbean island was hit by a great energy shortage beginning
> in the 1990s, which caused repeated blackouts. Cuban authorities
> had no choice but to limit the sale of energy-hogging electrical
> devices such as cell phones; but once the country returned to energy
> sufficiency the restrictions were revoked.
>
> "Cubans who want to log on [to the Internet] often have to give
> their names to the government."
>
> What does that mean? Americans, thank God, can log onto the Internet
> without giving their names to the government. Their Internet Service
> Provider does it for them, furnishing their names to the government,
> along with their emails, when requested.
>
> "Access to some Web sites is restricted."
>
> Which ones? Why? More importantly, what information might a Cuban
> discover on the Internet that the government would not want him to
> know about? I can't imagine. Cubans are in constant touch with
> relatives in the US, by mail and in person. They get US television
> programs from Miami. International conferences on all manner of
> political, economic and social subjects are held regularly in Cuba.
> What does the American media think is the great secret being kept
> from the Cuban people by the nasty commie government?
>
> "Cuba has a nascent blogging community, led by the popular commentator
> Yoani SC!nchez, who often writes about how she and her husband are
> followed and harassed by government agents because of her Web posts.
> SC!nchez has repeatedly applied for permission to leave the country
> to accept journalism awards, so far unsuccessfully."
>
> According to a well-documented
> account7<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#note-7>, SC!nchez's
> tale of government abuse appears rather exaggerated. Moreover, she
> moved to Switzerland in 2002, lived there for two years, and then
> voluntarily returned to Cuba. On the other hand, in January 2006 I
> was invited to attend a book fair in Cuba, where one of my books,
> newly translated into Spanish, was being presented. However, the
> government of the United States would not give me permission to go.
> My application to travel to Cuba had also been rejected in 1998 by
> the Clinton administration.
>
> "'Counterrevolutionary activities', which include mild protests and
> critical writings, carry the risk of censure or arrest. Anti-government
> graffiti and speech are considered serious crimes."
>
> Raise your hand if you or someone you know of was ever arrested in
> the United States for taking part in a protest. And substitute "pro
> al-Qaeda" for "counterrevolutionary" and for "anti-government" and
> think of the thousands imprisoned the past eight years by the United
> States all over the world for ... for what? In most cases there's
> no clear answer. Or the answer is clear: (a) being in the wrong
> place at the wrong time, or (b) being turned in to collect a bounty
> offered by the United States, or (c) thought crimes. And whatever
> the reason for the imprisonment, they were likely tortured. Even
> the most fanatical anti-Castroites don't accuse Cuba of that. In
> the period of the Cuban revolution, since 1959, Cuba has had one
> of the very best records on human rights in the hemisphere. See my
> essay: "The United States, Cuba and this thing called
> Democracy".8<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#note-8>
>
> There's no case of anyone arrested in Cuba that compares in injustice
> and cruelty to the arrest in 1998 by the United States government
> of those who came to be known as the "Cuban Five", sentenced in
> Florida to exceedingly long prison terms for trying to stem terrorist
> acts against Cuba emanating from the
> US.9<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#note-9> It would be
> lovely if the Cuban government could trade their DAI prisoner for
> the five. Cuba, on several occasions, has proposed to Washington
> the exchange of a number of what the US regards as "political
> prisoners" in Cuba for the five Cubans held in the United States.
> So far the United States has not agreed to do so.
>
> Notes
>
> 1.  Michael Beschloss, Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes
> 1963-1964 (New York, 1997), p.306. All other sources for this section
> on Gordon can be found in: Washington Post, December 22, 2009,
> obituary; The Guardian (London), August 31, 2007; William Blum,
> "Killing Hope", chapter 27
> b)<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#link-1> 2.  ABC News,
> December 17, 2009; Washington Post, December 19, 2009
> b)<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#link-2> 3.  Washington
> Post, December 25, 2009 b)<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#link-3>
> 4.  Stop NATO, "2010: U.S. To Wage War Throughout The
> World<http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/2010-u-s-to-wage-war-throu...>",
> December 30, 2009. To get on the StopNATO mailing list write to
> r_roz...@yahoo.com<mailto:r_roz...@yahoo.com>. To see back issues:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/b)<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#link-4>
> 5.  Reuters, December 25, 2009
> b)<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#link-5> 6.  For more
> details on DAI, see Eva Golinger, "The ChC!vez Code: Cracking US
> Intervention in Venezuela" (2006) and her
> website<http://www.chavezcode.com/>, posting for December 31, 2009
> b)<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#link-6> 7.  Salim
> Lamrani, professor at Paris Descartes University, "The Contradictions
> of Cuban Blogger Yoani
> Sanchez<http://monthlyreview.org/mrzine/lamrani111209.html>", Monthly
> Review magazine, November 12, 2009
> b)<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#link-7> 8.http://killinghope.org/bblum6/democ.htm
> b)<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#link-8> 9.http://killinghope.org/bblum6/polpris.htm
> b)<http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer77.html#link-9>
>
> b
>
> William Blum is the author of:
>
> *   Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War
> 2 *   Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower *   West-Bloc
> Dissident: A Cold War Memoir *   Freeing the World to Death: Essays
> on the American Empire
>
> Portions of the books can be read, and signed copies purchased, atwww.killinghope.org<http://www.killinghope.org/>
>
> Previous Anti-Empire Reports can be read at this website.
>
> To add yourself to this mailing list simply send an email to bblum6
> [at] aol.com<mailto:bbl...@aol.com?Subject=Add> with "add" in the
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> optional. I ask for your city only in case I'll be speaking in your
> area.
>
> (Or put "remove" in the subject line to do the opposite.)
>
> Any part of this report may be disseminated without permission. I'd
> appreciate it if the website were mentioned.
>
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