On October 24, Codepink peace activist Desiree Fairooz held up her red paint stained hands to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and shouted “The blood of millions of Iraqis is on your hands!” As Capitol Hill police took her out of the hearing of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Foreign Affairs, Fairooz yelled over her shoulder “War criminal! Take her to the Hague!”
Unmoved by the close encounter with a peace activist, Rice seemed to take the red hands “in stride.” After Fairooz was taken out of the hearing room and arrested, Rice sat down and calmly began her testimony concerning US policies on Iraq, Iran and Israel-Palestine.
Fairooz, a former teacher and children’s librarian from Texas, does not take the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children “in stride.” She is passionate in the halls of Congress and in Congressional hearings on her concern for Iraqi women and children. When a recent Heritage Foundation panel on the war in Iraq did not acknowledge the plight of Iraqi women and children in their comments, Desiree climbed onto the stage and strongly reminded the panelists of the cost of war on women and children before she was roughly pushed off the stage and out of the auditorium.
Who should the Capitol police have arrested? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is among those in the Bush administration responsible for the deaths of 1.2 million Iraqis and the displacement of 4 million more Iraqis during this war, or peace activist Desiree Fairooz?
Who really has “blood on their hands”? Rice or Fairooz?
Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December, 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The US Department of State has delayed for over three months publication of her new book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” It will be published whenever the State Department finishes its search for classified materials.
Indeed. But then, the agents of darkness are always protected by the sanction of just “doing the nation’s business”. I hope in their silent moments, these monsters in the bush administration think about what they are doing, and have some shread of remorse.
But I doubt it.
I WOULD ADD THAT ANY AMERICAN THAT IS EITHER APATHETIC OR FOR THIS WAR; AND NOT PROTESTING, AND TRYING TO DO THEIR PART TO STOP THIS MIASMA OF WAR, ALSO HAVE BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS!
The cops that arrested Fairooz certainly have blood on their hands.
Shanti has it right!!!!!!
Whenever one speaks of the wrongs, the eyes of the average U.S. citizen glaze over in a state of cognitive dissonance.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a neocon, I mean, scoundrel.
Seen oil prices lately? They are already through the roof. Markets tend to react in advance to events they can see coming. Any fool can see the same pattern happening with Iran as with Iraq, and Bush has pretty much openly said that he’d deal with Iran before leaving office. Thus, oil prices are up in the $90’s. We are already seeing the spike in oil prices that would come with an Iran war.
Remember, about 70% of Americans want this war ended, and sooner rather than later. Its not those Americans who are at fault. The problem is a political system that no longer reflects the will of the people. That’s what we got to change, but that’s a bigger problem than just ending the war.
That’s why just voting Dem won’t change things because the Dems are fully committed to this broken political system and won’t change it. We need a bigger solution, candidates and a party\movement that sees the system is broken and that it must be fixed.
jjpeter,
Re “I hope in their silent moments, these monsters in the bush administration think about what they are doing, and have some shread of remorse… But I doubt it.”
Indeed! In fact, lack of remorse is the essential hallmark of a monster.
I suspect what they actually feel is ecstasy and power! How much more power can one have than ordering the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the remanding of millions to the misery of the refugee just because you wanted to! The ability to wield the power of life and death with impunity! That must be a truly awesome rush.
I don’t think you can count on any pangs of conscience to guide the actions of these people. Quite the contrary, be vigilant of efforts to expand this power to destroy lives to include the American people. Holding this kind of power would be the ultimate, orgasmic rush — the absolute wet dream of psychopaths and tyrants.
People like Desiree Fairooz give us more hope for this world. But also do people like Ann Wright who fairly report what really happened. The military and diplomatic trajectory of Ms Wright has given her a first-hand view of just how the imperial system operates, and of how much the official press (or MSM) deliberately hides the relevant information. It is so important that there are people like her (with Scott Ritter, Daniel Ellsworth, and others) who have that combination of analytic rationality and ethical rectitude such that when the on-the-ground facts and the ideological “explanations” are no longer reconcilable, they make a clean break with the official line. Ann Wright, just like Desiree Fairooz, is proof that human beings can still stand up to the pressure of a system that demands total cognitive dissonance from those within it.
COMark,
Re “Markets tend to react in advance to events they can see coming… Thus, oil prices are up in the $90’s. We are already seeing the spike in oil prices that would come with an Iran war.”
Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t think it’s out of the question that the US would be boycotted if it attacked Iran. The proce of crude may not be effected — in fact, it may go down without the US buying any on the international market. But the price of gas here would instantly double or even triple. We could see gas at $10 per gallon. I won’t even mention the effects of an international boycott on US Treasury notes.
Pay down your mortgage. If Bush attacks Iran, we could be in for a hard landing.
The Petition against the war in Iran does not accept postal codes. When you try to put in your postal code it asks for a zip code. Hope they fix the program so that it allows postal codes soon.
“Markets tend to react in advance to events they can see coming… Thus, oil prices are up in the $90’s. We are already seeing the spike in oil prices that would come with an Iran war.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
Uh, definitely *not*. Please realize that.
Once the Rulers attack Iran, kiss your Empire goodbye. Do you realize Iran has supersonic torpedoes ? Thousands of ballistic missiles ? And they will be *absolutely* pissed off after the U.S. kills tens of thousands of Iranians in their own country ?
The Strait of Hormuz, a hell hole. Saudi Arabian oil port in smoking ruins. You will be lucky if oil is below $200/barrel for a year or more… the American auto industry will die… the so called ‘international community’ will make a break with the rogue state of the United States of Amnesia… when the dust settles, it will be the EU and China running the new world order, and the immigrants propping up the dying American economy will jump ship like rats on a sinking ship in port…
“We are already seeing the spike in oil prices that would come with an Iran war.”
That really makes me laugh, thank you
Thank the Goddess for people like Ann and Anita! Is it too much to ask that we write, phone and e-mail our senators and congress-people and demand that they cut off funding for this evil war?
JohnE October 29th, 2007 1:45 pm
Ditto…Well said…
Only to add; only a pathological psychopath [condi rice] could quietly sit down and calmly begin testimony as if nothing had happened…
As Condi would say, paraphrasing, Who would have ever imagnined people would fly planes into buildings and the Pentagon?
She know will say, again paraphrasing, Who would have ever thought we could kill 1.2 million Iraqi civilians, and displace another 4 million or so?
Long ago, Patriots stood at the Concord Bridge. Now, I feel the true Patriots stand against the sociopaths we the people have somehow allowed to take over our country. So far, I am too comfortable and too lazy to join them. If I ever pick up arms again it will NOT be in support of another invasion of a soverign country, it will be to get ours back.
Veteran ‘66-68
Desiree Fairooz, good for her. but in all fairness, ann wright needs to admit to the blood on her hands. wright has quite the resume. hoping that is she really coming clean.
Helix is right: Power can only prove itself to the wielder of power by making others do things they don’t want to do. In its extremity, the sociopathic power-mad must get people killed in order to prove they have power. It’s sick and diametrically opposed to the principles on which this country was founded. OTOH, as someone once said, the model for the perfect modern CEO is a person without moral conscience of any kind. We can’t say we weren’t warned: Bush promised to run the country like a CEO — an Enron CEO.
Thanks to Ms. Fairooz and Col. Wright for patriotically doing their best to set our country aright again. I think you have many more supporters out in Flyover Country than the Big Media acknowledges.
USA has mad cowboy disease.
Ike warned us about two things.
Beware the Military Industrial Complex (the MIC)
Beware of Texas oil men running the country
He was the last honest Republican. Where are the Ike’s now, the military leaders entrustable with our nations ship of state?
Bushcon killed them.
It all started in ‘63
This is the reality of where we are folks:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MmhL8bjL9vc
If Nader would run for President as an Independent with perhaps Ann Wright, and if he would name his entire cabinet in advance and call for all elections to be with paper and ink for verifiable recounting, there would be your revolution. Get out there, tell the freakin’ truth about the whole damn mess (9/11 included), and I believe in my heart that the American People from every spectrum and party affiliation would work their asses off to make it happen. Door to door.
People have to stop hating Nader for being a true Patriotic American and telling the truth. And stop talking to me about Dennis Kucinich. Because he WILL lose (even Stephen Colbert is polling ahead of him!), and he will support Queen Hillary and her killing machine at the big Democratic crowning ceremony. Giuliani or Clinton. Makes no difference to corporate America. Their assets will be covered either way and war, corruption, murder, mayhem and hopelessness will rule the day in America.
Corporate America are being represented by the Republican and Democratic Parties and those parties must be IGNORED and a NEW ANTI-CORPORATE PRO- CONSTITUTION PARTY MUST BE ADOPTED. Or we can kiss this planet goodbye.
jjpeter,
“Bushcon killed them… It all started in ‘63″
Yup. Which explains why Gore didn’t kick up more of a fuss when the Florida vote was rigged in 2000 and Kerry didn’t seem eager to pursue election irregularities in Ohio in 2004.
Better yellow than dead.
Rice is too arrogant and cold to let anything bother her, especially if she’s surrounded by a phalanx of body guards. She’s not “calm and dignified” on her own, so the MSM doesn’t need to give her credit where none is due.
The truly courageous person is Desiree, the lady that stood up to Rice. Thank you, Desiree.
ThadStone
You forgot Iran switching oil to be sold in Euros from Dollars, which is coincidentally what Saddam was planning just before they started talking about invading Iraq.
“several observers, myself included, hypothesised that Saddam Hussein’s decision to sell Iraqi oil in euros was perhaps one of the reasons the US wanted ‘regime change’.”
http://www.energybulletin.net/12463.html
“If OPEC oil could be sold in other currencies, e.g. the euro, then U.S. economic dominance-dollar imperialism or hegemony-would be seriously challenged. More and more oil importing countries would acquire the euro as their “reserve,” its value would increase, and a larger amount of trade would be transacted and denominated in euros. In such circumstances, the value of the dollar would most likely go down, some speculate between 20-40 percent.”
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Iraq/Iraq_dollar_vs_euro.html
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/RRiraqWar.html
AND BEST OF ALL!!!!!!
” Iran is planning to stop using the U.S. dollar to price oil, with less than half of its oil income now paid in the U.S. currency, Iran’s central bank governor said.
“That’s the plan for the future, we are working on that,” Governor Ebrahim Sheibany said in an interview with Zawya Dow Jones News Service late Tuesday when asked if Iran was planning to stop pricing oil in dollars. He was speaking on the sidelines of an Islamic finance forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s largest city.”
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/03/28/business/AS-FIN-Malaysia-Iran-Oil-Dollars.php
pretty spooky eh?
Desiree, I thanked you in person yesterday. You have shown us what ,we as Women United for Peace and Justice, are capable of doing. Although, many people make light of our pink, we are strong and care to stop this illegal invasion and murders of so many, and to prevent this next war with Iran by Action Now.
See you in D.C.,Peace4Ever, Luv ‘Ya, Rhoda
The Massacre Continues
The Blood Is On Our Hands,
There Are No Innocent Bystanders
Margaret Bryant-Gainer
www.wvpeace.org
Like Lady Macbeth that ‘damn spot’ will never wash from Chevronleezza’s hands.
I suppose Convoluted Rice is just her doing job and following orders, as did Adolf Eichmann.
Condi and friends no doubt think like the bandidos in that ‘Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ movie: “Consciense? What consciense? We don’t have no consciense….HEY! WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ CONSCIENSE!”
Thank you, Ms. Ali-Fairooz. Thank you Col. Wright. Thank you, Code Pink. Thank you, all who oppose the current tyranny with more than weak words cheaply produced.
Helix, that orgasmic rush you mentioned must be really hot for Shrub, Dickless and the asexual Condi-baby none of whom I suspect have ever had the real thing. I wouldn’t want to get it on with that Rice bitch using someone elses’, you know.
Rice has blood on her hands, so does Bush, the Neocons, the Dems, the MSM, the police, the soldiers, and the Americans who are not outraged. I am getting pessimistic about our country. It has become a nightmare. Ann Wright and Desiree Fairooz are real heroes.
“The US Department of State has delayed for over three months publication of her new book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.” It will be published whenever the State Department finishes its search for classified materials.”
Or maybe they’ll pick out the parts they don’t like and reclassify them like they’ve done with many of our other documents.
“All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”. Macbeth
i’m sorry, but it appears that i am the only one appalled by these tactics. shoving a metaphorical atrocity under the nose of the person who committed it gives you nothing but negative press, and it tarnishes the anti-war movement as a whole. my politics and ideology may be the same as Fairooz, but there are better ways to engage the injustice in our government.
stunts like these are certainly not the answer. perhaps in a protest rally, but not in a congressional hearing. it’s simply uncalled for.
I disagree with Paperwings above. I think Desiree Fairooz’s protest was imaginative, powerful, AND it reached the mass murderer known as Anaconda Rice.
It also raised our profile and got pictured in the press.
It shows that there are *brave* Americans who ARE willing to stand up and be counted, -(whilst the bulk of the ill-informed populace is sat complacently at home watching drivel and bilge on their TVs…)
Did ‘Dr Death’ Rice *appear* calm soon afterwards?
Yes, she did, but *underneath* she would have been FUMING with incandescent rage!
Doubtless she would have later sent out some sort of ‘internal memo’ to some government dept or other, to the effect of: “Make sure none of these commie b*st*rds gets within two miles of me, EVER again, or someone’s gonna be out of a job!”
~etc.
To have the state murderers fulminating against us is great! -we have *reached* them in that moment, we have been *heard* ~ and we’ve ruffled their feathers.
These psychopathic government hawks *need* their feathers ruffled — BIG TIME!
Sincere thanks to the valiant women of CodePink, you’re an inspiration!
Oh, …and, as a CRUCIAL part of our progressive movement, we need to ensure that if and when bravehearts like Desiree Fairooz get busted, we then hold benefit gigs and raise funds for their legal expenses, as that gives the necessary back-up support to our cause, and helps raise morale and unity…
I’m sorry to say that every enfranchised American citizen has blood on their hands. [The same applies to UK citizens.] This is the much-ignored downside to democracy: we elected these people to govern on our behalf. They act with our authority, and we all bear the responsibility.
Pattern-chaser
“Who cares, wins”
Rice is not the only one with blood on her hands.
“He was the last honest Republican. Where are the Ike’s now, the military leaders entrustable with our nations ship of state?”
And Ike wasn’t even a Republican until just before he ran for president in 1952. He was a New Deal Democrat. Speaking of FDR:
“Giuliani or Clinton. Makes no difference to corporate America. Their assets will be covered either way and war, corruption, murder, mayhem and hopelessness will rule the day in America.”
Abbybwood, while I’m not a big fan of Clinton, it might be remembered that when FDR ran for president in 1932, many of the wealthy elite supported him — he was one of their own and it was thought he’d take care of them. Instead, once in office, he stuck it to them and engaged in what were then considered radical progressive projects such as the WPA, CCC and Social Security. He was so hated as a ‘traitor to his class’ that the right-wingers tried to stage a coup to overthrow him. I’m not saying that Hillary is FRD, but she might turn out much better than anyone gives her credit, and would definitely be a huge improvement over Bush and Rudy Giuliani.
Umlaut, that’s absolutely true, and I’ve read that that was the real reason for overthrowing Saddam — he was going to sell Iraq’s oil for euros. The dollar is dropping rapidly and is only used as an international instrument of exchange in the oil market. Take that away and our economy is cooked. (Our economy is cooked anyway, as soon as Japan and China stop lending us money.)
“i’m sorry, but it appears that i am the only one appalled by these tactics. shoving a metaphorical atrocity under the nose of the person who committed it gives you nothing but negative press, and it tarnishes the anti-war movement as a whole. my politics and ideology may be the same as Fairooz, but there are better ways to engage the injustice in our government.”
Paperwings, Col. Wright and her group couldn’t get positive press, no matter what they did. They would be roundly ignored. And what could tarnish the antiwar movement more than it is already tarnished daily in the MSM? “Left wing kooks” is still the order of the day, regardless of the fact that us ‘kooks’ have been right all along on Iraq and the police-state mentality of the Bush gang. The Dems have tried to play nice with these GOP neocon fanatics for years to no benefit; the only reason the Dems are winning now is because BushCo hve screwed things up so much. (We’ve been lucky that Der Leader and his men are incompetent to run a govenrment.) And if you have “better ways to engage the injustice of our government” why didn’t you list them?
The electric chair is the only thing that will warm up cold-blooded Condi.
Rice needs to be prosecuted for War Crimes/Crimes Against Humanity. Her rear-end needs to be dragged to the Hague, along with everyone else in the White House. Nothing but War Criminals who haven’t faced trial yet! Criminals all!
We need more of this type of activism.
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY COMMON DREAMS REMOVED THE WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 24 ARTICLE ABOUT THIS INCIDENT? I’m wondering if the fascist government told them to remove it since the comments were not flattering to Dr. Death Rice.
Dear Lillulu,
I find it kinda hard to believe that the C-D team would have removed it for that reason, a lot worse (read: ‘better’!) has been said hereabouts.
Maybe email them to ask?
The goodly C-D folk seldom seem to comment ‘in person’ on these boards, -it seems to be their policy, and probably has some good logic behind it?
(I bet, -if they were able, they would REALLY like to add their own stuff on many occasions!)
Btw: I espy you apparently liked my *Dr. Death Rice* soubriquet!
UN-common-dreams, yes, the name you gave her fits her like a glove.
I e-mailed them, but haven’t heard anything yet.
United States of America and Israel. It has taken you a surprisingly long time to discover that your country is the most fascist country in the world. God help America.
…just doing my job and …the Shell Game
Thomas Merton wrote about Adolph Eichman and his horror Eichman was convinced he was …just doing his job.
Even more disturbing was he passed every psychological test as a …sane, ordinary human.
When we return to our jobs tomorrow, “WE” as Chomsky says, …the serviceable intellectuals, should also understand the sell out “WE” have made because of our ability to win at the …shell game!
Define intelligence as you want, the impossibility of the lowest quartile to beat the top quartile in any manner, and the fear of the middle semitile to challenge them, being reduced to their bidding surviving on the mantra and rationalization of …I was just doing my job, speaks volumes about how decent Germans became “Pseudo-Nazis”, and most Americans “Pseudo-Bushycons”.
To that upper quartile I quote from the dead American Liberal illusion …to whom much is given, much is expected!
Since you cannot remember, America was build by the “Working Class-Intellectual Class”. I met Walter Ruther; my Dad was at the “Bridge”, “I am “Owen “Garp” Meany”.
You of the top quartile are the ones who must decide when “YOU” will expose the …Shell Game to your brothers and sisters of the …I really have no idea what is happening majority.
If “YOU” do not, our Democracy will be lost. But I fear it will take “WE” losing our “jobs” and “Manifest Destinies for being born right”, to be forced to join the Working Class.
As Pogo the Possum said in his unsuccessful run at the Presidency in the Fifties “I have met the enemy, and he is US” {Ed: capitol added}
I just hope the Working Class will forgive us someday.
LGS, you are quite right — the dishonorable ‘intellectuals’ who know better should refuse to work to further the aims of global corporatism and the horrible plutocratic, right-wing governments it favors. But many of them are self-absorbed yuppies who, as you also pointed out, use the same excuse the Nazis did — “I was only doing my job!” — or this even worse rationalization of harmful, unethical capitalist excess — “If I didn’t do it, somebody else would. I might as well make the money.”
As you mentioned as well, the only thing that will change the minds of these Gordon Gecko wannabes is their being reduced to the same level as the working class. This is in progress — just look at the decimation of high-paying jobs in Silicon Valley, jobs that have been transferred to Asia, for one example, and the collapse of the housing market for another — and, after some economic pain, I think we’ll emerge a better country. But we’ll have to go through the suffering first, just as we did after stock market crash of 1929.
As long as we are quoting old plays how about the final line from Kidds ‘The Spanish Tradgedy’
‘This hand shall hale them down to deepest hell, where none but terrors, bugs, and furies dwell’.
From your keyboard to God’s ear, Galen.