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Iraq: The Crime of the Century
"Everyone knows," he said, "except parliament and the public."
President George W. Bush gestures as he answers a reporter’s question during a joint press availability with Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom Friday, July 28, 2006, in the East Room of the White House. (Photo by Paul Morse - CC license) "And the media?"
"The media - the big names - have been invited to King Charles Street [the Foreign Office] and flattered and briefed with lies. They are no trouble."
As Iraq desk officer at the Foreign Office, he had drafted letters for ministers reassuring MPs and the public that the government was not arming Saddam Hussein. "This was a downright lie," he said. "I couldn't bear it."
Giving evidence before the arms-to-Iraq inquiry, Higson was the only British official commended by Lord Justice Scott for telling the truth. The price he paid was the loss of his health and marriage, and constant surveillance by spooks. He ended up living on benefits in a Birmingham bedsit where he suffered a seizure, struck his head and died alone. Whistleblowers are often heroes; he was one.
"Questionable legitimacy"
He came to mind when I saw a picture in the paper of another Foreign Office official, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who was Tony Blair's ambassador to the United Nations in the build-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It was Sir Jeremy, more than anyone else, who tried every trick to find a UN cover for the bloodbath to come. Indeed, this was his boast on 27 November to the Chilcot inquiry, where he described the invasion as "legal but of questionable legitimacy". How clever. In the picture he wore a smirk.
Under international law, "questionable legitimacy" does not exist. An attack on a sovereign state is a crime. This was made clear by Britain's chief law officer and attorney general, Peter Goldsmith, before his arm was twisted, and by the Foreign Office's own legal advisers, and subsequently by the UN secretary general. The invasion of Iraq is the crime of the 21st century. During 17 years of assault on a defenceless civilian population, veiled with weasel monikers such as "sanctions" and "no-fly zones" and "building democracy", more people have died in Iraq than at the height of the slave trade. Set that against Sir Jeremy's skin-saving revisionism about American "noises" that were "decidedly unhelpful to what I was trying to do [at the UN] in New York". Moreover, "I myself warned the Foreign Office . . . that I might have to consider my own position . . ."
It wasn't me, guv.
The purpose of the Chilcot inquiry is to normalise an epic crime by providing enough of a theatre of guilt to satisfy the media, so that the only issue which matters, that of prosecution, is never raised. When he appears in January, Blair will play this part to odious perfection, dutifully absorbing the hisses and boos. All "inquiries" into state crimes are neutered in this way. In 1996, Lord Justice Scott's arms-to-Iraq report obfuscated the crimes his investigations and voluminous evidence had revealed.
At that time, I interviewed Tim Laxton, who had attended the inquiry every day as an auditor of companies taken over by MI6 and other secret agencies as vehicles for the illegal arms trade with Saddam. Had there been a full and open criminal investigation, Laxton told me, "hundreds" would have faced prosecution. "They would include," he said, "top political figures, very senior civil servants throughout Whitehall . . . the top echelon of government."
That is why Chilcot is advised by the likes of Sir Martin Gilbert, who once compared Blair with Churchill and Roosevelt. That is why the inquiry will not demand the release of documents that would illuminate the role of the entire Blair gang, notably the 2003 cabinet, long silent. Who remembers the threat of the thuggish Geoff Hoon, Blair's "defence secretary", to use nuclear weapons against Iraq?
"Useful idiots"
In February, Jack Straw, one of Blair's principal accomplices, the current "justice secretary" and the man who let the mass murderer General Pinochet escape justice, overruled the Information Commissioner, who had ordered the government to publish cabinet minutes from the period when Lord Goldsmith was pressured into changing his judgment that the invasion was illegal. How they all fear exposure.
The media have granted themselves immunity. On 27 November, Scott Ritter, the former UN chief weapons inspector, wrote that the invasion "was made far easier given the role of useful idiot played by much of the mainstream media in the US and Britain". More than four years before the invasion, Ritter, in interviews with myself and others, left not a shred of doubt that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been disabled, yet he was made a non-person. In 2002, when the Bush/Blair lies were in full echo across the media, the Guardian and Observer mentioned Iraq in more than 3,000 articles, of which only 49 referred to Ritter and his truth.
What has changed? On 30 November, the Independent published a pristine piece of propaganda from its embedded man in Afghanistan. "Troops fear defeat at home", said the headline. Britain, said the report, "is at serious risk of losing its way in Afghanistan because rising defeatism at home is demoralising the troops on the front line, military commanders have warned". In fact, public disgust with the disaster in Afghanistan is mirrored among many serving troops and their families; and this frightens the warmongers. So "defeatism" and "demoralising the troops" are added to the weasel lexicon. Good try. Unfortunately, like Iraq, Afghanistan is a crime. Period.
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Show All"Invasion of Sovereign Iraq: The Crime of the Century"
Great intro, Commondreams.org! You hit the nail on the head.
That's the title of the article and it's by John Pilger, NOT CD. The title's the saem at Newstatesman.com.
And while it's not a long article, it's an excellent statement. I was wondering if he'd get around to saying that the war on Afghanistan is also criminal and he didn't let me or us down.
John Pilger wins 2009 Sydney Peace Prize
The world renowned journalist, author and film-maker John Pilger has been awarded the 2009 Sydney Peace Prize. The jury's citation reads: “For work as an author, film-maker and journalist as well as for courage as a foreign and war correspondent in enabling the voices of the powerless to be heard. For commitment to peace with justice by exposing and holding governments to account for human rights abuses and for fearless challenges to censorship in any form.’
Sydney Peace Foundation Director Professor Stuart Rees comments, “The jury was impressed by John’s courage as well as by his skills and creativity. His commitment to uncovering human rights abuses shines through his numerous books, films and articles. His work inspires all those who value peace with justice.”
In a speech on November 5, 2009, at the Sydney Opera House to mark his award of Australia's human rights prize, the Sydney Peace Prize, John Pilger describes the "unique features" of a political silence in Australia: how it affects the national life of his homeland and the way Australians see the world and are manipulated by great power "which speaks through an invisible government of propaganda that subdues and limits our political imagination and ensures we are always at war - against our own first people and those seeking refuge, or in someone else's country".
Pilger said the following in his speech:
"...Journalists and politicians like to say the world changed as a result of the September 11th attacks. In fact, for those countries under attack by the arsenal of freedom, nothing has changed. What has changed is not news....According to the great whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, a military coup has taken place in the United States, with the Pentagon now ascendant in every aspect of foreign policy....It doesn’t matter who is president – George Bush or Barack Obama. Indeed, Obama has stepped up Bush’s wars and started his own war in Pakistan. Like Bush, he is threatening Iran, a country Hillary Clinton said she was prepared to “annihilate”. Iran’s crime is its independence. Having thrown out America’s favourite dictator, the Shah, Iran is the only resource-rich Muslim country beyond American control. It doesn’t occupy anyone else’s land and hasn’t attacked any country - unlike Israel, which is nuclear-armed and dominates and divides the Middle East on America’s behalf....In Australia, we are not told this. It’s taboo. Instead, we dutifully celebrate the illusion of Obama, the global celebrity, the marketing dream. Like Calvin Klein, brand Obama offers the riske thrill of a new image attractive to liberal sensibilities, if not to the Afghan children he bombs....This is modern propaganda in action, using a kind of reverse racism – the same way it deploys gender and class as seductive tools. In Barack Obama’s case, what matters is not his race or his fine words, but the class and power he serves....SBS has banned its journalists from using the phrase “Palestinian land” to describe illegally occupied Palestine. They must describe these territories as “the subject of negotiation”. That is the equivalent of somebody taking over your home at the point of a gun and the SBS newsreader describing it as “the subject of negotiation”....In no other democratic country is public discussion of the brutal occupation of Palestine as limited as in Australia. Are we aware of the sheer scale of the crime against humanity in Gaza? Twenty-nine members of one family - babies, grannies - are gunned down, blown up, buried alive, their home bulldozed. Read the United Nations report, written by an eminent Jewish judge, Richard Goldstone....Those who speak for the arsenal of freedom are working hard to bury the UN report. For only one nation, Israel, has a “right to exist” in the Middle East. Only one nation has a right to attack others. Only one nation has the impunity to run a racist apartheid regime with the approval of the western world, and with the prime minister and the deputy prime minister of Australia fawning over its leaders....In Australia, any diversion from this unspoken rule, this impunity, attracts a campaign of craven personal abuse and intimidation usually associated with dictatorships. But we are not a dictatorship. We are a democracy....Are we?...Or are we a murdochracy....Rupert Murdoch set the media war agenda shortly before the invasion of Iraq when he said, “There’s going to be collateral damage. And if you really want to be brutal about it, better get it done now.”...I once walked along Mutanabi Street in Baghdad. The atmosphere was wonderful. People sat in cafes, reading. Musicians played. Poets recited. Painters painted. This was the cultural heart of Mesopotania, the great civilisation to which we in the West owe a great deal, including the written word. The people I spoke to were both Sunni and Shia, but they called themselves Iraqis....They were cultured and proud....Today, they are fled or dead. Mutanabi Street has been blown to bits. In Baghdad, the great museums and libraries are looted. The universities are sacked. And people who once took coffee with each other, and married each other, have been turned into enemies. “Building democracy”, said Howard and Bush and Blair...."
Get the picture folks---John Pilger not Barack Obama knows the real deal! Pilger unlike Obama is a real man of peace.
Excellent post! Couldn't have said it better myself. Pilger was one of the various names I raised to my friends as FAR more befitting the Nobel Peace Prize than Mr. Obamber.
They had never heard of him. Go figure.
Great post. Thanks.
thanks wizard very good report.
"murdochracy" ... Australia is a Murdochracy. Good label. I wil remember that one.
Thank you so much for this posting. This is the first I have read about John receiving the Peace award in Australia and am amazed that it wasn't headline news in the US MSM or even on the internet.
There's a video at John Pilger's website for his full speech or lecture when receiving the Sydney Peace Prize Nov. 5th, with an intro. by Prof. Emeritus Stuart Rees, the director of the Sydney Peace Foundation.
"Breaking the great Australian silence", Nov. 5, 2009
http://www.johnpilger.com/page.asp?partid=555
The video isn't working for me, but there's a full transcript following the video and there's an apparently official copy of the transcript in wider text format at the following ICH page.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23912.htm
The video's not playing with my installation of Firefox 3.5.5 on Win 2000, but I'll give it a try with one of the other browsers that are installed. Maybe one of them will work, or maybe the problem is with abc.net.au, since the video's from that Website, according to the html source for the above johnpilger.com page, anyway.
I tried to find a copy of the video using a Google search, but found no copies, which seems surprising.
With some additional searching I found what appears to be a copy of the video at the abc.net.au website, for ABC's Fora TV program. Since this matches up with the .flv file link or url seen when viewing the html source for the page at John Pilger's website for the full speech, including video, and linked in my above post, this following link likely enough also is for the full speech.
There's a button for playing the clip, which is roughly 49 minutes, including the aforementioned intro., and there are two download links, one for MP3 audio and another that's for a 164 MB MP4 video.
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/fora/stories/2009/11/20/2749050.htm
The problem I have with this article is calling it "The Crime of the Century" when we are barely through the first decade. I fear Iraq merely presages what is becoming the new normal for the 21st Century.
The War on Terror has spawned the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strike whereby any country that poses, or may in the future pose, a threat to the US may be unilaterally attacked. This has been reflected domestically whereby anyone who thinks about the plight of the downtrodden, such as those living in the Gaza Strip, may be pre-emptively charged with providing material support and/or conspiring to provide material support to the enemy.
When all of your communications are documented, the thought police can easily charge anyone who becomes a problem.
You left out a critical word, Prof. .... a threat to the US corporations may be ....
[The problem I have with this article is calling it "The Crime of the Century" when we are barely through the first decade. I fear Iraq merely presages what is becoming the new normal for the 21st Century.]
Which was the normal for the 20th, the 19th, the 18th, the 17th...
Viewed from this perspective I can see why some wish to deny that evolution happens, the idea that we evolve has that implication that we evolve into something better. The reality, of course, is that we just evolve into something that's pretty much the same thing, just put together a bit differently. (if one talks about how society evolves, that is.)
"I fear Iraq merely presages what is becoming the new normal for the 21st Century"
No, no. As soon as the Repuks get the power back, they're going to pilot the aircraft into the lake, finally. Everyone on the planet knows the USA can't survive another Repuk squat on the throne.
TheProf,
I understand what you're saying, while also believing that you're taking John Pilger a little too literally, for he may actually believe as you do. For now, however, he's right, enough anyway. And there's also the war on Afghanistan, now also Pakistan, which is all supreme international criminality, and which, like with Iraq, was very much based on lies from the start, lies that've been maintained by the Bush and now Obama administrations, along with others in high offices of the U.S. government. While I believe that, however, I think there's the perception difference that strongly constrasts between the two wars and the launching of them. When we go through a sufficiently thorough analysis of the bases for launching the two wars and how the two have been conducted, along with the continuous lies used or maintained to continue these wars, all of which means definitely needing to get information mostly NOT from the msm corporate news media, perhaps esp. U.S. media, then I don't know that it's really just to say that the Iraq War is a greater crime than the Afghanistan War. Maybe it is and I'm just lacking facts that would make it clear why the Iraq War, as of March 2003 or fall 2002, instead of including 1991-2003, is the worst of the two wars; but until I get these facts I simply see the two wars as SUPREME international crimes against humanity and directly against the people of these two countries. They're also direct crimes against the populations of the USA and all participating ally countries; just that it's nowhere near the brutality, cruelty, ... committed against Iraqis and Afghans.
Anyway, we hopefully won't experience what you and some other people, including Rick Rizoff, who has the Stop Nato website at rickrizoff.wordpress.com, and one of whose recent articles (I believe of Dec. 5th or 7th at www.globalresearch.ca and at his own website) on ... not only the Obama administration escalating (with US troops, but also more private sector mercenaries) in Afghanistan, but NATO forces also escalating, concludes with words like the ones you posted, above. If recalling correctly, he ends by saying or predicting that if we don't stop these present wars, then they may be only examples of what will happen in the future, during this century (not the next one), and that maybe the future wars, if they happen, may also be worse or much worse than the two present theatre wars of the GWoT are.
I don't think he specified what the potential target countries could be, but F. William Engdahl very recently did an interview with TheRealNews.com about the war in Afghanistan and explains that the long term U.S. strategy or goal may be or arguably is to really target China and/or Russia. He explains with regards to China by pointing out that the present US or US and NATO warring in Pakistan and the major US embassy, what some people alternatively refer to as a military base, in Paksitan as long-term strategy against China, which, so far, has had friendly relations with the Pakistani government. As he says, China's the economic power of Asia or certainly Central and Eastern Asia, while Russia is the military power of that region; and we know that U.S. ruling "elites" are not of a breed, say, to think of and treat this kind of situation in friendly terms.
It'd be certainly better to view the video interview, and he also speaks a little about Iraq, saying, if I recall correctly anyway, that the U.S. is not really pulling out, but that we're being told (deceptively) that the U.S. is going to do so. I've said it long enough that I do NOT believe that the US is really planning on withdrawing from Iraq; and while the Obama administration can shift out troops from there to place them in Afghanistan, this doesn't mean that more private sector mercenaries aren't sent to Iraq, while also more are definitely being sent to Afghanistan along with the 30,000 or more U.S. military troops (and the escalating NATO forces).
Just to point folks again to the Global Network, a site that has been analyzing US military strategy for many years, with the framework of understanding that the ultimate threats to US domination / enemies / targets are Russia and especially China:
www.space4peace.org
Not that control of energy resources is not a key, but that the long-term goal is US domination of all Earth's resources, and the ultimate perceived threats to this strategic goal, and the ultimate targets of the overall strategy, are Russia and especially China.
It was actually the follow-up to the Crime of the Century:
http://rawstory.com/2009/12/venturas-conspiracy-theory-show-probes-911/
Here's another 9-11 truth video, this one for Richard Gage of AE911truth.org very well interviewed on a government-owned tv station in NZ, TVNZ, on Nov. 27, 2009. I'd like the interview to have been longer, but it's still very good; the interviewer from the tv station was great in this.
"Richard Gage AIA on New Zealand National Television" (6:11)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2INIOXe_WI
And I don't know when the following interview or exchange happened, but it's posted by the same Youtube user who posted the above video and if he again did it the day of the interview, then this next interview would've occurred Nov. 17, 2009. It or both occurred while Richard Gage was touring Au., NZ, Japan, and maybe some other countries, making several or more presentations; apparently several in Japan, alone, too.
In this following piece, he interviews a 9-11 truth supporter, Jan Utzon, the current architect of the rather awesome and modern Sydney Opera House. Jan Utzon has signed on to the ae911truth.org petition for a re-opening of the 9-11 investigations, officially.
"Richard Gage AIA and Jan Utzon of Sydney Opera House discuss 9/11 truth" (9:18)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txUaDtIbLow
In the TVNZ interview, I'd have liked for Richard Gage to place some additional emphasis on the way the tops of the WTC towers, 1 and 2, majorly exploded. Footage of this is shown and Gage says the tops pulverized into small concrete dust forming HUGE and dense clouds (shown) of this dust, but says nothing about the massive beams of heavy steel being blown through the air 150 yards or more, which is not a consequence of the planes striking and jet fuel burning. Neither is the exploding tops of the towers due to burning jet fuel or the jets striking; or I believe those aren't the cause anyway. But the interview's only six minutes, so there wasn't time to say really more than the interviewer and Gage did.
Other than for that little amount of time for an interview on such a critical topic, it's a great interview for the kind of news media it was hosted on or by.
And with this said, I don't treat the 9-11 attacks as the "Crime of the Century". Instead, they're the pretext and are therefore related to the combined "Crime of the Century", so far; the joint-supreme international crime of the wars of aggression on Iraq and Afghanistan. Around 3,000 people were killed on 9-11, and many first-responders died that day and since because of those attacks, but nowhere near the number of Iraqis and Afghans, and now Pakistanis needing to be added to the war on Afghanistan, by extension.
But it's all interrelated, and may build up, say, to more ... to come. That will all relate to the GWoT wars of today and the pretext of the 9-11 attacks used for "justifying" both wars of today; although that claim, with regards to Iraq, was dropped very early by the U.S. in official terms. Cheney, however, maintained the lie about the connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida, including with respect to the 9-11 attacks, to as recently as earlier this year, or at least 2008.
If more wars are commanded in Asia by the U.S., then they'll be related to the two GWoT theatre wars of today and due to being related to the reasons of the major U.S. and NATO military build-up in that region today; for years already, but still building up more as we go forward.
9-11 won't be related to additional wars, for Pakistan's surely the last Asian country that'll be added in relation to the 9-11 attacks, due to Al Qaida members, or perhaps ghosts, purportedly being in Pakistan, now. But additional wars, which we can anticipate, while hoping they don't happen, would be related to the GWoT theatre wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in terms of all of the geostrategic positioning, the military basing, and the geopolitics that the two wars have been used for, so far. And all will relate to the plan for global, full spectrum dominance, which relates to economic bases and, there-for, geopolitics, etcetera.
The 9-11 attacks were the pretext that got the "snowball" rolling and building up and the attacks and related conduct of White House officials, etcetera, need to be re-investigated, thoroughly, in full honesty, for if this was done, then Obama could no longer really pretend that the war on Afghanistan and now extended to Pakistan is or has ever been justified. He could choose to dictatorially continue this warring anyway, but if he was open to the truth, then he would have to stop these two wars and then finally and fully withdraw from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
For that sort of reason, many 9-11 "truthers" perceive the attacks of that day as the top crime in all of this, but I'll treat the attacks like I'm accustomed to seeing said and which is [pretext] to the war on Afghanistan and also, to some real degree, also the war on Iraq. Even after Bush ceased claiming that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida were related, or actually said that they weren't related, so explicitly reversed this bogus claim of 2002 or early 2003, many war supporters in the U.S. nevertheless kept believing the false initial claim. So the 9-11 attacks remained justification for the war on Iraq for many enough Americans even if Bush had reversed the initial statement or claim.
But it was pretext, a very falsely or fraudulently used one, too, and this, 'pretext', should not be omitted.
All-combined, we're definitely considering the image of the CRIME of the CENTURY, [so far]. We're still at the start of the century and the future does not presently seem particularly promising.
America is now suffering the negative karma that is generated by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because the majority of Americans looked the other way, and refused to become involved, we are reaping the whirlwind. Lesson learned? Not hardly. They are not only still looking the other way, they have fallen into an even deeper sleep. It will be some time before they come crashing awake, but it will come.
It's been established that the United States can do anything it damn well pleases. After all, aren't we the good guys? Of course, when it comes time to pay the piper, the fantasy that the United States (and our toady Britain) can do no wrong will suddenly appear somewhat shoddy, even to us poor deluded and spoiled Americans. Even Americans can't go around killing men, women and children for profit because they are in the way and because they believe in a different religion and live in societies that don't 'measure up'. Oh well, we can always look at old John Wayne and Sylvester Sallone movies on our flat screen plasma TVs. That's sure to cheer us up.
Sooner or later it will come to the point where people in the United States and Britain will have to get rid of their masters. Otherwise, it will be done for them by some other more powerful and less corrupt country or coalition--yes, perhaps even one in which they speak Arabic or some other Muslim tongue. Then it will be some one else's turn to do as they damn well please.
Truth is, we have already lost. There is no longer a clear objective. Actually there never was, at least not that was shared with the public. From the symbolic attack on the WTC, our economy has been crashing down. The profiteers are still looting the treasury. We are fighting on credit. Our image is ruined at home and in the world. Our public is at odds with each other.Our infrastructure is falling apart, and we aren't even paying attention to the wars anymore in a real way. We aren't negotiating actions, only motives; the actions are a foregone conclusion. We are at war, we are going to be at war, we have always been at war. "War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength".
"Truth is, we have already lost. There is no longer a clear objective. Actually there never was, at least not that was shared with the public."
It's good that you didn't omit the last part of the second sentence quoted from your post. Everyone or nearly everyone I've read making the same statement neglected to add the last words of your second sentence.
["at least not that was shared with the public"]!
That deserves [emphasis].
The London based Guardian and sister paper the Observer failed and fooled the British people on Iraq just as they did the same on the Balkans about "humanitarian intervention" in the 1990s, and they knew that Tony Blair's gang was lying then. Hell they helped sell the horse hockey to the British people. Even I think the New Statesman at the time joined in. John Pilger is so much ahead of the curve at that publication today as to make that publication look like the disgrace it is to great British journalism. It's left to the London based Independent, Red Pepper, and major newspapers north of the border in Scotland to get out the truth, Scotland was always good about that anyway compared to England. The UK can always be thankful for Scotland the way the USA ought to be to black people and other people of color.
AD
You seem to have missed the part of the article in which John Pilger well criticizes the London Independent, I believe. He "nailed" both it and the Guardian, UK.
I've seen some good articles from the Independent, but have seen some that had me turning red with steam building up, too. It's not [always] good and respectable. I forget which piece it was, but there was one recently posted at CD that I criticized with a post on it. The other, of the two that I read from the Independent, was okay or even good, but the one I criticized was bs, looking as if it likely could be deliberate propaganda, the deceitful kind and not accidentlly or unintentionally, either.
Anything John Pilger writes is top notch, as are his documentaries. I think CD needs to include his pieces more often.
I often find JP to be too negative. But now that all of the Obama HOPE has been flushed down the loo, John's negativity seems to fit just right.
His negativity that you speak of, apparently meaning with regards to strong criticism of Obama as candidate for the U.S. presidency and possibly when Obama was first declared to be the Nobel Peace Prizer winner, was not negativity. It was critically objective criticism. John Pilger has been flamed for such writings and I've read such flames a number of times, but could see he was right when I read his articles, while also being able to see why what he wrote would set off or blow some people's fuses.
and the USA _- with obama, his pentagon , their corporations, INTEND to commit MORE war crimes and crimes of the century.
of that the USA intends to be NUMBER ONE at.
"legal but of questionable legitimacy"
slavery was once legal.
as is the death sentence in some backwards countries.
"as is the death sentence in some backwards countries.
VERY much including the USA.
Iraq: The Capital Crime of the New American Century
Ditto: Afghanistan and Pakistan
America's CALLING CARD in the 21st century:
"GREATEST CRIMINAL NATION ON EARTH".
complete with PRivate mercenaries, grand army, the biggest bombs and WMD's ever deviced...full spectrum dominance ...leading global polluter scofflaw..greatest debtor nation unwilling to pay its real debts over the generations..Chief Global Resources Thief..
topped off with a NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.
The crime of the first decade is more likely.
The century is very young.
It is certain there are much greater crimes in store.
Iraq: The Crime of the Century. Can we please have this repeated as much as Tigers infidelity?
Wow, the century is only 9 years old and look at all we've accomplished! We should be proud.
I'm confident the next decade will be chock full of even more glorious achievements and triumphs.
I'm so proud of my country, and so grateful.
Plz, pass the soma.
I'm sure it was just an isolated incident.
either that or HISTORY of the developed world.
HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As in the 'Nam, may well the dupes will turn. Homeward, McChyrstal soldiers!
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Bear in mind that the century is still young and the class who breeds, raises and sells aristo-parasites like Duhhbya to the public are still at it grooming their plutocratic larvae to mislead. The fact that they don't yet procreate like pepis wasps (who lay the eggs of their young on the backs of tarantulas so that the larvae may feed on the host until its death) doesn't mean they possess dissimilar scruples.
But the vast majority of Amurkans bought lock stock and barrel the Big Lie that the Iraq surge "worked" and they have never given a smurf's squirt about the cruelties inflicted on the Iraqi and Afghan people--so long as their now rapidly diminishing "lifestyle" was preserved. They have been too dumbed-down and too brainwashed for too long. I doubt even the cruelest economic tribulations would raise them intellectually out of their permeating zombie-hood now.
To play devil's advocate, however, I wonder why none of the predominantly white Joe-sixpack lower working-class trash at the bottom rank of the GOP ever seem to figure out that their greedheaded leaders have boxed their own racial demographic into an inevitably doomed economic & cultural corner by denying real economic opportunity to two and a half generations of younger whites. The majority of Americans are increasingly non-white and poor. Who is going to vote for these overwhelmingly white Republican fools whose greed and desire to fuck over so many of their own race is rapidly cutting their own electoral throats?
Ha - good question. They also do not make the connection between our bankrupt economy and the cost of Empire. They readily cheer their own demise and dont even see it.
"... the poor white remains
on the caboose of the train,
but he's not to blame,
he's only a pawn in their game..."
R. Zimmerman
John Pilger is about the greatest journalist still working. what a great piece.
I am not familiar with how many British mercenaries are in the Afghan occupation.
But one purpose of USA mercenaries is as check on USA military rebellion.
The warmongers learned from Vietnam that if a war is futile, cruel and involves draftees they military may revolt and actually kill officiers( "fragging") as happened in Vietnam.
Thus the mercenaries are in place to assure the military will keep fighting, for National Guard and "stop loss" soldiers are in essence draftees.
well caught!
A Johns Hopkins epidemiological study published in The Lancet estimated 654,965 excess Iraqi deaths, from 2003 to 2006, related to the war. (http://brusselstribunal.org/pdf/lancet111006.pdf )
Surely this is the crime that should be foremost in our minds as this inquiry unfolds.
At the time of the Iraq invasion, there was a concerted effort to link the names Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden together.
And this brings us to a recent fact of great importance which has been suppressed in the media, and it concerns new information about the World Trade Center disaster.
In March 2009, nine (9) scientists published a two-year peer-reviewed study in a respected scientific journal. That study, led by Dr. Niels Harrit of the University of Copenhagen, analyzed samples of World Trade Center dust, and found millions of tiny chips of uncombusted nano-thermite in that dust. (http://www.bentham.org/open/tocpj/openaccess2.htm ).
Many cleanup workers testified that several months after September 11th, beams pulled from the rubble were still red hot and dripping melted steel. Why? Because of the ongoing chemical reaction caused by that uncombusted nano-thermite -- a substance used by the military. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano-thermite
In Europe, the media was actually interested in this revelatory study. For example, Denmark aired the discovery on its national television program:
“Danish Scientist Niels Harrit, on Nano-thermite in the WTC Dust (English subtitles),” TV2 News, Denmark, April 6, 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_tf25lx_3o).
Are we willing to look at the implications of this study? Namely, that given the security in place, Osama bin Laden could not have prepared those buildings for demolition. And that as Noam Chomsky has said, "The media uncritically relayed government propaganda about the threat to US security posed by Iraq [and] its involvement in 9-11."
If we do look at these implications, and the illegal "war on terror" which has been conducted in Iraq since 2003, we will understand why 50% of Americans and 33% of Canadians now believe that the US government was complicit in the events of September 11.
If the very probable lie of September 11th is allowed to go down, lies at all levels of society, everywhere, will follow.
The world now needs catharsis from this massive public groundswell of suspicion, in the form of a new investigation into the events of September 11.
Be the change and the truth you want for democracy, and encourage Obama to do it!
Every NATO nation with troops in Afghanistan should have an explanation of how World Trade Center Building 7 came down as it did. That building was not hit by any terrorists. It looks like it came down by demolition. If so, then the rationale for attacking Afghanistan is gone. If so, then the criminals who master-minded the 9-11 events are in the USA, not in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
"If the very probable lie of September 11th is allowed to go down, lies at all levels of society, everywhere, will follow."
i appreciate your passion. But check this quote from the poster immediately following yours:
"The United States has been ripping through the world, causing death and destruction, for the greater part of the last century."
And i would add, prior to that, was founded on massive genocide and slavery that went on for centuries and still reverberate through our culture today.
i do not for one moment believe that the future of the USA or of the Earth hangs on the "truth" about 9-11.
We live inside lies inside lies inside lies, woven so deeply into our culture and our consciousness that the very streets we walk, the landscapes we see, the families we are born into, the money we earn, the language we learn, EVERYTHING about our human world is structured in relation to the centuries of buried lies.
If opening minds to the truth about the USA depends on revealing the events of 9-11, why did i spend the decades prior to 9-11 deeply outraged by the lies upon lies upon lies of the USA, and the partly willful silence and ignorance of millions of people? The truth is PLAIN TO SEE.
Will 9-11 truth bring climate justice? Climate reparations? Reparations for slavery and colonialism, both to African Americans and to the people and lands of Africa? End corporate personhood? End a culture of rape and misogyny? What truths do we see, and what truths do we not see, and what do we need in order to see the truth?
Many plain ugly truths have been plainly exposed, and have been ignored, overrun, and forgotten. Each and all of us can turn to face the truth at any time. Opportunities are all around us.
"...lies at all levels of society, everywhere..." This capsule description of the USA has been true for centuries. Nothing really changed on 9-11.
The United States has been ripping through the world, causing death and destruction, for the greater part of the last century. In the beginning of the 20th century, Teddy Roosevelt led us into a war with Spain, in which we stole Cuba and the Philippines. The excuse for that little act of aggression was the explosion of the USS Maine, probably due to a malfunctioning boiler. Teddy blamed Spain, a country which he was itching to confront. The invasion of Iraq was despicable, but hardly the greatest crime committed by the United States in any century.
I forget which president it was ...but the USA also waged war against Mexico using lies..: that mexican soldiers attacked somewhere in new mexico or texas....but in reality - the american forces were massing across a river and it was THEY that crossed over into mexican territory...
certainly , in that time of no "instant" news such as internet and cameras - it was easy for the government and congress to decide which was "truth" :
"MEXICO ATTACKED US"....
but in reality - it was a pretext , just like in Iraq , to invade mexican territory and knowing the USA had superior forces eventually force a "treaty" in which mexico CEDED vast tracts of land to the USA...which are now the southwest USA , inclulding parts of texas, new mexico, arizona, etc...and of course that began the eventual Theft of California from Mexico.
THEFT by means of LYING to go to war in order to "win" with claims of "just war" where "we are defending ourselves".......
the PURE LIES of the AGGRESSOR nation to achieve its aggressive goals of landgrabbing and resource taking and domination.....
and THEN calls it JUSTICE and DEmocracy and Freedom and ....civilization.
why should it be different today in afghanistan , or iraq, or ALREADY in pakistan (already plans are made to LITERALLY DRONE BOMB a MAJOR PAKISTAN city of QUETTA -- that's like others attacking chicago with massive bombings because chicago or the usa won't behave the way the attackers want them to behave)...
or towards Iran...or ALREADY - the USA "training YEMENIS" to "fight insurgents" IN YEMEN - because saudi arabia has been meddling in their affairs and has recently bombed yemen with its US sold Fighter jets?.
already the USA - in the space of a few weeks has escalated WAR
BEYOND Afghanistan...
it is already bleeding Into Pakistan - and has BEGUN in Yemen....
apart from having a launching pad in Colombia -
apart from the consequences if Pakistan falls into chaos and spills over INTO the western frontiers of CHINA where the chinese are SURELY going to mass at least half a million personnel and battalions ...and WILL blame the USA for it..as they had already subtly warned:
"we hope that the USA will not CREATE or CAUSE TROUBLE in our western provinces...it will not be good for our relationship"........
between the USA's BANKER and the DEBTOR NATION.
obama wants to keep this up? he is driving into something bigger than his shoes....a million times bigger.
apart from the Huge invasions and occupations --
add these "incidents" of creeping fascism in the USA as Crimes against humanity:
======================
Cory Doctorow
POSTED AT 8:26 AM December 11, 2009
Action • charitable giving • customs • legal defense • peter watts • science fiction • usa
Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border
My friend, the wonderful sf writer Peter Watts was beaten without provocation and arrested by US border guards on Tuesday. I heard about it early Wednesday morning in London and called Cindy Cohn, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She worked her contacts to get in touch with civil rights lawyers in Michigan, and we mobilized with Caitlin Sweet (Peter's partner) and David Nickle (Peter's friend) and Peter was arraigned and bailed out later that day.
But now Peter faces a felony rap for "assaulting a federal officer" (Peter and the witness in the car say he didn't do a thing, and I believe them). Defending this charge will cost a fortune, and an inadequate defense could cost Peter his home, his livelihood and his liberty.
Peter's friends are raising money for his legal defense. I just sent him CAD$1,000, because this is absolutely my biggest nightmare: imprisoned in a foreign country for a trumped-up offense against untouchable border cops. I would want my friends to help me out if it ever happened to me.
Update: Here's more from Peter, in his own words: "Along some other timeline, I did not get out of the car to ask what was going on. I did not repeat that question when refused an answer and told to get back into the vehicle. In that other timeline I was not punched in the face, pepper-sprayed, shit-kicked, handcuffed, thrown wet and half-naked into a holding cell for three fucking hours, thrown into an even colder jail cell overnight, arraigned, and charged with assaulting a federal officer, all without access to legal representation (although they did try to get me to waive my Miranda rights. Twice.). Nor was I finally dumped across the border in shirtsleeves: computer seized, flash drive confiscated, even my fucking paper notepad withheld until they could find someone among their number literate enough to distinguish between handwritten notes on story ideas and, I suppose, nefarious terrorist plots. I was not left without my jacket in the face of Ontario's first winter storm, after all buses and intercity shuttles had shut down for the night.
"In some other universe I am warm and content and not looking at spending two years in jail for the crime of having been punched in the face."
Update: David Nickle sez, "This is just to let you know that we've got a snail-mail address for people to send cheques - Bakka Phoenix Science Fiction Bookstore has agreed to collect and forward them. The details are here on my blog."
Sf writer David Nickle writes,
Hugo-award-nominated science fiction author Dr. Peter Watts is in serious legal trouble after he was beaten, pepper-sprayed and imprisoned by American border guards at a Canada U.S. border crossing December 8. This is a call to friends, fans and colleagues to help.
ARTICLE CONTINUED
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Peter, a Canadian citizen, was on his way back to Canada after helping a friend move house to Nebraska over the weekend. He was stopped at the border crossing at Port Huron, Michigan by U.S. border police for a search of his rental vehicle. When Peter got out of the car and questioned the nature of the search, the gang of border guards subjected him to a beating, restrained him and pepper sprayed him. At the end of it, local police laid a felony charge of assault against a federal officer against Peter. On Wednesday, he posted bond and walked was taken across the border to Canada in shirtsleeves (he was released by Port Huron officials with his car and possessions locked in impound, into a winter storm that evening). He's home safe. For now. But he has to go back to Michigan to face the charge brought against him.
The charge is spurious. But it's also very serious. It could mean two years in prison in the United States, and a ban on travel in that country for the rest of Peter's life. Peter is mounting a vigorous defense, but it's going to be expensive - he's effectively going up against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and he needs the best legal help that he can get.
He's got that help, courtesy of one of the top criminal lawyers in the State of Michigan. We, Peter's friends and colleagues here in Canada, want to make sure he gets the help he needs financially to come out of this nightmare whole.
The need for that help is real. While Peter is a critically successful science fiction writer, he is by no means a best-selling author. Without help, the weight of his legal fees could literally put him on the street by spring.
We can't let that happen. So there's going to be fundraising.
We're going to think of something suitable in the New Year - but immediately, anyone who wants to help can do so easily. Peter's website, rifters.com, has a link to a PayPal account, whimsically named the Niblet Memorial Kibble Fund. He set it up years ago for fans of the Hugo-nominated novel Blindsight and his Rifters books, to cover veterinary bills for the cats he habitually rescues from the mean streets of Toronto. Peter has made it clear that he doesn't want to use the veterinary money to cover his lawsuit. But until we can figure out a more graceful conduit for the legal fund, that's the best place to send donations for now. Just let Peter know that the donation's for his legal defense, and that's where it will go.
Here's the link to the backlist page on Peter's website, rifters.com, or you can just send a PayPal donation to donate@rifters.com.
The link to the Niblet Memorial Kibble Fund is in the middle of the page. The page also links to Creative Commons editions of all his published work, which he's made available free. Peter would approve, we think, if you downloaded one or two or all of them. Whether you make a donation to the legal fund or not.
Update: David Nickle adds, "there's a very small correction I need to make to the account that's gone, erm, viral. I had thought that Peter had made his way back on foot; in fact, police released him in shirtsleeves at the Canadian side of the border. It was a winter storm, he was in shirtsleeves, but he didn't have to cross the bridge on foot. I'd misunderstood Peter's account on that point. "