Yuram Almanfi's Blog

Autumn Allegory

“But the days grow short when you reach September when the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame one hasn’t got time for the waiting game.” - September Song, sung by Frank Sinatra.[1]

As autumn approaches in both a literal and allegorical sense, the time is well suited for contemplative reflection and introspection, both for me individually and for America collectively.

A slight coolness in the morning air hints that autumn is literally near and soon the leaves will start to change color. In Colorado, deciduous trees are scarce, so dazzling displays of multi-colored autumn leaves are rare; only the Aspen trees in the mountains exhibit a brief blaze of brilliant yellow against a backdrop of perennially verdant evergreens.

Likewise, the U.S. economy is not showing a brilliant blaze of fiscal fall colors, either. Despite massive government outlays of currency green, the economy is still in the red as it slumps into September. With record budget deficits[2] and real unemployment around 16%,[3] it appears to be withering away like a yellowing autumn Aspen leaf.

Autumn’s approach seems to emphasize that I, too, am allegorically approaching the autumn of my life and my days are indeed growing short. An urgent sense of time running out is amplified not only by events in my own life but also by the politics-as-usual taking place in an atmosphere of denial in the United States.

As for me, for the fourth time in the past eight years, I have received a layoff notice, suggesting that apparently, even as the autumn of my life nears, I still haven’t learned how to play the game. But this foreboding economic event pales in comparison to a recent tragedy involving my son, which has forced me to learn firsthand about the dysfunctional dispositions of the American legal and healthcare systems.

As for America, its global empire is also rapidly approaching its allegorical autumn and the days of “full spectrum dominance”[4] are growing short. Obviously, America’s bulging budget deficits and extravagant energy expenditures cannot continue indefinitely. However, Washington remains in denial and insists that maintaining military might is the prescription for all problems.

The Pentagon is accelerating plans for a new, massive 30,000 pound “bunker buster,” the largest conventional bomb ever produced in the U.S. presumably for use against perceived nuclear threats by North Korea and Iran.[5] “We will maintain America’s military dominance,” President Obama recently exhorted at the U.S. Naval Academy.[6]

The President would be wise to heed the words of Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, who observed, “If force were a permanent and decisive remedy, the Pharoahs and tyrants would have survived.”[7]

Maintaining the American military requires money and energy, two items in increasingly short supply in these days of worldwide economic woes. Despite this, the U.S. Congress still provides funding on demand to sustain imperial wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. Only one Senator, Russell Feingold, (Democrat, Wisconsin) was courageous enough to vote against the latest supplemental war funding.[8]

Regarding the money required to finance its global reach, Professor Chalmers Johnson remarked, “the United States is not seriously contemplating its own bankruptcy.”[9]

China is also concerned over America’s solvency, since it is the largest holder of U.S. Treasury bonds. During a recent visit to China hastily arranged to allay such financial fears, U.S. Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner spoke at Peking University and afterwards fielded questions from the audience. One concerned student asked about the safety of China’s U.S. investments. “Chinese assets are very safe,” Geithner glibly responded to the question, after which skeptical laughter burst out in the audience.[10]

Regarding the enormous energy America consumes to maintain its international imperium, Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris warned, “Current trends in energy supply and consumption are patently unsustainable,” adding, “greenhouse-gas emissions would be driven up inexorably, putting the world on track for an eventual global temperature increase of up to 6°C.”[11]

The patently unsustainable status quo is alluded to deep inside a Department of Defense (DoD) report to Congress that admits, “DoD is the largest single energy consumer in the Nation representing 78% of the federal sector, and a significant (and sometimes the largest) energy user in many local metropolitan areas.”[12]

Global warming has already forced the DoD to acknowledge that “because of the near certainty of climate change and subsequent sea level rise, many coastal DoD installations run the risk of losing operational capabilities as continued sea level rise impacts their current infrastructure and training regimes.”[13]

As an aside, the DoD is facing formidable costs just to clean up its own mess of unexploded ordnance. According to the Defense Science Board, there are some 3,400 munitions dumps on 27 million acres of land which would cost an estimated $50 billion to clean up.[14] In fact, cleaning up the DoD’s unexploded ordnance (UXO) has become a growth industry with its own non-profit trade association.[15]

America must confront the hypocrisy of its own leaders who condemn spending $1 trillion for humanitarian healthcare over ten years as fiscally irresponsible, while they condone spending almost $1 trillion to wage worldwide wars every year.[16] The cost of such healthcare for the uninsured could easily be covered by the estimated $100 billion annual savings that would result from ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan alone.[17]

For America to survive as a responsible leader in the international community, it must spearhead the search for solutions to the distressing dilemmas we face from global wars to global warming within the constraints of a contracting economy. It must scrutinize its collective conscience over the morality of funding futilewars to kill people or having healthcare to cure people. It must choose between financial bailouts for international investment houses or common citizens’ houses.

America must take action to address the morally repugnant reality that some 50 million of its citizens --and I’m one of them-- are without medical insurance,[18]while a privileged few corporate chiefs and highly paid executives extort compensation totaling $2.1 trillion, representing one third of the nation’s entire $6.4 trillion payroll.[19]

Professor Noam Chomsky has suggested a number of possible cures for America’s ethical ills; among them are to “let the UN take the lead in international crises,” and to “cut back sharply on military spending and sharply increase social spending.”[20] Both of these are necessary but probably not sufficient to reverse its decline and prevent America from becoming the largest “failed state.”

Like me, America is entering the allegorical autumn of its life and must either make painful moral choices now or it will be assured the inevitable fate of all earlier empires. As its days grow short, it simply hasn’t got time for the waiting game.

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2009-08-09

Endnotes

[1] K. Weill, M. Anderson, “September Song,” sung by Frank Sinatra, Hollywood, 13 April 1965, http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/frank_sinatra/september_song.html (Accessed 24 July 2009)

[2] Robert Schroeder, U.S. budget deficit rises above $1 trillion, Market Watch, 13 July 2009, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-budget-deficit-rises-above-1-trillion-2009713141700 (Accessed 9 August 2009)

[3] Real Unemployment Rate at 16.3%, Americans for Democratic Action, 7 August 2009, on Common Dreams website, http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/08/07 (Accessed 9 August 2009)

[4] Jim Garamone, Joint Vision 2020 Emphasizes Full-spectrum Dominance, DefenseLinkNews, American Forces Press Service, 2 June 2000, http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=45289 (Accessed 25 July 2009)

[5] Jim Wolf, Pentagon Eyes Accelerated 'Bunker Buster' Bomb, Reuters, 3 August 2009, posted on Common Dreams website 4 August 2009, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/08/03-5 (Accessed 4 August 2009)

[6] Carol Lee, Barack Obama pledges to keep U.S. 'dominance,' Politico, 22 May 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22869.html (Accessed 31 July 2009)

[7] Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Arif Adul Hussain trans., Hamid Algar rev. trans., Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence According to Shi’i Law, N. Haledon NJ: Islamic Publications International, 2003, page 14.

[8] Jeremy Scahill, Feingold: White House is Whistling Past Afghan Graveyard, The Nation, 24 July 2009, on Common Dreams website, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/24-10 (Accessed 25 July 2009)

[9] Chalmers Johnson, Three Good Reasons To Liquidate Our Empire, TomDispatch.com, 30 July2009, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175101/chalmers_johnson_dismantling_the_empire (Accessed 31 July 2009)

[10] Glenn Somerville, Geithner Tells China Its Dollar Assets Are Safe, Update 3, Reuters, 1 June 2009, http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSPEK14475620090601 (Accessed 31 July 2009)

[11] New Energy Realities - WEO Calls for Global Energy Revolution Despite Economic Crisis, Press Release, International Energy Agency, 12 November 2008, http://www.iea.org/Textbase/press/pressdetail.asp?PRESS_REL_ID=275 (Accessed 4 August 2009)

[12] Annual Report Fiscal Year 2007, Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, Department of Defense, February2008, http://www.serdp.org/general/Publications/upload/07-SERDP-AR.pdf (Accessed 25 July 2009)

[13] Annual Report Fiscal Year 2007, Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, op. cit., page 22.

[14] Annual Report Fiscal Year 2007, Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program,op. cit., page 23.

[15] The National Association of OEW Contractors, website, http://www.naoc.org/Website/about.aspx (Accessed 25 July 2009)

[16] Paul Krugman, An Incoherent Truth, New York Times, 27 July 2009, on Common Dreams website, http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/27-4 (Accessed 28 July 2009)

[17] Anita Dancs, The Cost of the Global U.S. Military Presence, Foreign Policy in Focus,The Institute for Policy Studies, 3 July 2009, http://www.fpif.org/pdf/reports/0709costofempire.pdf (Accessed 31 July 2009)

[18] Robin A. Cohen, Ph.D., and Michael E. Martinez, Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 2006, Division of Health Interview Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, 21 August 2007, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/insur200706.pdf (Accessed 9 August 2009)

[19] Thom Hartmann, Profiling CEOs and Their Sociopathic Paychecks, Common Dreams, 27 July 2009, http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/27-4 (Accessed 28 July 2009)

[20] Noam Chomsky, Failed States, - The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy, NewYork: Henry Holt, 2006, page 262.

Iran’s Election: Benford vs. Basij

“The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, the beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost.”--President Barack Obama, 23 June 2009.[i]

To those who suffered the loss of friends and loved ones as a result of the recent post-election unrest in Iran, please accept my deepest heartfelt condolences.

I, too, condemn the violence that has erupted following Iran’s 12 June 2009 Presidential election. As someone with friends and colleagues there, I grieve deeply for those who lost their lives in the violence, with a death toll of 17 by official figures but claimed by some witnesses to be higher.[ii] It is my hope that reason will prevail and all perpetrators, whether members of the Basij or hired outside thugs, will be brought to justice.

I must, however, take exception with the Western media’s portrayal of Iran as a country on the brink of revolution triggered by a fraudulent election.[iii]^,[iv] Post-election protests do not, by logical necessity, imply election fraud any more than the lack thereof demonstrates legitimacy. Election forensics expert Walter Mebane points out, “In terms of legitimacy it is not clear whether the worse problem is that erroneous election outcomes may occur or that many may not believe that correct outcomes are valid.”[v]

It does appear that incumbent Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has won decisively over challenger and former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi. Polls conducted prior to the election showed Ahmadinejad favored 2 to 1 and even one reporter for McClatchy Newspapers admitted, “Of course, it's possible that Ahmadinejad won.”[vi]

Statistical tests alone cannot prove election fraud, nor can they detect every instance where it is known to have occurred in prior elections. Regarding the 2^nddigit Benford’s Law[vii] (2BL)test, which shows great promise as a method of detecting election anomalies and is currently being applied to Iran’s election,[viii] Professor Mebane cautions, “Being based on so little information, the method cannot in itself diagnose whether an anomaly it may flag is a consequence of fraud or of some other kind of irregularity.”[ix] In any event, the post-election protests fit well with the agenda of those pushing regime change, further sanctions and possible military action against Iran.

In what is being heralded as a historic speech given in Cairo on 4 June 2009, President Barack Obama said, “I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”[x] Among the popular stereotypes promulgated in America is that Egypt is a democratic, moderate Islamic country. In contrast to Egypt, Iran is negatively stereotyped as a theocracy bordering on dictatorship, ruled by an elite cadre of fanatical, extremist hard-line clerics. Let’s briefly examine if there is a factual basis for these stereotypes.

Historically connected to Islam, Egypt is second on the list of recipients of U.S. foreign military assistance, second only to Israel. Some 18,000 political prisoners are held in indefinite detention by order of the Interior Ministry, and the use of torture by security forces is widespread and rarely investigated.[xi] The most significant opposition to the U.S.-backed Egyptian government is the popular Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic political party founded in 1928 and outlawed to this day in “democratic” Egypt.[xii]^,[xiii]

Elections were last held in Egypt on Tuesday, 8 April 2008 after being postponed for two years, with candidates loyal to President Hosni Mubarak running unopposed in 90% of the races. The Egyptian government’s pre-election repression was swift and crushing, with over 1,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood arrested prior to elections. Massive public protests ensued, but only turned violent when state-hired thugs began pelting protestors with stones. State security police moved in to disperse demonstrators, firing tear gas grenades, rubber bullets and live rounds, causing 5 deaths and over 80 injuries.[xiv]

The inherent contradictions involved in U.S support of the Egyptian regime are painfully obvious. A recent Congressional Research Service report points out, “As Egyptian opposition figures have grown more vocal in recent years over issues such as succession, corruption, and economic inequality, and the regime has subsequently grown more repressive in its response to increased calls for reform, activists have demanded that the United States pressure Egypt into creating more breathing space for dissent.”[xv] However, there is no talk of Egypt being on the brink of revolution, nor is there of regime change.

If the double standard being applied to Iran is still not clear, consider the following fact: The IAEA reports that it has found traces of highly enriched uranium at Egypt’s Inshas Nuclear Research site.[xvi] Imagine, “moderate” U.S. ally Egypt may actually be hiding a nuclear weapons program from its benefactor! Peter Brookes, Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation remarked “As if North Korean and Iranian nuclear weapons programs weren't enough, now it seems Egypt may be pursuing the bomb as well.”[xvii]

Why is there no outcry by Washington over a potential nuclear-armed Egypt, but there is over a potential nuclear-armed Iran? I found only one journalist from--of all places Missoula, Montana--courageous enough to ask this hard question. In reply, former deputy ambassador to Egypt, Mark Johnson explains “There is a vast political difference between those two countries.”[xviii] One difference, pointed out by Amnesty International, is that (for the U.S.) Egypt is “a key transit and destination country for the interrogation or indefinite detention and torture of terror suspects.“[xix] Iran, of course, is not.

So why is there no outcry over repression and fraudulent elections in Egypt but there is over allegations of repression and fraudulent elections in Iran? The same reason applies, “There is a vast political difference between the countries.” In other words, Egypt is an obedient U.S.client state willing to bend to America’s will in exchange for a $2 billion annual payoff, whereas Iran is not. That pretty well sums it up.

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2009-07-08

Endnotes

[i] President Barack Obama, The President's Opening Remarks on Iran, The Blog, The White House, 23 June 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/The-Presidents-Opening-Remarks-on-Iran-with-Persian-Translation/ (Accessed 27 June 2009)

[ii] Ahmadinejad Again Criticizes Obama Over Election Remarks, Voice of America, 27 June 2009, http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-06-27-voa2.cfm (Accessed 27 June 2009)

[iii] Mark Levine, Iran on the Brink? The Independent, 30 June 2009, http://www.independent.co.ug/index.php/reports/world-report/74-world-report-/1121-iran-on-the-brink (Accessed 3 July 2009)

[iv] Cyril Dixon, Protests Put Iran on Brink of Revolution, Daily Express, 16 June2009) http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/107819/Protests-put-Iran-on-brink-of-revolution (Accessed 3 July 2009)

[v] Walter Mebane, Detecting Attempted Election Theft: Vote Counts, Voting Machines and Benford's Law, 19 April 2006, Prepared for presentation at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Associate, Chicago, IL, April 20-23, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wmebane/mw06.pdf (Accessed 3 July 2009)

[vi] Warren P.Strobel and Roy Gutman, Why the official Iranian election results are suspect, McClatchy Newspapers, 17 June 2009, http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/70269.html (Accessed 30 June 2009)

[vii] For an accessible derivation of Benford’s Law, see Wolfram Math World, http://mathworld.wolfram.com/BenfordsLaw.html (Accessed 3 July 2009)

[viii] Walter Mebane, Note on the presidential election in Iran, June 2009, 29 June 2009, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wmebane/note18jun2009.pdf (Accessed 3 July 2009)

[ix] Walter Mebane, Election Forensics: Vote Counts and Benford's Law, 18 July 2006, Prepared for presentation at the 2006 Summer Meeting of the Political Methodology Society, UC-Davis, July 20-22, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~wmebane/pm06.pdf (Accessed 3 July 2009)

[x] Remarks by the President at Cairo University, The White House Press Office, 4 June 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-Cairo-University-6-04-09/ (Accessed 27 June 2009)

[xi] Egypt - Amnesty International Report 2008, Amnesty International, http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/egypt/report-2008 (Accessed 4 July 2009)

[xii] History of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt (1928–1938), Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 March 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_the_Muslim_Brotherhood_in_Egypt_(1928%E2%80%931938)&oldid=279983345 (Accessed 28 June 2009)

[xiii] Egypt - Amnesty International Report 2008, op. cit.

[xiv] Liam Stack, Amid violent riots, Egyptian elections fizzle, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 April 2008, http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0409/p07s02-wome.html (Accessed 28 June 2009)

[xv] Jeremy M. Sharp, Egypt: Background and U.S. Relations, Congressional Research Service, 12May 2009, http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33003.pdf (Accessed 28 June 2009)

[xvi] Jeremy M. Sharp, Op. Cit., Page 6.

[xvii] Peter Brookes, Egypt's Nuclear Option, The Heritage Foundation, 10 January 2005, http://www.heritage.org/press/commentary/ed011105b.cfm (Accessed 2 July 2009)

[xviii] Oriana Turley, Egypt moves to develop nuclear power, Montana Kaimin, 8 November 2007, http://www.montanakaimin.com/index.php/news/news_article/egypt_moves_to_develop_nuclear_power/2031 (Accessed 2 July 2009)

[xix] President Obama Visits Egypt, News and Updates, Amnesty International, 4 June 2009, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/president-obama-visits-egypt-20090604 (Accessed 4 July 2009)

Will the Real Leaders Please Stand?

“To the intelligence community, the White House was no different from other civil institutions it actively penetrated. Presidents were viewed less as elected leaders to be served than as temporary occupants to be closely monitored, subtly guided, and where necessary, given a shove.”[1] -- Investigative Journalist and Author Russ Baker.

Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington warned of the dangers of “excessive” democracy in the 1970s, stating that it “was a general challenge to existing systems of authority, public and private.”[2] While the U.S. President may need a majority of the people be elected, afterwards, their support “is almost--if not entirely--irrelevant.” Of utmost importance is “support from the leaders of key institutions in a society and government.”[3] Just who are these leaders and from which key institutions?

Huntington presented his warning to the Trilateral Commission, founded in 1973 by international banker David Rockefeller and university professor Zbigniew Brzezinski.[4] Even then, members of this elite cartel understood that the real threat to their ever-expanding power and wealth was posed not by Communism, but by democratic revolutionary movements in the Third World.[5]

Clearly David Rockefeller, whose name arises frequently in connection with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is one of the leaders alluded to by Huntington, and the Trilateral Commission is one of the key institutions. Another is the influential Council on Foreign Relations and a third is the enigmatic Bilderberg Group.

But what role does the CIA play? Could the mammoth, secretive U.S. spy organization be the covert operations arm for international bankers and corporate leaders? According to its mission statement, the CIA “is an independent US Government agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior US policymakers.”[6]

Career diplomat George F. Kennan envisioned the CIA’s mission as being far beyond merely providing intelligence. He explains that Allen Dulles, who later became CIA director, and other staff members concluded there was a need for “facilities through which there could be conducted...operations for which it would not be proper for any of the regular departments or agencies of the government to take responsibility, or for which the regular procedures of the government were too cumbersome.”[7]

Kennan did not publicly reveal that the actual mission of the CIA would be to engage in organized covert political activity, as he outlined in a 1948 paper presented to the (U.S.) National Security Council. Emphasizing the need to establish an agency to oversee covert operations, he stressed, “We cannot afford to leave unmobilized our resources for covert political warfare.” Retired CIA analyst David Rudgers points out the glaring omission of these revelations from Kennan’s two-volume published memoirs.[8]

From 1949 to 1952 with the U.S perceiving a triple threat by the Soviet Union in Europe, the Communist revolution in China and a war in Korea, CIA covert operations became a “growth industry.”[9] During this period, General Walter Beddell Smith seized command and appointed Allen Dulles as head of the clandestine service. When Dulles finally succeeded Smith as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) in 1953, the CIA entered a “golden age” of covert action, with the Eisenhower administration giving it virtual carte blanche.[10]

The first DCI, Admiral Sidney Souers,[11] in a 1963 letter to President Harry Truman, wrote, “Allen Dulles caused the CIA to wander far from the original goal established by you...It would seem that its principal effort was to cause revolutions in smaller countries around the globe.”[12]

Clark Clifford, former Secretary of Defense and special counsel to President Truman,[13] commented that due to its ever-expanding covert operations, “The CIA became a government within a government, which could evade oversight of its activities by drawing the cloak of secrecy around itself.”[14] The cloak of secrecy encompasses hundreds of organizations alleged to be CIA fronts, from A.P.I. Distributors, Inc. to Zenith Technical Enterprises,[15] and was expanded after the 9/11 attacks when Bush ordered a 50% increase in the CIA’s so-called “unofficial cover” network.[16]

More disturbing is the financial symbiosis that appears to exist between the CIA and philanthropic foundations run by the Rockefeller, Ford, Carnegie and other elite families. By their ability to skew research through funding, as anthropologist David Price explains, these foundations have “led to one of the greatest monuments to the power of capital accumulation in modern times.”[17] Funding by CIA-front Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology went to neurologist Dr. Harold Wolff, recruited by Allen Dulles, to study effective methods of interrogation and persuasion.[18] Henry Kissinger was one of many scholars who worked on the Carnegie-funded Human Relations Area File program, another CIA research front for collecting military and intelligence data.[19]

Historian Howard Zinn gives an example of the use of the CIA by Rockefeller-related interests to overthrow Chilean President Salvadore Allende. Concerning the CIA’s motives, Professor Zinn explains, “American corporations didn't like Allende because he stood for nationalization of Anaconda Copper and other businesses. Anaconda Copper owed a quarter of a billion dollars to a group of banks led by Chase Manhattan, whose chairman is David Rockefeller, Nelson's brother.”

Elaborating on these connections, Professor Zinn continues, “But the circle is still not closed. The CIA action to overthrow Allende was approved by the Forty Committee, whose chairman is Henry Kissinger. And it was Kissinger who recommended that [Nelson] Rockefeller head the commission to investigate the CIA.”[20]

The Rockefellers were also behind the admission of the former Shah of Iran to the U.S., which set the stage for the hostage crisis and assured the downfall of U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Initially backed by David Rockefeller as the first Trilateralist candidate, Carter challenged the ruling order by replacing then head of the CIA George H. W. Bush and launching a full-scale investigation into its activities. The hostage crisis had the added benefit of being a pretext to freeze Iranian assets in foreign banks, and prevented withdrawal of assets from the Rockefeller’s Chase Manhattan Bank of London.[21]

Following the successful 1953 CIA operation to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh and install Mohammed Reza Shah, David Rockefeller’s Chase Manhattan Bank profited from the dictator’s US$6 billion in deposits.[22] After the 1979 Islamic revolution, the new Iranian government attempted to withdraw these funds, but that would have dealt Chase a serious financial blow, so Rockefeller had Kissinger pressure Brzezinski to convince then President Carter to freeze Iranian assets.[23]

Kissinger was also associated with Rockefeller as a member of Chase Manhattan’s international advisory board.[24] John J. McCloy, a former Chairman of Chase Manhattan with ties to Mohammed Reza Shah, was also behind Rockefeller’s push to give the dictator sanctuary in the U.S. and to freeze Iranian assets.[25] “Chairman” McCloy appears to be a central figure in this intrigue, as he laid the foundations for the CIA in the Office of Strategic Services and was chair of the highly influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).[26] How influential is it? Former CFR president and Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Winston Lord[27] once quipped, “The Trilateral Commission doesn’t run the world; the Council on Foreign Relations does that!”[28]

Lord’s remark aside, the highest-level nexus between banking, intelligence, corporate and government leaders appears to be in the mysterious and highly exclusive Bilderberg conferences. Named after the hotel in Holland that hosted the first meeting in May 1954, the Bilderberg Group involved the CIA from its onset and is far more secretive than the Trilateral Commission or the CFR. Among its founders were the by now familiar names of John J. McCloy, General Walter Beddell Smith, and David Rockefeller.[29]

Names of attendees at Bilderberg conferences read like a who’s who among the world’s power brokers, and include Allen Dulles, George Kennan, Nelson Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski, John McCloy, Gerald Ford, Robert S. McNamara, Alexander Haig, Robert O. Anderson, Henry Ford III, James Rockefeller,[30] George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, Bill Clinton and John Kerry.[31]

Will the real leaders please stand? No, they refuse to expose themselves to public scrutiny and risk outrage over their ravenous greed and corrupt ways. Instead, they hide from us while issuing their decrees within the secure, fortress-like venues of the Bilderberg conferences, with the CIA always close by should the need arise for regime change, targeted assassinations or other covert operations.

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2009-06-06

Endnotes

[1] Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, New York: Bloomsbury, 2009, page 182.

[2] Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, New York: Harper, 2005, page 559.

[3] Howard Zinn, op. cit., page 560.

[4] Howard Zinn, op. cit., page 560.

[5] Howard Zinn, op. cit., page 561.

[6] Central Intelligence Agency Website, https://www.cia.gov/index.html (Accessed 26 April 2009)

[7] George F. Kennan, Memoirs, Boston: Little Brown, 1972, page 202.

[8] David Rudgers, The Origins of Covert Action, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol 35(2), pp. 249-262 London: Sage Publications, 2000, page 253, http://jch.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/2/249 (Accessed 30 April 2009)

[9] David Rudgers, op. cit., page 257.

[10] David Rudgers, op. cit., page 259.

[11] Directors and Deputy Directors of Central Intelligence, Sidney Souers, CIA website, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/directors-and-deputy-directors-of-central-intelligence/sours.html (Accessed 23 May 2009)

[12] David Rudgers, op. cit., page 260.

[13] Secretaries of Defense Histories, U.S. Department of Defense website, http://www.defenselink.mil/specials/secdef_histories/bios/clifford.htm (Accessed 23 May 2009)

[14] David Rudgers, op. cit., page 260.

[15] CIA Front Companies, http://www.jar2.com/2/Intel/CIA/CIA Fronts.htm (Accessed 26 April 2009)

[16] Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times, 17 February 2008, http://articles.latimes.com/p/2008/feb/17/nation/na-intel17 (Accessed 23 May 2009)

[17] David Price, Subtle Means and Enticing Carrots: The Impact of Funding on American Cold War Anthropology, Critique of Anthropology, Vol 23(4), pp. 373-401, London: Sage Publications, 2003, page 380, http://coa.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/23/4/373 (Accessed 30 April 2009)

[18] David Price, op. cit., page 381.

[19] David Price, op. cit., page 382.

[20] Howard Zinn, The CIA, Rockefeller, and the Boys in the Club, 14 June 1975, Media Left website, http://medialeft.net/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=605 (Accessed 5 May 2009)

[21] Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, op. cit., page 310.

[22] Robert Parry, October Surprise X-Files (Part 4): The Money Trail, The Consortium, http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/xfile4.html (Accessed 9 May 2009)

[23] Weak Understanding is Cause of Bad Iran Policies, Ebrahim Yazdi in Interview with Rooz, 8 June 2007, http://www.roozonline.com/english/archives/2007/06/weak_understanding_is_cause_of.html (Accessed 9 May 2009)

[24] Chase Manhattan Bank, SourceWatch website, http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Chase_Manhattan_Bank (Accessed 9 May 2009)

[25] John Jay McCloy, Spartacus Educational, http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccloyJ.htm (Accessed 23 May 2009)

[26] Michael Bradley, The Secret Societies Handbook, New York: Metro Books, 2004, page 23.

[27] Winston Lord Assistant Secretary Of State For East Asian And Pacific Affairs, Biography, U.S. Department of State, http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/biographies/lord.html (Accessed 30 May 2009)

[28] Micheal Bradley, op. cit., page 140.

[29] Bilderbergs, http://www.4rie.com/rie 3.html (Accessed 22 May 2009)

[30] Daniel Estulin, Bilderberg 2007 comes to an end, PrisonPlanet website, 3 June 2007, http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2007/030607Bilderberg3.htm (Accessed 23 May 2009)

[31] The Bilderberg Group, Political Friendster website, http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=320&name=The-Bilderberg-group (Accessed 23 May 2009)

A Slight Uptick

“Despite the declining levels of violence in Iraq over recent months, the latest strikes reflect what appears to be a slight uptick from March to April of assaults on civilians, U.S. and Iraqi security forces, and the U.S.-backed militias called Awakening Councils or Sons of Iraq.” --Published by CNN on 23 April 2009.[1]

In a breathtakingly expurgatory use of language, CNN refers to the gruesome deaths of over 70 Iraqis by a suicide bomber as “a slight uptick” in violence.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, “uptick” means an increase or upturn,[2] with the word’s etymology in stock market transactions referring to an increase in stock price as shown on the ticker tape.

It should come as no surprise that the mainstay of the capitalist corporate media would choose a word whose origins lie in the stock market to describe the human carnage produced by the U.S. occupation. Award-winning independent Journalist Dahr Jamail, on the other hand, describes the on-going tragedy in Iraq in slightly different terms.

“The US occupation of Iraq, which has become the full responsibility of President Barack Obama, is once again a bloodbath. Not that it had ceased to be violent, brutal and chaotic, for not one day has passed since the US invasion of Iraq was launched that hasn't found several Iraqis being senselessly slaughtered.”[3]

A Bloodbath, violent, brutal and chaotic; contrast these words, from the vocabulary of a reporter with first-hand knowledge of the reality of the U.S. war and occupation in Iraq, with the sanitized, innocuous phrase employed by CNN, “a slight uptick.”

The U.S. Army Field Manual emphasizes the paramount importance of proper media spin. “The American people expect decisive victory and abhor unnecessary casualties,” warn its authors, adding, “They prefer quick resolution of conflicts and reserve the right to reconsider their support should any of these conditions not be met.”[4]

The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has been a media event from its inception, under full control of the Pentagon propaganda machine with “embedded” reporters obediently spewing out news reports consistent with the spin objectives of military censors. As a result, words like “bloodbath” or “carnage” rarely appear in the news.

As Professor Douglas Kellner of the University of California at Los Angeles points out, “The embedded U.S. network television reporters were gung-ho cheerleaders and spinners for the U.S. and U.K. military and lost any veneer of objectivity.”[5]

And CNN is sensitive to the desires of its American audience. When an embedded reporter showed one picture of a slaughtered Iraqi, angry viewers swamped the switchboard with calls demanding that the news network not show any dead bodies. Professor Kellner observes that it was “as if the U.S. audience wanted to be in denial concerning the human costs of the war.”[6]

Understandably, U.S. war planners want to minimize Americans’ perception of casualties so as to maintain public support for their war. As Professors Stephen Bennett of the University of Cincinnati and Richard Flickinger of Wittenberg University explain, “it is in the interests of the policy makers seeking public support for a war to do what they can to minimize public perceptions of casualties.”[7] However, if Professor Kellner’s observationis correct, the American people themselves don’t want to know about the grim realities of their government’s war on Iraq, making censorship a relatively easy task.

This desire for denial by Americans of the escalating human cost of the Iraq war finally showed signs of lessening with the November 2006 elections. Voters seemed to send a clear message for withdrawing U.S. armed forces from Iraq, but the administration responded with an escalation of the conflict that it dubbed a ”surge.”

The failure on the part of the Bush administration to yield to public opinion seems to be a blatant breach of the democratic process. Professors Robert Entman and Steven Livingston of George Washington University, and Ms. Jennie Kim of the U.S.State Department address this issue and state, “Although surely not the only factor in producing the apparent breach, the media played an important role.”[8]

Clarifying the U.S. media’s role in the downplaying of the human costs of the war on Iraq, the authors elucidate, “As casualties and other consequences of policy in Iraq became routine, their news value diminished.”[9] The idea, that Americans simply loose interest in and stop paying attention to the daily news of devastation wrought by their implicit support of the Iraq war, is even more disturbing than the allegation of denial.

The media tends to follow the strong-willed, unified policy voice of the White House, which contrasts sharply with the weak-willed and disorganized opposition offered by timid members of the U.S. Congress following their long, cacophonous policy debates.[10]

So, if the White House says there is no trend of increased violence in Iraq, only “a slight uptick,” the compliant corporate media, with its cautious, career-conscious journalists will be sure to parrot the words verbatim, and the American public will continue to pay attention to their denial-reinforcing news reports ...until they collectively loose interest.

“The responsibility for the conduct and use of military forces is derived from the people and the government,” states the U.S. Army Field Manual. “In the end, the people will pass judgment on the appropriateness of the conduct and use of military operations.”[11]

Which people? TheAmericans? No, it’s the Iraqis who are passing judgment on the appropriateness of U.S. conduct, as clearly seen by the recent “uptick” in attacks.

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2009-05-03

Endnotes

[1] Bombings Kill More Than 70 in Iraq, CNN, 23 April 2009, Common Dreams website, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/04/23-3 (Accessed 24 April 2009)

[2] Michael Agnes ed., Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4^th edition, Cleveland, Wiley, 2006, page 1571.

[3] Dahr Jamail, The Horrible Truth, Truthout, 24April 2009, http://www.truthout.org/042409A (Accessed 25 April 2009)

[4] Field Manual 100-5, Operations, Headquarters, Department of the Army, Washington, DC,14 June 1993, page 1-3, http://www.fprado.com/armorsite/US-Field-Manuals/FM-100-5-Operations.pdf (Accessed 25 April 2009)

[5] Douglas Kellner, Media Propaganda and Spectacle in the War on Iraq: A Critique of U.S. Broadcasting Networks, Cultural Studies <=> Critical Methodologies, Volume 4 Number 3, Sage Publications, page 332.

http://csc.sagepub.com/cgi/contnet/abstract/4/3/329 (Accessed 24 April 2009)

[6] DouglasKellner, op. cit.,

[7] StephenEarl Bennett and Richard S. Flickinger, Americans’ Knowledge of U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq, April 2004 to April 2008, Armed Forces & Society, Volume 35 Number 3, April 2009, Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces and Society, pages 600 and 601, hosted online by Sage Publications, http://afs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/35/3/587 (Accessed 24 April 2009)

[8] Robert M.Entman, Steven Livingston and Jennie Kim, Doomed to

Repeat: Iraq News, 2002-2007, American Behavioral Scientist, Volume 52 Number 5, Sage Publications, January 2009, page 689, http://abs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/52/5/689 (Accessed 24 April 2009)

[9] Robert M. Entman, Steven Livingston and Jennie Kim, op. cit., page 691.

[10] Robert M. Entman, Steven Livingston and Jennie Kim, op. cit., page 702.

[11] Field Manual 100-5, op. cit., page 1-3.

A Cascade of Insanity

“Last year, oil cost a king's ransom. This year, it's relatively cheap. But don't be fooled. Price isn't the point here. Like it or not, energy is still what everyone who's anyone wants to get their hands on.”-- Brazilian journalist and author Pepe Escobar.[i]

It was about oil. It is about oil, and, for the foreseeable future, it will be about oil.

How long has it been about oil? At least since a young British naval officer named Winston Churchill realized it would be more efficient to fuel battleships with oil than with coal. But switching from coal to oil presented logistics problems.

Britain had ample coal but no oil reserves. So, in order to secure a supply, the government bought 51% of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s stock. In 1914, America followed Britain’s lead. By World War II, every colonial power had converted its navy to oil, thus setting the stage for the exploitation of Iran and the rest of the Middle East.[ii]

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was formed 15 June 2001 by China in response to aggressive US energy moves in Central Asia. Its member states include the energy-rich countries in the Caspian Sea region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Iran is an “observer” state along with US “allies” Pakistan and India.

Among the goals of the SCO are “making joint efforts to maintain and ensure peace, security and stability in the region, moving towards the establishment of a new, democratic, just and rational political and economic international order.”[iii] Efforts for peace, security and stability? When translated into Washington’s bellicose foreign policy discourse, these admirable goals are rendered as “a cascade of instability.”

Given that Iran will soon be a full member of the SCO[iv]helps explain why it remains a target on the US-Israeli radar screen. Iran a nuclear threat? Hardly. Iran a supporter of international terrorism? Forget it![v] The real threat is that Iran has become a key player in the global energy war being fought by Euraisian “upstarts” against the US oil empire.[vi]

Of course, the Israelis, finding themselves short of energy, have long since cast their fate with the US[vii]and, in so doing, are first in line to frame their energy resource wars in terms of threats of attack by a nuclear-armed Iran.[viii] A recent report entitled “A Cascade of Instability” published by the right-wing Washington Institute illustrates a typical oil war marketing ploy.

“Preventing Iran’s acquisition or development of a military nuclear capability is therefore a vital national priority. To that end, the United States should strengthen its policies to prevent, mitigate, or counteract cascading instability resulting from Iranian nuclear progress.”[ix]

Disguising an oil war as a response to a nonexistent threat is nothing new. The US-backed CIA overthrow of the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 had nothing to do with countering a threat of Communism and everything to do with oil. Prime Minister Mossadegh had convinced the Iranian Majlis to vote to nationalize the highly profitable Anglo-Iranian Oil Company with its huge refinery at Abadan and thus end foreign control of Iranian oil resources.

How profitable was Anglo-Iranian Oil? According to a US State Department source,the company sold its oil for ten to thirty times the cost of producing it.[x] How hypocritical were the British? The British Parliament was, itself, in the process of nationalizing key industries such as coal, steel, railroads and utilities.[xi]

With their greed exposed, the British had no choice but to present their case for regime replacement to an all-too-enthusiastic but fledgling CIA as protecting western interests in Iran against a Communist threat. In truth, the British feared that yielding to Iranian demands would encourage democratic nationalist movements in other colonial regimes and lead to a “cascade of instability” in the oil-rich Middle East.[xii]

As oil reserves began to diminish, America again followed the British lead and launched its own series of oil wars aimed at its own energy security, culminating in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. These oil wars enabled the US to gain control of perhaps 25% of the world’s energy deposits[xiii]and have created a world-wide cascade of instability in their wake. The pretexts and policies justifying the use of American lethal force in their execution would most accurately be described as a “cascade of insanity.”

As a result, A global cascade of instabilities has been set in motion by this on-going cascade of insanity; political instability resulting directly from the oil wars themselves, economic instability due to the unscrupulous schemes to finance these wars and global climate instability resulting from the profligate consumption of the oil itself.

And now, in furtherance of these oil wars and possibly as a subterfuge for an attack on Iran, President Obama has added his own personal contribution to the “cascade of insanity.” In justifying a US troop surge in Afghanistan, President Obama stated, "And if the Afghan government falls to the Taliban, or allows al-Qaida to go unchallenged -- that country will again be a base for terrorists who want to kill as many of our people as they possibly can."[xiv] Of course, no mention is made of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline route the oil war “surge” is attempting to secure.[xv]

So what can be done to counter this cascade of insanity? We can demand that our leaders engage in some clear-headed thinking about the consequences of continuing our current policies. If we do not challenge the cascade of insanity, the cascade of instabilities of our own creation-- political instability, economic collapse and accelerating global climate change[xvi]-- will cause a Tsunami of devastation, exceeding that of current US oil wars.

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2009-04-18

Endnotes

[i] PepeEscobar, Liquid War Postcard from Pipelineistan, Tomdispatch.com, 24 March 2009, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175050/pepe_escobar_welcome_to_pipelineistan(Accessed 25 March 2009)

[ii] Erik J.Dahl, Naval innovation: From coal to oil, E & P Magazine, 1 July 2006, http://www.epmag.com/archives/digitalOilField/5911.htm (Accessed 11 April 2009)

[iii] Brief Introduction to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, SCO Website, http://www.sectsco.org/EN/brief.asp (Accessed 30 March 2009)

[iv] Pepe Escobar, The secrets of Obama's surge, Asia Times Online, 2 April 2009, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KD02Df03.html (Accessed 18 April 2009)

[v] Scott Ritter, Oil, Israel, and America: The Root Cause of the Crisis, Global Research, 10 October 2007, http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7038 (Accessed 6 April 2009)

[vi] Paul Roberts, The Undeclared Oil War, Washington Post, 28 June 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10714-2004Jun27.html (Accessed 12 April 2009)

[vii] United States of America and Israel, Memorandum of Agreement concerning an oil supply arrangement (with annex). Signed at Washington on 26 March 1979, Amended 22 June 1979, http://untreaty.un.org/unts/60001_120000/6/27/00011344.pdf (Accessed 6 April 2009)

[viii]Brig.-Gen. (res.) Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Energy as an Element of Israel's National Security, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 26 October 2008, http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=283&PID=1844&IID=2666 (Accessed 11 April 2009)

[ix] Preventing a Cascade of Instability U.S. Engagement to Check Iranian Nuclear Progress,Task Force on Iranian Proliferation, Regional Security, and U.S. Policy, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, March 2009, http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/pubPDFs/PTF-Iran.pdf (Accessed 25 March 2009)

[x] Stephen Kinzer, All The Shah’s Men, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2003, page 87.

[xi] Stephen Kinzer, op. cit., page 89.

[xii] Stephen Kinzer, op. cit., page 91.

[xiii] Robert Fisk, Oil, War And A Growing Sense Of Panic In The US, The Independent, 1 October 2003, Information Clearing House website, http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4855.htm (Accessed 12 April 2009)

[xiv] Juan Cole,Obama's Domino Theory, Salon.com, 30 March 2009, on Common Dreams website, http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/30-1 (Accessed 31 March 2009)

[xv] Pepe Escobar, The secrets of Obama's surge, op.cit.

[xvi] Jonathon Porritt, Perfect Storm of Environmental and Economic Collapse Closer Than You Think, The Guardian UK, 24 March 2009, Common Dreams website, http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/24-5 (Accessed 25 March 2009)

Armchair Terrorist?

“All I am asking for is to be treated like every other person in the United States who is accused of a crime, including terrorism, and to be given a fair trial in an American court," pleaded Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, an alleged terrorist held for over 5 years without a trial in isolation at the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig in Charleston, South Carolina.[i]

The United States Constitution clearly requires trial by jury for all crimes without exception other than cases of impeachment.[ii] Even someone accused of treason cannot be convicted without testimony by two witnesses in open court.[iii] Despite constitutional guarantees of a speedy, public trial[iv] and freedom of religion,[v] in post-9/11 America those accused of terrorism and Muslims have been singled out as exceptions.

Sadly, one of the responses I received from a colleague after sharing that I converted to Islam was “Now that you’ve joined the terrorists, you’re not going to blow up anything, are you?” I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, as U.S.propaganda promoting the “War on Terror” has done a fine job of equating Islam with terrorism, demonizing Muslims and of course, portraying Israelis as the innocent victims of Palestinian terrorists.[vi]

I’ve been called many things since I became politically active. I’ve been called unpatriotic for voicing my outrage over the U.S. invasion of Iraq and condemning U.S.atrocities there. I’ve been called anti-semitic for my criticism of Zionism and the Israeli government’s policies in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. While protesting the Israeli attacks on Lebanon in 2006, someone yelled at me, “If you don’t like it here get out!”

But recently, one of my anonymous electronic critics called me an “armchair terrorist.” I’m still marveling at the juxtaposition of these two words; “Armchair,” connoting casual comfort and complacency, and “Terrorist” with its inherently brutal malevolency. Like an armchair quarterback cheering on his favorite team, I stand accused of supporting the “terrorists” in the comfort of my home. And I thought I was protesting against injustice.

Keep in mind that there is no universally accepted definition of terrorism; just who is a terrorist and who is a resistance fighter depends on one’s point of view. A recent United Nations committee report emphasized the need for agreement on a legal definition of terrorism and stressed that such a definition “should establish a clear distinction between acts of terrorism covered by the convention and the legitimate struggle of peoples in the exercise of their right to self-determination or against foreign occupation.”[vii]

This difference of opinion over terrorism is clearly illustrated by contrasting the positions of the Syrian delegate to the United Nations Sixth Committee with his Israeli counterpart. The Syrian delegate, Ghassan Obeid, stated that foreign occupation was the most heinous form of terrorism. He emphasized that resistance by the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation was legal, and their daily repression by the Israeli occupiers must be denounced. The Israeli delegate, Tal Becker replied, “the attempt to argue that Israeli measures to protect civilian lives were terrorism, while suicide attacks which threatened them were part of a legitimate struggle, was offensive in the extreme.”[viii]

Despite the lack of a legal definition of terrorism, the U.S. Government maintains a “Terrorist Watch List,” which now contains over one million names and includes members of the U.S. Congress, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.[ix]

The fear of terrorism seems to prevail everywhere in the U.S.. Not long ago during a brief conversation, a bystander at a bus stop informed me with all seriousness that al-Qaeda had already set up terrorist cells in a nearby city. I was so taken back by this remark that I failed to ask him, “How do you know about this, are you a member?”

I was amazed at the ordeal necessary to open a new account at a neighborhood bank. I was asked for two forms of identification, was fingerprinted and I was informed that I would be investigated by outside agency. While waiting for what seemed like hours as a superficially friendly bank clerk input reams of data into the computer, I noticed a sign that explained all of this information gathering is being done to insure that my account isn’t used for money laundering to finance terrorism.

Perhaps I should have mentioned to the smiling bank clerk that I have donated to charities that try to help the besieged citizens of Gaza cope with the devastating Israeli attacks. By making these donations, I might even be considered an “Unlawful EnemyCombatant” under the broad scope of the Military Commissions act, a definite step up from accusations of being a mere armchair terrorist. As one U.S. court observed, an unlawful enemy combatant could include a “little old lady in Switzerland who writes checks to what she thinks is a charity that helps orphans in Afghanistan but really is a front to finance al-Qaeda activities.”[x]

The majority of U.S. citizens seem content with this state of affairs, as most do little beyond occasionally contacting their representatives to voice their opinions. A few idealistic Americans have actually deducted a portion of their taxes in protest of the bloated U.S. “defense” budget and while I admire that, I have paid mine, so like most Americans, I could be considered as complicit in U.S. government policies.

Without opposition by an external power or strong protest from its citizenry, America has metastasized into an imperialistic cancer, which in pursuit of its never-ending “War on Terror,” consumes half the world’s “defense” budget, has military installations infecting over 150 countries, and has been directly involved in destabilizing and overthrowing democratically elected governments around the world.

If any other country acted with the arrogance and impunity of the United States, it would be universally condemned as a rogue state and a supporter of international terrorism. If I could be called an armchair terrorist, then perhaps I would bejustified to call the complacent, compliant and complicit majority of U.S.citizens “armchair imperialists.”

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2009-03-07

Endnotes

[i] Jane Meyer,The Hard Cases, Will Obama institute a new kind of preventive detention for terrorist suspects?, The New Yorker, 20 February 2009, http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/20-0(Accessed 22 February 2009)

[ii] “The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury,” U.S. Constitution, Article 3, Section 2.

[iii] “No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on Testimony of two Witness to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court,” U.S. Constitution, Article 3, Section 3.

[iv] “The accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial,” Amendment 6, United States Constitution.

[v] “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” Amendment 6, United States Constitution.

[vi] Edward Said, Covering Islam, New York: Random House, 1997, page xxi.

[vii] Report Of The Ad Hoc Committee Established By General Assembly Resolution 51/210 Of 17 December 1996, 12th Session (25 And 26 February And 6 March 2008 ),UnitedNations Document A/63/37(SUPP) [ English ] , released 4 April 2008, page 12, http://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N08/268/05/pdf/N0826805.pdf?OpenElement (Accessed 27 February 2009)

Note: To access this document, go to http://documents.un.org/simple.asp then in the field “Symbol” enter “A/63/37(SUPP)” and click on “Search.” This will bring up a screen with a link to the document.

[viii] Final Agreement Elusive, Legal Committee Endorses Further Work, Press Release GA/L/3200, Fifty-sixth General Assembly, Sixth Committee, 21 November 2001, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2001/GAL3200.doc.htm,(Accessed 27 February 2009)

[ix] Privacy Watch: Out-of-control Terrorist Watch List, The American Civil Liberties Union National Newsletter, American Civil Liberties Union, Winter 2009, page 7.

[x] Allison M. Danner, Defining Unlawful Enemy Combatants: A Centripetal Story, Texas International Law Journal, University of Texas at Austin, Fall 2007, http://tilj.org/journal/entry/43_1_danner/P3/(Accessed 22 February 2009)

A Revolution of Hope

“Islam wishes to bring all humanity under the umbrella of justice...It does not take the sword to export this ideology.” - Imam Khomeini.[i]

Hope. People need and deserve hope. Oppressed people need to believe that somehow, things will get better; if not for themselves then certainly for their children.

Islam is a religion of hope. It is not a religion of hate, violence or terrorism, but rather is a religion that emphasizes social justice. It is a religion that gives oppressed people hope of being freed from tyrants and tyranny.

The Islamic Revolution in Iran galvanized oppressed Muslims and non-Muslims alike with renewed hope, not only in the Middle East but also around the world. It demonstrated that oppressed people acting under the guiding principles of Islam could overthrow a ruthless dictator, even one who was supported by the United States.

Mohammad Reza Shah, installed by a CIA-engineered coup in1953, ruled with an iron fist, brutally suppressing any opposition with his SAVAK secret police. In the Tabriz uprising of 18 February 1978, at least 500 people were slaughtered[ii]when the Shah used tanks and helicopter gunships to regain control of the city.[iii] On 8 September 1978, “Black Friday,” over4,000 Iranians were gunned down by the Shah’s commandos in Jaleh Square in Tehran. It is estimated that over 50,000 Iranians were martyred in the tumultuous year prior to the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini’s return.[iv]

The joy from the victory of the Islamic Revolution on 11 February 1979 was so great that in Najaf, Iraq, Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir as-Sadr declared a three-day holiday at the seminary and sent his personal disciple to Tehran, while students demonstrated carrying pictures of the revolution’s victorious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.[v]

Islam challenged the established order of tyranny and oppression from its very inception in the time of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) as Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir as-Sadr writes, “Islam was not a superficial, reformatory process in society, but was rather a radical and revolutionary process aimed at the building of a new society.”[vi]

For Muslims, fighting against aggression, aggressors and oppressive governments falls within the scope of the much-maligned and misunderstood word “Jihad,” as the Holy Qur’an commands, “Fight against aggressors until oppression is stopped.” (2:193)[vii]

And among Muslims, the Shi’a have always been on the forefront of fighting for social justice. For the Shi’i Muslims, social justice is not merely a theoretical issue for debate in seminaries but rather a practical principle to be implemented on a social level.[viii]

Shi’a scholars (mujtahids) have been in the forefront of political activism in Iran from the beginning of the Qajar dynasty around 1800, during the Constitutional Revolution of 1905 to 1911, and through the hated British-installed Pahlavi dynasty.[ix] This trend intensified in 1963 with Ayatollah Khomeini’s first public declarations against the dictator Mohammad Reza Shah and culminated in the Imam’s victorious return to Iran on 1 February 1979 to a cheering crowd of 3 million citizens at Tehran’s airport.[x]

The Western Powers responded to the Islamic Revolution by launching a multi-frontal attack. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, fearing the spread of the revolution to Muslims under Soviet rule.[xi] Israel invaded Lebanon to suppress any possible Islamic uprising in the south. The French strengthened their support of the Marionite government in Lebanon and openly sold arms to Saddam in Iraq.[xii] The United States rushed military aid to the ruthless Iraqi dictator, enabling him to crush a massive Shi’a uprising.

Ever fearful of the hope inspired by the Islamic Revolutionin Iran, the United States again allowed Saddam to crush a popular revolt known as the Sha’aban Intifada that followed the Gulf War of 1991. U.S. President George H. W. Bush, in typical doublespeak, first incited Iraqis to revolt against Saddam and then refused to come to their aid. Why? The Americans panicked, fearing Iranian influence, when they mistook pictures of Ayatollah as-Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei on posters carried by the resistance fighters to be pictures of Ayatollah Khomeini.[xiii]

Hezbollah and Hamas are popular in Lebanon and Gaza respectively, because these Islamic movements give hope to the oppressed people in those regions. Both provide needed social services and have built schools and hospitals while fighting against U.S.-supported Zionist aggressors who seem intent on destroying them.

There are those in the West who would call Ayatollah Khomeini, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah[xiv]and Sheikh Ahmad Yassin of Hamas[xv]terrorists. They refer to Hezbollah as a terrorist group, Hamas resistance fighters as terrorists and Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism.[xvi]

All of these leaders and organizations have fought and continue to fight against tyrants and tyranny. All of these organizations have been inspired by the hope created by the Islamic Revolution in Iran and Imam Khomeini.

“I am with terrorism if it is able to free a people from tyrants and tyranny,” wrote Syrian poet Nizar Qabani,[xvii] and so am I.

The Islamic Revolution...30 years of inspiring hope and counting.

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2009-02-04

End Notes

[i] R.K.Ramazani ed., Iran’s Revolution, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1990, page 55.

[ii] The Islamic Revolution in Iran, Qum, Ansariyan, 2007, page 87

[iii] Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran, New York, Cambridge, 2008, page 159.

[iv] The Islamic Revolution in Iran, Qum, Ansariyan, 2007, page 29.

[v] Patrick Cockburn, Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq, NewYork, Schribner, 2008, page 40.

[vi] Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, Ghadir, Qum, Ansariyan Publications, 2007, page 27

[vii] Mohammad Ali Shomali, Discovering Shi’i Islam, Qum, Ansariyan Publications, 2003, page 60.

[viii] Mohammad Ali Shomali, op.cit., page 43.

[ix] The Islamic Revolution in Iran, op.cit, page 18-19.

[x] Ervand Abrahamian, op.cit., page 161.

[xi] Doug MacEachin and Janne E. Nolan Co-Chairs, Project Coordinator: Kristine Tockman,The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979: Failure of Intelligence or of the Policy Process? Georgetown University, Working Group Report, No. 111, September 26, 2005, http://isd.georgetown.edu/Afghan_1_WR_group.pdf(Accessed 31 January 2009)

[xii] Augustus Richard Norton, Hezbollah, Princeton, Princeton University Press, page 37.

[xiii] Patrick Cockburn, op.cit., page 67.

[xiv] Augustus Richard Norton, op.cit., page 34-36.

[xv] Ibrahim Barzak, Israelis Kill Hamas Founder, The Denver Post, 22 March 2004.

[xvi] Iran’s Support for Terrorism, Issue Brief, American Israel Public Affairs Committee,14 August 2007, http://www.aipac.org/Publications/AIPACAnalysesIssueBriefs/Issue_Brief_Iran_Terror.pdf(Accessed 2 February 2009)

[xvii] Tariq Ali, Bush in Babylon, London, Verso, 2003, page 12.

Shabbat Shalom!

The traditional Saturday greeting among Jews of all varieties from secular to religious, “Shabbat Shalom” literally means “A Sabbath of peace.” However, on Saturday, 27 December 2008, there was no Sabbath of peace in Gaza, as US-financed Israeli F-16 warplanes[1] unloaded their lethal cargos of US manufactured GB-39 bunker buster bombs[2] on innocent Palestinians.

Majid, a Palestinian friend of mine whose family fled to Syria during the Nakbah, was visibly upset and shaken. “Why don’t the Israelis just finish them off,” he asked rhetorically referring to the citizens of Gaza, adding, “After starving them for two years, a quick death would be more merciful!” I think that’s Israel’s plan.

According to reports, the Ministry of Culture and Gaza University were among the targets[3] of the bloody Israeli bombings that began Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, at 11:25 am local time. I read the news updates in disgust and disbelief; first 150 dead, then 200, and later 300 dead with preparations for an Israeli ground assault underway. News sources are now reporting over 400 dead and 2000 injured with no end sight.[4]

Gaza hospitals have been unable to cope with the onslaught of wounded due to the lack of medical supplies resulting from the continuous Israeli blockades of border crossings.[5] Israel has rejected a proposal for a 48-hour ceasefire to allow for humanitarian aid.[6]

As usual, the U.S. is not pushing for a ceasefire. Deputy Press Secretary Gordon Johndroe indicated that the White House has called for a truce, but added in typical meaningless doublespeak, “We don't just want a ceasefire for the sake of a ceasefire.”[7]

From 19 June 2008, Hamas tried to maintain an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire despite a continuing Israeli blockade on Gaza and raids that had claimed over 10 Palestinian lives a week. Israel first violated the ceasefire on 27 June by killing senior Hamas official Shihab al-Natsheh, and then escalated its violations on 5 November by killing 6 more Palestinians and dispatching tanks and bulldozers into Gaza.[8]

Tzipi Livni justified the slaughter in Gaza as a defensive response to Hamas rocket attacks, as if a barrage of ICBMs had struck the Zionist regime. I became nauseous as she insisted that Israelis have “the right to live in peace and quiet like any other citizens in the world,"[9] a right Israel denies Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

Defense Minister Ehud Barack emphasized that the Zionist state is in an “all out war against Hamas and its proxies in Gaza,”[10] which appears to include the citizens themselves.

Zionist mouthpiece Mark Regev warned, “The Hamas war machine is still formidable and lethal,”[11] as if Gazan defenses could possibly be any match for the U.S.-funded Israeli Wehrmacht.

Benjamin Netanyahu says, “One side is to blame…that’s Hamas. The other side represents the rest of humanity,”[12] effectively dehumanizing all of us who stand in support of Gazans in this struggle.

The White House maintains that the Israeli air strikes are the fault of Hamas, adding with eloquence characteristic of Bush, “these people are nothing but thugs.”[13]

Regrettably, President-elect Barack Obama has remained silent, despite past expressions of empathy for Palestinians.[14]

Turkey and Syria have condemned the Israeli attacks on Gazans as a “holocaust,” and are calling for an immediate end to the blood bath.[15]

Hezbollah declared "What is happening in the Gaza Strip is an ‘Israeli' war crime and an act of genocide committed by the enemy government."[16]

“Shabbat Shalom,” suggests an exclusive tribal wish of peace and well being reserved for clan members only, exposing the racism inherent in Zionism. For those outside the clans protected domain, it may be Shabbat but there is no Shalom.

For on the same day that Jews were exchanging greetings of “Shabbat Shalom,” Israeli Occupation Forces were launching a genocidal blitzkrieg against Gazans whose only “crime” is trying to survive under an ongoing Zionist siege.

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2 January 2009

End Notes

[1] Massive Israeli air raids on Gaza, BBC News, 27 December 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7800985.stm (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[2] Vicki S. Nikolaidis, We must stop the violence. Our leaders refuse., Red Room, 31 December 2008, http://www.redroom.com/blog/vickinikolaidis/we-must-stop-violence-our-leaders-refuse (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[3] Tim Butcher, Ministry of Culture and Gaza University, Telegraph, 29 December 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4013026/Israel-pounds-Gaza-for-third-day-Interior-ministry-destroyed.html (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[4] Gaza death toll rises to 400; 1938 injured, Press TV, 1 January 2008, http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=80082&sectionid=351020202 (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[5] Press Release, Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 27 December 2008, http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/120-2008.html (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[6] World Powers Call for End to Gaza Fighting, Agence France Presse, 30 December 2008, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/30-9 (Accessed 31 December 2008)

[7] Press Briefing by Deputy Press Secretary Gordon Johndroe, Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, 30 December 2008, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/12/20081230-2.html (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[8] War on Gaza – Timeline, Press TV, 30 December 2008, http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=79964&sectionid=3510304 (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[9] Israeli foreign minister defends military strikes, Yahoo News, 29 December 2008, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081229/ap_on_go_ot/israel_palestinians_livni (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[10] Israeli Attacks Kill Over 310 in Gaza in One of Israel’s Bloodiest Attacks on Palestinians Since 1948, Democracy Now, 29 December 2008, http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/29/israeli_attacks_kill_over_310_in (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[11] Democracy Now, op. cit.

[12] Israeli Lawmaker and Conscientious Objector Nephew of Ex-PM Benjamin Netanyahu Denounce Israeli Attack on Gaza Strip, Democracy Now, 31 December 2008, http://www.democracynow.org/2008/12/31/israeli_lawmaker_and_conscientious_objector_nephew (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[13] Aliza Marcus, Hamas Must End Attacks on Israel, Bush Administration Says, Bloomberg, 28 December 2008, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aQgOMa1Te4Gw (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[14] Ross Colvin, Pro-Palestinian Protesters at Obama's Hawaii House, Reuters, 30 December 2008, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/30-10 (Accessed 31 December 2008)

[15] Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, http://english.hizbollah.tv/essaydetails.php?eid=7148&cid=215 (Accessed 1 January 2009)

[16] Islamic Resistance in Lebanon, http://english.hizbollah.tv/essaydetails.php?eid=7038&cid=214 (Accessed 1 January 2009)

‘Tis the Season

“Happy, happy Thanksgiving. May each of you return to work 5 lbs. (2.4 kg.) heavier on Monday,” an anonymous American manager wrote to employees on the day before the holiday. Contrast the words of this present-day manager to the words of Imam Ali (A.S.) who once said, “I want to eat the kind of food which the poorest of this realm can afford…I want to live, feel and suffer like them.”[i]

Americans are more concerned with their waist lines than with the “waste line” of garbage trucks required to remove the byproducts of their profligate consumer lifestyles. If parked end-to-end, this cordon of trucks would encircle the earth six times, a fact bringing America’s consumptive habits sharply into focus. An American consumes more than 30 times as much as the average citizen of India,[ii] where the most recent flare-up of U.S.-induced violence claimed 171 victims in Mumbai.

“’Tis the Season to be Jolly,” as the popular Christmas carol begins, and to engage in mass consumption. The hallmark of America’s addiction to materialism, the holiday season is replete with copious spending for extravagant gifts, gorging on sumptuous holiday foods and merrymaking with the requisite imbibing of alcoholic beverages.

Originally set aside for giving thanks for the bountiful blessings Allah bestowed upon America, Thanksgiving Day has become an annual feast-bordering-on-gluttony ritual, as indicated by the manager’s message cited above. The day marks the official beginning of the annual American holiday season, which continues through Christmas Day and concludes with the obligatory New Year’s Eve celebrations on 31 December.

And this annual orgy of ingestion takes center stage against a backdrop of hunger and poverty, where 18,000 of the World’s children starve to death on any given day.[iii] Drowning in a sea of material abundance, Americans squander huge sums of money on pets[iv] but turn their backs on their fellow man, offering only a modicum of assistance to the hungry, homeless and needy.

And of course, no mention is ever made of the Native American holocaust that took place, allowing Americans to usurp their bountiful lands and to exploit its plentiful resources. With tens of millions of indigenous Americans killed, scholar David Stannard calls the Native American Holocaust, “ the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world.”[v] Happy Thanksgiving indeed!

Thanksgiving Day has special personal significance for me, as it was the day upon which I first set foot in a mosque and was introduced to Islam as a guest of Hojatoleslam Ibrahim Kazerooni. Last Thanksgiving, I dined as a guest in his home; this year he lost his home due to a mortgage foreclosure and has been forced to move elsewhere.

Immediately following Thanksgiving Day is “Black” Friday, a day of unbridled consumer spending, or at least that’s what the capitalists hope for. The day is called Black Friday supposedly because retailers’ earnings move from the “red” indicating a loss into the “black” for profit, but it appropriately conveys the cutthroat competition for bargains that starts in stores all over America. Retail sales predictions are down this year[vi] due to the U.S. financial crisis, now officially acknowledged as a recession.[vii]

This holiday season has already claimed its first casualty on Black Friday, when a stampede of impatient, bargain-crazed shoppers crashed through the doors of a Wal Mart store in Valley Stream, New York, trampling one employee to death and injuring four others. Eyewitnesses reported that even when management attempted to close the store after the tragic incident, shoppers refused to leave and continued shopping.[viii]

The consumer feeding frenzy usually peaks from December 19 to 23,[ix] but the shopping continues unabated up to the last minute on Christmas Eve, December 24, which is the “Silent Night, Holy Night,” as the well-known German hymn describes the night on which Hazrath Jesus (A.S.) was born.

While expressing concern over toxic chemicals found in the toys with which their own children play,[x] American parents seem unconcerned that Iraqi, Lebanese, Afghani and other children are killed and maimed when they unwittingly play with the toy-like, American-made cluster bomblets. Broadcasting a clear message of peace and good will to the rest of the world this holiday season, the U.S. has arrogantly refused to join 100 other civilized nations in signing the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the manufacture and use of these horrible weapons.[xi]

Then comes Christmas Day itself with its shallow emphasis on exchange of material possessions and absence of spirituality. What would Hazrath Jesus (A.S.) think of how distorted the celebration of his birthday has become and how his teachings have been forgotten? According to one tradition cited by Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Jesus (A.S.) used to prepare food for his followers and say to them, “This is what you must do for the poor.”[xii]

While Americans sing the hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” few are aware of Israel’s Apartheid wall encircling the city and its devastating effect on Palestinians who live there, or that the wall has been condemned by the Archbishop of Canterbury.[xiii] Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are spending this holiday season under a Zionist occupation as they have for the past 60 years since the Nakbah in 1948.

December 26 marks another high point in consumerism when, once again, Americans flock to the shopping malls to exchange unwanted gifts and to take advantage of after Christmas bargains. Some even exchange presents for 12 consecutive days, as alluded to in the old song, “The 12 Days of Christmas.”

During those 12 days of Christmas, 1,200 women and children will be raped and brutalized in the Democratic Republic of Congo so that the rare columbite-tantalite metallic ore known as coltan is available for cell phones, laptops and other consumer electronic gifts.[xiv] And another 216,000 children around the world will die of hunger.

Americans enjoy the unparalleled, extravagant abundance provided by global capitalism precisely by denying democracy and its benefits to all those who fall outside of the Anglo-American Axis.[xv] By means of its global, neo-colonial military empire, America extorts material wealth from the sweat, blood and misery of the people it subjugates throughout the rest of the world.

Happy Holidays, indeed! As materialism has made them virtually devoid of meaning, perhaps I should say Happy Hollow Days.

“Attend to the needs of the needy,

For your own comfort do not be greedy.

No one will rest in your kingdom and domain,

If all you do is avoid your own discomfort and pain.” – Sa’di[xvi]

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2008-12-07

End Notes

[i] Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib (AS), Ali Reza Translator, Nahjul Balagha, English title: Peak of Eloquence, New York, Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, 2002, page 22.

[ii] Nationwide Waste Statistics, Environmental Sustainability Committee, http://www.esc.mtu.edu/docs/NationWideStatistics.pdf (Accessed 4 December 2008)

[iii] Hamid Golpira, Iraq Smoke Screen, Tehran Times, 20 November 2008, http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=182891 (Accessed 28 November 2008)

[iv] PetSmart: Strong Spending, But Will Wal-Mart Put it in the Dog House?, 7 November 2008, Geezeo, http://consumerdata.geezeo.com/2008/11/07/petsmart-strong-spending-but-will-wal-mart-put-it-in-the-dog-house/ (Accessed 7 December 2008)

[v] David Stannard, The American Holocaust, Oxford University Press, 1992, http://www.the7thfire.com/Native_American/Native_American_Holocaust-Prologue.html (Accessed 29 November 2008)

[vi] Parija B. Kavilanz, Black Friday: It has to be big, and bold, CNNMoney.com, 27 November 2008, http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/26/news/economy/blackfriday_walkup/index.htm?postversion=2008112706 (Accessed 28 November 2008)

[vii] U.S. Officially in a Recession, Denver Business Journal, 1 December 2008, http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2008/12/01/daily7.html (Accessed 2 December 2008)

[viii] Colleen Long, Sought: Wal-Mart shoppers who trampled NY worker, Associated Press, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081129/ap_on_re_us/wal_mart_death;_ylt=ArvDf0ryDYHYylG8cOHwlpbLLJ94 (Accessed 29 November 2008)

[ix] Black Friday, Snopes.com, http://www.snopes.com/holidays/thanksgiving/shopping.asp (Accessed 28 November 2008)

[x] Toxic Toy Guide Lists Chemicals Found in Hundreds of Toys, Environmental News Service, on CommonDreams, 3 December 2008, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/03-2 (Accessed 4 December 2008)

[xi] Treaty signed to ban cluster bombs, Al Jazeera English website, 3 December 2008, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/12/2008123141741565420.html (Accessed 4 December 2008)

[xii] Tarif Khalidi, The Muslim Jesus (AS), Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2001, page 79.

[xiii] Archbishop of Canterbury Condemns Israeli Wall Around Bethlehem, Open Bethlehem, 22 December 2006 on Electronic Intifada, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6293.shtml (Accessed 2 December 2008)

[xiv] Stephen Leahy, Activists Slam World's "Grotesque Indifference" to DR Congo, InterPress Service, 4 December 2008, CommonDreams website, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/12/04-6 (Accessed 7 December 2008)

[xv] Hamid Dabashi, Iran A People Interrrupted, New York, The New Press, 2007, page 78.

[xvi] Hamid Dabashi, Iran A People Interrrupted, New York, The New Press, 2007, page 31.

Quantum Change or Short Changed?

“In 2008, as in previous election years, serious candidates for the highest office in the land will go to considerable lengths to express their deep personal commitment to one foreign country—Israel—as well as their determination to maintain unyielding U.S. support for the Jewish state,” conjectured John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard in 2007.[i]

The Professors were absolutely correct. On 4 June 2008, then presidential hopeful and now President-elect Barack Hussein Obama stood before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and declared his loyalty to the Zionist regime. “As President I will never compromise when it comes to Israel’s security,” he affirmed, emphasizing, “I will insure that Israel can defend itself from any threat from Gaza to Tehran.” As if this wasn’t enough, in Nixon-like rhetoric he stressed, “Now let me be clear; Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable,” adding, “there’s no greater threat to Israel or to the peace and the stability of the region than Iran.”[ii]

Despite requiring their candidates to swear allegiance to Israel and failing to grasp that the real voting for U.S. President takes place in the Electoral College,[iii] most Americans will insist that the election is “democratic” and transparent. As evidence exists to suggest the 2000 and 2004 elections were manipulated,[iv] I had the same fears about the 2008 election as the plaintiffs in an Ohio voting fraud case, who warned “The public has a need and right to know, before the next presidential election, that the top Republican IT expert shares a concern about the vulnerability of electronic voting systems to fraudulent manipulation, and that this is not just ‘conspiracy theory.’”[v]

Understandably, I conjectured that we would see Obama with a slight lead over McCain on election night only to wake up to news of another Republican coup by a narrow margin, but I was wrong. As pre-election polls gave McCain less than 200 electoral votes and Obama over 300, more than the 270 required to assure victory,[vi] manipulation would have been difficult, but not impossible. A Yale study concluded that a one-vote change per voting machine can reverse the outcome of a close election and, “an adversary willing to change a few more votes can swing states with much wider margins.”[vii]

In contrast to narrow margins in prior elections, the Obama win appears to be a clear signal that a majority of U.S. voters expect real change. While post-election euphoria over America’s first Black President-elect is certainly understandable, do Americans have a rational basis for such optimism or is expecting a new president backed by recycled bureaucrats pushing the same old dogmas simply an exercise in self-delusion?

Obama gave the first hint of his foreign policy direction by selecting as his Vice Presidential running mate the hawkish Senator Joseph Biden, who voted for the Lieberman-Warner amendment in 2002 that authorized Bush’s invasion of Iraq. Addressing the U.S. Senate, Biden insisted, “Saddam is dangerous. The world would be a better place without him. But the reason he poses a growing danger to the United States and its allies is that he possesses chemical and biological weapons and is seeking nuclear weapons.”[viii]

So far, Obama’s advisors and appointees do not justify expectations of significant change in U.S. foreign policy but rather imply a return to a Clintonian approach. Among Obama’s top foreign policy advisors is Madeline Albright, who gained infamy for replying, “We think the price is worth it,” when asked about the deaths of over half a million Iraqi children due to the U.S.-sponsored sanctions.[ix] Albright represents what one Council on Foreign Policy (CFR) staff member calls “muscular diplomacy,”[x] which apparently means a façade of diplomacy with economic sanctions backed by ultimatums and not-so-subtle threats of military force.

Also among Obama’s key foreign policy advisors are former Clinton National Security Advisor Anthony Lake and former Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice.[xi] A protégé of Albright and characterized as both pragmatic and abrasive, Dr. Rice has been selected to head Obama’s foreign policy transition team. She passionately favors sanctions, no-fly zones and military force to end the Darfur crisis, perhaps as a reaction to the weak U.S. response to the Rwanda genocide during her tenure in the Clinton administration. “I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required,” she recently confided.[xii]

In an essay emphasizing American exceptionalism entitled “Confronting Backlash States” Lake writes, “As the sole superpower, the United States has a special responsibility for developing a strategy to neutralize, contain and, through selective pressure, perhaps eventually transform these backlash states into constructive members of the international community.”[xiii] In a later briefing, Mr. Lake exposes an obvious orientalist slant, stating, “As globalization proceeds, the Muslim world finds it cannot modernize without the Western values that accompany its innovations.”[xiv]

More disturbing is Obama’s appointment of Illinois Congressman, pro-Israeli hardliner and former Clinton chief fundraiser Rahm Israel Emanuel as his White House Chief of Staff. Characterized as possessing a profane mouth combined with a vicious, attack-dog style, Emanuel is reputedly a devout Jew who sought permission from his Rabbi in order to work on the U.S. financial mess during the Jewish High Holy Days.[xv] This should come as no surprise following Obama’s pandering before AIPAC, and his previous support of a Senate resolution condoning the brutal Israeli attack on Lebanon in 2006.[xvi]

Most recently, neither Obama nor Biden criticized the illegal 26 October U.S. helicopter raid on Syria at Hwijeh village near Abu Kamal, which killed eight people.[xvii] The attack "raises the serious possibility that, even under an Obama administration and an expanded Democratic Congressional majority, such militaristic policies may continue, " predicts Steven Zunes, professor of Politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco.[xviii]

Understandably, many people in the Middle East share my pessimism, particularly those living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “Arabs and Muslims are fed up with America's one-sided approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” states Dr Ahmed Yousef, political advisor to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, adding with reservation, "There is still a possibility for the relationship between the U.S. and the Middle East to be repaired, but it will require a quantum change in the attitude of the U.S. administration towards Arabs and Muslims if this is to occur."[xix]

Gazans, faced with shortages of food and medicine as a result of the ongoing Israeli siege,[xx] are even less hopeful of change in US policy. “There is an American strategy in the Middle East and the Palestinian conflict - it supports Israeli policy,” laments Ibrahim Ibrash, a professor of political science at Al Azhar University, adding optimistically, “However, we hope that the new U.S. president will deal with the Middle East conflict and the Palestinian cause according to international agreements.”[xxi]

Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah also has warned against unrealistically optimistic expectations for change from an Obama presidency. “I don't want to anticipate events, but logic dictates that we not bet on changes in injustice or believe that he will be more lenient or less unfair than his predecessor,” he recently remarked.[xxii]

As was my prediction about the election itself, I may be wrong, but I don’t foresee a drastic change in U.S. foreign policy coming from an Obama administration —certainly not in the one-sided U.S. approach to the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma. I’m afraid those who have every right to expect a desperately needed quantum change in U.S. attitude and policies—Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghanis, Africans as well as Blacks, Latinos and other oppressed American minorities who supported Obama—are going to be short changed.

Yuram Abdullah Weiler

2008-11-25

End Notes

[i] John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007, page 3.

[ii] Barack Obama, Transcript of Speech Before AIPAC Policy Conference 2008, 4 June 2008, AIPAC website, http://www.aipac.org/Publications/SpeechesByPolicymakers/PC_08_Obama.pdf (Accessed 16 November 2008)

[iii] Office of the Federal Register, The Electoral College in Brief, A Procedural Guide to the Electoral College, National Archives and Records Administration, http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/procedural_guide.html (Accessed 20 November 2008)

[iv] Election Fraud and Irregularities, The Landes Report, http://www.thelandesreport.com/VotingMachineErrors.htm (Accessed 9 November 2008)

[v] Plaintiffs' Reply, King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association, et al., vs. Jennifer Brunner, et al., Case 2:06-cv-00745-ALM-TPK Document 62 Filed 09/17/2008, http://www.velvetrevolution.us/images/Connell Ohio case Reply as filed 91708.pdf (Accessed 3 November 2008)

[vi] Poll results as of 1 November 2008, Electoral-vote.com, http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Pres/Maps/Nov01.html (Accessed 14 November 2008)

[vii] Anthony Di Franco, Andrew Petro, Emmett Shear,Vladimir Vladimirov, Tiny Systematic Vote Manipulations Can Swing Elections, Department of Computer Science, Yale University, April 2004, ftp://ftp.cs.yale.edu/pub/TR/tr1285.pdf (Accessed 9 November 2008)

[viii] Congressional Record: October 10, 2002 (Senate) - Pages S10290-S10296, From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access - DOCID:cr10oc02-70, AUTHORIZATION OF THE USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES AGAINST IRAQ, http://authforce.liberatedtext.org/021010/cr10oc02-70_02.html - biden01 (Accessed 19 November 2008)

[ix] Rajul Mahajan, "We Think the Price Is Worth It" Media uncurious about Iraq policy's effects- there or here, Fair, November/December 2001, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1084 (Accessed 10 November 2008)

[x] Joanna Klonsky, Foreign Policy Brain Trusts: Obama’s Advisors, Council on Foreign Relations, Updated 11 November 2008, http://www.cfr.org/publication/16188/ (Accessed 22 November 2008)

[xi] Joanna Klonsky, Foreign Policy Brain Trusts: op.cit.

[xii] Spencer Ackerman, A Window into Obama’s Foreign Policy, The Washington Independent, 14 November 2008, http://washingtonindependent.com/18516/susan-rice (Accessed 22 November 2008)

[xiii] Anthony Lake, Confronting Backlash States, Foreign Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, March/April 1994, http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19940301faessay5095/anthony-lake/confronting-backlash-states.html (Accessed 14 November 2008)

[xiv] Anthony Lake, Leaders and Followers: Sources of Terrorism, Middle East Forum, 21 March 2002, http://www.meforum.org/article/178 (Accessed 14 November 2008)

[xv] Jon Swaine, Rahm Emanuel: A profile of Barack Obama's enforcer, Telegraph UK, 6 November 2008, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/3390625/Rahm-Emanuel-A-profile-of-Barack-Obamas-enforcer.html (Accessed 6 November 2008)

[xvi] Stephen Zunes, Why the Dems Have Failed Lebanon, Foreign Policy in Focus, 9 August 2006, http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3423 (Accessed 6 November 2008)

[xvii] US helicopters attack Syrian village, say witnesses, Guardian UK, 26 October 2008, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/26/syria-iraq-helicopter-attack (Accessed 24 November 2008)

[xviii] Stephen Zunes, Bush's Unauthorized Attack on Syria Killed Civilians; Dems Silent, AlterNet. Posted 10 November 2008, http://www.alternet.org/audits/106329/bush's_unauthorized_attack_on_syria_killed_civilians%3B_dems_silent/?page=3 (Accessed 19 November 2008)

[xix] Cherrie Heywood, For Peace, The US Will Have to Change, InterPress Service, 6 November 2008. posted on CommonDreams website, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/11/06-9 (Accessed 8 November 2008)

[xx] Gaza Border Crossings Have Been Closed for the 6th Consecutive Day, Press Release, Palestinian Center for Human Rights, 11 November 2008, http://www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2008/105-2008.html (Accessed 12 November 2008)

[xxi] Motasem Dalloul, Scant hope in Gaza for US election, Al Jazeera English, 3 November 2008, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/09/200892613825174903.html (Accessed 12 November 2008)

[xxii] Hezbollah leader: Don't pin your hopes on Obama, Tehran Times, 13 November 2008, http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=182343 (Accessed 13 November 2008)