| US
IMPERIALISM TODAY: |
| U.S. Hegemony |
From Countercurrents.org - 7 October 2007
Climate Change And Entire Landscapes On The
Move
By Stephen
Leahy - Inter Press Service
BROOKLIN, Canada -
The hot breath of global warming has now touched some of the coldest northern
regions of world, turning the frozen landscape into mush as temperatures soar 15
degrees C. above normal.
Entire hillsides, sometimes more
than a kilometre long, simply let go and slid like a vast green carpet into
valleys and rivers on Melville Island in Canada’s northwest Arctic region of
Nunavut this summer, says Scott Lamoureux of Queens University in Canada and
leader of one the of International Polar Year projects.
|
From Countercurrents.org - 5 October 2007
Iraq Body Count: “A Very
Misleading Exercise”
By Media Lens
The mainstream media are continuing to use figures provided
by the website Iraq Body Count (IBC) to sell the public a number for total
post-invasion deaths of Iraqis that is perhaps 5-10% of the true death
toll
|
From Countercurrents.org - 29 September 2007
Defending The Cuban Revolution: With Love Or Venom?
By James Petras
Defending the Cuban revolution demands unconditional defense against
imperialism and proposals to rectify its problems. These are acts of love.
Polemical invective and personal attacks against life-long defenders of the
revolution and revolutionary movements will further isolate Cuba and
opportunists like Gonzalez Casanova from reality and the coming social
transformations in Latin America and social changes in Cuba
Cuba: Continuing Revolution and Contemporary Contradictions
James Petras and Robin Eastman-Abaya - July 2007
Introduction
The Cuban revolution with its socialist economy has demonstrated tremendous resilience
in the face of enormous political obstacles and challenges. It successfully defied a US
orchestrated invasion, naval blockade, hundreds of terrorists’ attacks and half-century boycott.(1)
Cuba was able to withstand the fallout from the collapse of the USSR, the Eastern European
collectivist regimes, China and Indo-China’s transit to capitalism and to construct a new
development model.
As many scholars and political leaders – including adversaries – have noted, Cuba has
developed a very advanced and functioning social welfare program: free, universal, quality health
coverage and free education from kindergarten through advanced university education.(2)
In foreign, as well as domestic, policy Cuba has successfully developed economic and
diplomatic relations with the entire globe, despite US boycotts and pressures. (3)
In questions of national and personal security, Cuba is a world leader. Crime rates are
low and violent offenses are rare. Terrorist threats and acts, (most emanating from the US and its
Cuban exile proxies), have declined and are less a danger to the Cuban population than to the US
or Europe.
It is precisely the successes of the Cuban Revolution, its ability to withstand external
threats, which would have brought down most governments, that now has created a series of
major challenges, which require urgent attention if the revolution, as we know it, is to advance in
the 21st century. These challenges are a result of past external constraints as well as internal
political developments. Some problems were inevitable consequences of emergency measures
but are now pressing for immediate and radical solutions.
More articles from Countercurrents.org here
|
Signs
of a 'new Middle East'
People's resistance hands U.S., Israel a stunning defeat
in Lebanon
By Richard Becker, Western
regional coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition (http://www.answercoalition.org/)-
22 August 2006
Ten days into Israel’s massive assault on Lebanon, when hundreds of Lebanese
civilians had already been killed and hundreds of thousands were refugees, U.S.
secretary of state Condoleezza Rice blithely dismissed all the death and
destruction as "the birth pangs of a new Middle East."
The outcome of the struggle may indeed be a transformed region, but not along
the lines that Rice and her fellow warmakers in Washington had in
mind. Rice’s now infamous July 22 remark was another way of saying "no" to
international calls for a ceasefire in the conflict. It came in response to
worldwide outrage over the wanton Israeli destruction of Lebanon, supposedly
unleashed because two Israeli soldiers had been captured by Hezbollah’s military
wing in a clash along the Israel-Lebanon border.
------------------- |
From the BBC London - 7 August 2006
US state terrorism in action:
US troops 'took turns' to rape Iraqi
The case is the latest in a series of scandals for the US
army.
A US
military hearing has examined testimony of how three soldiers took it in turns
to try to rape an Iraqi girl aged 14 in Mahmudiya in March.
The girl and three family members were allegedly killed by four US soldiers.
Graphic details of the attack at the family's home came in a sworn statement
by one of the accused, James P. Barker.
------------------- |
State terrorism Israeli in action:
Hizbullah's attacks stem from Israeli incursions into Lebanon
By Anders Strindberg
01/08/06 Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK - As pundits and policymakers scramble to explain events in Lebanon, their conclusions are virtually unanimous: Hizbullah created this crisis. Israel is defending itself. The underlying problem is Arab extremism.
Sadly, this is pure analytical nonsense. Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 was a direct result of Israel's silent but unrelenting aggression against Lebanon, which in turn is part of a six-decades long Arab-Israeli conflict.
Since its withdrawal of occupation forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Israel has violated the United Nations-monitored "blue line" on an almost daily basis, according to UN reports.
------------------------ |
From Progressive Response -31 july 2006
Target: Multilateralism
Multilateralism took several hits this past week.
The most graphic was Israel's rocket attack on a UN monitoring post in
Lebanon on July 25. The UN had complained to Hezbollah that guerrillas
were launching missile attacks from positions close to the observation
posts. But nothing could justify what happened next.
According to a preliminary UN report on the incident, the Israeli
military ignored ten phone calls from the UN peacekeepers as they endured
twenty Israeli artillery air strikes. “UN sources alleged yesterday that
the Israeli military ignored the plea after it was passed up through the
chain of command,” according to a report in the British Telegraph.
“A laser-guided munition is believed to have then dropped on the UN
position, which is painted white and clearly illuminated. The four
monitors inside—from Canada, Austria, Finland, and China—were
killed.”
-------------------- |
25 july 2006
U.S. state terrorism in action:
Lebanon massacre.
Genocide in the name of self-defense.
The U.S. imperialist policy to "reshape" the Middle East utilizing the army of the neo-nazi state of Israel.
----------------- |
From The New York
Times - August 19th 2005
Bush's Aid Cuts
on Court Issue Roil Latin American Neighbors
By Juan Forero
Three years ago the Bush administration began prodding countries to shield Americans from
the fledgling International Criminal Court in The Hague, which was intended to be the
first permanent tribunal for prosecuting crimes like genocide.
The United States has since cut aid to some two dozen nations that refused to sign
immunity agreements that American officials say are intended to protect American soldiers
and policy makers from politically motivated prosecutions.
------------------------- |
From The New York
Times - August 17th 2005
Biking Toward
Nowhere
By Maureen Dowd
How could President Bush be cavorting around on a long vacation with American troops
struggling with a spiraling crisis in Iraq? Wasn't he worried that his vacation activities
might send a frivolous signal at a time when he had put so many young Americans in harm's
way? "I'm determined that life goes on," Mr. Bush said stubbornly.
That wasn't the son, believe it or not. It was the father - 15 years ago...
----------------------- |
Samir Amin on:
Imperialism and
Globalization
Notes of a talk delivered at the World Social Forum
meeting in Porto Alegre, Brazil in January 2001.
Imperialism is not a stage, not even the highest stage, of capitalism: from the beginning,
it is inherent in capitalism’s expansion. The imperialist conquest of the planet by
the Europeans and their North American children was carried out in two phases and is
perhaps entering a third.
The first phase of this devastating enterprise was organized around the conquest of the
Americas, in the framework of the mercantilist system of Atlantic Europe at the time. The
net result was the destruction of the Indian civilizations and their Hispanicization-
Christianization, or simply the total genocide on which the United States was built.
----------------------- |
From Human Rights Watch
April 2005
Impunity for Rumsfeld and other state terrorists,
Getting Away with Torture?
Command Responsibility for the U.S. Abuse of Detainees
--------- |
December 3, 2004
AP and international wire services finally catching up VHeadline .com
news story
The Associated Press (AP) and international wire
services are finally catching up with a story first revealed by VHeadline.com way back on
November 21 that the US Central Intelligence Agency knew dissident military officers were
planning a coup in 2002 against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Yet, despite the
evidence and confirmation from the CIA itself, the wire services insist on describing the
documents uncovered by New York based lawyer Eva Golinger as "purported U.S.
intelligence documents posted on the Internet."
Wire service reports focus on a speech delivered by President Hugo Chavez Frias in which
they say he "lashed out" at US officials saying they knew a coup was brewing but
failed to tip off Venezuela's government. "The CIA knew that a coup was coming ...
the government of George Bush knew." |
Presidential
election in the Empire ( 2 Nov. 2004)
What's going on, what the left should do
by Elson Boles
Unlike some have argued, the election did not boil down to resurgent US nationalism
designed to recoup US decline. Bush did not win because of Iraq, but despite it. The
decline of the US, the shrinking of the middle class, and the Republican economic policies
behind these developments, were NOT why Bush won. On the contrary, he won largely
because certain Americans voted on certain cultural issues: they voted for racism,
homophobia, etc. and these as requisite features of "moral integrity."
---
|
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention and
Iraq
A report for Parliament on the British Government's
response to the US supply of biological materials to Iraq.
Geoffrey Holland
School of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies
University of Sussex
October 2004
|
At Least 100,000 Dead in Iraq
U.S. War is a Blood Bath for the Iraqi People
Pledge
to Take Action to End the War
In a medical study being published today, scientists
have concluded that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has resulted in the deaths of
at least 100,000 Iraqis, "and may be much higher." It further revealed that most
of the 100,000 Iraqis who died were killed in violent deaths, primarily carried out by
U.S. forces airstrikes. "Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were
women and children," according to the study. The study was designed and conducted by
researches at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya
University in Baghdad (The Lancet, October 29, 2004).
----
|
|
|
Global
Research (Canada) : Feature articles on torture and war crimes
Michel Chossudovsky,
Bush appoints a Terrorist as US
Ambassador to Iraq
Felicity Arbuthnot, 14 May 2004:
Crimes in Iraq: ?As American as
Apple Pie?
Marwa Elnaggar, 14 May 2004:
The Merciless Killing of Nicholas
Berg
Orit Shohat:
American army committed war
crimes in Falluja on an unprecedented scale
John Stanton:
Torture: United Kingdom, United
States and Israel Kings of Pain
Michel Chossudovsky:
Did the US Military Target
and kill the Red Cross Delegate on April 8 2003 to undermine the ICRCs activities in Iraq?
William Blum:
God, Country and Torture
Jack Random:
Abu Ghraib: Enough Shame for All
Sara Flounders:
Bertrand Russell Tribunal: Bush
Cabal Plotted War on Iraq Years ago |
L.
Panitch and S. Gindin
Global Capitalism and American Empire
"The American empire is no longer concealed. In
March 1999, the cover of the New York Times Magazine displayed a giant clenched fist
painted in the stars and stripes of the US flag above the words: ‘What The World
Needs Now: For globalization to work, America can’t be afraid to act like the
almighty superpower that it is’. Thus was featured Thomas Friedman’s
‘Manifesto for a Fast World’, which urged the United States to embrace its role
as enforcer of the capitalist global order: ‘…the hidden hand of the market will
never work without a hidden fist.... The hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon
Valley’s technologies is called the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine
Corps.’ " |
countercurrent.org
on U.S.
imperialism |
For
those who still doubt that US big capital is in the process of building a world empire the
reading of the three documents below will be very useful. The think tank authoring the
documents was created in 1997, and by now is well entrenched in the White House,
particularly the Pentagon. We need to read the documents, analyse them, and discuss ways
leading to stop the American Empire offensive for total world domination. US imperialist
project for the twenty first century seeks economic enslavement through military terror of
every society on planet earth. (Róbinson Rojas - April 2003)
(PNAC) Project for the New American Century (2000):
Rebuilding America's Defenses.
Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century
Also, is important to read the Statement of Principles of the
above organization, created on June 13, 1997
PNAC: Statement of principles
and, this article by Thomas Donnelly, principal author
of "Rebuilding America's Defenses", to be published on May 5, 1903
There's no place like Iraq
|
From Counterpunch:
H. Wasserman (2 May 2003):
Bush's Military Defeat. Where is the superpower of
Peace?
---
A. Smith (30 April 2003):
Under Uncle's Sam Thumb
The history of Washington's Occupations
---
W. Madsen (29 April 2003):
About those Iraqi intelligence documents
Where they planted?
---
S. Shaefer (23 April 2003):
Duck, Duck, Goose: financing the war.
financing the world
|
The
Economist (26 Apr-2 May 2003):
The Shadow Men |
G.
Easterbrook (27 Apr. 2003):
American power moves beyond
the mere super |
N. Ferguson
(27 Apr. 2003):
The empire slinks back |
T.
Shanker/E.Schmitt (20 Apr. 2003):
Pentagon expects long-term
access to four key bases in Iraq |
R. Fisk (18
Apr. 2003):
For the people on the streets this is not liberation but a new colonial oppression
Iraq's war of liberation from
the Americans is about to begin |
Independent.co.uk
(16 Apr. 2003):
Where are the weapons of mass
destruction? |
D. Filkin
(16 Apr. 2003):
A Baghdad Art Center left in
ashes |
R. Fisk (13
Apr. 2003):
A civilisation torn to pieces |
J. F. Burns
(12 Apr. 2003):
"This is not a
liberation, this is a humiliation".
Pillagers strip Iraqui museum of its treasure |
N. Klein (10
Apr. 2003):
Privatization in disguise |
K. Wescott
(10 Apr. 2003):
The Americans who will run Iraq |
R. Perry (8
Apr. 2003):
Bush's Alderaan |
A. Dorfman
(4 Apr. 2003):
Christopher Columbus has words from the other side of
death for Captain John Whyte |
MILITARY
INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
DynCorp Rent-a-Cops May Head to Iraq
By: Pratap Chatterjee
Posted: 04/09/2003
A major military contractor -- already underfire for alleged human rights violations and
fraud -- may get a multi-million dollar contract to police post-Saddam Iraq.
------
L. Drutman and C. Cray (4 Apr. 2003)
Cheney, Halliburton and the spoils of war |
P. Nicholson ( 3 Apr. 2003 ):
Umm Qasr aid effort 'a shambles'
|
P. Escobar ( 27 Mar. 2003 ):
The "Palestinization" of Iraq
---
(27 Feb. 2003):
What is the US really up against? |
S. Goff ( 2003 ):
Military matters |
M. Tran ( 26 Mar. 2003 ):
Bush fiddles with economy
while Baghdad burns |
S. Goff ( 23 Mar. 2003 ):
Supporting the troops |
I. Ramonet ( 18 Mar. 2003 ):
Global crisis over Iraq: Poles apart
|
P. Golub ( 18 Mar. 2003 ):
Global crisis over Iraq: United States: inventing
demons |
R. Mahajan ( 11 Mar. 2003 ):
UN resolution or not, this war violates
international law |
Le Monde Diplomatique ( 10 Mar. 2003 ):
The U.S. war on Iraq |
P. Anderson ( 8 Mar. 2003 ):
Are we sure we can get away with it this time?
The special treatment of Iraq
---
M. Neumann ( 10 Mar. 2003 ):
A rebuttal of Perry Anderson
An Unfounded Rush to Cynicism
--------------------------------
Fidel Castro ( 7 Mar. 2003 ):
The War on the Dark Corners of the World
---
E. Schmitt ( 26 Feb. 2003 ):
Turkey seems set to let 60,000
G.I's use bases for war
---
H. C. K. Liu ( 25 Feb. 2003 ):
Power and the new world order
---
H. Cotter ( 25 Feb. 2003 ):
Oldest Human History is at
Risk
---
P.J. Buchanan ( 23 Feb. 2003 ):
Wages of Empire
---
New York Times ( 22 Feb. 2003 ):
Los Angeles Council adopts
resolution against Iraq war
---
E. Boles ( 21 Feb. 2003 ):
Propaganda or Fantasy Island?
---
The Independent (London) (18 Feb. 2003):
Kurdish leaders enraged by
'undemocratic' American plan to occupy Iraq
---
(17 Feb. 2003):
A little honesty might help the Government's case
against Iraq
---
M. Renner (14 Feb. 2003):
The New Oil Order
Washington's war on Iraq is the lynchpin to controling Persian Gulf oil
---
The credibility gap (14 Feb. 2003):
How George Bush's two faces
affect real Americans |
Ignacio Ramonet ( Feb. 2003):
Before the war |
Noam Chomsky (2003):
Confronting the empire
---
On the anti war movement (2002) |
US senator R. Byrd (2003):
Reckless Administration May Reap Disastrous
Consecuences |
CAFOD (2002):
Iraq, sanctions and the war against
terrorism |
I. Wallerstein (2003):
France is the key |
R.W. Baker (1993):
How the US government armed Saddam Hussein with
weapons of mass destruction
---------
M. Dobbs (2002):
U.S. Defence Secretary
D. Rumsfeld helped Saddam Hussein build up his arsenal of deadly chemical and biological
weapons |
Le
Monde Diplomatique (2002):
---
Target Baghdad
---
Westward the course of Empire
---
Don't go it alone
---
Twenty years after the massacres at Sabra and Shatila
|
The
Guardian (2002):
Arundhai Roy, Not Again |
US
intellectuals against the war:
Not In Our Name |
C.
Barraclough (1993):
A British journalist and the Iraqgate factor |
D.
Schorr (1991):
Ten days that shook the White House |
R.
Rojas/S. Saumon (2001):
The
horror of the World Trade Center in New York, and other horrors |
The Trial of
Henry Kissinger |
Wanted for War Crimes:
Henry Kissinger |
From
Jay's Internet Resources Directory:
---
American Empire Page (Third World Traveler)
---
Chronology of American State Terrorism
---
Let
the Bloody Truth Be Told: A Chronology of U.S. Imperialism
---
The CIA:
A Short History
---
A Timeline of CIA Atrocities
---
U.S.
Must Face the Truth: Know Who is The Terrorist; 25 Classic Quotes on Western Hegemony
---
The Other
September 11th: In Memory of Salvador Allende and Thousands of Other People in Chile:
Victims of a U.S. Coup
---
Dossier on America (PDF)
---
Our dossier on the world's #1 rogue state (Socialist Worker)
|
J. Burke (Foreign
Policy, May/June 2004)
Think Again: Al Qaeda
The mere mention of al Qaeda conjures images of an
efficient terrorist network guided by a powerful criminal mastermind. Yet al Qaeda is more
lethal as an ideology than as an organization. “Al Qaedaism” will continue to
attract supporters in the years to come—whether Osama bin Laden is around to lead
them or not. |
D. Barstow et al
(19 April 2004)
Security Companies: Shadow Soldiers in Iraq
They have come from all corners of the world. Former
Navy Seal commandos from North Carolina. Gurkas from Nepal. Soldiers from South Africa's
old apartheid government. They have come by the thousands, drawn to the dozens of private
security companies that have set up shop in Baghdad. The most prized were plucked from the
world's elite special forces units. Others may have been recruited from the local SWAT
team. |
N. Ferguson (18
April 2004)
The Last Iraqi Insurgency
From Ted Kennedy to the cover of Newsweek, we are
being warned that Iraq has turned into a quagmire, George W. Bush's Vietnam. Learning from
history is well and good, but such talk illustrates the dangers of learning from the wrong
history. To understand what is going on in Iraq today, Americans need to go back to 1920,
not 1970. And they need to get over the American inhibition about learning from
non-American history. |
P. Krugman (16
April 2004)
The Vietnam Analogy
Iraq isn't Vietnam. The most important difference is
the death toll, which is only a small fraction of the carnage in Indochina. But there are
also real parallels, and in some ways Iraq looks worse. |
M. Chossudovsky (16
April 2004)
Iraq and the "War on Terrorism"
While the Western media highlights the death and
"kidnapping" of paid mercenaries, on contract to Western security firms, there
is a deafening silence on the massacre of more than 700 civilians in Fallujah by coalition
forces. |
A. Gunder Frank
(April 2004)
The development of crisis and the crisis of development
...This position of the United States in the world
thus rests primarily on the US dollar and on the Pentagon. Moreover, each of these rest on
the other: The dollar pays for Pentagon expenses, particularly in the more than 100 US
military bases around the world; and the Pentagon help maintain confidence in the dollar.
But these two sources of US strength in turn are also its two major Achilles heels of
vulnerability as also explained in my PAPER TIGER FIERY DRAGON... |
M. Dowd (8 April
2004)
The Iraqi Inversion
Every single thing the administration calculated would
happen in Iraq has turned out the opposite. The W.M.D. that supposedly threatened us did
not exist. The dangerous dictator was deluded and writing romance novels. The terrorism
that would be thwarted has mushroomed in Iraq and is feeding Arab radicalism. |
P. Bergen/S.
Armstrong (4 April 2004)
15 questions for Dr. Condoleezza Rice
--
April 8, 2004
Testimony of Condoleezza Rice Before 9/11 Commission
Transcript of National Security Adviser Condoleezza
Rice's testimony before the September 11 Commission on Thursday, April 8, as recorded by
The New York Times
--
March 23, 2004
Public Testimony Before 9/11
Commission (pp. 1-41 and pp. 42-83)
Transcript of public testimony from four high-ranking
officials from the Bush and Clinton administrations before the independent commission
investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, as recorded by Federal News Service. Published by
The New York Times
--
23 March, 2004
Excerpts from "Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on
Terror" by Richard A. Clarke
--
J. Miller (22 March, 2004)
Former Terrorism Official Criticizes White House on 9/11 |
A. Buncombe (2
April 2004)
"I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would
attack cities with aeroplanes" |
The global
hegemony of the American Empire (2004)
Fickle, Bitter and Dangeorus
An interview with Chalmes Johnson, by David Ross |
M. J. Rivers (
March 2004)
A Wolf in Sheikhs Cloting:
Bush Business Deals with 9 Partners of bin Laden's Banker |
| |
| |
| |
From the
Washington Post: 9/11 Commission Report
Released July 22, 2004
The independent, bipartisan National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States was established by Congress in 2002 to
investigate the events of and circumstances surrounding the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks. The panel heard from members of the Clinton and Bush administrations, New York
City emergency personnel and victims' families. Their final report was released on July
22, 2004. It is available below in PDF format.
Complete
9/11 Commission Report (7.4 MB)
Executive
Summary (5.9 MB)
Report by Chapter
Contents,
List of Illustrations and Tables, Members, and Staff (233 KB)
Preface
(67 KB)
Chapter
1: "We Have Some Planes" (952 KB)
Chapter
2: The Foundation of the New Terrorism (1.44 MB)
Chapter
3: Counterterrorism Evolves (188 KB)
Chapter
4: Responses to al Qaeda's Initial Assaults (185 KB)
Chapter
5: Al Qaeda Aims at the American Homeland (312 KB)
Chapter
6: From Threat to Threat (209 KB)
Chapter
7: The Attack Looms (949 KB)
Chapter
8: "The System Was Blinking Red" (146 KB)
Chapter
9: Heroism and Horror (2.3 MB)
Chapter
10: Wartime (109 KB)
Chapter
11: Foresight--and Hindsight (133 KB)
Chapter
12: What to do? A Global Strategy (184 KB)
Chapter
13: How to do it? A Different Way of Organizing the Government (158 KB)
Appendices
(109 KB)
Notes
(669 KB)
© 2004 The Washington Post Company |
---
P. Krugman, 29 June, 2004
Who Lost Iraq?
Let's say the obvious. By making Iraq a playground for
right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source
of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist recruiters a
very big favor.
---
A Guide to the Memos on Torture
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
-- 27 June, 2004
The New York Times, Newsweek, The
Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal have disclosed memorandums that show a pattern
in which Bush administration lawyers set about devising arguments to avoid constraints
against mistreatment and torture of detainees. Administration officials responded by
releasing hundreds of pages of previously classified documents related to the development
of a policy on detainees.
|
Noam Chomsky
interviewed by J. Paxman (BBC News, 21 May 2004)
The Bush Doctrine and crimes against
humanity
"If George Bush were to be judged by the
standards of the Nuremberg Tribunals, he'd be hanged. So too, mind you, would every single
American President since the end of the second world war, including Jimmy Carter"
|
June 9, 2004, The
Washington Post
Legalizing torture
..."Theirs is the logic of criminal regimes, of
dictatorships around the world that sanction torture on grounds of "national
security." For decades the U.S. government has waged diplomatic campaigns against
such outlaw governments -- from the military juntas in Argentina and Chile to the current
autocracies in Islamic countries such as Algeria and Uzbekistan -- that claim torture is
justified when used to combat terrorism. The news that serving U.S. officials have
officially endorsed principles once advanced by Augusto Pinochet brings shame on American
democracy -- even if it is true, as the administration maintains, that its theories
have not been put into practice. Even on paper, the administration's reasoning will
provide a ready excuse for dictators, especially those allied with the Bush
administration, to go on torturing and killing detainees."
read our dossier on US imperial army war crimes |
15 June, 2004
Solidarity Petition for Prof.
Song Du-yul
I wonder if any of you could sign the attached
petition with the protest against the "judicial" atrocity perpetrated currently
against one of Korea's finest social scientists, Prof. Song Du-yul. Prof. Song, currently
German citizen and one of the leaders of Korean democracy movement abroad and a well-known
activist of Korean reunification, returned to his native South Korea last year after
almost 37 years of German exile, only to be arrested and tried for the acts, which are not
considered punishable either in Germany/EU or anywhere else - except South Korea
(basically, unofficial contacts with North Korea and "benefiting North Korea by the
unbalanced criticism of South Korea" - all those things are criminalized by S.Korea's
draconian "National Security Law"). All the details on indictment/trial are
available on www.freesong.de. In March 2004, Prof.
Song was sentenced to 7 years (!) - with Amnesty Int-l offering immediately a criticism of
this atrocious "verdict"
. Now, as the final appeal trial is expected in July, Prof. Song's mentor, Prof. Habermas,
and many other prominent German intellectuals drafted the "Solidarity Petition",
which is going to be submitted soon to South Korea's President and published in South
Korean media. As always in such cases, every signature is important, and I ask all of you
who agree with the petition's content, to sign it and send to Prof. Song's elder son, Dr.
Dschun Song (edge@chemie.fu-berlin.de), who
is leading the campaign for Prof. Song's release.
Best greetings,
Vladimir Tikhonov (Pak Noja), Ass. Professor, Korean/East Asian Studies
Text of the Solidarity Petition |
| |
|
Criminal Records:
Augusto
José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte
Ronald Reagan
|
From A.N.S.W.E.R. - 2
June 2006
The Logic of war crimes in a criminal war
By Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and Brian Becker
When U.S. marines carried out the savage and systematic execution of Iraqi
families and small children in Haditha last November, it was initially reported
as a “battle” with “insurgent casualties.” A photo of a kneeling Iraqi civilian
moments before he was murdered was taken by a Marine using his cell phone
camera. Other pictures of the corpses of small children, families lying in pools
of blood in their homes, students gunned down in a taxi are all part of the
documentary evidence.
The massacre in Haditha took place one year after
a much larger massacre of civilians in Fallujah. Four to six thousand civilians
are estimated to have been killed in Fallujah in November 2004, according to
credible independent sources reporting from the ground. The truth of Iraq is
that there were other massacres almost every week in between the events that
have made Haditha and Fallujah famous cities: famous in the way no city wants to
become well known throughout the world. The attack on the people of Iraq and
ensuing occupation by the United States government has caused the deaths of well
over 100,000 Iraqi people (the British medical journal, The Lancet, reported an
excess of 100,000 dead eighteen months ago).
------------------ |
Report by Cuba on Resolution 59/11
of the United Nations General Assembly
"The necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade
imposed by the United States of America against Cuba"
2006
The economic, commercial and financial blockade impose by the United States
against Cuba is the longest-lasting and cruelest of its kind know to human
history and is an essential element in the United States’ hostile and aggressive
policies regarding the Cuban people. Its aim, made explicit on 6 April 1960 is
the destruction of the Cuban Revolution: (…) through frustration and
discouragement based on dissatisfaction and economic difficulties (…) to
withhold funds and supplies to Cuba in order to cut real income thereby causing
starvation, desperation and the overthrow of the government (...)"
It is equally an essential component of the policy of state terrorism against
Cuba which silently, systematically, cumulatively, inhumanly, ruthlessly affects
the population with no regard for age, sex, race, religious belief or social
position.
--------------------
En the blockade of Cuba
-------------------- |
London - June 2005
United States exports of biological materials to Iraq:
compromising the credibility of international law
This paper argues that the United States breached the
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) by supplying warfare-related biological
materials to Iraq during the 1980s, at a time when that nation was at war with its
neighbour, Iran. It is further argued that the United Kingdom has an obligation, not least
due to its published policy on the issue, to formally report this breach to the United
Nations Security Council.
by Geoffrey Holland
University of Sussex
----------------------- |
The U.S. state
terrorists have a pile of Weapons of Mass Destruction which can wipe out from the face of
the Earth anything between 1 to 3.5 billion human beings. Currently, they are discussing
how to make their Weapons of Mass Destruction even more destructive. Read here more about
the deadly plans of the imperialists whose policies are menacing the survival of planet
Earth.
(Róbinson Rojas)
-----------------------------------------
From The New York Times
A Fierce Debate on Atom Bombs From Cold War
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: April 3, 2005
For over two decades, a compact, powerful warhead called the W-76 has been the centerpiece
of the nation's nuclear arsenal, carried aboard the fleet of nuclear submarines that prowl
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
But in recent months it has become the subject of a fierce debate among experts inside and
outside the government over its reliability and its place in the nuclear arsenal.
----------------------- |
-------------------
US Imperial Army secret document (October 2004)
COUNTERINSURGENCY OPERATIONS
Distribution Restriction: Distribution
authorized to the DOD and DOD contractors only to maintain operations security. This
determination was made on 1 April 2004. Other requests for this document must be referred
to Commander, US Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, ATTN: ATZL-CD (FMI
3-07.22), 1 Reynolds Avenue (Building 111), Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027-1352.
Destruction Notice: Destroy by any method that will prevent disclosure of contents or
reconstruction of the document.
We publish this manual utilised by the US terrorist
imperial armed forces as a contribution to the worldwide struggle against the US empire
led by state terrorists disguised as "democratic" leaders
(Róbinson Rojas, 3 december 2004)
---------------------
|
| |
Alain Gresh, Le
Monde Diplomatique
( 18 september 2004 )
The business of terror
The war of a thousand years
--------------
|
The Economist (18
March 2004):
The Next American Empire |
A.G.
Frank (1991):
Third World War:
A political economy of the Gulf War and new world order |
M.J.
Sullivan (2000):
U.S. Foreign Policy in the Periphery: a
50-year retrospective |
| Counterpunch |
| The Noam Chomsky Archive |
| Bad News: Noam Chomsky |
| The films and writings of John Pilger |
Monthly Review
* Africa
* Asia
* Europe
* Globalization
* Labor and
Working-Class Issues
* Media/
Communications
* Social/Political Theory
* U.S. Politics/
Economics |
| Cultural Logic |
| New Left Review |
| ZNet |
| Multinational Monitor |
Global Policy Forum
Global Policy Forum's mission is to monitor policy making at the United Nations,
promote accountability of global decisions, educate and mobilize for global
citizen participation, and advocate on vital issues of international peace and
justice.
GPF responds to a globalizing world, where officials, diplomats
and corporate leaders take important policy decisions affecting all humanity,
with little democratic oversight and accountability. GPF addresses this
democratic deficit by monitoring the policy process, informing the public,
analyzing the issues, and urging citizen action. GPF focuses on the United
Nations – the most inclusive international institution, offering the best hope
for a humane and sustainable future.
|
Róbinson Rojas - 1998
Notes on the making of "regulated
capitalism"
Since the late 1930s until the 1950s industrialised countries scholars
built a set of disparate concepts which became the unscientific base
of a group of ideas loosely grouped in what was known as "development
economics" or "modernization theories". All of them conceptualized
structures aiming at "pushing" economic development through imposing
on third world societies the Western European (liberal) type of state.
By 1977, M. Todaro ("Economics for a Developing World", Longman, 1977)
summarized "literature on economic development has been dominated by
two major strands of thought:
(1) the stages of economic growth theories of the 1950s and early
1960s; (which the World Bank sponsored since then until today,
in the 1990s, R.R.)
(2) the structural-internationalist theories of the late 1960s and
early 1970s; (ECLAC) (both theories have been used as a base for
formulating various patterns of state intervention in economic
growth-development, covering a wide range from "guided capitalism"
to "market-friendly capitalism". A third strand, which is not about
the role of the state, civil society and the market in the process
of economic growth-development but an overall criticism of the
global dominance of the capitalist system generating a system of
dominance-dependence, is "dependency theory". R.R.)
|
Róbinson Rojas - 1984
U.S. imperialism in Latin America
Beginning in the mid- nineteenth century, the presence of the
United States in the continent has been strongly felt: economically,
politically, militarily, socially and culturally. Until the 1930s,
nevertheless, the focus of U.S. imperialism's activities was in Mexico,
the Caribbean Islands, and Central America. There is no need here to
substantiate the exploitation that the continent suffered by the deeds
of the most powerful representative of the capitalist mode of
production. There is an enormous amount of research on that.
Dealing with contemporary events, Lowenthal states that
..."the Senate's Chile Report shows that the U.S. government engaged
for over a decade a massive, systematic, and sustained covert campaign
against the Chilean Left... What the U.S. government did in and to
Chile during the 1960s and early 1970s was not unique in U.S.-Latin
American relations, although it was in some ways anachronistic,
a residue of programs set in motion early in the 1960s, at the height
of the cold war and of the Alliance for Progress. The covert
intervention in Chile was probably unprecedented in scope, style and
duration, perhaps because the circumstances were so special: no other
socialist revolutionary movement has come close to triumph in South
America, much less elected to office. But though the degree of
clandestine U.S. intervention against Allende may have been
exceptional, particularly as late as the 1970s, none of the specific
activities undertaken in Chile was unprecedented. On the contrary,
what the U.S. government did in Chile climaxed an extended era of U.S.
interventions in Latin America"...
|
R. A. Pastor - 1993
U.S. foreign policy: the Caribbean Basin
Scholars of inter-American relations have devoted considerable efforts to try
to locate the motive for U.S. involvement in the internal affairs of its
neighbors. Instead of a single answer, they have amassed a collection of
explanations that range from security (keep out rivals, maintain stability),
political/ideological (promote democracy, prevent Communism or "alien"
ideologies), economic (imperialism, access to investment or trade), to
psychological (an impulse to dominate, a fear of insecurity, misperception). A
particular explanation might be cogent for a case, but in trying to understand
what moves the United States over time, one needs to look for patterns in the
history of U.S. relations with the region.
One pattern is the way in which U.S. attention to the region has fluctuated
between obsession and disinterest. I have referred to this pattern as a
"whirlpool,"...
|
E.
Galeano - 1970
Latin America and the Theory of Imperialism
In "Imperialism, the Highest State of Capitalism", Lenin warned, in
refuting Kautsky, that the domination of finance capital not only
does not lessen the inequalities and contradictions present in the
world economy, but on the contrary accentuates them.
Time has passed and proven him right. The inequalities have become
sharper. Historical research has shown that the distance that separated
the standard of living in the wealthy countries from that of the poor
countries toward the middle of the nineteenth century was much smaller
than the distance that separates them today.
|
U.S.
Senate - 1975
Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973
Covert United States involvement in Chile in the decade between
1963 and 1973 was extensive and continuous. The Central Intelligence Agency
spent three million dollars in an effort to influence the outcome of the 1964
Chilean presidential elections. Eight million dollars was spent, covertly, in
the three years between 1970 and the military coup in September 1973, with over
three million dollars expended in fiscal year 1972 alone.
It is not easy to draw a neat box around what was "covert
action". The range of clandestine activities undertaken by the CIA includes
covert action, clandestine intelligence collection, liaison with local police
and intelligence services, and counterintelligence. The distinctions among the
types of activities are mirrored in organizational arrangements, both at
Headquarters and in the field. Yet it is not always so easy to distinguish the
effects of various activities. If the CIA provides financial support to a
political party, this is called "covert action"; if the Agency develops a paid
"asset" in the party for the purpose of information gathering, the project is
"clandestine intelligence collection."
The goal of covert action is political impact. At the same time
secret relationships developed for the clandestine collection of intelligence
may also have political effects, even though no attempt is made by American
officials to manipulate the relationships for short-run political gain. For
example, in Chile between 1970 and 1973, CIA and American military attache
contacts with the Chilean military for the purpose of gathering intelligence
enabled the United States to sustain communication with the group most likely to
take power from President Salvador Allende.
What did covert CIA money buy in Chile? It financed activities
covering a broad spectrum, from simple propaganda manipulation of the press to
large-scale support for Chilean political parties, from public opinion polls to
direct attempts to foment a military coup. The scope of "normal" activities of
the CIA Station in Santiago included placement of Station-dictated material in
the Chilean media through propaganda assets, direct support of publications, and
efforts to oppose communist and left-wing influence in student, peasant and
labor organizations.
|
Salvador Allende - 1972
Speech to the UN General Assembly
The Chilean president, Salvador Allende, delivered a dramatic
speech to the UN General Assembly, in New York, on 4 December
1972, exposing U.S. transnational corporations, the U.S.
government and other centres for international capital, and
the Chilean oligarchy, as being engaged in bringing Chile to the
brink of civil war by an economic blockade that deprived his
Government of the commercial credits and financial help needed
to keep it going. Nine months later, 11 September 1973, the
Chilean president was assassinated by the army (the coup
d'etat was supported by U.S. transnational corporations, the U.S.
government and other centres for international capital, and
the Chilean oligarchy) and thus the Chilean democratic system was
replaced by a brutal right-wing military junta which ruled Chile
until 1990, when the Army step aside giving way to a "guarded
democracy". ( To examine this period in depth, read Róbinson Rojas,
"The Murder of Allende and the end of the Chilean way to
socialism", Harper&Row, New York, 1975)
Salvador Allende's speech is a historical document which scholars
should read when trying to understand what kind of reality is
faced by societies struggling for development in a context where
national strategies are brutally constrained by "international
forces". These forces being grouped under banners like "defense
of the democratic system" during the Cold War, or "market forces"/
"globalization" in the post-Cold War era. In this excerpts of
Salvador Allende's speech the "international forces" are very
well individualized...there is no difference between those
forces in 1972 and now, in the 1990s... (Róbinson Rojas)
|
| The Central Intelligence Agency: its crimes. |
| L. Haugaard: Textbook
Repression: US training manuals declassified |
|
|
J. Webb
(22 march, 2004):
Analysis: Insider's attack rattles Bush
-
Bush attacked on terrorism record
-
Profile: Richard Clarke |
T. Hayden
(January 18, 2004):
Talking Back to the Global Establishment
As the Bush administration struggles with setbacks in its
global trade and Iraq agendas, the opposition World Social Forum opened festively this
week with 150,000 global justice activists primarily from India and South Asia, marking a
successful transition for the grassroots experiment from its original site in Brazil. |
| |
Over the last 70
years or so, an international capitalist class have been trying to create a world order
ruled by oligopoly capital. U.S. ruling elites have being leading this process. After the
collapse of bureaucratic socialism they are implementing a
Project for the New American Century
which is unleashing, once again, U.S. State Terrorism all over the world. To understand
better how the international capitalist class enforces its domination mainly through U.S.
State Terrorism, I include here two texts ( Carroll & Carson, and Fraser &
Beeston). More reading on this is available at http://www.rrojasdatabank.info/pfpc.
(Dr. Róbinson Rojas)
--
W. K. Carroll & C. Carson:
Forging a New Hegemony? The Role of
Transnational Policy Groups in the Network and Discourses of Global Corporate Governance
---
I. Fraser and M. Beeston:
The Brotherhood
Part 1: Introduction. The Main Manipulating Groups
Part 2: The Main Protagonists
Part 3: Economic Control. Steps Towards a Global Bank
Part 4: Political Control
Part 5: The World Army
Part 6: Population Control
Part 7: Who We Are & Mind Manipulation
Part 8: Further Examples of Manipulation
Part 9: The Pharmaceutical Racket
Part 10: Seeing Beyond the Veil
|
From Global
Research (Canada)(24 February 2004)
When the ‘Big
Lie’ Becomes the Truth, Michel Chossudovsky and Ian Woods,
full text
Intelligence Ploy behind the "Suicide bombings".
"Operation Justified Vengeance": a Secret Plan to Destroy the Palestinian
Authority, Ellis Shuman,
full text
The Defense Sciences Office's new Metabolic Dominance
Program. DARPA Creating a Race of Robo-grunts, Thomas C Greene,
full text
FEMA: The Secret Government, Harry V. Martin
full text
The Hutton Report is a cover-up of the causes of David
Kelly's Death: Suicide or Murder? The Dr. David Kelly Affair, Steve Moore
full text
The purpose of the Commissions of Inquiry is Whitewash: Yes,
Minister! Uri Avnery
full text
The White House had (at least ) 28 Advanced Intelligence
Warnings Prior to 9/11, Compiled by Eric Smith,
full text
Barely seven weeks prior to 9/11, Attorney General John
Ashcroft decided not to travel on commercial airlines, due to "a threat assessment by
the FBI" ,
full text
Hillary Clinton confirmed in a June 2002 Press Conference
that Attorney General John Ashcroft "decided not to fly on commercial flights in the
month preceding September 11, 2001,
full text
Paul O'Neill , The Democrats and Regime Rotation in America
, Snowshoe Films, Video Interview with Michel Chossudovsky,
full text
John Kerry's Anti-war stance challenged by Vietnam
Vet: An Open Letter to Senator John Kerry on Iraq, S. Brian
Willson
full text>
Argentine President Faces off with IMF and International
Financiers, Roger Burbach
full text
Media vs. Reality in Haiti, Anthony Fenton
full text
CIA Intelligence Reports Seven Months Before 9/11: Iraq
Posed No Threat To U.S., Containment Was Working, Jason Leopold
full text
Georgia: "The Technique of a Coup d'État",
John Laughland
full text
US Casualties in Iraq, David Hackworth
full text
World Bank Oversees Carve-Up of Congo Rainforests
full text
|
N. Morris (Feb. 16,
2004)
Tutu tells Blair: apologise for 'inmoral'
war |
D. Morris (
February 3, 2004 )
Faulty intelligence my eye |
R. Nader
The Concord Principles for a New Democracy
Control of our social institutions, our
government, and our political system is presently in the hands of a self-serving, powerful
few, known as an oligarchy, which too often has excluded citizens from the process.
Our political system has degenerated into a government of the power brokers, by the power
brokers, and for the power brokers, and is far beyond the control or accountability of the
citizens. It is an arrogant and distant caricature of Jeffersonian democracy. |
R. Nader
Corporate Socialism
The relentless expansion of corporate control
over our political economy has proven nearly immune to daily reporting by the mainstream
media. Corporate crime, fraud and abuse have become like the weather; everyone is talking
about the storm but no one seems able to do anything about it. This is largely because
expected accountability mechanisms -- including boards of directors, outside accounting
and law firms, bankers and brokers, state and federal regulatory agencies and legislatures
-- are inert or complicit. |
N. Chomsky
(Toronto Star, 21 Dec. 2003)
Selective memory and dishonest doctrine |
For those who
still doubt that US big capital is in the process of building a world empire the reading
of this document will be very useful. The think tank authoring this document was created
in 1997, and by now is well entrenched in the White House. We need to read this document,
analyse it, and discuss ways leading to stop the American Empire offensive for total world
domination. US imperialist project for the twenty first century seeks economic enslavement
through military terror of every society on planet earth. (Róbinson Rojas - April 2003)
Project for the New American Century (2000):
Rebuilding America's Defenses.
Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century
...more |
The National
Security Archive (2003):
When Reagan and his thugs were pals with Saddam and
his thugs |
James D.
Cockcroft (2003):
Antiwar Movement, Civil Liberties, and Imperialism in
United States |
R. Rojas (14
Apr. 2003):
US Army use of depleted uranium weapons: another human
catastrophe in the making
---
The environmental disaster created by US military
bases
------
A. Kirby (14 April, 2003):
US rejects Iraq DU clean |
W. Clark (Jan.
2003):
The real reasons for the upcoming war witk Iraq |
E. Vilwar
(March-Apr. 2003):
The Lost World War |
J. Pilger ( Jan.
2003):
Blood on their hands |
M.J. Sullivan
(2000):
U.S. Foreign Policy in the Periphery: a
50-year retrospective |
Nafeez Mosaddeq
Ahmed (09/10/03)
'Behind the War on Terror: Western Secret Strategy and the Struggle
for Iraq' |
A.G. Frank
(1991):
Third World War:
A political economy of the Gulf War and new world order
(with a 2003 EPILOGUE)
---
A.G. Frank (2002):
Paper Tiger, Firey Dragon |
|
Electronic
Briefing Books
National Security
Archive Electronic Briefing Books provide online access to critical declassified records
on issues including U.S. national security, foreign policy, diplomatic and military
history, intelligence policy, and more. Updated frequently, the Electronic Briefing
Books represent just a small sample of the documents in our published and unpublished
collections.
Archive publications also include 20 microfiche collections,
12 of which are now available on the World Wide Web as part of the
Digital National Security Archive
subscription, and more than 20 books written
by Archive staff and fellows. | |
