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Today's
Stories
October 26,
2004
Kathleen Christison
Why
I Liked Thomas Friedman's Latest Column Before I Didn't
October 25,
2004
Ralph Nader
Letter
from a Minnesota Highway
Werther
West
Texas Wahabbism
Dave Zirin
Boston's Killer Cops: Death of a Fan
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Oregon Revokes Dr. Leveque's License
Omar Barghouti
Executing Another Child in Rafah
William J. Nottingham
Lori Berenson's Story
John Chuckman
A Foolish Consistency
Uri Avnery
On
the Road to Civil War
October 22
/ 24, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
You
Can't Blame Nader for This
Rev. William Alberts
On Bended Knee: Faith-Based Deceptions
Willliam A.
Cook
Killing for Christ
Saul Landau
George W. Bush: a Man of His Words?
Bill Quigley
I Held the Bullet in My Palm: Masked Haitian Police Shoot Children
While Arresting Priest
Christopher Brauchli
Seal It With a Frown: What Compassionate Conservativism Really
Means
William S.
Lind
Fallujah and the Moral Level of War
Sharon Smith
Guilt Trippers for Kerry
Greg Bates
Kerrynomics: "Hurt the Ones Who Vote for Us"
Justin E.H. Smith
Is Lesser Evilism a Compromise with Evil?
Rebecca Evans
Tarnished Legacy: Pinochet and the Chilean Military
Mike Whitney
Al Hurra TV: the Second Invasion
M. Junaid Alam
Purchasing Individuality in America
David Krieger
Nuclear Non-Proliferation: Examining the Policies of Bush and
Kerry
David J. Ledermann
The Emperor's New Crumbs
Lawrence Reichard
Same Old FBI Story
Website of
the Weekend
Lie Girls: the Real Coalition of the Willling
October 21,
2004
Ben Tripp
The
Undecided Voter Examined
Joshua Frank
Kerry
and the Environment:
It's Not Easy Pretending to be Green
Stan Cox
What
the Left Doesn't Get About Small Businesses
Bill Martinez
State
Depart and Cuban Visas: Only Anti-Castro Agitators Need Apply
Mark Engler
The War and Globalization
Lina Britto
and Lucia Suarez
Bolivia:
a Year After the October Insurrection
Website of the Day
Two Pampered Children of Wealth
October 20,
2004
Yitzhak Laor
"Did
You Two Squabble?": a Bullet Fired for Every Palestinian
Child
Jason Leopold
Sinclair
Broadcasting's Air War: a Long History of Journalistic Deception
Jesse Sharkey
A
Teacher's Account of How Military Recruiters Prey on High School
Students
Col. Dan Smith
Choking
Free Speech About the Draft
Dr. Teresa Whitehurst
Using My Religion
David Vest
If
Bush Wins, Blame Me
Jack Random
The Jackson 17: Reflections on a Mutiny
Ron Jacobs
Time
to Kick It Up a Notch
James Brittain
Plan Patriota and the FARC: a Change in the Countryside?
Christopher
Dols
Bombing Madison: Michael Moore's Fright Fest
Dave Lindorff
First They Came for the Nurses...
Website of
the Day
Banana Republican Catalogue
October 19,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Party
Favors: the Political Business of Terry McAuliffe
Jeff Taylor
Confessions
of a Swing State Voter
Matt Vidal
American
Myopia: "More Money in Your Pocket"
Victor Kattan
"It's Not Who You're Against; It's Who You're For":
Palestine Takes Center Stage At Euro Social Forum
William Loren
Katz
What Goes Around Comes Around
Sean Carter
O'Reilly Should Shut Up About Extortion Claiims
CounterPunch Wire
Who's Really in Bed with Republican Funders: Kerry or Nader?
October 18,
2004
Saul Landau
Facts
and Lies; Slogans and Truth
Dave Lindorff
Bulletin
on the Bush Bulge
Diane Christian
Sheep
and Goats: On the Language of Goodness
Greg Bates / Dave Lindorff
Betting on War: a Wager on the Fallout of a Kerry Presidency
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
Peter LaVenia
Leaving the Greens So Soon? a Response to Josh Frank
Mike Whitney
O'Reilly at the Whipping Post
Elaine Cassel
The Other War: Civil Liberties Three Years After 9/11
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
October 26, 2004
The Anti-Empire
Report
Fear
Factors
By
WILLIAM BLUM
The CIA
Should Wear a Ski Mask When They Use This Excuse
Time Magazine reported that
the Bush administration had a plan to use the CIA to funnel money
to candidates it favored in the forthcoming Iraqi elections.
The rationale given was that Iran was probably bankrolling its
own preferred candidate.{1} Whether Iran has actually been engaged
in such I do not know, but what is certain is that it is irrelevant
to American policy. The United States has been trying to fix
elections in every corner of the world for more than half a century
without any other foreign power being in the picture at all.
This argument in the case of Iraq is reminiscent of the Cold
War period in Western Europe, when the CIA was covertly financing
many political parties, media, labor unions, student groups,
women's organizations, etc. When this secret support began to
be disclosed in the 1960s, supporters of the CIA would typically
defend the Agency's sundry activities in Europe on the grounds
that the Russians were the first to be so engaged there and had
to be countered. But it should be borne in mind that all the
different types of enterprises and institutions supported by
the CIA in Western Europe were supported by the Agency all over
the Third World for decades on a routine basis without a Russian
counterpart in sight.
The Fear
Factor
For months now we've been bombarded
with government warnings about possible terrorist attacks to
disrupt the November elections. All manner of precautions and
safeguards have been instituted by federal and state authorities.
The Library of Congress has prepared a report entitled: "Postponement
and Rescheduling of Elections to Federal Office.{2}
But hardly a thought is expressed
about the question of "Why would terrorists want to disrupt
the American elections?" George W. would answer that it's
because terrorists hate and envy democracy. (Thank you George,
now take your pill.) The Department of Homeland Security has
raised the analogy with Spain, where last March terrorists bombed
several trains, killing many people, just days before a national
election. But that was to influence the vote, to turn the Spanish
public away from the government which was a strong supporter
of the US war in Iraq, and the bombings did indeed result in
the opposition party, which was very much against the war, taking
power. But in the United States there's no such opposition party
with even a remote chance of winning the election. The Democratic
candidate expresses 100 percent support of the war. So who would
benefit from a terrorist attack on the elections, or the threat
of same, the fear factor? Bush's lead in the polls, we've been
told repeatedly, comes mainly from people who think he's better
with national security issues.
Flu Vaccine
Shortage
The shortage, we are told,
is due to the bacterial contamination of a major part of the
vaccine supply. Turns out the bacteria is Serratia marcescens.
This is the same microorganism the US Army sprayed in the open
air in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1950s and 60s, causing
multiple illnesses and at least one death. During that period
and afterward, when the many spraying operations -- which used
various microorganisms throughout the United States -- were publicized,
the response of the Pentagon was that all the microorganisms
they were using were harmless and that any illnesses and deaths
were not related to the sprayings. Now we're told in effect
that Serratia marcescens can indeed be harmful. But this
should not be news. As the assistant to the director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testified before the
Senate in 1977: "There is no such thing as a microorganism
that cannot cause trouble. If you get the right concentration
at the right place, at the right time, and in the right person,
something is going to happen."{3} Today, if anyone other
than the US government did what the Army did back then they would
be called bioterrorists.
More of
What Many of You Don't Want to Hear
Each month I think I'm going
to stop beating up on Kerry and the Democrats because it makes
me sad myself to think that there's no honorable and viable alternative
to Emperor George or the Republicans. Then I read about the
Democrat's rising star, Barack Obama, Senate candidate and almost
certain winner in Illinois, keynote speaker at the Democratic
National Convention. He declared that he would favor the use
of missile strikes against Iran if it failed to bow to Washington's
demand that it cease its alleged nuclear weapons program. Obama
also said that in the event of a coup that removed the Musharraf
regime in Pakistan, the US should attack that nation's nuclear
arsenal.{4} Very nice, Barack. Just what this violence-plagued,
tired old world needs, more death and destruction, more Iraqs
and Afghanistans, more pre-emptive wars of aggression, more imperial
arrogance. Obama is clearly showing that he's presidential material
by meeting the first requirement for that office: no inhibitions
about killing large numbers of innocent and defenseless foreign
people. Oh yes, he said the missile strikes against Iran would
be "surgical". Even as I write this, the cemeteries
of Fallujah are filling up with cases of surgical malpractice.
Democrats
Anonymous
Much has been made of Bush's
inability to admit to an error. But what if he admitted that
Iraq was a big mistake? Would that not also implicate Kerry
for supporting such a mistake? Kerry has stated that he would
have supported the war even if he had known beforehand everything
we now know about how it's turning out.
A reader, Barbara West, writes:
"For years I have had the idea of outlining a 12-step program
called Democrats Anonymous, for those who know they should abandon
that dead-end, but just can't bring themselves to, even when
their political lives have become unmanageable. The concept
is yours if you can make something of it." I in turn make
the same offer to any other reader.
"Foreign
Fighters" in Iraq
Ever since the insurgency began
in Iraq, the United States has tried to emphasize the presence
of "foreign fighters" amongst the insurgents in an
attempt to play down the notion of the people of Iraq rising
up in resistance to their occupiers, so reminiscent of the Second
World War European resistance fighters rebelling against their
Nazi occupiers. But the United States has had many more "foreign
fighters" at their side than do the Iraqi insurgents --
from Australia, Britain, Poland, El Salvador, and a number of
other countries, not to mention the largest contingent of foreign
fighters in Iraq, from the United States. Why shouldn't the
Iraqi insurgents have the same right?
Brainwashed
Commies Revisited
Back in May I wrote in this
report: George W. Bush, speaking in October 2003 after many resistance
attacks in Iraq: "The more successful we are on the ground,
the more these killers will react."{5}
Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking in April 2004, depicted
the insurrection and fighting that had risen over nearly a two-week
period in an equally positive light. "'I would characterize
what we're seeing right now as a -- as more a symptom of the
success that we're having here in Iraq,' he said ... explaining
that the violence indicated there was something to fight against
-- American progress in building up Iraq."{6}
Imagine that in the 1980s Russian leaders had used identical
logic and language about how their war against the Afghanistan
insurgents was going for them. The American media would have
had a field day of snide remarks about those poor brainwashed,
Orwellian commies.
And now, to add to the historical/hysterical
record here is the Washington-approved, unelected Iraqi prime
minister and former CIA asset, Ayad Allawi, declaring last month
that although the insurgency is "still raging", it's
a good sign -- a sign that "it's not getting stronger, it's
getting more desperate."{7}
Who's Missing?
Shortly after 9-11, the State
Department began to maintain a list on its website: "Countries
where al Qaeda has operated". When I looked at it on Sept.
21, 2004, there were 45 names on the list, including the United
States. But not Iraq or Syria, nor North Korea or Cuba. The
list was at: http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/terrornet/12.htm
It's now gone, or at least
not at that URL. Anyone who'd like to see the list as it was
on Sept. 21, can email me.
Memo to
George W and John Ashcroft
On the 4th day of November
1796, a "Treaty of peace and friendship between the United
States of America and the Bey and subjects of Tripoli, of Barbary"
was concluded at Tripoli [Libya]. Article 11 of the treaty begins:
"As the government of the United States of America is not
in any sense founded on the Christian Religion ... "
It should be further noted
that Article VI, Section II, of the United States Constitution
states: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States
which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made,
or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States,
shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every
State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or
Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."
Hitler Comparisons
There's something called "Godwin's
Law" floating around the Internet, particularly in Usenet
groups. The law states that whenever one person in an argument
makes a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis, that's the end of
the argument and that person is regarded as having lost it. But
not to worry; a related rule, "Gabriel's assertion",
states: "Godwin's Law can not be used to silence criticisms
of modern governments which begin to behave like Nazis."
Given that, here's Hitler on
his plans to attack Poland with the pretext of German soldiers
in Polish uniforms attacking Germany: "Whether the world
believes it doesn't mean a damn to me. The world believes only
in success."{8}
Like on many other occasions,
the man was very insightful. If the US invasion and occupation
of Iraq had gone just the way the Bush administration predicted,
with no resistance from the Iraqi people, the operation would
have been applauded almost universally despite the multiple lies,
the flagrant violations of international law, and the death and
destruction from the initial bombing campaign.
And as an additional memo to
Bush and Ashcroft, here's another of Adolf's thoughts: "Secular
schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious
instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious
foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training
and religion must be derived from faith ... we need believing
people."{9}
A Look Back
at the Cold War
Last month the latest volume
of the State Department's historical series, "Foreign Relations
of the United States" (FRUS), was released; this volume
covers 1964-1968 and deals in part with Bolivia. It states that
a CIA document of that period characterized the overall goals
of the U.S. Government's covert action programs in Bolivia as
follows:
"The basic covert action
goals in Bolivia are to foster democratic solutions to critical
social, economic, and political problems; to check Communist
and Cuban subversion; to encourage a stable government favorably
inclined toward the United States; and to encourage Bolivian
participation in the Alliance for Progress. The main direction
and emphasis of CA [covert action] operations is to force Communists,
leftists, and pro-Castroites out of influential positions in
government, and to try to break Communist and ultra-leftist control
over certain trade union, student groups, and campesino organizations."
This is classic coldwarspeak,
a good example of the rationalizations put forth by US officials
for numerous American interventions throughout the world during
the Cold War. The following should be noted:
US covert actions into virtually
all the important aspects of Bolivian life is said to "foster
democratic solutions". But even if one were to accept the
odd premise that the United States was a legitimate participant
in Bolivia's democratic process, the masses of Bolivians could
not begin to match the CIA input into that process in terms of
money, media control, bribery of government officials high and
low, or alliances with the police and armed forces.
"To encourage a stable
government favorably inclined toward the United States"
is virtually a redundancy inasmuch as the United States has long
tended to equate "stability" with being "pro-American";
conversely, the tendency has been to view governments not in
love with US foreign policy as "unstable", and in need
of regime change.
"Communists, leftists,
and pro-Castroites", an unknowing person might conclude,
are not Bolivians with a right to work in the country's government.
Nor, apparently, do communists
and "ultra-leftists" have a right to important positions
in non-government organizations. (Ironically, this is a tacit
admission that communists are not the furthest left on the political
spectrum, an idea that most Americans, even today, would find
surprising.)
The new FRUS volume also notes
that "When he took office in November 1963 President Johnson
inherited a longstanding U.S. Government policy of providing
financial support for Bolivian political leaders."
Thus, the United States helped
to determine who ran the society, and how it was to be run, and
they called that "democracy".
And remember, the above document
represents what CIA personnel were telling each other and, presumably,
other government officials. Is it any wonder that what such
people actually tell the American people can be such crap? The
words of Enoch Powell, the former conservative gadfly in Parliament,
apply to Americans as well as to his English colleagues:
"There is a factor in
human affairs more dangerous and destructive than the nuclear
weapon. It is the factor of humbug. Particularly is that factor
to be dreaded where the English are dealing with other nations,
because the English are the world's past masters in the art of
humbug, having developed it over centuries as a device for regulating
their own internal affairs with the minimum of friction and the
maximum of self-congratulation. The trouble begins when others,
and even they themselves, fall into the trap of taking the humbug
seriously."
The Conspiracy
to Trivialize Conspiracy Theories
Pierre Salinger, press secretary
to presidents Kennedy and Johnson, died October 16. The Washington
Post obituary included this: "His journalistic reputation
was besmirched in the 1990s, however, after his insistence that
two major airline crashes were not what they seemed. He said
that the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie,
Scotland was a Drug Enforcement Agency operation that went wrong
-- a theory for which no evidence materialized."{10}
I quote this as an example
of how the mainstream media deals with "conspiracy theories".
When the incident in question first occurs, the "official"
government explanation crowds the headlines and ignores the alternative
explanations; the latter are confined to the alternative media,
except when the mainstream media, for whatever reason, is obliged
to make note of an alternative explanation; then it is dismissed
without serious consideration, if not openly ridiculed. After
a few years of this, in the minds of the vast majority of people
the official explanation is all that exists. Then, when the
mainstream media is obliged to make reference to an alternative
explanation, it usually refers to it as having been "discredited",
or, as in this obituary, lacking evidence. In the case of Pan
Am 103, what the reader is not informed of is that no evidence
has materialized in support of the official theory, that a Libyan
government agent planted the bomb. There is, in fact, much more
evidence in support of the DEA role (but primarily that of Iran)
than of the Libyan role.{11}
"Conspiracy" researcher
and author Jonathan Vankin has observed:
"Journalists like to think
of themselves as a skeptical lot. This is a flawed self-image.
The thickest pack of American journalists are all too credulous
when dealing with government officials, technical experts, and
other official sources. They save their vaunted 'skepticism'
for ideas that feel unfamiliar to them. Conspiracy theories
are treated with the most rigorous skepticism. Conspiracy theories
should be approached skeptically. But there's no fairness.
Skepticism should apply equally to official and unofficial information."{12}
William
Blum is the author
of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World
War II, Rogue
State: a guide to the World's Only Super Power. and West-Bloc
Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir.
He can be reached at: BBlum6@aol.com
NOTES
{1} Time Magazine, October
4, 2004
{2} October 4, 2004: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32623.pdf
{3} For this testimony and more about the Army spraying, see
William Blum, "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only
Superpower", chapter 15
{4} Chicago Tribune, September 25, 2004
{5} Washington Post, October 28, 2003, p.1
{6} New York Times, April 16, 2004
{7} Washington Post, September 21, 2004
{8} New York Times, November 24, 1945, p.7, from a found Nazi
document.
{9} April 26, 1933, from a speech made during negotiations leading
to the Nazi-Vatican Concordant
{10} Washington Post, October 17, 2004, p.C10
{11} See Blum's essay at http://members.aol.com/bblum6/panam.htm
{12} Jonathan Vankin, "Conspiracies, Cover-ups and Crimes:
Political Manipulation and Mind Control in America" (1991),
p.120
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