All-are-our-enemies entrenched contempt, lawlessness

Excerpting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

If all are enemies, we have no friends

Bush - Obama administrations blurring spying and diplomacy — the breach implied in U.S. embassy cables released over the weekend cannot be expunged by more bullying and belligerence from Washington.

There is apparently great paranoia and continuing recklessness at the highest levels of U.S. government. This government remains at war with the world. When no nation is deemed friend, when other nations and peoples are suspect and routinely subjected to military invasion and occupation and other covert and overt offense; when nations and peoples are held in continuous contempt — who will come to the aid of this solitary power, its nation and people when they are seriously in need?

“The operation targeting the United Nations appears to have involved all of Washington’s main intelligence agencies: the CIA’s clandestine service, the U.S. Secret Service, and the FBI … alongside the U.S Department of State. …” The Guardian in Britain was reporting on Sunday’s release by WikiLeaks of “U.S. Embassy Cables.” These are edited excerpts from the Guardian’s report.

Spying on the world

“A directive from Hillary Clinton ordered U.S. diplomats to gather biometric information on the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

“Washington is running a secret intelligence campaign targeting the leadership of the United Nations, including the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the permanent UN Security Council representatives from China, Russia, France and the UK.

Under U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s name, a July 2009 classified directive “which appears to blur the line between diplomacy and spying was issued to U.S. diplomats. [The directive] demanded forensic technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications.

“[The directive] called for detailed biometric information ‘on key UN officials, to include undersecretaries, heads of specialized agencies and their chief advisers, top SYG [Secretary General] aides, heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders’ as well as intelligence on [Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s] ‘management and decision-making style and his influence on the secretariat.’

“A parallel intelligence directive sent to diplomats in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi said biometric data included DNA, fingerprints and iris scans.

“Washington also wanted credit card numbers, email addresses, phone, fax and pager numbers and even frequent-flyer account numbers for UN figures and ‘biographic and biometric information on UN Security Council permanent representatives.’

“The secret ‘national human intelligence collection directive’ was sent to U.S. missions at the UN in New York, Vienna and Rome; 33 embassies and consulates, including those in London, Paris and Moscow.

“The operation targeted at the UN appears to have involved all of Washington’s main intelligence agencies. The CIA’s clandestine service, the U.S. Secret Service and the FBI were included in the ‘reporting and collection needs’ cable alongside the U.S. State Department under the heading ‘collection requirements and tasking.’”

Questions of impunity, law and lawlessness

“The leak of the directive is likely to spark questions about the legality of the [U.S. State Department] operation and about whether State Department diplomats are expected to spy,” Guardian editors wrote.

“The level of technical and personal detail demanded about the UN top team’s communication systems could be seen as laying the groundwork for surveillance or hacking operations.

“It requested ‘current technical specifications, physical layout and planned upgrades to telecommunications infrastructure and information systems, networks and technologies used by top officials and their support staff,’ as well as details on private networks used for official communication, ‘to include upgrades, security measures, passwords, personal encryption keys and virtual private network versions used.’

“Citing the 1946 UN convention on privileges and immunities which states: ‘The premises of the United Nations shall be inviolable. The property and assets of the United Nations, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of interference, whether by executive, administrative, judicial or legislative action’ — the United Nations has previously asserted that bugging the Secretary General is illegal’

“The 1961 Vienna convention on diplomatic relations, which covers the UN, also states, ‘the official correspondence of the mission shall be inviolable.’

“The emergence of the directive also risks undermining political trust between the United Nations leadership and the United States…”

Friend or foe
If everyone is our enemy, we have no friends

“The UN is not the only target. The cables reveal that since 2008 the U.S. State Department has issued at least nine directives to embassies around the world which set forth ‘a list of priorities intended to guide participating U.S. government agencies as they allocate resources and update plans to collect information.’

“The directives are packed with detailed orders and, while embassy staff members are particularly encouraged to assist in compiling biographic information, the directive on the mineral and oil-rich Great Lakes region of Africa requested detailed military intelligence, including weapons markings and plans of army bases.

“A directive on ‘Palestinian issues’ sent to Cairo, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Amman, Damascus and Riyadh demanded the exact travel plans and vehicles used by leading members of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, without explaining why.

“In one directive that would test the initiative — never mind moral and legal scruples — of any diplomat, Washington ordered staff in the [Democratic of Congo], Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi to obtain biometric information of leading figures in business, politics, intelligence, military, religion and in key ethnic groups.

“Fingerprints and photographs are collected as part of embassies’ consular and visa operations, but it is harder to see how diplomats could justify obtaining DNA samples and iris scans.

“In central Africa, embassy officials were ordered to gather details about countries’ military relations with China, Libya, North Korea, Iran and Russia. Washington assigned high priority to intelligence on the ‘transfer of strategic materials such as uranium,’ and ‘details of arms acquisitions and arms sales by government or insurgents, including negotiations, contracts, deliveries, terms of sale, quantity and quality of equipment, and price and payment terms.’

“The directives, signed simply ‘Clinton’ or ‘Rice,’ referring to the current and former U.S. secretaries of state, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice, form a central plank of America's intelligence effort and reveal how Washington is using its 11,500-strong foreign service to glean highly sensitive information on both allies and enemies.…”

Sources and notes

The U.S. embassy cables: U.S. diplomats spied on UN leadership, guardian.co.uk, Sunday November 28, 2010, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/28/us-embassy-cables-spying-un?intcmp=239

Also: Democracy Now program, Monday, November 29, 2010, http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2010/11/29

AMY GOODMAN:

“ I’m looking at The Guardian, one of the participants in the WikiLeaks release: ‘Washington running a secret intelligence campaign targeted at the leadership of the United Nations, including Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the permanent Security Council representatives from China, Russia, France, and the U.K. The classified directive, which appears to [have been] issued to U.S. diplomats under Hillary Clinton’s name in July 2009, demanding forensic technical details about the communication systems used by top UN officials including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications. It called for detailed biometric information on key UN officials to include undersecretaries, heads of specialized agencies and their chief advisers, top SIG- that’s Secretary General Aides- heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders, as well as intelligence on Ban’s management and decision making style and his influence on the secretariat. A parallel intelligence directive sent to diplomats sent to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and biometric data including DNA, fingerprints and iris scans.’”

UN Security Council Membership in 2010
The Council is composed of five permanent members — China, France, Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States— and 10 non-permanent members (with year of term’s end):

1. Austria (2010)
2. Japan (2010)
3. Turkey (2010)
4. Bosnia and Herzegovina (2011)
5. Lebanon (2011)
6. Uganda (2010)
7. Brazil (2011)
8. Mexico (2010)
9. Gabon (2011)
10. Nigeria (2011)

The General Assembly elected Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms starting January 1, 2011. The newly elected countries will replace Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey and Uganda.

The Presidency of the Security Council is held in turn by the members of the Security Council in the English alphabetical order of their names. Each President holds office for one calendar month.

Ten non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms and are not eligible for immediate reelection. The number of non-permanent members was increased from six to ten by an amendment of the Charter, which came into force in 1965.

Under the Charter, all Members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council. While other organs of the United Nations make recommendations to Governments, the Council alone has the power to take decisions which Member States are obligated under the Charter to carry out, http://www.un.org/sc/members.asp

The United Nations is comprised of 192 Member States, http://www.un.org/en/m

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

When entrenched press, government fail democracies —

Insiders must whistle
Excerpting, re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

We need more whistleblowers from within.

Their truth telling

to outside authorities and audiences

is essential

— 1969 Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg —

“Secret U.S. Embassy Cables” released

“Wikileaks began on Sunday November 28th publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into U.S. Government foreign activities.

“The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year (2010), contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the U.S State Department in Washington DC. Fifteen thousand six hundred and fifty-two (15,652) of the cables are classified Secret.

“The embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months. The subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice. The cables show the extent of U.S. —

Spying on its allies and the UN;
Turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in "client states";
Backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries;
Lobbying for U.S. corporations; and
Measures U.S. diplomats take to advance those who have access to them

“This document release reveals the contradictions between the United States’ public persona and what it says behind closed doors — and shows that if citizens in a democracy want their governments to reflect their wishes, they should ask to see what’s going on behind the scenes.

“Every American schoolchild is taught that George Washington — the country’s first President – could not tell a lie. If the administrations of his successors lived up to the same principle, today’s document flood would be a mere embarrassment. Instead, the U.S. Government has been warning governments — even the most corrupt — around the world about the coming leaks and is bracing itself for the exposures.

“The full set consists of 251,287 documents, comprising 261,276,536 words (seven times the size of ‘The Iraq War Logs,’ the world’s previously largest classified information release).

“The cables cover from 28th December 1966 to 28th February 2010 and originate from 274 embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions.

“When the Leaders Are the Problem,” Daniel Ellsberg writes  —

“Above all, we need more whistleblowers from within. Their truth telling to outside authorities and audiences is essential. And the only way to get it—since dangers to their own careers in their organizations cannot be eliminated—is to somehow encourage them to accept those risks, for the benefit of others.

“Is that asking the impossible?
 “Difficult, unusual, unlikely, yes. Yet it is humanly possible and essential.

“Humans have the capability for great concern, altruism, and even self-sacrifice in the interest of others outside their immediate families and teams, and they very often show it; only not often enough, indeed quite rarely, in their official roles within organizations.

“Unfortunately, as human beings, we also all have the capability of being selective in our concern, and of being manipulated in our selectivity of concern by our leaders and colleagues in our groups.

“A major reason for the occurrence of disasters is that, as humans, we often choose keeping our job, protecting our reputation, getting promoted, maintaining our access to inside information, getting reelected, assuring college education for our children, preserving our marriage, and holding on to our house in a nice neighborhood—all considerations that are neither trivial nor discreditable for any of us— over actions, including truth telling to the public, that would risk some of these but which could potentially save vast numbers of other people’s lives.”

“… When I released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, former senator Wayne Morse told me that if I had given him those documents at the time of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in 1964 (when I had many of them in my office safe in the Pentagon), “The Resolution would never have gotten out of committee. And if it had been brought to a vote, it would never have passed.” That’s a heavy burden to bear. But scores of other officials, perhaps a hundred, could have given those documents to the Senate as well as I.

“…More recently, any one of a hundred people within the government could have averted the Iraq War by telling the public—with documents—what they knew about the lies the president was feeding the public. Yet no one did.

“When confronted with potential looming catastrophes, people within large organizations often think, ‘Somebody else will take care of this. Surely, the top people know more than I do. It is their job to take care of it, and surely they will.’ The truth is, there is no likelihood at all that the leaders will take care of it.

“In the years since the Iraq War first approached (and more recently, equally disastrous prospects of attack on Iran), I have been urging patriotic and conscientious insiders, who may be in the situation I once was in — holding secret, official knowledge of lies, crimes, and dangers of impending, wrongful, catastrophic wars or escalations — to do what I wish I had done in 1964 or early 1965, years earlier than I did: ‘Go to Congress and the press and reveal the truth, with documents.’ The personal risks are real, but a war’s-worth of lives might be saved.”

“… From my own experience in government, and in my study of national security policy catastrophes in the decades since, I have come to believe that the most dangerous practices in the national security realm reflect priorities, in general, that are set by top officials: getting reelected, avoiding condemnation for past actions, or other political or bureaucratic objectives. Those priorities generally take great precedence over safety or preventing public harm.

“… The behavior of the people down below in the hierarchy is generally responsive to those priorities, because the way for them to keep their jobs and get ahead is self-evidently to conform to the priorities of their superiors, and especially the top boss. … What those superiors often want is help in avoiding or concealing documentation of warnings or recommendations that might convict them, on later examination, of self-interest or recklessness in choosing or continuing policies that failed.…

“… We need more whistleblowers from within. Their truth telling to outside authorities and audiences is essential. And the only way to get it—since dangers to their own careers in their organizations cannot be eliminated—is to somehow encourage them to accept those risks, for the benefit of others.

Sources and notes

Cable gate, http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/

“When the Leaders Are the Problem,” (Michael Ellsberg) July 14, 2009, Daniel Ellsberg’s Afterword to Flirting with Disaster: Why Accidents Are Rarely Accidental (Marc Gerstein with Michael Ellsberg), http://www.ellsberg.net/archive/when-the-leaders-are-the-problem

Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg was a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation in 1959 and consultant to the U.S. Defense Department and White House specializing in problems of the command and control of nuclear weapons, nuclear war plans, and crisis decision-making. In 1961, he drafted the guidance from Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on operational plans for general nuclear war. He was a member of two of the three working groups reporting to the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (EXCOM) during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Ellsberg joined the U.S. Defense Department in 1964 as Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs) John McNaughton, working on the escalation of the war in Vietnam. He transferred to the State Department in 1965 to serve two years at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, evaluating pacification in the field.

Returning to RAND in 1967, Ellsberg worked on the top-secret McNamara study of U.S. Decision-making in Vietnam, 1945-68, which later came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In 1969, he photocopied the 7,000-page study and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in 1971, he gave it to the New York Times, the Washington Post and 17 other newspapers.

His trial, on twelve felony counts posing a possible sentence of 115 years, was dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct against him, which led to the convictions of several White House aides and figured in the impeachment proceedings against 327th U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.

Daniel Ellsberg is the author of Papers on the War (1971); Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (2002); and Risk, Ambiguity and Decision (2001). In December 2006, he was awarded a Right Livelihood Award in Stockholm, Sweden, the citation “… for putting peace and truth first, at considerable personal risk, and dedicating his life to inspiring others to follow his example.”

Daniel Ellsberg was born in Chicago in 1931, graduated from Harvard (1952) with a B.A. in Economics and later studied at King’s College, Cambridge University. In the years 1954 -1957, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps. http://www.ellsberg.net/bio

See also

“U.S. Facing Global Diplomatic Crisis Following Massive WikiLeaks Release of Secret Diplomatic Cables,” November 29, 2010, Guests: Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower; Carne Ross, a British diplomat for 15 years who resigned before the Iraq war, founder and head of a non-profit diplomatic advisory group, Independent Diplomat; Greg Mitchell, writer of the Media Fix blog for The Nation, longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine, author of 10 books including The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair’s Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics; As’ad Abu Khalil, professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC, Berkeley, author of The Battle for Saudi Arabia, and writer at the Angry Arab News Service blog, http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/29/us_facing_global_diplomatic_crisis_following

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

Writer’s wish — plant “intelligent words” bearing fruit springing forever

Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
An old crafted conversation, a writer's reflection

Socrates
Writing, Phaedrus, has this strange quality, and is very like painting; for the creatures of painting stand like living beings, but if one asks them a question, they preserve a solemn silence; and so it is with written words.

“You might think they spoke as if they had intelligence, but if you question them, wishing to know about their sayings, they always say only one and the same thing. Every word, when once written, is bandied about, alike among those who understand and those who have no interest in it, and it knows not to whom to speak or not to speak; when ill-treated or unjustly reviled it always needs its [creator or architect] to help it. For it has no power to protect or help itself.”

Phaedrus: What is this word and how is it begotten, as you say?”

Socrates
… The word which is written with intelligence in the mind of the learner, which is able to defend itself and knows to whom it should speak, and before whom to be silent.

Phaedrus: You mean the living and breathing word of [one] who knows, of which the written word may justly be called the image.

Socrates
“Exactly….

“Would sensible [cultivators of land] with seeds they care for and wish to bear fruit, plant them with serious purpose in the heat of summer in some garden [short-lived] and delight in seeing them appear in beauty in eight days, or would they do that sort of thing … only in play and for amusement? Would they not, when in earnest, follow the rules of [farming], plant seeds in fitting ground, and be pleased when those sowed reach their perfection in eighth months?”

Writers will plant gardens of letters for amusement to treasure up reminders for themselves … and for others who follow the same path. They will be pleased when they see [words] putting forth tender leaves. When others engage in other amusements, refreshing themselves with banquets and kindred entertainments, writers will pass the time in such pleasures as I have suggested.

Phaedrus: A noble pastime, Socrates… the pastime of the one who can find amusement in discourse, telling stories about justice, and the other subjects you speak of

Socrates
“Yes.…

“But in my opinion, serious discourse about [words] is far nobler, when one employs the dialectic method [reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation] and plants and sows in a fitting soul intelligent words capable of helping themselves and the writer who planted them; and which are not fruitless, but yield seed from which there spring up in other minds other words capable of continuing the process forever, and which make their possessor happy, to the farthest possible limit of human happiness.”


Notes
“The first critique of writing” Plato’s Phaedrus (from Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9, translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu), http://www.english.illinois.edu/-people-/faculty/debaron/482/482readings/phaedrus.html

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato was the second of a great trio of ancient Greeks — Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle — who between them laid the philosophical foundations of Western culture.

Building on the life and thought of Socrates, Plato developed a profound and wide-ranging system of philosophy. His thought has logical, epistemological, and metaphysical aspects; but its underlying motivation is ethical. Fundamentally, Plato was a rationalist, devoted to the proposition that reason must be followed wherever it leads.

Though Greek philosopher Socrates wrote nothing, he is depicted in conversation in compositions by a small circle of his admirers—Plato and Xenophon first among them. He is portrayed in these works as a man of great insight, integrity, self-mastery, and argumentative skill.

His way of life, character, and thought exerted a profound influence on ancient and modern philosophy. Socrates was a widely recognized and controversial figure in his native Athens. The impact of his life was all the greater because of the way in which it ended. At the age of 70, Socrates was charged with ‘impiety,’ brought to trial, and sentenced to death by poisoning.

Phaedrus was born a slave and went to Italy early in life, became a freedman in the emperor Augustus’ household, and received the usual education in Greek and Latin authors. Phaedrus was a Roman fabulist, the first writer to Latinize whole books of fables, producing free versions in iambic meter of Greek prose fables then circulating under the name of Aesop [Britannica notes].

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

War-making powers rooted in deeply entrenched lies— Swanson

Push for cuts to military machine as key part of ending economic crisis
From Mickey Z. Interview with David Swanson on War Lie
Excerpt, re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Author and activist David Swanson his latest book War Is a Lie appeared this week on FAIR’s [Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s] CounterSpin. This is some of what Swanson said in an earlier interview with Mickey Z.

“A little consideration of the past suggests that we have been fooled more than enough times. It is not only in the incidents invented, manufactured or seized upon to initiate wars that are lies.

“The stories we are told to keep wars going once begun, the whitewash of them once they are over — as well as the pretense that they are over when they are not — are likewise based on lies.

“A web of long-accepted lies supports the destruction of our economy by diverting our wealth into wars, into preparation for wars, and into a network of military bases around the globe.

“The idea that we can survive this war machine environmentally, economically or with a representative government intact is built on pure lies.

“And the secret, unaccountable war-making powers established by deeply entrenched lies about what endangers us and what protects us enables the rising threat of small and secret and proxy and even unmanned wars — wars that can be launched without any specific lies required.”

David Swanson says his goal in writing War is a Lie is “to move people to the point where we don’t support wars even when they’re new.…

“We have to push for cuts to the military machine as a key part of the answer to the economic crisis, without letting up on the central moral argument against the evil of war. Beyond that, should you work on counter-recruitment or media, lobbying or nonviolent protest, education or web design — all are required. It depends on what you find most rewarding.”

Sources and notes
Author and activist David Swanson, in addition to his books, is author of ‘The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush’ by Dennis Kucinich (2008). Swanson has worked as a newspaper reporter and as a communications director, with jobs including press secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign, media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association, and three years as communications coordinator for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.


Swanson is co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, creator of ProsecuteBushCheney.org and Washington Director of Democrats.com, a board member of Progressive Democrats of America, the Backbone Campaign, Voters for Peace, and the Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, and chair of the Robert Jackson Steering Committee. Swanson is a commissioner on the North American Truth and Accountability Commission on Human Experimentation. Beginning in November 2009, he served as an online organizer and blogger for a campaign to oppose First Amendment free speech rights for corporations: http://freespeechforpeople.org and served on a volunteer basis for another similar campaign at http://movetoamend.org. David Swanson holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Virginia. http://davidswanson.org/about; http://davidswanson.org/warisalie

Mickey Z. Interviews David Swanson on War Lies by David Swanson [“War Is Over (If You Want It”)], November 23, 2010, http://davidswanson.org/content/mickey-z-interviews-david-swanson-war-lies

Mickey Z. is the author of 10 books, including Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda. “Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net”

Also David Swanson on “War is a Lie” (CounterSpin (11/26/10-12/2/10), http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4198

How many (est.) in two-theater

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD?

Casualty sites reporting November 27, 2010

(accurate totals unknown)

• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 201]

Wounded 32,921-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: November 22, 2010

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

• Iraq Body Count (civilian deaths from violence) figures:

98,876 – 107,938

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

• ICasualties figures:

IRAQ: 4,429 U.S., 4,747 Coalition

AFGHANISTAN: 1,404 U.S., 2,231 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Al Jazeera reports Southwest Asia/Middle East 

Afghanistan [U.S./Soviet nine and nine] November 27
“Afghanistan has been referred to as the ‘Graveyard of Empires’ as it has never been successfully conquered by a foreign army.…

“U.S.-led forces have now been in Afghanistan for 3,338 days, the same amount as the ultimately unsuccessful occupation by Soviet forces in the 1980s.…

“The Soviet army arrived with a force of 40,000 soldiers in 1979; and by 1985, there were 118,000 troops in the country. In 1989, Afghan fighters — armed by the CIA and known as the Mujahidin — drove the Soviets out. Over the course of those nine years, 15,000 Soviet soldiers and as many as 1.3 million Afghans, mostly civilians, died.

“Twelve years later, in October 2001, the U.S. toppled the Taliban government with a force of more than 5,000 troops; but now the war against the Taliban is being fought by nearly 150,000 U.S.-led foreign troops, with an additional 112,000 private contractors working for the U.S. department of defense.… The Americans, like the Soviets before them, have repeatedly killed civilians, turning the public against them.” http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/11/2010112711249788109.html.

Afghan election fraud November 26
“Afghan authorities have arrested at least four people as part of an investigation into fraud in the country's September parliamentary vote.… Candidates claiming they were victims of phony vote tallies have taken to the streets across the country to protest after Wednesday’s announcement of final vote results for 33 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.…

“Election authorities have invalidated about 1.3 million of the 5.6 million votes cast after receiving more than 5,000 complaints of fraud in the wake of the poll. Of those, 2,500 complaints were classed as ‘serious.’” http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/11/2010112522395634861.html

Pakistan suffers U.S. drones November 16
Twenty people died when a U.S. missile strike destroyed a suspected Taliban training center in Pakistan’s tribal area near the Afghan border.... “More than 220 people have been killed in over 40 strikes since September 3.” As a rule “the U.S. does not confirm drone attacks but [the U.S. military and Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the pilotless aircraft in the region.” http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/11/20101116667386262.html

Iraq's ups and downs November 25
Iraq’s president Jalal Talabani asked incumbent Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to form a new government following the conclusion of a power-sharing deal between the country’s divided factions sealed two weeks ago.… “A day after [the deal] was agreed, about 60 Iraqiya MPs walked out of a session of parliament, protesting that it was not being honored. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/11/20101125174651619450.html

Note: The al-Iraqiya List [official name the Iraqi National Movement (INM)] is an Iraqi political coalition formed to contest the Iraqi parliamentary election 2010 by Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi’s Renewal List, the Iraqi National List led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, and the Iraqi National Dialogue Front led by Saleh al-Mutlaq. The party includes both Shia leaders (like Allawi) and Sunni leaders (like al-Mutlaq and al-Hashimi) and claims to be secular and non-sectarian” [Wikipedia].

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

Duped?

Re-reporting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

This is what happens when civilian government weakens and otherwise disestablishes a strong diplomatic corps and hands the reins of foreign relations to old soldiers, militarists and vested interests who are by definition inept and uninterested in applying diplomatic means in resolving conflict — let alone advancing peace or reconciliation — and negotiating for other nations’ natural resources.

A man called Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, thought to be one of the highest ranking members of the Taliban, turns out to be “an impostor.” Foreign occupation forces and their governments apparently paid large amounts of money to a liar and impersonator who repeatedly fooled Afghan and U.S.-NATO officials.

“The revelation that the man presumed to be a high-ranking Taliban leader who had met with top Afghan officials was an imposter [New York Times reporting] sheds new light on Gen. David Petraeus’s aggressive propaganda about the supposed Taliban approach to the Hamid Karzai regime,” writes Gareth Porter, investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy.

“Ever since August [2010], Petraeus had been playing up the Taliban’s supposed willingness to talk peace with Karzai as a development that paralleled the success he had claimed in splitting the Sunni insurgency in 2007 in Iraq. However, it is now clear that Petraeus was deceiving himself as well as the news media in accepting the man claiming to be the second-ranking Taliban commander Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as genuine — despite a number of indications to the contrary.”

In late summer and early autumn, “Petraeus and Afghan contacts with the imposter ignored warning signals [that willingly or ignorantly they were being duped].”

“Taliban leadership was firmly denying that they were negotiating with the Afghan government.

During the three-day Muslim holiday that began September 9, Mullah Omar [spiritual leader of the Taliban movement] had said the Taliban would ‘never accept’ the current government.

On September 29, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Majahid said Petraeus’s claim that the Taliban were negotiating with the Afghan government was ‘completely baseless’ and that the Taliban would not negotiate with ‘foreign invaders or their puppet government.’

Even more important, Taliban officials, as reported in the summer by Syed Saleem Shahzad in the Asia Times, were telling Pakistani intelligence officers seeking clarification on the Taliban position on peace that the U.S. and NATO forces would have to be withdrawn before any settlement with Karzai.…

“Petraeus’s failure to heed those signals was certainly driven by his strong desire to establish yet another narrative emphasizing his brilliance as a war strategist, judging from his public statements prior to the revelation of the fraud. …

Most journalists and the U.S. political elite believe it was Petraeus’s maneuvering combined with the surge that produced [in Iraq] the Sunni turn towards cooperation against al Qaeda and Petraeus has been able to reap the political benefit from this narrative. However, “the narrative of Petraeus-driven success is largely mythical: the Sunni shift toward joining local anti-al Qaeda militia units was already well underway before Petraeus took command in February 2007.”

This past October or early November in Afghanistan, “Petraeus’s U.S.-NATO command, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), finally consulted someone who has actually known Mullah Mansour. Those consulted “told [Petraeus’s U.S.-NATO command] that the man they had been dealing with [the man called Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour] was an imposter.”

“Neither ISAF nor the Karzai government has been able to establish the identity of the imposter,” Porter reports.

This is what happens when civilian government is inept or irresponsible it its proper leadership and conduct of foreign affairs.

Sources and notes

Mullah Omar was Afghanistan’s de facto head of state (1996-late 2001) under the official title ‘Head of the Supreme Council.’ He held the title Commander of the Faithful of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, officially recognized by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.


Mullah Mohammed Omar (born circa 1959), often simply called Mullah Omar, is the spiritual leader of the Taliban movement that operates in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan [Wikipedia].

“Afghanistan Plagued By Fake Mullahs, Fraudulent Elections, More Troops, and Delayed Withdrawal,” Uprising Radio (GUEST: Gareth Porter, investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy, writer for the Inter Press Service), November, 24, 2010, http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=17354

Gareth Porter’s work online at www.ipsnews.net

“An Overeager Petraeus Ignored Danger Signs on Taliban Imposter” (Gareth Porter), November 25, 2010, Antiwar Forum, http://original.antiwar.com/porter/2010/11/24/an-overeager-petraeus-ignored-danger-signs-on-taliban-imposter/

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

Entrenched power kills peace

Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

“Future historians will no doubt argue over the precise moment when the Arab-Israeli peace process died,” writes former CIA chief Robert Grenier this week at Al Jazeera English.

They will debate “when the last glimmer of hope for a two-state solution was irrevocably extinguished.”

Some of the deeply entrenched obstructions Grenier outlines in “Endgame for the peace process.”

“The edifice [of U.S. military, intelligence, economic and diplomatic support to Israel, painstakingly constructed over many decades] is so extensive that no single entity in Washington is aware of all of it.” It includes but is not limited to —

Direct military aid
Weapons transfers
Access to U.S. emergency weapons stocks
Pre-positioning of U.S. military materiel in Israel
U.S. investments in Israeli technology development
U.S. support for Israel’s foreign weapons sales
Weapons co-production agreements
All sorts of loan guarantees
Assistance for settlement of immigrants in Israel

The annual value of all this [much more secret, classified] is incalculable — well in excess of the $3 billion per year usually cited; to say nothing of critical U.S. diplomatic support in the UN and elsewhere. The U.S. is [therefore] hard-pressed to come up with more inducements that might advance the peace process.

In a recent verbal agreement between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in New York, to be presented in writing for possible approval by the Israeli cabinet, Grenier writes, “We are told” the agreement includes —

A U.S. commitment to block any Palestinian-led effort to win unilateral UN recognition of a Palestinian state

U.S. obstruction of efforts — either to revive the Goldstone Report at the UN, or to seek formal UN condemnation of Israel for the deadly Mavi Marmara incident

An ongoing U.S. commitment to defeat any UN resolutions aimed at raising Israel’s unacknowledged nuclear weapons program before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Vigorous U.S. diplomatic efforts to counter all attempts to ‘delegitimize’ Israel in various world forums and; most importantly —

Increasing efforts to further ratchet international sanctions on both Iran and Syria concerning their respective nuclear and proliferation efforts

Added are these —

A U.S. commitment to supply Israel with 20 ultra-modern F-35 aircraft, so new they have not yet entered the U.S. inventory, worth $3 billion; and

A mysterious ‘comprehensive security agreement’ whose details have not been revealed, but which may include unilateral U.S. endorsement of Israeli troop deployments in the Jordan Valley, in the event of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Israel in return will —

Consider agreeing to a brief, one-time-only 90-day extension of the partial settlement moratorium —excluding not only East Jerusalem, but also the cordon sanitaire of settlements Israel has carefully constructed to ring the city and deny Palestinian access to it.

The U.S. then “agrees, in writing, never again to request an Israeli settlement moratorium.…

“Both Israelis and Palestinians know that the relative calm prevailing in the West Bank and Gaza cannot last indefinitely absent some prospect for an end to Israeli occupation of the former.”

Grenier concludes, “No one can see the way to a near-term solution, and yet neither does anyone yet have the courage to suggest an alternative future. That will be the task of a new and probably distant generation of Israelis and Palestinians.”

Sources and notes
“The endgame for the peace process — Future historians will argue over the precise moment when the Arab-Israeli peace process died” by Robert Grenier, November 21, 2010, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2010/11/20101120114435124111.html

Robert Grenier was the CIA’s chief of station in Islamabad, Pakistan, from 1999 to 2002. He was also the director of the CIA's counter-terrorism center.

Cordon sanitaire: cor•don sa•ni•taire \kȯr-"dōn-sä-nē-'ter\ n [F, lit., sanitary cordon (quarantine line) (1920) : a protective barrier (as of buffer states) against a potentially aggressive nation or a dangerous influence (as an ideology) [Britannica: Merriam Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus]

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

Democracies need MORE “Progressive Voices”

Excerpting, editing, comment by Carolyn Bennett

A new and dangerous phase of the class war begins, the editors of Between the Lines Radio Magazine wrote this week.

The bitter irony, they say, is this. “Super-rich corporations and individuals bankrolling the [‘conservative’] machine are the same forces who — in their ardent advocacy of reckless financial deregulation and billion-dollars tax breaks for the wealthiest citizens — caused the global economic meltdown.”

The manipulation of the public, of eligible voters “often succeeds because the U.S. commercial media system, particularly radio, is dominated by right-wing extremist voices who use the public airwaves as an echo chamber to spread lies and distortions in support of the agenda of powerful corporations and the super rich.… Countless ‘ditto-heads’ dominate the radio airwaves, broadcasting hours of back-to-back right-wing programming.”

Every day of the week, “2,570 hours of conservative talk are broadcast” — 10 times the amount of progressive talk. Every day of the week, “254 hours of progressive voices are broadcast.”

Will Progressive Voices increase

next year, the years after that?

Will existing Progressive Radio Voices

survive?

Healthy Democracies in global community cannot survive without them.

Sources and notes
The weekly (progressive-voiced) radio magazine Between the Lines is a production of Squeaky Wheel Productions, Inc., http://www.btlonline.org/2010/101126-btl.html(P.O. Box 110176, Trumbull, CT 0 6611), fiscal sponsor: The International Center for Global Communications Foundation Inc., http://www.firstgiving.com/betweenthelinesappeal

Squeaky Wheel Productions, Inc., is a nonprofit community media organization whose mission is to promote and foster public awareness of points of view, news and information — generally ignored or marginalized in [mass] media — in order to encourage a more just and democratic global community. http://www.squeakywheel.net/ [info@squeakywheel.net]

International Center for Global Communications Foundation Inc works “to promote and foster public awareness of the peoples, cultures and current affairs of nations throughout the world and to encourage peace and understanding through various forms of media and other methods of information exchange.

“To develop television and radio programming with an international and educational perspective that is socially responsible, informative and entertaining, dealing with such topics as worldwide human rights, earth rights and environmental issues.

“To assist in the development of a new type of international and educational journalism in which the reporting of international events and conditions are reported in conjunction with people from those countries who are most affected by those events.

“To sponsor and promote television programming, symposia, lectures, conferences and workshops which foster communications between the peoples of all nations and the United States…” http://www.firstgiving.com/17751

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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

FARMERS’ THANKSGIVING, is it?

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Redress after a long train of government abuses

Ten years past PIGFORD, et al. v. GLICKMAN, Secretary, the United States Department of Agriculture — the appellate court said in 2000 that the ultimate question before the court was whether the district court had abused its discretion by approving a consent decree — “the principal provisions of which are an indisputably fair and reasonable resolution of the class complaint” by farmers. The court upheld the lower court, “It is clear that no abuse of discretion occurred.”

In its ruling, the court reviewed the issues.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) indirectly administers programs that provide credit and other benefits to farmers.

The United States Department of Agriculture’ credit and benefit programs are federally funded, but the decisions to approve or deny applications for credit or benefits are made at the county level by a committee of three to five members elected by local farmers and ranchers.

In addition to acting on credit and benefit applications, the county committee appoints a county executive to assist farmers in completing their applications and to recommend to the county committee which applications should be approved.

United States Department of Agriculture has promulgated a number of regulations governing how these officials are to administer the credit and benefit programs, but the evidence before the district court shows that United States Department of Agriculture has exercised little oversight regarding how applications historically have been processed at the county level.

For years, African-American farmers, who have been significantly underrepresented on the county committees, have complained that county officials have exercised their power in a racially discriminatory manner, resulting in delayed processing or denial of applications for credit and benefits by African-American farmers not experienced by white farmers who are similarly situated.

Such discriminatory treatment is prohibited by statute and by regulation.

In December 1996, the Secretary of Agriculture appointed a Civil Rights Action Team to investigate allegations of racial discrimination in the administration of USDA credit and benefit programs, and, in February 1997, the USDA Inspector General reported that USDA had a backlog of discrimination complaints in need of immediate attention.  

The President and the Secretary thereafter sought appropriations to carry out the recommendations to improve USDA’s civil rights efforts.

On August 28, 1997, three African-American farmers filed suit on behalf of a putative class of similarly situated African-American farmers alleging racial discrimination in the administration of USDA programs and further harm from the allegedly surreptitious dismantling of USDA’s Office of Civil Rights in 1983, which together were alleged to violate —

The Fifth Amendment, the Administrative Procedure Act;  
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d;  and
The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, prohibiting discrimination in consumer credit.

Following amendments to the complaint, the district court granted class certification in October 1998. At that time, most of the farmers’ ECOA claims were arguably barred by a two-year statute of limitations.

Responding to petitions from class members, Congress enacted, and the President signed in November 1998, an amendment to retroactively extend the limitations period for persons who had filed administrative complaints between January 1, 1981, and July 1, 1997, for acts of discrimination occurring between January 1, 1981, and December 31, 1996.  

A second class action, Brewington v. Glickman, Civ. No. 98-1693, filed in July 1998 and making similar allegations covering a different time period, was consolidated with Pigford for purposes of settlement, and a new class was certified.

As the February 1999 trial date drew near, the parties' negotiations shifted from individual claims to a global settlement, id., and with the assistance of a court-appointed mediator, the parties developed and agreed to a consent decree that contemplated a two-track dispute resolution mechanism to determine whether individual class members had been the victims of discrimination and, if so, the amount of monetary relief to which they were entitled.…

The ultimate question before the court is whether the district court abused its discretion by approving a consent decree, the principal provisions of which are an indisputably fair and reasonable resolution of the class complaint, containing one paragraph that assigns to the class a risk it would have borne in any event and another paragraph that limits the mode of enforcing the decree in the event of default.

To ask the question is to answer it. Because it is clear that no abuse of discretion occurred we do not reach the government’s alternative argument concerning whether it would be equitable for this court to vacate the decree in light of the number of claims that have been resolved in reliance on the decree.

The appellate court affirmed the order of approval of the district court.

Farmers’ Thanksgiving
TEN YEARS ON
Yesterday’s news reports announced the U.S. Senate’s unanimous approval of “$4.55 billion to settle longstanding claims that the government discriminated against black farmers in making loans and mismanaged trust accounts for American Indians.” Included in the legislation are $3.4 billion for the American Indian trust account holders and $1.15 billion for a class of black farmers. The House of Representatives is expected to approve the full measure after the Thanksgiving recess.

Free Speech Radio News led by saying, “Many black farmers will eat a little easier this Thanksgiving. After ten years of waiting, they will be receiving settlement money owed to them for years of racial discrimination by the United States Department of Agriculture. Quoting the National Black Farmers Association president, the report said an estimated 80,000 farmers are due to receive compensation.

“‘We just don’t trust the government at this point,’” John Boyd said, but the settlement buries “‘an old hatchet’” and begins building trust where there has been “‘real distrust between the black farmers and the USDA.’”

The U.S. Congress and Presidents “had long stalled on paying out the money but President Obama and his Agriculture Secretary urged Congress to act. Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma agreed to drop his objection after the Senate promised it would not add to the deficit.”


Sources and notes

PIGFORD v. GLICKMAN: Timothy C. PIGFORD, et al., Appellees, Leonard C. Cooper, Appellant, v. Dan GLICKMAN, Secretary, The United States Department of Agriculture, Appellee; Nos. 99-5222, 99-5223; Argued February 28, 2000 - March 31, 2000. Before:  SENTELLE, ROGERS and TATEL, Circuit Judges

David M. Schnorrenberg argued the cause for appellant. With him on the briefs were Richard T. Seymour, Teresa A. Ferrante, Stephon J. Bowens, Marcus Jimison, J. Michael Klise and Matthew C. Hans. Julie Nepveu and Julie L. Gantz entered appearances

Alexander J. Pires, Jr. argued the cause for appellees Freddie Jones, et al. With him on the brief was Phillip L. Fraas

Robert M. Loeb, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, argued the cause for appellee Dan Glickman, Secretary, The United States Department of Agriculture. With him on the brief were David W. Ogden, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Marleigh Dover, Special Counsel, and Wilma A. Lewis, U.S. Attorney

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-dc-circuit/1082671.html

“Settlement for Black Farmers and Indians” (Avery Fellow), Courthouse News Service, November 22, 2010, http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/11/22/32028.htm

Free Speech Radio News, Newscast for Monday, November 22, 2010, Newscast Monday November 22, 2010, http://fsrn.org/audio/newscast-monday-november-22-2010/7806


U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
‘PEOPLE’S DEPARTMENT’

The sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, on May 15, 1862, established the independent Department of Agriculture to be headed by a Commissioner without Cabinet status. President Lincoln called the department the ‘people’s department.’

In the 1880s, varied advocacy groups lobbied for Cabinet representation. Business interests sought a Department of Commerce and Industry. Farmers sought to raise the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet rank. The U. S. House of Representatives and Senate passed bills in 1887 giving Cabinet status to the Department of Agriculture and Labor. The bill was killed in conference committee after farm interests objected to the addition of labor. Two years later, on February 9, 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law elevating the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet level.

The Hatch Act in 1887 provided for the federal funding of agricultural experiment stations in each state. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 then funded cooperative extension services in each state to teach agriculture, home economics, and related subjects to the public. With these and similar provisions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reached out to every county of every state.

During the Great Depression, farming remained a common way of life for millions of Americans. The Department of Agriculture was crucial to providing concerned persons with the assistance that they needed to make it through this difficult period, helping to ensure that food continued to be produced and distributed to those who needed it, assisting with loans for small landowners, and contributing to the education of the rural youth.

Allegations have been made throughout the history of the USDA that the agency discriminated against African-American farmers and denied them loans and access to other programs well into the 1990s. The effect of this discrimination was the near total elimination of African-American farmers in the United States. In 1999, the USDA settled a class action lawsuit (Pigford v. Glickman) alleging discrimination against African-American farmers.

Today the United States Department of Agriculture (informally the Agriculture Department or USDA) is the United States federal executive department responsible for developing and executing U.S. federal government policy on farming, agriculture, and food. Its aims are “to meet the needs of farmers and ranchers, promote agricultural trade and production, work to assure food safety, protect natural resources, foster rural communities and end hunger in the United States and abroad.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Agriculture


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Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

Consequences of war — protracted domestic, global suffering

Re-reporting, excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

The wars went hot in October of 2001. Their consequences were brutally evident in traumatized U.S. (Afghanistan and Iraq) veterans’ growing problems with substance abuse, depression, domestic violence, suicide, homelessness and violent crime. A depressed economy fueling layoffs, hiring freezes, high unemployment compounded anxieties among people generally, among veterans poignantly.

Over here

“Deep in America’s heartland is a small town a world away from the heat of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan,” Nick Carey leads a Reuters article in early November. In Forest City, Iowa, as with communities across the United States, families battle the legacy of both conflicts.

Twenty-seven-year old Steven Jordal served two tours in Iraq and returned to the States suffering “post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by multiple blast waves from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), rockets and mortars.” He sees spots, hears with a hearing device, and is currently incapable of supporting himself.

His younger brother, David Jordal, served in Afghanistan and returned with “anger issues” and has “trouble holding down a job.” His wife left. His five-year-old daughter lives with grandparents and is unclear about who her “parents” are.

Rhonda Jordal says of the son who lives with her, she can deal with most of the fallout of her son’s two tours in Iraq — his daily headaches and his irritability, 635 days to get him out of jail in Oklahoma City, the mountain of debt faced by the family because of legal fees. What breaks her heart is her son’s refusal to let her hug him as he did before going to war. “‘I know now,’ she said, ‘he’s never really coming back.’”

Endless consequences

“More than nine years of war in Afghanistan, seven in Iraq have cost the United States nearly 5,800 lives lost in combat,” Carey writes in the Reuters article. Close to 40,000 soldiers are suffering wounds from this war. The nation together with its loss of people and their potential has lost more than a trillion dollars. Moreover, even if the U.S. government starts withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in July 2011 (the stated goal of the current president who embraced conflicts begun by the previous president) — “the human cost is huge … the impact of the wars will last generations.”

Over there and back again, Ann Jones writes,
“War Is Not Over When It’s Over” —

“In 2007, running out of money, Ahmad [who had been jailed and suffered torture] went to Lebanon. He had been told that he might find highly paid work in Beirut, but he didn’t. Penniless and lonely in November [of that year], he sent for his wife and son. The family registered with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and asked to be resettled in another country. Referred to the United States, they were interviewed by U.S. embassy officials. They wait for a decision in a windowless one-room apartment that reminds Ahmad of prison. Fear of being detained and deported by the authorities keeps him confined to that room.

“He suffers depression, anxiety, flashbacks; and he beats his wife as he was beaten. He was tortured. He tortures her. (‘Domestic violence’ is the euphemism we use to name torture that takes place in the home, but a comparison of standard techniques — from stripping and sleep deprivation to beating, burning, bondage, asphyxiation, and sexual assault — shows that torture by another name is still torture.) Slowly, with the help of psychotherapists at Restart, a [UN High Commissioner for Refugees]-funded program for survivors of torture, Ahmad is learning to stop abusing [his wife] Azhar…

“In the violence of war, children are orphaned, maimed, mutilated, sexually assaulted, kidnapped, forced to be soldiers or servants or sex slaves, tortured, and murdered. Children who survive the violence of war may be deeply wounded, robbed of childhood, and poised to enter adult life already crippled beyond repair. Even children who know war only at secondhand — the children of soldiers returning from far-off lands — may be bent.

“Any of these damaged children may inflict the harm done to them upon others, even when it breaks their hearts.

“Think of wars of recent memory and those still going on in the world today. Think of Iraq, Afghanistan, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Burma. Think of Darfur, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone. Think of Sri Lanka, Kashmir, East Timor, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea. Think of Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Georgia, Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia.

“Think especially of the United States, which has been at war, overtly or covertly, some place (or many places) in the world almost continuously since 1941… Even when a conflict officially ends, violence against women continues and often grows worse.

“Murderous aggression is not turned off overnight. When men stop attacking one another, women continue to be convenient targets. Opposing factions of men sit down together to negotiate a peace settlement — without ever letting up on rape, abduction, mutilation, and murder of women and girls.

“Whenever soldiers rape during war, rape becomes a habit taken up by civilian men and carried seamlessly from wartime into the troubled ‘post-conflict’ time beyond, which is labeled ‘peace.’…

“I’m trying to suggest,”  Ann Jones writes, “that war is not what we think it is, when we hear all these reports about soldiers and generals and strategies. War includes the whole population. War is fought on civilian ground and in all modern wars civilians are the primary casualties of war, much more so than soldiers are. If you look at [today’s demographics worldwide], we are short 60 million women who have been killed and lost in war. We ignore this completely.…”



Sources and notes 
“Special report: For U.S. veterans, the war after the wars,” November 9, 2010,
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A82L620101109

“Introduction ‘War Is Not Healthy’ to Ann Jones’ War Is Not Over When It’s Over: Women and the Unseen Consequences of Conflict, http://www.global-sisterhood-network.org/content/view/2484/59/

Also “Ann Jones on ‘War Is Not Over When It’s Over: Women and the Unseen Consequences of Conflict’, Democracy Now interview, October 1, 2010, at Truth-out, http://www.truth-out.org/ann-jones-war-is-not-over-when-its-over-women-and-unseen-consequences-conflict63775

Ann Jones is a writer and photographer and author of seven other books including Kabul in Winter, Women Who Kill, and Next Time She’ll Be Dead. Jones has participated in congressional committees on the status of women in Afghanistan and briefed the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations on the subject. Her work has appeared in numerous periodical publications.

In 2007, the International Rescue Committee, which brings emergency relief to countries in the wake of war, sought to understand what women in post-conflict zones really needed, wanted, and feared. Answers came through the point and click of a digital camera. On behalf of the IRC, Ann Jones spent a year traveling through Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East, giving cameras to women who had no other means of telling the world what war had done to their lives.
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