Ignorance receptive to hate and lies

James Madison 1833 Britannica reprint

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” [Fourth U.S. President James Madison, term: 1809-1817]

The Center for American Progress Action Fund unveils USA’s deepening dark side

Excerpt, editing, comment by 

Carolyn Bennett

The report, intentional or not, is illustrative of what happens when Americans over long periods embrace a “comfortable” status quo and refuse to engage or join other Americans who in the past continuing into the present have been targeted violently and have taken the brunt of a dark U.S. pattern of bigotry, delusional supremacy, irrational paranoia, fear-mongering and rabid propaganda, mob-raising and violence.

Deliberate ignorance willingly believes lies

The Center for American Progress recounts in its report: “On July 22, a man planted a bomb in an Oslo government building that killed eight people. A few hours after the explosion, he shot and killed 68 people, mostly teenagers, at a Labor Party youth camp on Norway’s Utoya Island.

“By midday, [media] pundits were speculating as to who had perpetrated the greatest massacre in Norwegian history since World War II. Numerous mainstream media outlets (The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic among others) speculated about an Al Qaeda connection and a ‘jihadist' motivation behind the attacks.

“By the next morning, it had become clear that the [mass killer] was a 32-year-old, white, blond-haired and blue-eyed Norwegian named Anders Breivik. He was not a Muslim but a self-described Christian conservative.”

Anders Breivik, according to his attorney, “claimed responsibility for his self-described ‘gruesome but necessary’ actions. On July 26, Breivik told the court that violence was ‘necessary’ to save Europe from Marxism and ‘Muslimization.’

“In his [Breivik’s] 1,500-page manifesto meticulously detailing his attack methods and aims to inspire others to extremist violence — Breivik vows ‘brutal and breathtaking operations which will result in casualties’ to fight the alleged ‘ongoing Islamic Colonization of Europe.’

“Breivik’s manifesto contains numerous footnotes and in-text citations to American [U.S.] bloggers and pundits, quoting them as experts on Islam’s ‘war against the West.’…

“A small group of anti-Muslim organizations and individuals in the United States — obscure to most Americans — wields great influence in shaping the national and international political debate,” says the Center for American Progress. “Their names are heralded within communities that are actively organizing against Islam and targeting Muslims in the United States.”

The Center’s Action Fund has conducted an in-depth study that sheds light on “a small, tightly networked group of misinformation experts guiding an [anti-Muslim] effort that reaches millions of Americans through effective advocates, media partners, and grassroots organizing.”  Beginning primarily “with five key people and their organizations, [they are] … sustained by funding from a clutch of key foundations,” the Center says, and this group “spreads hate and misinformation.”

CAP’s

Fast Facts on the Islamophobia Network

funders

More than $40 million flowed from seven foundations over 10 years — The foundations funding the misinformation experts:

1.     Donors Capital Fund

2.     Richard Mellon Scaife Foundation

3.     Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

4.     Newton and Rochelle Becker

5.     Foundation and Newton and Rochelle Becker Charitable Trust

6.     Russell Berrie Foundation, Anchorage Charitable Fund and William

7.     Rosenwald Family Fund

8.     Fairbrook Foundation

misinformation experts

Five experts generate the false facts and materials used by political leaders, grassroots groups, and the media:

1.     Frank Gaffney at the Center for Security Policy

2.     David Yerushalmi at the Society of Americans for National Existence

3.     Daniel Pipes at the Middle East Forum

4.     Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and Stop Islamization of America

5.     Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism

These experts travel the country and work with or testify before state legislatures calling for a ban on the nonexistent threat of Sharia law in America and proclaiming that the vast majority of  mosques in our country harbor Islamist terrorists or sympathizers.

David Yerushalmi’s ‘model legislation’ banning Sharia law has been cut and pasted into bills [legislative measures] in South Carolina, Texas, and Alaska. His video on how to draft an anti-Sharia bill and his online tools have been picked up nationwide.

reach and impact

“This movement is moving nationwide in more than 23 states — made possible by a combination of new, single-minded Islamophobia groups, exemplified by Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT! For America, Pam Geller’s Stop Islamization of America, David Horowitz’s Freedom Center, and existing groups such as the American Family Association and the Eagle Forum.

“Misinformation experts are broadcast and cited around the country and the world. U.S. politicians such as Representatives Peter King (R-New York), Allen West (R-Florida), and Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) repeat anti-Muslim attacks giving credence to incorrect facts.

“In September 2010, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that 49 percent of Americans held an unfavorable view of Islam, an increase from 39 percent in October of 2002.”

This report is fine as far as it goes. However, if we are to progress beyond the “is,” we must sense a critical connectedness, a historical perspective, a much broader context of life as it is lived and experienced.

What seems new or what studies tell us is “new” — we Americans often feign “shock” instead of admitting our culpability — is not new.

Our education deficiencies, our ease in fawning Right, Left or Center, our deliberate ignorance are the real enemies.

Fourth U.S. President Madison, again —

The Federalist, co-written by James Madison,
helped secure passage of the U.S. Constitution.
AP Britannica reprint

“No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. Of all the enemies of public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.”

“Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.”

Sources and notes

“Fear, Inc. — The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America” (Wajahat Ali, Eli Clifton, Matthew Duss, Lee Fang, Scott Keyes, and Faiz Shakir), August 2011, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/pdf/islamophobia.pdf

Britannica notes on the Madisons and The Federalist

James Madison, husband of Dolley (b. March 16, 1751, Port Conway, Virginia, d. June 28, 1836, Montpelier, Virginia

Madison was the fourth president of the United States (1809–17) and one of the Founding Fathers of his country. At the Constitutional Convention (1787), he influenced the planning and ratification of the U.S. Constitution and collaborated with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in the publication of the Federalist papers.

As a member of the new House of Representatives, he sponsored the first 10 amendments to the Constitution (the Bill of Rights). He was secretary of state under the third president, Thomas Jefferson, when the Louisiana Territory was purchased from France. The War of 1812 was fought during Madison’s presidency.

Federalist Papers (The Federalist): a series of 85 essays on the proposed new Constitution of the United States and on the nature of republican government (published between 1787 and 1788) by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in an effort to persuade New York state voters to support ratification.

Seventy-seven of the essays first appeared serially in New York newspapers. They were reprinted in most other states and were published in book form as The Federalist on May 28, 1788. The remaining eight papers appeared in New York newspapers between June 14 and August 16.

“The authors of the Federalist papers presented a masterly defense of the new federal system and of the major departments in the proposed central government. They also argued that the existing government under the Articles of Confederation, the country’s first constitution, was defective and that the proposed Constitution would remedy its weaknesses without endangering the liberties of the people.” 

Dolley Madison née  Dolley Payne also called (1790–93)  Dolley Todd  (Dolley also spelled  Dolly) b. May 20, 1768, Guilford county, North Carolina, d. July 12, 1849, Washington, D.C.

Dolley (Dolly) Madison was raised in the plain style of her Quaker family and was renowned for her charm, warmth, and ingenuity. Her popularity as manager of the White House made that task a responsibility of every first lady who followed.

American first lady (1809–17) was partner of James Madison, the fourth president of the United States.

Photo captions

James Madison, detail of an oil painting by Asher B. Durand, 1833; in the collection of The New-York Historical Society Britannica.

The Federalist, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, helped secure passage of the U.S. Constitution. AP in Britannica

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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] • Articles also at World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire

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Forelock pulling and pandering

POLITICS DRIVEN Presidency

Nonpartisan thinkers seem to agree that the current U.S. president is a Reaganist (often identifying as such in quoting the fortieth president) stupidly bent on disestablishing government and destroying protections that “provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare”

Edited excerpts with comment by Carolyn Bennett

Main text from Professor Amy Sinden’s May article “Administration's Regulatory ‘Look-Back’ Announcement Panders to Industry, Focuses Primarily on Eliminating Regs, Diverts Agencies from Crucial Work.”

U.S. Constitution original document Britannica image

• Ø  President releases January Executive Order calling for agencies to conduct a regulatory ‘look-back’. 

• Ø  Administration in May releases target list of health, safety, and environmental standards subject to review by agencies in months following — with eye toward eliminating or modifying them. 

• Ø  Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, “Regulatory Czar” Cass Sunstein, in same month, has an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal and gives a speech at the American Enterprise Institute in which she releases the target list and presses right wing, anti-regulatory, government disestablishment rhetoric. “‘Our goal,’” the Czar said, “‘is to change the regulatory culture of Washington by constantly asking what’s working and what isn’t. To achieve that goal, we need to obtain real-world evidence and data.’”

Professor Amy Sinden responds with three points.

“While paying little heed to the numerous threats to public health and the environment that remain unchecked,” Sinden says, “what the White House in January billed “an objective examination of regulations appears to have been transformed into a blatantly one-sided effort to loosen restrictions on industry.…

“The Administration’s pandering to industry on this issue is in danger of doing long-term damage to the important business of protecting Americans from a variety of hazards.”

The third point she makes is that “the entire ‘look-back’ process, launched for apparently political reasons has come at the expense of agency staff and resources that would otherwise have been devoted to finishing much-needed regulations on a variety of health, safety, and environment issues.…

“We are surrounded by evidence of the need for stronger regulation and enforcement.” Critically demonstrative, she points to the most recent BP oil spill, multiple examples of tainted food in the marketplace, the Massey mine disaster.

The president’s ‘look-back’ process “has only added to the agencies’ burdens,” Sinden concludes. “This is what happens in Washington when politics becomes more important than policy.”

Continental Congress Britannica image

We can and must do better than the current fare in Washington and the crop aspiring to sit in that rarefied air and put on airs. We have a truer foundation, a better precedent from which to launch our action. The founders in 1776 declared:

 “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all … are created equal … endowed … with certain unalienable Rights — among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

“… [To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among [people], deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

“… [W]henever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

“Prudence … [dictates] that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes and accordingly all experience [shows] that [human beings] are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

“[However], when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute Despotism — it is their right and their duty to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future security.…”

In 1787, the founders further pushed separation of powers and provided checks and balances on the exercise of authority by those who govern, former Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote during the period of the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Following the Declaration came the U.S. Constitution (then in 1791 the Bill of Rights).

“We the People of the United States,” the Preamble read, “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

You’d think a constitutional lawyer would know this stuff, honor its spirit and its precedent and cease pandering, bowing and scraping, pulling his forelock. Embrace the history, motivation and aspirations of these great documents, adhere to their principles and push them courageously and progressively into the 21st century and beyond for all people.

Sources and notes

“Administration’s Regulatory ‘Look-Back’ Announcement Panders to Industry, Focuses Primarily on Eliminating Regs, Diverts Agencies from Crucial Work” (Amy Sinden), May 26, 2011, http://www.progressivereform.org/CPRBlog.cfm?idBlog=2D505F83-93E3-AD07-DF54BE28B9460526

Professor Amy Sinden

Dr. Sinden’s recent publications include: Cost-Benefit Analysis: New Foundations on Shifting Sand; The Tragedy of the Commons and the Myth of a Private Property Solution; Climate Change and Human Rights; Power and Responsibility: Why Human Rights Should Address Corporate Environmental Harms. Professor Sinden’s recent academic writings have criticized the misuse of economic theory in environmental law, arguing against the use of cost-benefit analysis in environmental standard setting and countering claims that private property rights can solve environmental problems in the absence of government regulation.

Amy Sinden is a Professor of Law at the Temple University Beasley School of Law (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.) and has been a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and at the Temple-Tsinghua Masters of Law program in Beijing (Peoples Republic of China). She has taught, lectured, and written in the areas of environmental law, natural resources law, regulatory design, and cost-benefit analysis, human rights, and climate change; and is a member of the board of directors of the Center for Progressive Reform.

Before joining the Temple Law School faculty in 2001, Professor Sinden served as senior counsel for Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, handling litigation on behalf of PennFuture and other citizens’ and environmental groups. Before that position, she was an associate attorney for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund (formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund) in Seattle, Washington, where she represented a range of environmental, fishing, and other groups in litigation focusing on endangered species, clean water, and water conservation issues.

Also in Philadelphia, Professor Sinden was an attorney at Community Legal Services where she represented parents in civil child abuse and neglect proceedings and advocated on behalf of welfare recipients seeking job training and education.

Professor Sinden served twice as a law clerk, first for Judge John F. Gerry of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, and later for Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. http://www.progressivereform.org/SindenAmyBio.cfm

In Congress, July 4, 1776, The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America [Declaration of Independence excerpt, minor editing]

Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America [excerpt]

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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] • Articles also at World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire

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Stop choosing choice-less “lesser of two evils”

Grounds for establishing and maintaining in the public space support for diversity of political views, beyond partisans, beyond tribes to substantive, capable, truth-telling public-issues contenders  —

Beyond “Lesser of two-Evils”

North Portico White House USA Britannica image

Edited excerpt with comment by Carolyn Bennett

From Alexander Cockburn’s August 19 opinion piece, “The Real Obama” — Cockburn is also author of Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils.

Flawed governance USA

Cockburn’s recitation of current reality leading into the 2012 campaign season highlights further evidence for uprooting an entrenched, corrupt status quo in U.S. systems of government and politics, tribal allegiances and patronage, electoral processes, parties and partisans and an ever-present array of shadowy, covert and in-the-face “partners.”

In 2008, Cockburn writes, “liberals and most leftists were deeply in love with [U.S. President Barack] Obama. They genuinely believed the promissory notes about a better America that he strewed along the campaign trail and has since welshed [reneged] on at a rate of well over 90 percent.…”

Although from a White House “news-leak point of view,” Cockburn says, the president presides over “the tightest ship in living memory …  where it counts, he  is not in control. Republicans regarded as certifiably insane by more Americans than disapprove of the president’s performance face down the president and he  leaps to do their bidding — even as they kick him in the teeth for not doing more.”

An ‘appeaser’ — the president pulls his forelock “to [shows respect for perceived ‘betters’ in] Wall Street, the defense industry, the oil companies, Monsanto, the agriculture industry, Israel. … and when the dust of battle rises, [the president] cuts and runs.”

Capitol USA Britannica image

Lacking imagination and guts, Leftists hang on to choice-less, regressive‘lesser-of-two-evils’

“There are plenty of Obama loyalists out there,” Cockburn concludes. Some leftists are still forlornly trying “to make a case for the man and [they] will stay true to the end; but if they vote for him next year, it won’t be for any positive reason — like what sent them delightedly to the polls in 2008: searching for hope. They will gesture to Governor Rick Perry or some other Republican challenger and fall back on the ‘lesser of two evils’ argument.”

We do not, however, have to settle for a choice-less “lesser of two evils.” Not only for our sake, the sake of the United States, but for the sake of our country’s relations with the world’s peoples and with respect for their cultures, we can and we must uproot and progress beyond the entrenched criminally regressive, medieval practices of Washington Wizards and wannabees and their partners.

Sources and notes

“The Real Obama” (Opinion, Alexander Cockburn, Creators dot com), August 19, 2011, http://www.creators.com/opinion/alexander-cockburn.html

Alexander Cockburn also made some insightful remarks about media this week in conversation with Doug Henwood on “Behind the News” aired over Pacifica’s KPFA radio and KPFA online.

Behind the News with Doug Henwood, for August 27, 2011 - 10:00 a.m. [KPFA 94.1 AM],

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/72789,

http://www.kpfa.org/programgrid

Tugs forelock

Saying a person “tugs his/her forelock” to other persons or entities is to criticize the person for showing “too much respect” to that other or “being unnecessarily worried about their opinions.”   

People often used to pull their forelocks to show respect for other people of a higher class than they were, mainly British expression

A forelock is a piece of hair that falls over or grows out of the forehead (noun, plural “forelocks”), http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-cobuild/tug/touch%20one's%20forelock

Britannica: forelock (n, 1589): a lock of hair growing from the front of the head

Alexander Cockburn

A writer among writers, broadcasters and print journalists, Alexander Claud Cockburn (koʊbərn/ koh-bərn) was born in Scotland, raised in Ireland and, since 2009, has been a citizen of the United States. He is a political journalist and media critic. He has written for a variety of U.S. news outlets including The Village Voice and The Nation magazine and is currently a co-editor of CounterPunch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cockburn

Books by Cockburn include: Corruptions of Empire; Death of Liberal America; The Democrats in End Time: The True and Terrible Story of How the Dems Blew It and What Comes After; Dime’s Worth of Difference: Beyond the Lesser of Two Evils (co-author Jeffrey St. Clair); Encounters with the Sphinx : Journey of a Radical in Changing Times; Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press; Imperial Crusades: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia (co-author Jeffrey St. Clair) http://www.bookfinder.com/author/alexander-cockburn/

Sunday News updates from Obama’s theaters and regions of aggression and occupation — Press TV reports

AFRICA

SOMALIA — At least 67 people have died and more than 560 others have been hospitalized due to starvation and cholera in famine-stricken Somalia

LIBYA  — Prominent political analyst, author and historian Webster Tarpley said in an interview today with Press TV that NATO forces have teamed up with the terrorist group al-Qaeda to rebuild Libya after the departure of Col. Muammar Qaddafi. Tarpley said the new rebel commander of Tripoli “is a top al-Qaeda leader who has worked for the Afghanis and fought against the United States.”

AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN —A newly established political front in Afghanistan strongly rejects the notion of establishing permanent U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. Reportedly comprised of people from “all walks of life,” Afghanistan’s Unity Front today declared its existence and said that the permanent presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan runs counter to the country’s independence and national pride.

In Pakistan’s southwestern province of Baluchistan today two NATO oil tankers were set light.

In a cross-border attack on Pakistan’s northwestern district of Chitral yesterday, at least 25 Pakistani paramilitary troops died and several others were wounded.

Today in southern Afghanistan, at least four civilians died and others were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded. Attacks in the south of Afghanistan have also reportedly killed two members of U.S.-led NATO. A foreign reconstruction site has also come under attack in the provincial capital of Zabul Province in the south of Afghanistan.

IRAQ — Fourteen people died Friday in bomb blasts against security forces across Iraq. Scores were reportedly injured.

U.S. House of Representatives chamber Britannica image

Wednesday in a new rise of violence, at least 11 people died and more were injured in the western provinces of Anbar and Diyala governorate in Iraq’s east.

U.S. ANTI-ISLAM — a shocking new report released Friday by the Center for American Progress reveals that seven foundations and wealthy donors have been behind the 10-year campaign to spread Islamophobia in the United States. The 130-page report by CAP identified foundations that have provided more than $42 million to key individuals and organizations that between 2001 and 2009 spearheaded the nationwide effort.

Among the organizations funding anti-Islam experts who promote Islamophobia are: “Donors Capital Fund [the single biggest contributor paying $18 million to the Clarion Fund which, during the 2008 election, distributed 30 million anti-Muslim DVDs through local newspapers]; Richard Melton Scaife foundations; Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation; Newton D. & Rochelle F. Becker foundations and charitable trust; Russell Berrie Foundation; Anchorage Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund; Fairbrook Foundation.”

Some of the funded experts spreading information through conservative organizations, politicians and news channels: “Frank Gaffney at the Center for Security Policy, David Yerushalmi at the Society of Americans for National Existence, Daniel Pipes at Middle East Forum, Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch and Stop Islamization of America, Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.”

http://www.presstv.ir/

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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] • Articles also at World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire
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Entrenched Sens. Lindsey, Joe and John unleashed on Libya

Qaddafi's U.S. senators we need to retire now
Compiled, edited, re-reported with comment by Carolyn Bennett

U.S. Senators Lieberman and McCain’s love fest ("911 war on terror" arming) then fight with Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi, Libya’s head of state, as compiled in the WikiLeaks website's latest releases of conversations in diplomatic cables. 

Senator McCain (2009): Libya’s relationship with the U.S. [is] ‘excellent’

Senator Lieberman: ‘We never would have guessed ten years ago that we would be sitting in Tripoli, being welcomed by a son of Muammar al-Qaddafi.’

Lieberman: ‘Libya is an important ally in the war on terrorism; … common enemies sometimes make better friends.

Lieberman and McCain (2009): Libya’s cooperation on counterterrorism … [justified] the interest of both countries to make the relationship stronger.

McCain Tweets of: “an ‘interesting meeting with an interesting man’ (Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi)."

Libya Britannica image

McCain Tweets two years later [now allied with anti-Qaddafi government factions]: “‘I think we could do the same thing that we did in the Afghan struggle against the Russians.

“‘There are ways to get weapons in without direct U.S. supplying.’”

First, arm Qaddafi; then arm whoever opposes Qaddafi.

Senator Graham

Cables released by WikiLeaks unveil shadowy figure Lindsey Graham. Re-reported by McClatchy Newspapers, “The cables show Senator Lindsey Graham (member of Senate Armed Services Committee) as “a kind of shadow secretary of state negotiating an array of sensitive matters, from terrorism and war to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, North Korea’s missile tests and China’s currency manipulation.”

August 14, 2009 — In the middle of the night in a tent in Tripoli, U.S. Senator Graham accompanied by Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman “help deliver eight C-130 Hercules military transport planes Libya had purchased in 1972 …

“‘Senators McCain and Graham [convey] U.S. interest in continuing the progress of the bilateral relationship and pledge to try to resolve the C-130 issue with Congress and Defense Secretary Gates.’”

This meeting, according to the reports, is mostly with Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi’s son, national security adviser Mutassim Qaddafi, as the elder Qaddafi was silent, having been fasting in preparation for Ramadan. The younger man complains that the United States “had not adequately rewarded Libya for giving up its nuclear program in 2003 and renouncing terrorism.”

The dark record these ten years seems abundantly clear. U.S. officials have tied a “911” noose around the necks of Americans and used the mantra “911” to conduct endless wars on the world’s peoples — and most especially on those (without power or momentarily out of favor) who adhere to or are believed to practice the religion of Islam.

The “911” mantra is also used as cover or distraction for greed-motivated, nefarious deeds (assassination, plunder, resources looting, repression, law breaking, abuse of human rights, wide-ranging destruction of life, property, relationships) right across the world including in North America and particularly in the United States of America.

U.S. 911 and Greed Wars alphabetically

AFGHANISTAN

Despite the presence of some 150,000 foreign troops in this war-torn country, the security situation deteriorates daily.

Violence across Afghanistan in 2010 reached its worst levels since the Taliban “were toppled by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.”

UN figures released in July 2011 show that the first six months of 2011 were “the deadliest of the war for ordinary Afghans: 1,462 killed, a rise of 15 percent over the same period last year.”

Today, at least four people died in this foreign aggression. Fourteen others suffered wounds when a bomb exploded at an outdoor mosque in the Almar district of Faryab Province in northern Afghanistan. “The victims had been praying.”

BAHRAIN

People around the world are participating in the “International Quds Day” to show their solidarity with the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation.

Quds Day demonstrations have been planned in Pakistan, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and several other countries. The U.S. states of Michigan and California, the city of New York, and the Canadian capital city of Ottawa are cities where people plan to come out to express opposition to the continued occupation of Palestinian lands by the Tel Aviv regime.

Today, in defiance of a government ban on Quds Day rallies in Bahrain, protesters have taken to the streets to mark the international event and have set fire to the Israeli flag.

Witnesses say hundreds of Bahrainis took to the streets in the capital, Manama, and several villages to protest against the government ban on the anti-Israeli rally and to show solidarity with Palestinians.

Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic, in August 1979 declared the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan as Quds Day, calling for international rallies in support of Palestinians and against Israel.

Jerusalem Britannica image

Britannica Note: Jerusalem — an extended series of dynasties and states have governed this 'holy city,' long an object of veneration and conflict as both a provincial town and a national capital. In the early 20th century, the city, along with all of historic Palestine, became the focus of the competing national aspirations of Zionists and Palestinian Arabs.

Jerusalem or Al-Quds is an ancient city of the Middle East that since 1967 has been wholly [occupied] under the rule of the State of Israel.

LIBYA

“If foreign troops were to go to Libya ... these troops will be seen as occupying forces, and this will provoke a resistance from within the Libyan people who have fought in the past against the Italian occupation,” the political editor of Al Quds online said in an interview with Press TV.

Khaled El Shami said the presence “especially American forces may invite al-Qaeda to open a front in the North African country.”

Shami spoke shortly after the head of the National Transitional Council’s  executive board —whom the  ANSWER Coalition has termed a Western-oriented Benghazi-based neoliberal before defection part of Libya’s government, diplomatic corps and military ranks — “did not rule out a need for the presence of international military forces in Libya for the establishment of peace and security in a post-Qaddafi Libya.”

Nigeria Britannica image

NIGERIA

A large land abundant in natural resources — notably large deposits of petroleum and natural gas

According to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, ethnic and religious conflicts in Nigeria claimed the lives of over 14,000 people between 1999 and 2009.

Today, 18 people died when a massive explosion hit a United Nations building near the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.  More than 60 people suffered wounds.

Note: Nigeria’s most economically valuable minerals are crude oil, natural gas, coal, tin, and columbite (an iron-bearing mineral that accompanies tin). Petroleum was first discovered in 1956 and is the most important source of government revenue and foreign exchange.

Most of the oil output comes from onshore fields in the Niger delta, although an increasing proportion of the crude is produced at offshore locations.

There are vast reserves of natural gas, but most of the gas produced is a by-product of crude oil; in the past, this was burned off, as there was no market; but efforts have been made to use more of this commodity.

Since 1984, oil companies have been required to re-inject into the ground some of the natural gas produced in the course of pumping crude oil.

Production has often been interrupted by protests, as the inhabitants of the oil-producing regions have demanded a larger share of the revenues.

Nigeria (officially Federal Republic of Nigeria) is a country located on the coast of western Africa. It has an area of 356,669 square miles (923,768 square km); and is bordered to the north by Niger, the east by Chad and Cameroon, the south by the Gulf of Guinea, and to the west by Benin.

Nigeria is not only large in size (larger than the U.S. state of Texas); it is also Africa’s most populous country. Nigeria has a diverse geography, with climates ranging from arid to humid equatorial. However, Nigeria’s most diverse feature is its people.

Nigerians speak more than 400 languages, including Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, Hausa, Edo, Ibibio, Tiv, and English.

GREED TAKES without mending, restoring or returning commensurate with labor and human costs

UK Telegraph (August 25, 2011) reports, “UN criticizes Shell over oil spills in Nigeria.”

Niger Britannica image

A United Nations report criticizes Royal Dutch Shell for “contributing to oil spills in the Niger Delta that will need the world’s largest-ever environmental clean-up operation.”  The report “found excessive contamination at 10 out of 15 sites that were meant to have been made safe by the joint venture between Shell and the Nigerian national oil company, called Shell Petroleum Development Company. … The UN said ridding Ogoniland’s rivers and drinking water of pollution could take 30 years and cost billions.”

PALESTINE

More than 100 countries have so far officially recognized Palestine based on the 1967 borders.

Today, the El Salvadorian government has formally announced its recognition of Palestine as an independent state as the Palestinians plan to petition the UN for full membership at the world body.

SOMALIA

The mayor of Mogadishu has slammed the World Health Organization as well as the UN Children’s Fund for not providing enough health service.

At least 90 more people have died “due to hunger and cholera,” according to Somali officials.  They blame UN health and children’s agencies for the increasing death toll. Doctors in Mogadishu hospitals say overcrowding at the camps has been the main challenge to health workers.

War creates and sustains poverty, disease, misery. No one should have to live this way and no one should have to depend on international agencies or foreign nationals for the basic essentials of life. 

SYRIA

Since the beginning of the unrest in mid-March, hundreds of people, including security forces, have died in the conflict in this country.

Today, at least eight Syrian security forces died and many others suffered injuries in two separate attacks in the crisis-hit province of Homs.

YEMEN

Yemeni anti-government demonstrators continue protests across the country to achieve what they describe as the “goals of their revolution.” Since the crackdown on anti-government protesters began in January, hundreds of people have died and many more have been injured in Yemen.

San'a, Yemen, Britannica image

This week on Wednesday protesters staged demonstrations in the capital Sana’a as a funeral procession was being held for Yemen’s Chairman of the Shura Council Abdulaziz Abdulghani, who had died on Monday as a result of injuries sustained in June during a rocket attack on the presidential palace.

Sources and notes

“Wikileaks: Sen. John McCain Tried to Help Qaddafi Get U.S. Military Hardware” (Michael Allen), August 24, 2011, http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/wikileaks-sen-john-mccain-tried-help-gaddafi-get-us-military-hardware

On Wednesday, the website WikiLeaks released a U.S. diplomatic cable that reportedly that Arizona Senator John McCain promised to help Libyan [head of state] Muammar Qaddafi obtain U.S. military hardware and become one of the United States’ partners in the war on terror.

“The agreement took place on August 14, 2009, and included Senators Joe Lieberman, Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins along with Senate Armed Services Committee staffer Richard Fontaine.…

“The deal that was being made included helicopters and non-lethal weaponry meant to ensure the security of Libya. In exchange for this and assisting Libya in rehabilitating its image, Qaddafi promised to send his enriched uranium supplies to Russia for disposal.”

Qaddafi later abandons the uranium deal.

“WikiLeaks cables show Graham as senator-diplomat” (James Rosen, McClatchy Newspapers), July 12, 2011,

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/01/113414/wikileaks-cables-show-lindsey.html

“Graham’s meeting with Qaddafi and many other such episodes are described in secret State Department cables that McClatchy obtained from WikiLeaks, a self-described ‘nonprofit media organization’ that has released tens of thousands of U.S. diplomatic documents in the last year in defiance of government secrecy laws.”

“WikiLeaks: McCain promised Qaddafi military help two years ago” (Dylan Smith Tucson Sentinel dot com), August 25, 2011, http://www.prisonplanet.com/wikileaks-mccain-promised-gaddafi-military-help-two-years-ago.html

Last Sunday McCain and Graham said, “‘Americans can be proud of the role our country has played in helping to defeat Qaddafi, but we regret that this success was so long in coming due to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our air power.’”

LIEBERMAN, McCAIN, GRAHAM

Elected as a Republican in 1982 to the Ninety-eighth Congress; reelected to the Ninety-ninth Congress in 1984, elected to the United States Senate in 1986, John Sidney McCain III represents the U.S. state of Arizona; and has sat on the Committee on Indian Affairs, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=M000303. In the 1980s, McCain was implicated in the Savings and Loan corruption scandal.

McCain was one of “The Keating Five” United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, which ignited a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The five senators were Alan Cranston (Democrat of California), Dennis DeConcini (Democrat of Arizona), John Glenn (Democrat of Ohio), John McCain (Republican of Arizona), and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Democrat of Michigan). They were accused of improperly intervening in 1987 on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr., chair of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board (FHLBB). The FHLBB subsequently backed off taking action against Lincoln. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keating_Five

Elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1988, Joseph I. Lieberman represents the U.S. state of Connecticut and has sat on the committees on Governmental Affairs and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000304

Elected as a Republican to the House of Representatives in 1995 [one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1998 to conduct impeachment proceedings against U.S. President William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton] and elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in 2002, Lindsey O. Graham represents the U.S. state of South Carolina. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000359

U.S. 911 and Greed Wars alphabetically

“Bomb attack kills four Afghan civilians,” August 26, 2011, 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195934.html

“Bahrainis defy Quds Day rally ban,” August 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195907.html

“World marks International Quds Day,” August 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195864.html

“‘Foreign troops in Libya, big mistake,’” August 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195809.html

“Nigeria blast death toll reaches 18,” August 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195908.html

“UN criticizes Shell over oil spills in Nigeria.” August 25, 2011, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8682461/UN-criticises-Shell-over-oil-spills-in-Nigeria.html

“El Salvador recognizes Palestine,” August 26, 2011,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195793.html

“Anti-Israel protests held in Saudi Arabia,” August 26, 2011, “As people across the world rally in support of Palestinians, thousands of anti-Israel protesters have taken to the streets in several Saudi Arabian cities and mark the International Quds Day.”

“Israel snipers use laser device to kill,” August 26, 2011, “The Israeli military has developed an operational doctrine for snipers using laser designators in anticipation of violent demonstrations following the Palestinian's declaration of statehood.”

“‘90 Somalis die of hunger, cholera,’” August 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195804.html

“Armed groups kill eight Syrian troops,” August 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195896.html

Yemenis continue anti-regime protests, August 25, 2011,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/195662.html

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