U.S. officials’ offshore dungeons: long train of abuse, usurpation

Linguistic trickery, breach of universal law

Editing, excerpting by Carolyn Bennett

Apropos current events

Letter from Guantanamo Bay Prisoner

‘I am dying here every day, mentally and physically. This is happening to all of us.

‘We have been ignored, locked up in the middle of the ocean for years.

‘Rather than humiliate myself, having to beg for water, I would rather hurry up the process that is going to happen anyway. I would like to die quietly, by myself. 

‘I was once 250 pounds. I dropped to 150 pounds in the first hunger strike.

‘I want to make it easy on everyone. I want no feeding, no forced tubes, no “help”, no “intensive assisted feeding”. This is my legal right.

‘The British government refuses to help me. What is the point of my wife being British? I thought Britain stood for justice but they abandoned us, people who have lived in Britain for years, and who have British wives and children. I hold the British government responsible for my death, as I do the Americans.’

A

uthor and journalist Victoria Brittain yesterday on the Democracy Now program read this letter from a Guantanamo Bay prisoner of 11 years, husband of Zinnira. Brittain said, the 2006 letter “is particularly poignant” in the light of current hunger strikes by prisoners and force feedings by authorities at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He wrote the letter in a much earlier hunger strike and sent it to his wife, Zinnira, who is chapter two of Brittain’s latest book Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror.

Obstruction: trickery of words

 

While U.S. officials persist in the label “detainee,” Victoria Brittain said, “We use ‘prisoner.’ If you’ve been in a cage for 11 years, you are a prisoner. Let’s be quite clear about that,” she said. “The use of words … can be very effective; you minimize [true meaning] by saying ‘detainee.’”

Straining credulity

“…The most powerful man in the world … Is it really impossible that [President Barack Obama] could take this one case, which the British are begging him for—the man [who] was cleared by his own most senior people—and say, ‘Actually, we made a mistake with this one?’, Brittain asks.

Inflicting far-reaching pain

“Some of the women that I’ve written about are the wives of Guantánamo prisoners,” Victoria Brittain said. In chapter one of her book is one of her closest friends, she said. “I kind of lived alongside her and her children through a very long period when her husband was in Guantánamo and she had absolutely no information about why he was there, when he might come back, no contact with him whatsoever.” Another woman’s husband continues to languish in the prison after eleven years. “He is one of the 86 people who were cleared by a task force comprised of very senior intelligence and military people, a report ordered very early on by President Obama.”

Among the 86 people who have been cleared is British resident, Shaker Aamer. “Having been cleared as innocent,” she said, “everybody expected him to be released. The British government has asked for him. But President Obama has not managed to release him.”

Husband of Zinnira

Shaker Aamer was born in Saudi Arabia. He was educated in the United States of America and, with his British family, lived in the United Kingdom. When abducted, he was a charity worker living in Afghanistan with his young family (in the same house as was Moazzam Begg); “they had been building girls’ schools and digging wells,” Brittain reported.

“

The Americans dropped leaflets offering bounties for any foreigner that Pakistanis or Afghans turned over”; and Shaker Aamer, along with many people, “was picked up”; he was “sold to the Americans, and then tortured.” He ended up and has languished at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for eleven years. Though Shaker Aamer has been cleared of wrongdoing, the Obama government continues to imprison him.

Despite U.S. government’s persistence in holding people cleared of wrongdoing, Brittain reports, “Fourteen people have come back to Britain from Guantánamo Bay, and never has any one of them done any tiny infraction of any sort.”

Who remembers this plain-speaking Declaration?

“…Prudence  … dictate(s) that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, 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.

 

“

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism

[I]t is their right,

[I]it is their duty

[T]o throw off such government, and

[T]o provide new guards for their future security.…

Or this Universal Declaration?

“ … [R]ecognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

“ … [D]isregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

“ … [I]t is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law …

Article 5

N

o one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8

American diplomat
Eleanor Roosevelt
with UDHR 1948

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9

N

o one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair, and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11

1

. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defense.

2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.”

Sources and notes

Democracy Now! April 29, 2013

“Forgotten Women of the War on Terror: Author Victoria Brittain on the Wives and

Families Left Behind,” April 29, 2013, http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/29/forgotten_women_of_the_war_on

http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/29/a_desperate_situation_at_guantnamo_over

Victoria Brittain is a journalist, author and activist. Her latest book is Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror.  For several years her research has focused on the impact of conflict on women and her travels have taken her to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Cambodia, East Timor, Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Estonia, South Africa, Russia, and other conflict areas. She has written several books on Southern Africa and the effects of Western policy during the Cold War.

Brittain has been involved in the Boycott Israel Campaign and has chaired the London conference on divestment and sanctions against Israel (2002); she is a former Associate Foreign Editor of the Guardian (and former member of the editorial committee of the New Left Review). She is author of Hidden Lives, Hidden Deaths and Death of Dignity; co-author (with Moazzam Begg) of Enemy Combatant.  With South African born (living in London) novelist, playwright and memoirist Gillian Slovo, Victoria Brittain compiled the play “Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom” that was performed in theaters all over the world.

http://student.cs.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/authors.php?auid=2228

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2007/jun/03/victoriabrittain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillian_Slovo

  

“Declaration of Independence United States”

In Congress, July 4, 1776: Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America excerpt

“Universal Declaration of Human Rights” 1948 excerpt

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Bennett's books are 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]; 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] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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“‘WE DON’T DO TERRORISM; THEY DO’”

U.S. in Iraq

Politicians’ dangerous, consistent inconsistency

Excerpt, minor edit for TIN by Carolyn Bennett

From the author of The Newest Explosions of Terrorism: Latest Sites of Terrorism in the 90s and Beyond; and Strategic Terror: the politics and ethics of aerial bombardment

Beau Grosscup spoke this week with FAIR's "CounterSpin" and soon after the Boston Marathon incident, he discussed the politically convenient and dangerously irresponsible, loose labeling “TERRORISM.”

U.S. President Barack Obama, Beau Grosscup writes, first called the Boston Marathon incident “a ‘tragedy’” and after this labeling “was roundly criticized by the political right,” the president “a day later” declared the incident “‘an act of terrorism.’”

U.S. in Japan

What appears to be mere semantics, Grosscup continues, “are real power politics at work.”

B

oston bombing facts

The FBI says it does not know who was responsible or how many were involved.

The FBI defines ‘terrorism’ as ‘the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof in furtherance of political or social objectives’; but then adds the operational criteria that for an act to be called terrorism a conspiracy of two or more must be established.

“In the past,” Grosscup says, “this definitional requirement has allowed the FBI to say ─

Domestic violence directed at the family planning community, black churches, LGBT community, environmentalists is not terrorism because they cannot find a conspiracy of two or more people.

U.S. left in Iraq

Yet, to the FBI, the Unabomber, a lone individual, was a terrorist.

“In short,” he comments, “the Boston bombing is only the latest example of the CONSISTENT INCONSISTENT application of the terrorism label for political purposes.”

Political convenience: Mind-Managing the masses

“Terrorism,”

he says, “is such a politically emotive concept that politicians around the world use it or not when they consider it politically convenient to do so.

“In the current contrived ideological context of ‘WE DON’T DO TERRORISM, OTHERS (THEY) DO’   -- add the voice of President Barack Obama.

DITTO 

chemical weapons political consistent inconsistency  

T

oday’s news

U.S. in Afghanistan
Civilian, children dead

“U.S., allies setting stage for Iraq-like invasion of Syria,” Press TV reporting: “The United States and its allies are stepping up pressure on Syria by accusing Damascus of using chemical weapons against foreign-backed militants.

U.S. in Middle East
families destroyed
refugees flooding region

“Analysts believe that the war rhetoric against Syria is very similar to the media propaganda launched by the U.S. and its allies ahead of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

“On Friday, the U.S. President Barack Obama claimed the world cannot stand by and permit the use of chemical weapons in Syria, calling for an investigation into the issue,” April 27, 2013, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/27/300562/us-allies-setting-stage-against-syria/

Syrian minister responds

“U.S., UK chemical arms claim barefaced lie,” Press TV reporting: “Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi says claims by the U.S. and Britain that Damascus may have used chemical weapons against foreign-backed militants are a ‘barefaced lie.’

U.S. in Vietnam

“‘First of all, I want to confirm that statements by the U.S. Secretary of State [John Kerry] and British government are inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie,’ Zohbi told Russia Today (RT) television network on Saturday.”

He added

Might makes right
Global domination

‘I want to stress one more time that Syria would never use it [chemical weapons] -- not only because of its adherence to the international law and rules of leading war, but because of humanitarian and moral issues.’

“The remarks came after the U.S., Israel and Britain claimed that the Syrian government may have used chemical weapons against the militants. Zohbi, however, accused anti-Damascus militants of using chemical weapons.” April 27, 2013, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/27/300549/us-uk-chemical-arms-claim-mere-lie/

Sources and notes

Beau Grosscup

A college professor in International Relations (U.S. Foreign Policy, Politics of Terrorism, Political Economy of Post-Industrial Societies), Beau Grosscup is author of The Newest Explosions of Terrorism: Latest Sites of Terrorism in the 90s and Beyond; and Strategic Terror: the politics and ethics of aerial bombardment

He took his doctorate in International Relations at the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and his research has focused on contemporary terrorism (Cluster Munitions and State Terror and militarization of North American society), http://chicowiki.org/Beau_Grosscup

Beau C. Grosscup is a member of Political Science faculty of California State University – Chico, http://webapps.csuchico.edu/directory/people/bgrosscup

“Beau Grosscup on Defining Terrorism, Hugh Kaufmann on Texas Explosion,” http://fair.org/counterspin-radio/beau-grosscup-on-defining-terrorism-hugh-kaufmann-on-texas-fertilizer-explosion/ Linked on CounterSpin April 23, 2013, “Use of Terrorism," Institute for Public Accuracy (4/17/13), http://www.accuracy.org/release/use-of-terrorism/

“Use of ‘Terrorism,’” April 17, 2013 (BEAU GROSSCUP, bgrosscup at csuchico.edu), http://www.accuracy.org/release/use-of-terrorism/

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Bennett's books are 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]; 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] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Aggrieved and angered, Yemenis seek concrete correction in U.S. foreign relations

Senate Committee hearing room

Stop extra-judicial killings, build schools and hospitals

excerpt by Carolyn Bennett (minor edit)

Farea Al-Muslimi gave a personal and journalist’s report this week before the U. S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights “Drone Wars: The Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing” This is some of what Al-Muslimi had to say.

Farea Al-Muslimi and
the U.S. attacked
Yemeni village

“Today, I am a writer, speaker, and freelance journalist,” Farea Al-Muslimi said. “I have worked with many local, regional, and international non-governmental organizations, including the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, USAID, and Resonate! Yemen. At the age of 17, I was elected chairman of the Supporting Democracy Committee in the Yemeni Youth Consultative Council. One of the most rewarding experiences I have had has been working as a ‘fixer’ for international journalists in Yemen and Beirut. This work has allowed me to help the world learn about the experiences of my friends and neighbors.

“Most of my work with international journalists has been in the southern provinces of Abyan, Aden, Al-dhalea and Lahj—three of the areas where the United States has focused its so-called ‘war on terror.’”

However, the people of his Yemeni village of Wessab ─

“Instead of first experiencing America through a school or a hospital, most people first experienced America through the terror of a drone strike.

“What radicals had previously failed to achieve in my village,” he said, “one drone strike accomplished in an instant; and there is now an intense anger and growing hatred of America.

“For me personally, it is deeply troubling, astonishing, and challenging to reconcile that the very same hand (the United States of America) that taught me English, awarded me scholarships, and dramatically improved my life is the hand that ─

Droned my village,

Terrified my people, and

Now makes it harder for them to believe the good things that I tell them about America and my American friends.

 

“It is especially frustrating to me because all the United States needed to do was identify Al-Radmi as a target, so that he could have been arrested without the injuries, destruction, and death caused by the drone strike.”

What happened?

“As I was thinking about my testimony and preparing to travel to the United States to participate in this hearing, I learned that a missile from a U.S. drone had struck the village where I was raised.… A drone strike [happened] in my home village,” he said: “Just six days ago, this so-called war came straight to my village.…

“Ironically, I was sitting with a group of American diplomats in Sana’a at a farewell dinner for a dear American friend when the strike happened. As I was leaving my American friends, both of my mobile phones began to receive a storm of text messages and calls. For almost all of the people in Wessab, I’m the only person with any connection to the United States. They called and texted me that night with questions that I could not answer:

Why was the United States terrifying them with these drones?

Why was the United States trying to kill a person with a missile when everyone knows where he (Al-Radmi) is and he could have been easily arrested?

“My village is beautiful, but it is very poor and in a remote part of Yemen. Even though the region it is in is about the same size of Bahrain, there isn’t a single meter of asphalt road in it.

“Developmental projects by the central government rarely reach my village and humanitarian aid from international organizations like USAID never does.

“I know that most people have never heard of Wessab. But I could never have imagined that it would be the location of a drone strike.” 

 

Al-Radmi and Local Government, Wessab Villagers

“My understanding is that Hameed Meftah, who is also known as Hameed Al-Radmi, was the target of the drone strike.

“

Many people in Wessab know Al-Radmi. He received cooperation from and had an excellent relationship with the government agencies in the village. This made him look legitimate and granted him power in the eyes of those poor farmers, who had no idea that being with him meant they were risking death from a U.S. drone.… After the strike, the farmers in Wessab were afraid and angry. They were upset because they know Al-Radmi; but they did not know that he was a target, so they could have potentially been with him during the missile strike.

“Some of the people who were with Al-Radmi when he was killed were never affiliated with AQAP (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia), and only knew Al-Radmi socially.

 “Earlier on the night he was killed, he was reportedly in the village meeting with the General Secretary of Local Councilors, the head of the local government.

Anti-U.S. protests
Yemen

“The people in my village wanted Al-Radmi to be captured [Yemeni officials easily could have found and arrested Al-Radmi.], so that they could question him and find out what he was doing wrong so they could put an end to it. They still don’t have an answer to that question. Instead, all they have is the psychological fear and terror that now occupies their souls. They fear that their home or a neighbor’s home could be bombed at any time by a U.S. drone.”

W

hen his village was bombed, Farea Al-Muslimi said, “I was devastated for days because I knew that the bombing in my village by the United States would empower militants. Even worse, I know it will make people like Al-Radmi look like a hero, while I look like someone who has betrayed his country by supporting America.” 

Far-reaching

Human, international costs of U.S. 

killer drone attacks

“In some areas of Yemen, the anger against America that results from the strikes makes it dangerous for me to even acknowledge having visited America, much less having given testimony as to how much my life changed thanks to the U.S. State Department scholarships. It is sometimes too dangerous even to admit that I have American friends.”

[Psychological torment] “Late last year, I was with an American colleague from an international media outlet on a tour of Abyan. Suddenly, locals started to become paranoid.

Yemenis rally against
U.S. drone attacks

“They were moving erratically and frantically pointing toward the sky. Based on their past experiences with drone strikes, they told us that the thing hovering above us – out of sight and making a strange humming noise – was an American drone. My heart sank. I was helpless. It was the first time that I had earnestly feared for my life, or for an American friend’s life in Yemen. I was standing there at the mercy of a drone.”

 [Cruelty, threat, violence the only direct experience] “In the past, most of Wessab’s villagers knew little about the United States.

“My stories about my experiences in America, my American friends, and the American values that I saw for myself helped the villagers I talked to understand the America that I know and love. Now, however, when they think of America they think of the terror they feel from the drones that hover over their heads ready to fire missiles at any time.

“I personally don’t even know if it is safe for me to go back to Wessab because I am someone who people in my village associate with America and its values. I don’t know whether it is safe to travel to visit my mom because the roads are dangerous.

There is nothing villagers in Wessab needed more than a school to educate the local children or a hospital to help decrease the number of women and children dying every day.

“

Had the United States built a school or hospital, it would have instantly changed the lives of my fellow villagers for the better and been the most effective counterterrorism tool. And I can almost certainly assure you that the villagers would have gone to arrest the target themselves.” 

Ending his testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee

Farea Al-Muslimi said ─

“I have access to ordinary Yemenis [and], [f]or me, helping the people of my country understand and know the America that I have experienced is a passion and not a career.

“

[However], the drone strikes and the targeted killing program have made my passion and mission in support of America almost impossible in Yemen.

“…As someone who has lived and worked on this issue very closely, I cannot help but feel that the American and Yemen governments are losing the war against AQAP.

Even when drone strikes target and kill the ‘right’ people, it is at the expense of creating many strategic problems.…”

Across-nations
People in solidarity

Cease and desist, construct, mend and make amends

 Farea Al-Muslimi’s five recommendations

• Stop all targeted killing strikes. 

• Build a school or hospital in every village where there has been a targeted killing, so that villagers’ only experience with America [is] not the death and destruction caused by an American missile. 

• Issue an official apology to the families of all civilians killed or injured by targeted killing strikes. 

• Compensate the families of innocent civilians killed or injured by strikes conducted or authorized by the United States. 

• Announce the names of those already on the ‘kill list’ so that innocent civilians can stay out of harm’s way.

Sources and notes

“Drone Wars: The Constitutional and Counterterrorism Implications of Targeted Killing” Statement of Farea Al-Muslimi, United States Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, April 23, 2013, http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/04-23-13Al-MuslimiTestimony.pdf

AQAP

Primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is believed to have been “named for al-Qaeda and is subordinate to that group and its leader (deceased) Osama bin Laden, a Saudi citizen whose father was born in Yemen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda_in_the_Arabian_Peninsula

“WATCH: Yemeni tells US Senate ‘drones are fuelling anti-Americanism’, April 24, 2013, by Alice K Ross, Published in All Stories, Covert Drone War, Drone strikes in Yemen, http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/04/24/watch-yemeni-tells-us-senate-drones-are-fuelling-anti-americanism/

“Yemeni Activist Farea al-Muslimi Urges U.S. to Stop the Drone War on His Country,” April 25, 2013, http://www.democracynow.org/2013/4/25/yemeni_activist_farea_al_muslimi_urges

Transcript

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Bennett's books are 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]; 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] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Words loosely cast have consequences; awareness offers chance for “good” change

“Al-Qaeda” 
“Terrorism”

Excerpt, minor edit, re-reporting by 

Carolyn Bennett

“Global awakening to false-flag terrorism” ─ Barrett

“For better or worse,” Dr. Barrett writes, “there are very few actual anti-government terrorists. Virtually all terrorism is committed by governments.”

W

ikipedia note: Kevin Barrett is a Wisconsin (USA) native, an author and lecturer and a Fulbright

Scholar credentialed at the University of Wisconsin and San Francisco State University. He is also a co-founder of the American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC) and; with MD Rabbi Alam, co-host AMPAC Radio Community Talk-Show; a member of the Scientific Panel for the Investigation of 9/11 (SPINE). He is a founding member of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance (MUJCA), which was established October 30, 2004, with the stated aim of improving “interfaith dialogue, coexistence, and understanding” in light of the events of 9/11.

Terrorism (foreign relations)

“Let us take this from the top and define our terms,” Barrett writes. “‘Terrorism’ means ‘using violence against civilians to create fear for political purposes.’

“Who does that?” he asks; who has the motivation to do it?” And answers: “Only governments.

…Governments terrorize the citizens of countries they invade and occupy.

The United States, for example, murdered many millions of Vietnamese citizens in a doomed attempt to terrorize them into submission.

Indonesia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other places─ DITTO.

This is real terrorism - terrorism on a massive, genocidal scale.

Terrorism (domestic affairs)

“…The very same governments,” Barrett writes, “also terrorize their own citizens - more subtly, and on a smaller scale.

Within the United States, militarized police forces terrorize African-American communities. Almost every day, an African-American is extra-judicially executed by police.

White Americans are terrorized in a sneakier, less brutal fashion: They are fed a diet of violence and fear-mongering propaganda by the media. Those who break out of the fear bubble, and go to Occupy demonstrations, may have their skulls smashed by a police officer’s club.

“

‘The Power of Nightmares,’” Barrett references a British Broadcasting feature, “documents the fact that the whole concept of the ‘terrorist threat’ was invented out of whole cloth by Western governments: there is no actual group called al-Qaeda and no such thing as any significant anti-government terrorism.”

Contrived and convenient Al-Qaeda

“‘Al-Qaeda’” he defines as “the name of a ragged hodge-podge of dupes and mercenaries [who] ─

Terrorize Syrians on behalf of the U. S. and Israeli governments and

Terrorize Americans on behalf of the U.S. and Israeli governments. 

“False-flag terrorism ”Barrett says, “is designed to make citizens willingly surrender their liberty, their money, their power ─ and the lives of their children.”

The term ‘false flag’ (Wikipedia) originates in naval warfare where a flag other than the belligerent’s true battle flag is used as a ruse de guerre (subterfuge, trick, deception of war) before engaging an enemy

“

False flag (or black flag) describes covert military or paramilitary operations designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities, groups or nations than those who actually planned and executed them.

“Operations carried during peace-time by civilian organizations as well as covert government agencies may, by extension, be called false flag operations if they seek to hide the real organization behind an operation.”

B

arrett concludes that the “great global awakening” to or all-round awareness of “false-flag terrorism” is an opportunity to uproot “the old paradigm of rule by fear and to work for a better world – a world of fearless people ruled by wisdom and compassion.”

  

Sources and notes

“PressTV ─ Global awakening to false-flag terrorism, Copernican revolution,” Sunday April 21, 201309:39 AM GMT, http://presstv.com/detail/2013/04/21/299396/global-awakening-to-falseflag-terrorism/

Kevin James Barrett

Kevin James Barrett is an American writer, speaker and lecturer; co-founder of American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC), with MD Rabbi Alam.co-host AMPAC Radio Community Talk-Show; and a member of the Scientific Panel for the Investigation of 9/11 (SPINE) and a founding member of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance (MUJCA), which was established October 30, 2004 with the stated aim of improving "interfaith dialogue, coexistence, and understanding" in light of the events of 9/11.

Barrett took his academic credentials at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (doctorate, 2004); and San Francisco State University (Masters, 1990s)

He has taught English, French, Arabic, American Civilization, Humanities, African Literature, Folklore, and Islam at colleges and universities in the San Francisco, California, Paris, France, and Madison, Wisconsin

Books by Barrett include: Questioning the War on Terror: a primer for Obama voters (2009); Truth jihad: my epic struggle against the 9/11 big lie (2007); 9/11 and American empire: Christians, Jews, and Muslims speak out (with John B. Cobb and Sandra B. Lubarsky, 2007)

“Anti-Defamation League cites Barrett as one of the leading promoters of anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories as part of a ‘network of anti-Israel conspiracists who endorse and reinforce each other’s work,’ who ‘blame Israel for numerous nefarious deeds and false flag operations.’”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Barrett

Wikipedia-defined Al-Qaeda

Excerpt

Al-Qaeda “has been designated as a ‘terrorist’ organization by the United Nations Security Council (editor’ insert: comprised of five permanent, inordinately powered members: China, France, the United States, United Kingdom and Russia); NATO (editor’ insert: U.S. founded), the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and various other countries.

“Al-Qaeda (pron.: /ælˈkaɪdə/ al-KY-də; Arabic: القاعدة‎ al-qāʿidah, Arabic: [ælqɑːʕɪdɐ], translation: ‘The Base’ and alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa'ida) is a global militant Islamist organization operating as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad and a strict interpretation of sharia law.” It was “founded by Osama bin Laden at some point between August 1988 and late 1989, with its origins being traceable to the Soviet War in Afghanistan.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda

  

“Terrorism (or black flag) describes covert military or paramilitary operations designed to deceive in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities, groups or nations than those who actually planned and executed them.

“Operations carried during peace-time by civilian organizations as well as covert government agencies may, by extension, be called false flag operations if they seek to hide the real organization behind an operation.

“The name ‘false flag’ has its origins in naval warfare where the use of a flag other than the belligerent’s true battle flag as a ruse de guerre, before engaging an enemy, has long been acceptable.

“Such operations are also acceptable in certain circumstances in land warfare to deceive enemies in similar ways providing that the deception is not perfidious [disloyal (?)]; and all such deceptions are discarded before opening fire upon the enemy.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag

Al-Qaeda

“Al -CIA.-eda says it would use Pakistani nuclear weapons,” June 23, 2009 by POPEYE, Filed under False Flag Terrorism”: “Editors note:  Isn’t it interesting how al Qaeda always pops up when either of the last two presidents needs an excuse to send the middle class off to die in a … war, and take away even more of your civil liberties.  All while the sheep cheer them on for protecting this country from further attacks. … http://www.federaljack.com/al-c-i-a-eda-says-it-would-use-pakistani-nuclear-weapons/

Terrorism

“Man Charged With Terrorism For Criticizing School Security,” April 14, 2013 by POPEYE, Filed under Establishing The Police State, Featured Stories:

“(MR. CONSERVATIVE)   History has shown us that one of the most dangerous things an individual can have in a totalitarian state is an opinion. In Hitler’s German, Mao’s China, or Stalin’s Soviet Union, it was always the same – have an opinion, go to jail.

“What’s completely discouraging is that America is starting to be the same kind of state. People who are using their First Amendment free speech rights to raise important issues are increasingly finding themselves carted off to jail, or running the risk that their children will be wrenched from their arms and placed into the state system.

A New Jersey mother discovered that when she was arrested after reading the Constitution at a public meeting; and

A New Jersey father discovered it when he was interrogated and police threatened to remove his children after he posted a picture of his glowingly proud son with a hunting rifle. …

Now, a disabled grandfather in Centerville, Iowa, has made the same terrible discovery — in today’s American, if you have an opinion, you can go to jail.…” http://www.federaljack.com/index.php?s=terrorism

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