U.S.’s “one-sided violence,” suffering and backlash

Edited, re-reported with comment by Carolyn Bennett

Violence in U.S. foreign relations we know of —

ARMS to Bahrain India Israel Saudi Arabia

DRONES on Afghanistan Iraq Libya Pakistan Somalia Yemen

Washington officials’ aggression against peoples of — Afghanistan Bahrain Colombia Cuba Eritrea Haiti Honduras

Iraq Iran Kashmir Mexico Nigeria/Niger Pakistan Palestine (Gaza, West Bank, Jerusalem) Somalia Syria USA Yemen

The United States has deployed its drones for aerial attacks in at least six countries:  Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia.

One-sided violence — hegemony’s war against defenseless nations, peoples, individuals

In “Torture, War, and the Limits of Liberal Legality,” chapter five in The United States and Torture, U.S. activist and Princeton professor emeritus Richard Falk writes this.

When he returned to the United States from Vietnam in 1968, what struck him most “was the total disinterest in … the one-sided nature of the war and its horribly inhumane effects on a poor peasant society of the sort that existed in Vietnam”— a perplexing indifference that continues in the present day, Falk writes.  “It bears on what is a most dangerous and unacceptable ‘disconnect’ between condemning a reliance on torture while silently accommodating, or at least not vigorously protesting, the tactics and actualities of one-sided warfare …

“What never became problematic in assessing the lessons of the Vietnam War — and should have been the most troubling reflection — was the magnitude of Vietnamese casualties (estimated to be 3-5 million) and the ratio of loss on the two sides.…

“…The United States, and some of its allies, rely on and seek to sustain and enhance a posture of military dominance enabling the pursuit of political goals throughout the world; and this dominance basically relies upon American technological superiority in warfare that enables it to inflict limitless devastation on a foreign country anywhere on earth without fearing retaliations at home.… It is this contrast between the helplessness of the victim and the total control of the perpetrator that properly causes … moral revulsion.”

A mask worn by American leaders in the aftermath of bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki (as with U.S. officials and contemporary torture) let them “hide one of the worst of modern atrocities — one that was generally accepted by the liberal mainstream.…” Former President Harry Truman “lent his authority to such a rationalization of criminality.” 

It never stops — Murder Premeditated

A program in which names are added to a list through a secret bureaucratic process and remain there for months at a time plainly goes beyond the use of lethal force as a last resort to address imminent threats, and so goes beyond what the Constitution and international law permit. Lawyers and analysts at the Center for Constitutional Rights were concerned with the case of the U.S. Executive branch and Anwar Al-Aulaqi. Under international human rights law, lethal force may be used in peacetime only when there is an imminent threat of deadly attack and when lethal force is a last resort. 

“Targeting individuals for killing who are suspected of crimes but have not been convicted — without oversight, due process or disclosed standards for being placed on the kill list — poses the risk that the government will erroneously target the wrong people,” CCR wrote.  Since 9/11, the U.S. government has detained thousands of men as ‘terrorists,’ only for courts or the government itself to discover later that the evidence was wrong or unreliable and release them.

“In early July 2010, CCR and the ACLU were retained by Nasser al-Aulaqi, the father of U.S. citizen Anwar Al-Aulaqi, to bring a lawsuit in connection with the government’s decision to authorize the death of his son, who [had been] placed on kill lists maintained by the CIA and the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) …. The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury then [on July 16, 2010] labeled Anwar al-Aulaqi a ‘specially designated global terrorist,’ which makes it a crime for lawyers to provide representation for his benefit without first seeking a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).”

The Center for Constitutional Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union sought a license and the government failed to grant a license, despite the urgency created by an outstanding authorization for Al-Aulaqi’s death.

Then on August 3, 2010, then CCR and ACLU filed suit against Treasury and the OFAC challenging “the legality and constitutionality of the licensing scheme requiring them to obtain a license to file suit concerning the government’s asserted authority to carry out targeted killings of individuals — including U.S. citizens — far from any battlefield.” At the end of that month, CCR and the ACLU filed suit on behalf of Dr. Nasser Al-Aulaqi against U.S. President Barack Obama, CIA Director Leon Panetta, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates challenging their decision “to authorize the targeted killing” of Nasser Al-Aulaqi’s son, U.S. citizen Anwar Al-Aulaqi, “in violation of the U.S. Constitution and international law.”

This week drones ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama reportedly killed the son of Dr. Nasser Al-Aulaqi.

Murdered victims, whether citizens or not citizens of the United States, off or on a “battlefield” cannot face their murderers, tell their side of the story, or challenge murderous acts of impunity.  This is another example of U.S. lawlessness.

PERSIAN GULF (Arabian Gulf)

A shallow marginal sea of the Indian Ocean that

Lies between the Arabian Peninsula and southwestern Iran

Bordered on the north, northeast and east by Iran;

On the southeast and south by part of Oman and by the United Arab Emirates;

On the southwest and west by Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia; and

On the northwest by Kuwait and Iraq

The term Persian Gulf sometimes refers not only to Persian Gulf proper but

Also to its outlets —

The Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, which open into the Arabian Sea

Authoritarians: Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia; occupied Iraq, Palestine

BAHRAIN (U.S-allied with despots)

Another anti-government protester is killed in Bahrain due to tear gas inhalation. Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters have continued to take to the streets demanding freedom and democracy in Bahrain.

Yesterday’s demonstrations organized by the country’s main opposition group, al-Wefaq, called again for ending the four-decade rule of the Al Khalifa dynasty. The day before, hundreds of Bahraini women staged a protest rally in the village of Maqsha condemning the imprisonment of medical personnel.

For having treated anti-government protesters, a military court sentenced each of 20 medics to up to 15 years in prison, after convicting them of conspiracy to overthrow the regime. The special security court, in a separate case, sentenced a protester to death over the alleged killing of a police officer. The same court upheld life sentences handed to eight opposition leaders convicted of having vital roles in the anti-government protests in the country and upheld sentences of up to 15 years on 13 other activists.

Protesters called on the international community to stand by the Bahraini people.

JORDAN (U.S-allied with despots)

King Abdullah II announced some concessions in June in an attempt to appease protesters in this country. Among the promises was the formation of future governments based on an elected parliamentary majority rather than government appointed by the monarch. However, the monarch delayed, saying the changes might take two to three years to put an elected government in place.

Friday, nearly 4,000 anti-government protesters took to the streets of Amman, Jordan’s capital, accusing the government of Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit and lawmakers of ‘protecting corruption’ and demanding the resignation of Bakhit and dissolution of the lower house of parliament.

Protests came after the lower house had approved a bill to criminalize corruption allegations: people who “publicly accuse officials of corruption without proof will be fined between 30,000 and 60,000 dinars ($42,000-$85,000).”

SAUDI ARABIA (U.S-allied with despots)

Human Rights Watch says more than 160 dissidents have been arrested since February as part of the Saudi government’s crackdown on anti-government protesters. Saudi-based Human Rights First Society (HRFS) reports detainees have been subjected to physical and mental torture. 

Saudi activists say there are more than 30,000 political prisoners, mostly prisoners of conscience, in jails across the Saudi Kingdom.

Families of political prisoners have repeatedly pleaded with the ruling monarchy to give their loved ones at least a fair trial but, according to the families, for years the king has ignored their calls.

Despite tight security and a strict ban on all anti-government rallies, hundreds of anti-government protesters poured into the streets in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province yesterday. They were demanding the immediate release of political prisoners. Demonstrators in the cities of Qatif and Awamiyah also expressed solidarity with anti-government protesters in neighboring Bahrain and condemned Manama’s violent crackdown on peaceful protesters.

Activists say most of the detained political thinkers are being held without trials or legitimate charges, that they have been arrested “for merely looking suspicious.”

IRAQ (U.S. is occupier)

Iraq has experienced bombing attacks, roadside bombs, and shootings on an almost daily basis since the US-led invasion of this oil-rich country in 2003.

One of the deadliest recent attacks came on Monday (September 25), when twin bombings rocked the southern Iraqi city of Karbala. Twenty-five people died and dozens suffered injuries.

Yesterday, at least 18 people died and 48 others suffered wounds when a large bomb exploded near a mosque. Whoever detonated the bomb was reportedly targeting people mourning the death of a local sheikh in the city of Hillah in central Iraq, 60 miles from Baghdad.

On Thursday, two women and a man died and 76 people were wounded in a truck explosion incident in front of a bank in Kirkuk. Police officers were reportedly collecting their monthly salaries. In clashes in Baghdad and north of the capital in Tarmiyah, a police officer and a U.S. soldier died and others were injured.

PALESTINE (U.S. allied with occupier)

Acting PA Chief Mahmoud Abbas officially submitted his bid for UN recognition of a Palestinian state to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on September 23.

After Palestine went to the UN for full member state status, Israel committed its usual tactic to continue putting off the resolution of conflict with Palestinians and in the greater Middle East. The interior minister approved construction of more than 1,100 homes in the contested Gilo neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

Palestinians had initially agreed to negotiate, but only if Israel freezes all construction on Palestinian lands.

The economy minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) said this week, “No matter what the Palestinian people achieve by our own efforts, the occupation prevents us achieving our potential as a free people in our own country.”

A report the PA released this week says “Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has deprived the Palestinian economy annually of an estimated $4.4 billion.” Moreover, the majority of costs have no “relationship with security concerns but rather come from the heavy restrictions imposed on the Palestinians in the access to their own natural resources — including water, minerals, salts, stones and land — many of which are exploited by Israel itself.”

If not for the illegal occupation, the report found, “the Palestinian economy could have been nearly twice as large. Current losses amount to some 85 percent of the current Palestinian GDP” [Ma’an News Agency].

Also this week Press TV interviewed Valentine Azarov with Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights organization, who said, “There are ongoing violations of international laws [by Israel] that constitute international crimes that the ICC has jurisdiction over — the basis for going to the International Criminal Court already exists.

“That is irrefutable. There is sufficient material in the hands of the prosecutor that he has received over the last year, specially since the Operation Cast Lead happened, and that indeed has been indicated by him to civil society and international organizations as enough to look into certain cases.

“The reason the court has not accepted Palestinian declaration from January 2009 is largely political. The court has not made a decision on whether Palestine is a state for the purpose of the Rome Statute. That is why this is a very important moment to push forward the declaration and also to open the opportunity for the state of Palestine to become a member of the court to ratify Rome Statute.”

Today in Tehran the 5th International Conference on Palestinian Intifada opened. It focuses on “the restoration of Palestinian rights, including their right of return and to determine their fate as well as the liberation the  territories occupied by Israel.”

In an opening address, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, criticized U.S. President Barack Obama for considering Israel’s security as his red line. He said the president’s “red line would be crossed by the awakened Muslim nations.”

“Muslim nations,” the Ayatollah Khamenei said, “will no longer want or allow the U.S., Europe, or their puppets to rule over their countries.”

GULF OF ADEN

A deepwater basin that forms a natural sea link between the

Red Sea and the Arabian Sea

Named after the seaport of Aden, in southern Yemen,

The gulf lies between the coasts of Arabia and the Horn of Africa

YEMEN (U.S-allied with despots)

Hundreds of people died during regime-ordered crackdowns on anti-government protests. Since President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s return last Friday, more than 170 protesters have died in newly revived brutal campaigns against popular demonstrations in the Yemini capital, Sana’a.

Yesterday, crowds of Yemenis again took to the streets of Sana’a, Press TV reported, “to condemn Saleh for seeking the approval of scholars to crush the country’s  popular uprising.” Tribal leaders and opposition figures said anyone giving such approval would be brought to justice for aiding the Saleh regime in killing civilians.

Ali Abdullah Saleh had been in Saudi Arabia since a June rocket attack on the presidential palace in which he and other senior officials were seriously injured. Saleh returned to Yemen on September 23.

HORN OF AFRICA — SOMALIA (U.S. stands against)

Somalis are suffering from lack of food and are contending with disease, including malaria, measles and pneumonia. Their famine is compounded by armed conflict in Somalia and the United States is bombing the country.

Free Speech Radio News reports this week that the expanding U.S. presence in Somalia is also giving rise to questions among rights groups about the U.S. role in detention and interrogation in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and a rise in drone attacks throughout the Middle East and Horn of Africa region.

Somali officials yesterday confirmed that a U.S. spy drone had crashed near the port city of Kismayo. Somalia is the sixth country where the US military has engaged in unauthorized aerial bombing campaigns through the use of its remote-controlled aircraft.

The United States has also deployed its so-called drones for aerial attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen.

Officials in Washington claim the airstrikes target militants but these drone attacks have mostly resulted in civilian casualties.

WARS ORDERED FROM WASHINGTON, U.S. CONSEQUENCES

In an interview with Press TV this, retired U.S. General John Adams expressed outrage at U.S. spending “on unnecessary wars when we have people hurting in our country and other countries.” Talking from the U.S. perspective, he said, “[there are people] who can’t get jobs, are running out of the ability to pay for their medical care, have to look to the next paycheck just to be able to figure out if they can put food on the table — and we’re spending this kind of money on wars of choice. It’s staggering, it’s really outrageous to me.”

Since 2001, “we spent 7.5 trillion dollars on defense and security, a staggering amount of money and opportunities lost.”  

In his first of a four-point conclusion to his chapter “Torture, War, and the Limits of Liberal Legality,” Falk urges this.

The ethical resemblance between one-sided warfare and torture [both one-sided violence] must be acknowledged and addressed.

Sources and notes

Notes from The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse edited by Marjorie Cohn. New York: New York University Press, 2011, pp. 119-129

Chapter 5: “Torture, War, and the Limits of Liberal Legality” by Richard Falk

U.S. Targeted killings

“CCR and the ACLU v. OFAC and Al-Aulaqi v. Obama,” http://ccrjustice.org/targetedkillings

U.S.-involved aggression

KINGDOMS

“Tear gas claims another Bahraini life,” September 30, 2011,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202057.html

“Bahrainis rally for freedom,” September 30, 2011,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202025.html

“Jordanians call for resignation of PM,” September 30, 2011,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202002.html

“Saudis want political prisoners released,” September 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202062.html

U.S. in Iraq

“Funeral turns into bloodbath in Iraq,” September 30, 2011,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202032.html

“U.S. soldier killed in northern Iraq,” September 29, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201880.html

U.S. in Palestine

“U.S.-armed Israel expands settlement construction in Palestinian territory,” September 28, 2011, http://fsrn.org/

“Occupation costs Palestine $4.4bn per yea,” September 30, 2011,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201953.html

“‘Ample evidence to take Israel to ICC,’” September 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201970.html

“Leader blasts Obama red line, Israel,” October 1, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202118.html

U.S. in Yemen

“Yemenis protest govt. crackdown,” September 30, 2011,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201935.html

“Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh says that the United States intelligence apparatus is closely following up and keeping a close eye on the situation in the country — He said Washington was investigating a June attack on the presidential palace that inflicted serious injuries on him as well as other Yemeni officials,”  Press TV interviews Ian Williams, from Foreign Policy in Focus,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201945.html

U.S. in Somalia

“U.S. role in Somalia questioned as drone attacks, interrogation step up,” September 28, 2011, http://fsrn.org/

“Al Shabab’s power shifting as famine spreads in Somalia,” September 28, 2011,

“The crisis in the Horn of Africa continues, with aid agencies warning that 750,000 people are at risk of dying by the end of the year. … Earlier this summer, the militant group Al-Shabab withdrew from Mogadishu but the capitol is still war-ravaged and militants still have a strong presence in other areas,” audio/us-role-somalia-questioned-drone-attacks-interrogation-step/9199

“U.S. spy drone crashes in Somalia,” September 30, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201984.html

A U.S. General on U.S. endless wars

“‘U.S. wasting the citizens’ money on wars,’” September 20, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/200215.html

U.S. in Pakistan

From Pakistan: “We are not afraid of the U.S. threats; we are ready to protect our country at all costs if the American forces attack us” [a protester]

Pakistanis have staged nationwide rallies to condemn the United States’ threats of unilateral attacks on Pakistan’s tribal belt in an alleged hunt for the militant Haqqani network. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, has denied U.S. accusations against the Pakistani intelligence agency. She says “the Haqqani network was once the ‘blue-eyed boy’ of the CIA.”

On Friday, days after Washington claimed Pakistan’s intelligence agency was supporting the Taliban-allied Haqqani network, activists from religious parties took to streets.

“Pakistanis rally against U.S. threats, October 1, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/202102.html

“Pakistan: Haqqani network, CIA agents,” September 27, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/201398.html

Falk

Notes from The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse edited by

Marjorie Cohn. New York: New York University Press, 2011, pp. 119-129

Chapter 5: “Torture, War, and the Limits of Liberal Legality” by Richard Falk

Richard Anderson Falk (b. 1930) is U.S. professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University and author or co-author of 20 books, editor or co-editor of another 20 books. He is a speaker and activist on world affairs; and has held United Nations positions on the Palestinian territories.

_________________________________

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]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, 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

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AIPAC’s Manchurian Candidate opposes UN, international law

Re-reported, compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

U.S.’s unconscionably lawless allegiance in Middle East

OBAMA/MARR INTERVIEW

“I … believe that the notion that you can solve this problem [of the Occupied Territories] in the United Nations is simply unrealistic,” President Barack Obama said in BBC interview aired today.

Kill or capture? — “What would [Osama bin Laden] have had to do to be captured? Andrew Marr asked in that interview with President Barack Obama. The president ducked and chanted, “Our job is to secure the United States.” Marr pushed gently: “It would have been very difficult to have to have put this man [bin Laden] on trial? The president answers: “That wasn’t our number one consideration.” He goes on to brag: “I’ve made no secret; I said this when running for office: if I got a shot at bin Laden, I’d take it.”

In that interview with Marr, Mr. Obama also offered that he knows better what is best for Pakistan than the Pakistanis know what best for their country. “Pakistan obsessed with India,” he said, but the “biggest threat to Pakistan is homegrown.”

The president had not finished his weekend. Before flying off to England, and in the fallout of his Thursday Middle East performance, he addressed the annual policy meeting of the main pro-Israel lobby in the United States, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC. Again, the U.S. president attacked Palestinian plans to seek statehood at the United Nations and declared his/U.S. allegiance, an “‘ironclad’ Washington commitment, to Israel.”

Driving the nail in the coffin, news came today that “Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has approved the construction of 294 new illegal Jewish settler units in the occupied Palestinian land,” according to a Reuters report sourcing AFP. “The settlements are to go up in the Beitar Ilit settlement in the occupied West Bank…

“The Israeli regime occupied the West Bank alongside the other Palestinian territory of East al-Quds (Jerusalem) in 1967 and later annexed both.

“The international community has refused to recognize either the capture or the annexation. The United Nations and the European Union call the settlements illegal as they are constructed on the occupied territories. The UN also considers the settlement expansion to be illegal under the international law.”

 Last word will not be written by 

United States or Britain

Palestinian human rights activist Merna Alazzeh remembers, in a May 19 article, “The young will never forget, will one day return.”  

“… Having lived in al-Azzeh refugee camp for most of my life,” Alazzeh says, “there has always been, as far as I know, much space, even in the narrow alleys of the camp, for the collective memory of Israeli massacres, systematic displacement and ethnic cleansing. These images [imprint] in the minds of Palestinian refugees both young and old.”

Spring 2003 return

“… My grandmother and I ‘went back’ to our destroyed village, Beit Jibrin. We managed to get there despite the checkpoints and the high level of Israeli security; it wasn’t easy even though the actual distance that separates my refugee camp from the village is less than an hour’s drive.…

“I walked behind her climbing up a hill in the village. She seemed much stronger and able to walk faster than I remembered. She knew where exactly we were going, as if she [had been] there yesterday.

“Her memories dated back to 1948” and despite her young age at the time, “she remembered. She remembered her school, the lovely summer evenings she spent with her family in the village. She remembered the harvest time and traveling to Haifa and Yaffa (Jaffa) with her dad to sell their produce. 

“She also remembered the nights when the peaceful village was first attacked. ‘We never saw a fighter jet before,’ she said. … This was the same year [1948] that witnessed the expulsion of approximately 750,000 of the native Palestinian population from their homes and villages. To this day, they have never been able to return.

 “Sixty-three years on and despite the numerous United Nations resolutions and world condemnations, Israel’s impunity prevails.”

No justice

“…Palestinian refugees are yet to see implementation of UN Resolution 242, which clearly affirms ‘a just settlement of the refugee problem’; and Resolution 194, which states that ‘refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date.’ These resolutions have been alive in my grandmother’s memory [and] imprint in the consciousness of refugees whether they are acquainted with international law or not.

“Every Palestinian refugee resolutely believes in the right to live in the town or village from where they originate — indeed, from which they and their families have been uprooted by force.”

Never forget

“My grandmother passed away last year in March in the refugee camp but her dream of returning to Beit Jibrin is alive… Her dreams of return are alive. I will never forget her nor will I forget her passion when talking about the village. I will always make sure I pass her dreams and aspirations to the coming generations. I believe this is a promise that each refugee has made consciously or unconsciously until the return and the full realization of our rights.”

As the memory remains in the heart and soul of all Palestinians, “we will never forget my village and all the ethnically-cleansed Palestinian villages. For us, the old may well die, but the young will never forget.”

Tragic failure of foreign policy 

In an opinion piece this weekend on Al Jazeera, political science professor John J. Mearsheimer wrote, “The remarkably powerful Israel lobby makes it virtually impossible for [President Obama] to put meaningful pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is committed to creating a Greater Israel in which the Palestinians are restricted to a handful of disconnected and impoverished enclaves.” With the 2012 presidential election looming larger every day, “Obama is certainly not going to buck the lobby.

“In addition to his problems with Israel and the lobby, Obama has little influence over events in the broader Middle East. The Arab Spring… happened in spite of U.S. foreign policy, not because of it.

“…Washington has played a key role for decades in keeping friendly dictators such as Hosni Mubarak in power; and, not surprisingly, the Obama administration has remained quiet while Saudi and Bahrain's security forces have been crushing the protesters in Bahrain… The U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain and [the U.S. has] excellent relations with its authoritarian leaders.” Topping off a foreign policy in inevitable free fall, is, Mearsheimer says, the U.S. quagmire in Afghanistan [also Pakistan], Iraq and Libya. “The administration’s hard-nosed policy for dealing with Iran’s nuclear enrichment program [also] is not working but the president seems unwilling — or unable because of pressure from Israel and its lobbyists — to countenance a new approach for dealing with Tehran.

“The bottom line is that the U.S. is in deep trouble in the Middle East and needs new policies for that region. Regrettably there is little prospect of that happening anytime soon.…”

Not the last word

“[President] Obama’s State Department speech should be understood as merely the latest in a long series of disguised confessions of geopolitical impotence; [and] of one thing we can be sure, it will not be the last.…”

International Law expert and UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights Richard Falk was also writing in the post-Middle East speech weekend. “In their long and tormented journey to realize a just and sustainable destiny for themselves,’ he wrote, “Palestinians should not look to sovereign states, or even the United Nations, and certainly not the United States.…

“Their future will depend on the outcome of their struggle increasingly assuming the character of a nonviolent legitimacy [and] abetted and supported by people of good will around the world.…It is Palestinian populism — not great power diplomacy — that offers the best current hope of achieving a sustainable and just peace on behalf of the Palestinian people.”

◊

Other U.S. Theaters of War

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD

Casualty sites reporting May 22, 2011

(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: 224]

•

Wounded 33,041-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: May 1, 2011

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

•

Iraq Body Count

The worldwide update on civilians killed in the Iraq war and occupation

Documented civilian deaths from violence

100,971 – 110,279 

Full analysis of the WikiLeaks’ Iraq War Logs may add 15,000 civilian deaths.

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

•

ICasualties figures:

AFGHANISTAN:

1,582 United States

2,463 Coalition

IRAQ:

4,452 United States

4,770 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/

◊

Perhaps this was the week of Palestine, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but other U.S. wars, Aden to Iraq, continued.

YEMEN

European, U.S. and Arab ambassadors “pressing Saleh to sign the accord were trapped for hours in an embassy surrounded by armed government supporters.” They stayed there until “Yemeni army helicopters ferried the diplomats out to the palace.”

Tens of thousands of people in the past few months have demonstrated in the streets of the Yemini capital. Taiz and the port city of Aden have also been scenes of mass protests — demanding the immediate end of the 32-year rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. However, the president seems to agree to step down then moves the post, thus thwarting Gulf efforts to resolve the country’s political crisis.

Today’s press reports say President Saleh “laid down new conditions for signing a power transition deal”  resulting in secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Abdullatif al-Zayani’s leaving “without getting the signature of the president.”

Protesters have taken the position that the Gulf-brokered deal falls short of their demands for Saleh’s immediate departure and the dismantling of his regime. They reject any immunity for Saleh and say that the opposition parties do not speak for their demands.

PAKISTAN

Four people died today and many suffered wounds when an armed group of 15 to 20 people attacked a military base in the Pakistani city of Karachi. Pakistani Express TV reported five explosions preceded the attack.

IRAQ

Apparent sectarian/anti-police attacks continued in U.S.-occupied Iraq.

Sixteen people died Sunday and dozens suffered wounds in “a wave of apparently coordinated bombings.” Areas taking most damage were central Iraq’s Shiite areas.

Al Jazeera gave this tally of the Sunday incidents:

Taji: Suicide bomber strikes Iraqi police responding to car comb on U.S. convoy — seven police killed, 10 others injured.

Sadr City: One car bomb (targeting colonel in Interior Ministry), one roadside bomb hidden in pile of garbage, one bomb in parking lot near a market — two people killed, 19 injured at least 19

Amal/Bayaa, west Baghdad: Five roadside bombs and one parked car bomb (police patrol and busy intersection among targets) — two people killed, 15 injured

West Baghdad (Saidiyya and Wathiq Square): bomb in each place — one person killed, 16 injured (among the injured six security troops)

East Baghdad (Beirut Square and area of Canal Street): bomb in each place — complete number of injuries (above the six in one location) unknown

A double bombing on Thursday reportedly left 27 police officers dead in the northern city of Kirkuk. Another eight officers suffered wounds when a roadside bomb hit their convoy as they responded to the scene of the first incident.

“Two U.S. soldiers died in central Iraq today, according to Press TV, “capping a day of violence that left more than a dozen Iraqis dead and more than 80 others wounded in and around Baghdad.”

An Iraqi interior ministry official reportedly said two more U.S. soldiers died and three suffered injuries “when the convoy they were in was struck by a roadside bomb in Baghdad’s western outskirts.”

LIBYA

Shortages furthering unrest

Reuters reported on Saturday, “Libyans armed with guns and a knife stormed a bus carrying foreign journalists and a soldier fired volleys of gunfire into the air to disperse the crowd.”

“The attack reflected Libyan anger at severe petrol shortages, a two-month-old NATO bombing campaign against President Muammar Qaddafi’s government, and state media reports that foreign journalists misrepresent the news.”

Sources and notes

“Barack Obama: No Palestinian state via UN” (Politico staff) May 22, 2011, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55429.html

“President Obama, in a far-ranging interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr, made it clear that he couldn’t and wouldn’t back the efforts of Palestinians to get ‘formal recognition of statehood’ from the United Nations. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55429.html

Ahead of Barack Obama's state visit, Andrew Marr [talked] to the president in an exclusive interview inside the White House. They discussed the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Arab Spring and the killing of Bin Laden; plus the Queen, the monarchy and the royal wedding.  Broadcast on BBC One, May 22, 2011; available until Sunday May 29, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011kn34/The_Andrew_Marr_Show_22_05_2011/

“Obama: US support for Israel ‘ironclad’ — U.S. president rejects Palestinian moves to seek statehood through United Nations in speech to American pro-Israel lobby,” May 22, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/05/201152214281951998.html

“Israel approves nearly 300 settlements,” May 22, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181178.html

“The young will never forget, and will one day return (Merna Alazzeh, The Electronic Intifada May 19, 2011, http://electronicintifada.net/content/young-will-never-forget-and-will-one-day-return/9989

Merna Alazzeh is a Palestinian human rights activist, community and international development professional living in London. Alazzeh holds academic credentials in human rights from the London School of Economics

“Obama: Doomed to disappoint  — In his speech on the Middle East, the U.S. president failed to break the chains of the status quo and set a new path” (John J. Mearsheimer) May 21, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/2011521165854325150.html

John J. Mearsheimer is R.Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and author of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.

“Israel and Palestine: Obama’s flawed approach — U.S. president’s speech showed a lack of will and capacity to pressure Israel into striking compromise with Palestinians” (Richard Falk), May 21, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201152191452474596.html

Richard Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Research Professor in Global and International Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He has authored and edited numerous publications spanning a period of five decades. His most recent book is Achieving Human Rights (2009). Falk is currently serving his fourth year of a six-year term as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.

“Yemen’s Saleh refuses to sign exit deal  — Mediator leaves empty-handed as president says opposition must be present if he is to sign power transition deal,” May 22, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/201152216373928689.html

“Gunmen attack Pakistani naval base  — Four reported dead and Pakistani special forces deployed following assault on key military facility in Karachi,” May 22, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/05/201152218582675282.html

“Wave of bombings strike across Iraq — More than a dozen blasts across mostly Shia areas in Baghdad target government and police, leaving at least 16 dead,” May 22, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/05/20115227927371346.html

“Two US soldiers killed in Iraq,” May 22, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/181236.html

“Libya crowd attacks bus carrying foreign journalists,” May 22, 2011, http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE74L05M20110522

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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]

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Evidence doubts “Official 9/11”

Questioned by Truth

“We ourselves must embody
societal changes we wish to see”
— 9/11 Truth —

International relations scholar Richard Falk is among Truth movement’s persistent questioners. His article [excerpted] appeared in mid January in Foreign Policy Journal. A related interview aired January 26 on KPFA’s “Guns and Butter” program.
Excerpting, minor editing by Carolyn Bennett


“…We should know that governments [abuse] their authority to treat awkward knowledge as a matter of state secrets and criminalize those brave enough to believe the citizenry needs to know the crimes their government is committing with their trust and their tax dollars.”


However, “We tend to process information against the background of our general worldview and understanding. We do this all the time as an efficient way of coping with the complexity of the world combined with our lack of time or inclination to reach conclusions by independent investigation. The problem arises when we confuse this means of interpreting our experience with an effort to provide an explanation of a contested public event….”


Veil raises doubt


“What fuels suspicions of conspiracy is the reluctance to address awkward gaps and contradictions in the official explanations …”


More distressing perhaps than “the apparent cover up is the eerie silence of the mainstream media — unwilling to acknowledge well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events: an al Qaeda operation with no foreknowledge by government officials.


“Is this silence a manifestation of fear or cooption, or part of an equally disturbing filter of self-censorship? Whatever it is, the result is the withering away of a participatory citizenry and the erosion of legitimate constitutional government. The forms persist, but the content is missing.…


Progressing forward
WE LEARN

“If we want to be responsible in our assessments, we must restrain our political predispositions, and get the evidence.


“Let us remember that what seems most disturbing about the 9/11 controversy is the widespread aversion by government and media to the evidence that suggests, at the very least, the need for an independent investigation that proceeds with no holds barred.


“Such an investigation would contrast with the official ‘9/11 Commission’ that proceeded with most holds barred. …


“What must we learn from all of this?

Don’t connect dots without evidence.
Don’t turn away as soon as the words ‘conspiracy theory’ are uttered, especially if the evidence does point away from what the power-wielders want us to believe.
Don’t link individual wrongdoing, however horrific, to wider religious and ethnic identities.

We will perish as a species if we do not learn soon to live together better on our beautiful, globalizing, and imperiled planet.

Sources and notes
“Interrogating the Arizona Killings from a Safe Distance” ( Richard Falk), January 13, 2011,
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2011/01/13/interrogating-the-arizona-killings-from-a-safe-distance/?wpmp_switcher=mobile&wpmp_tp=1

Richard Falk is an international law and international relations scholar who taught at Princeton University for forty years. Since 2002, Falk has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies. Since 2005, he has chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Also: ‘Cognitive Infiltration’ Guns and Butter program [producer/host Bonnie Faulkner] with Tod Fletcher January 26, 2011, focused on David Ray Griffin’s newest book Cognitive Infiltration (a deconstruction and debunking of Obama appointee, Cass Sunstein's, paper ‘Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures’. Sunstein proposes a new government COINTELPRO type infiltration of groups that research and promote ideas and explanations that run contrary to U.S. government narratives, most specifically about the events of September 11 [9/11/2001), http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/67100


911Truth.org:

Educating about 9/11
“As the leading portal of the September 11 [2001] research community and truth movement, 911Truth.org and its staff members have accumulated vast practical experience in investigation and in campaigns for education, visibility, media, lobbying, street action and litigation.

Leading Political Transformation
We understand that September 11 was an international disaster that sparked a negative global transformation, and that control of its interpretation partly determines how one views the world.

911Truth.org looks not to create a new conspiracy industry, but to achieve full disclosure of hidden realities that affect all of our lives, that we may finally be sovereign as a democratic people. We work to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Commitment to more civil, effective collaboration in the 9/11 Truth Movement

Because we still lack subpoena and discovery powers, members of the 9/11 truth movement and American citizens as a whole will not be able to fully connect the ‘dots’ of 9/11 events until key classified documents and videos are leaked or released.

In the meantime, many of us will develop theories about those events and what really occurred. Given the incompleteness of the facts at hand, our theories will invariably differ. They therefore can and should be sincerely discussed and analyzed, but this debate must not obscure the reality that the investigative tasks we face still remain extremely challenging.

We believe our campaign to expose the truth of 9/11 offers the world more essential insights into current political and economic reality than any other modern movement and therefore can empower the most profound social transformation of our age.

This work is far too important to debilitate with egotism, zealotry or self-inflicted wounds, and we must make every effort to sustain the unprecedented progress we have made.

Because the 9/11 truth movement presents grave moral, legal and political threats to those in power, we would be naive to not anticipate covert governmental intervention in our activities and attempts to divide, disrupt and discredit us by promoting hateful or repellant theories and sowing internal discord. Indeed, the greatest risk these forces pose to our work is not espionage or disinformation; it is the provocation of destructive mistrust between authentic activists.

We … therefore commit ourselves to work together towards our greater goals with the least possible rancor and internal strife. We agree to reject ad hominem denunciations and attacks upon others’ motives, and focus our critical attention upon the logic, factual evidence and probability supporting certain hypotheses instead.

“Our ultimate goal must be the full disclosure of 9/11 truth, which is disserved by factional warfare on behalf of partial points of view.

“We will strive to fill in the gaps of the evidentiary record, so that facts dictate our conclusions rather than conjecture or emotional charges and appeals.

“Finally, since we ourselves must embody the societal changes we wish to see, we vow to continue our work with fierce devotion, but also with mutual respect, selflessness and above all, honesty. http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20061014120445472



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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]
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