Criminal Intel Exchange Conspiracy in Violence: torture legitimized

APT report: Beware Gift of Poison Fruit, Information sharing with States that torture

Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett

In the post-2001 years, there has been a well-documented expansion of cooperation between intelligence and security agencies. In the endless ‘war on terror’, agencies have justified a huge amount of information sharing and use of information in circumstances where individuals likely have obtained the information by torture.

Agencies have shared information with international partners in circumstances that have led to torture of people held overseas.

The Association for the Prevention of torture has released its latest report on the subject. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the APT is a leading organization in the field of preventing torture and other ill treatment and offers its expertise and advice to international organizations, governments, human rights institutions and other actors. The nonprofit has played a key role in establishing international and regional standards and mechanisms to prevent torture, among them the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture. These are edited excerpts from its “Beware the Gift of Poison Fruit: Sharing information with States that torture” report.

“‘Information’ or ‘intelligence’ is used by a variety of executive actors for a number of purposes. It may be used to establish a basis for criminal investigation, justify administrative detention, influence immigration decisions or sanctions, drive government policy, or direct military or intelligence actions overseas. The variety of uses for information or intelligence leads to some serious questions about the reliability of the underlying information, and the manner in which it is collected, shared and used.

“Over the last ten years in the aggressive war against terrorism, intelligence and security agencies have been under extreme pressure to obtain answers and information. As a result, if they received the information they needed from foreign agencies, there has been a tendency not to raise concerns or delve too deeply into the source or its reliability. Inevitably, such practices led to some of the tragic abuses that have been widely reported. …”

 

Rights of Human Beings as Human Being Breached

“The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) has documented several cases of torture in Europe as part of their ’10 years after 9/11 publication series’.

“They note that Murat Kurnaz, Mohammed Zammer, and Khaled El Masri were all tortured by or at the behest of American (U.S.) agents and that German agencies obtained information during interviews by the German Federal Intelligence Service, the BND, with each of the men; in each case, information was collected, received and shared between the BND and American agents. A parliamentary commission of inquiry established to investigate Germany’s secret cooperation with the USA and other states in countering international terrorism in 2006 was unable to conclude to what extent information passed by the German BND was responsible for the treatment of the men.” The inquiry “did (however) consider that the intelligence shared was not checked for reliability prior to its transfer, and that information shared with the United States led directly to the arrest of at least one of the men, Khaled El Masri.

‘El Masri’s case is one of the best documented extraordinary renditions by the CIA to date. In 2012, the European Court of Human Rights determined El Masri had been tortured and that Macedonia was responsible both for abusing him while in their custody and for the abuse he received in Afghanistan at the hands of the Americans.’

Despite abuses and errors, “The war on terror continues to serve as a justification for the indiscriminate exchange of large amounts of highly sensitive information; and those providing the information have no overview of who it is that receives the information and to what uses or misuses this information is put.”

Right of Human beings to unbiased rule of law Breached

“Torture,” the APT report continues, “is an abhorrent practice and absolutely prohibited.” International treaties, customary international law, and constitutional guarantees of almost every State prohibit torture. “Yet despite its blatant illegality, torture continues to be practiced in States around the world.

“In the years since the terrorist attacks in 2001, intelligence cooperation between States has expanded significantly. Police, security and intelligence agencies ( viz., executive agencies) in several States have demonstrated a willingness to rely on information obtained through torture, and have shared information that later was used to abuse detainees overseas. Such cooperation, particularly among States that systematically use torture, leaves executive agencies and their agents vulnerable to allegations of complicity. In some cases, executive agencies have appeared actively to participate in torture, in ways that extend beyond complicity into direct perpetration of the abuse. …”

Crime disguised as crime stopper

Torture-tainted information perpetuating torture

“Using the fruits of torture encourages it, and gives torture an ill-deserved credibility. Accepting, using, and placing value on such intelligence ‘legitimizes’ the torture used for its collection. It is hypocritical of States to condemn torture committed by others while accepting its products.…By encouraging torture, agencies create a market where States that torture are rewarded for their trade.

“Torture-tainted information is inherently unreliable. Pain and suffering caused to victims destroys their will, causing them to say anything to end the pain.… Using torture-tainted information which has a high risk of unreliability is contrary to the interests of police, security and intelligence agencies, who require accurate information in order to operate effectively.”

Tainted Intel

Counterproductive conspiracy in crime 

Waste: “Torture necessarily generates false positives, as interrogators only accept information they want to hear. Based on unreliable information obtained by torture, investigations are diverted and more information is sought, again repeating the cycle of torture. Such tactics wastes time and diverts attention from proper investigations and real threats.”

Immorality/criminality: Torture, use of torture-tainted information and perpetuation of torture are immoral and illegal acts. “In all stages of the intelligence cycle, ethical questions must be carefully balanced against the national requirements of intelligence, security, and police services.… Torture is an international crime, punishable in any State; and where action by an executive agent constitutes torture, either by direct perpetration or some form of complicity, every State has a duty to prosecute the crime.”

  

Prohibition absolute: Principles enforced, Breaches prosecuted

“The absolute prohibition against torture ‘entails a continuum of obligations – not to torture, not to acquiesce in torture, and not to validate the results of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment’.…”

“State actors who commit violations of the UN Convention against Torture, or in the absence of treaty ratification, violate the comparable customary standards, commit an internationally wrongful act resulting in State responsibility. As well as direct commission of internationally wrongful acts, the Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts adopted by the International Law Commission (ILC) provide for forms of commission by complicity.

The Draft Articles, which were intended to codify existing customary rules, additionally require that no State should provide aid or assistance to an internationally wrongful act (articles 16–18) and should not recognize as lawful a situation created by a serious breach and to cooperate to bring the breach to an end (articles 40–41).  

In supplementing the absolute prohibition provided in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, various treaties, and in customary international law, articles 1 and 4 of the UNCAT (the UN Convention against Torture) provide that a breach of the obligation is possible both by direct participation and complicity.

APT’s report concludes

“Where there are serious breaches, gross or systematic violations of peremptory norms of international law, such as the prohibition against torture, the special regime of rules described in Draft Article 41 comes into effect. Breaches of such rules immediately attach additional consequences, not only for the responsible State, but also for all other States. 

“All States must cooperate to end the breach and not recognize it as lawful, nor render aid or assistance to maintain the situation.”

Sources and notes

“Beware The Gift Of Poison Fruit: Sharing information with States that torture” Report, http://www.apt.ch/content/files_res/beware-the-gift-of-poison-fruit-en.pdf

The report author and publisher the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) holds to a vision of a world free from torture, a world where respect of all people’s rights and dignity is the norm.

Founded in 1977 by Swiss banker and lawyer Jean-Jacques Gautier, the APT is Geneva-based independent non-governmental organization that works throughout the world in preventing torture and other ill-treatment. The Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT) is a leading organization in the field of preventing torture and other ill treatment and offers its expertise and advice to international organizations, governments, human rights institutions and other actors. The APT has played a key role in establishing international and regional standards and mechanisms to prevent torture, among them the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Torture. Report Copyright © 2012, Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT). All rights reserved. Materials contained in this publication may be freely quoted or reprinted, provided credit is given to the source. Requests for permission to reproduce or translate the publication should be addressed to the APT. ISBN 978-2-940337-65-1

Also

“Experts consider the use of torture-tainted information,” November 21, 2013, http://www.apt.ch/en/news_on_prevention/experts-consider-the-use-of-torture-tainted-information/#.Uv3g9V7zTyA

On November 4, the APT hosted an experts meeting with the Special Rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez and other distinguished experts from a variety of disciplines. They considered legal standards and practical challenges in the use of torture-tainted information; a potential gap in the absolute prohibition on torture – how executive agencies collect, use and share information obtained by torture; and whether further guidance would be appropriate.

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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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Tormentors of Muslims must face indictment, impartial jury in open court

 Horrors at U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison

Excerpt, editing, commentary by Carolyn Bennett

“[U]sing sexual humiliation in order to undermine Muslim ‘enemies’ serves different purposes depending on the circumstance. The sad reality is that this is not something new to the Muslim world. The current rape of Muslim women in Syria, the mass rapes in Bosnia, and other degrading treatment meted out over the years of repression and conflict in the Muslim world has seen the use of sexual violence and humiliation as being a cornerstone in the method of subjugating Muslim communities. (e.g., Ahmed Abou El-Maati in Syria, MoazzamBegg in Afghanistan made to believe that their fiancé and wife were being violently abused in the rooms next to them exposes the deepest fears that Muslims have: that it is not just them but their families who will suffer the most depraved degradation). 

Sexual humiliation has become a part of the instruments of the ‘War on Terror’, by preying on our sensitivities as Muslims, the U.S. decided to play an extremely deadly game, one in which the horror of their actions will only serve to alienate and disaffect Muslims worldwide. The honor and dignity of Muslims is considered inviolable yet this very concept has been attacked through the policies that have been practiced by the United States. This continued humiliation will only last so long, for as the Arab Spring has shown us all, there is only so much that the people can take.” [Writer: Asim Qureshi]

From Qureshi’s “Sexual Humiliation of Muslims in the ‘War on Terror’”

Sex in Islam is a matter that carries with it a great deal of modesty and shame [and] – the ban on extramarital relations is clear and unequivocal.

[Sex] is considered a private matter between husband and wife, whether in monogamous or polygamous relationship. … According to the shari’ah (Islamic law), covering oneself to maintain a minimum level of dignity, even when alone, is recommended. …

T

he culture and practices of other peoples may not be what is publicly known of Americans’ culture or practices or what they claim to be their “culture” and preferences, but that does not mean that the culture of other peoples is either wrong or inferior; and it certainly does not mean that it should be used to torment people with different cultural or religious beliefs or practices. The wrong in this situation is not one who embodies a particular cultural trait but those who use it to inflict unspeakable harm. Whose is the perverted behavior, at least in my view, is unambiguous.

U.S.-Guantanamo doubly abuses Muslims

Illegally abducts and detains them (denying due process of any law)

Kills with impunity

Uses their culture to torment them

In “The Sexual Humiliation of Muslims in the ‘War on Terror,’” Asim Qureshi reports (and re-reports), “The ‘Tipton Three’ (ShafiqRasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed) were among the first to detail the forms of sexual humiliation being suffered by detainees in Guantanamo. ShafiqRasul described a cavity search that was conducted on him soon after his arrival in Guantanamo as being, ‘both painful and humiliating.’”

On April 4, 2012, “the Zelikow torture memo (previously thought to have been destroyed) was released. [It] effectively confirmed that years after criticism of the way in which torture had been systematically used against detainees — enforced nudity is still considered an acceptable practice in interrogations:

‘The control conditions, such as nudity, sleep deprivation, and liquid diet, may also be sustain[ed], depending on the circumstances and details of how these techniques are used.’

T

hese practices are not only perversions that only terribly sick minds would endorse, practice, employ or order but they are unconscionable breaches of the human dignity and rights of human beings as human beings.  Only a beast would do this, but then a beast, a wild animal, would not; and if a leader or sundry animal rights activists got wind of such acts being perpetrated on animals, there’d be no end to their “righteous” outrage.  

The report continues

“In their statement, the men highlighted the case of one of the Algerians, one of whom was treated to a particularly horrific incident:  

 

‘We were told by one Algerian (not one of the Bosnian Algerians) that he had been taken to interrogation and been forced to stand naked. He also told us he had been forced to watch a video supposedly showing two detainees dressed in orange, one sodomizing the other and was told that it would happen to him if he didn’t cooperate.’

America’s Ivy League implicated in unconscionable perversion

“The notion that Arabs are particularly vulnerable to sexual humiliation became a talking point among pro-war Washington conservatives in the months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. One book frequently cited was the 1973 The Arab Mind, a study of Arab culture and psychology” written by Columbia University and Princeton University professor in cultural anthropology, Raphael Patai.

Referencing reporter Seymour Hersh, Qureshi writes that an academic told Hersh, “The Patai book … was the ‘bible’ of the neocons on Arab behavior.” In their discussions, he said, two themes emerged – ‘one, that Arabs only understand force; and, two, that the biggest weakness of Arabs is shame and humiliation.’

“The government consultant said that there might have been a serious goal, in the beginning, behind the sexual humiliation and the posed photographs.…  ‘I was told that the purpose of the photographs was to create an army of informants, people you could insert back into the population.’ The idea was that they would be motivated by fear of exposure and [would] gather information about pending insurgency action…. [However] If so, it wasn’t effective. The insurgency continued to grow.’” 

Former interrogator U.S. Army Sgt. Erick R Saar referenced

A female interrogator fails in the use of sexual perversion to get what she wants from a prisoner so she leaves the room and consults “a Muslim linguist,” asking “how she could break the prisoner’s reliance on God”. The “linguist” tells her “to tell the detainee that she [is] menstruating, touch him; then make sure to turn off the water in his cell so that he cannot wash.”

Strict interpretation of Islamic law forbids physical contact with women other than one’s wife or family; and forbids contact with any menstruating women — ‘who are considered unclean’.

The interrogator smears ink from a red pen on her hands to fool the detainee, the reports continues Saar’s account. She returns to the interrogation room and starts “to place her hands in her pants” as she walks behind the detainee. She moves around the detainee and he can see that she is taking her hand out of her pants. He then sees what appears to be “red blood on her hand” and she returns to her earlier interrogatory, “‘Who sent you to Arizona?’” The man glares at her “with a piercing look of hatred.” The female interrogator then wipes “the red ink on his face”  causing the man to shout “at the top of his lungs.” He spits at her and “lunges forward — so fiercely that he breaks loose from an ankle shackle.” The prisoner reportedly then cries “like a baby” as the interrogator leaves the room lobbing a final cruelty: “‘Have a fun night in your cell without any water to clean yourself.’”

Asim Qureshi concludes noting the U.S. government’s denial of this incident; but, he writes, “the reporting of the incident by Saar matches perfectly an incident that was described by Juma al-Dossary (another prisoner) who was eventually released to Saudi Arabia.”

Qureshi says, “Sexual humiliation has become part of the instruments of the ‘War on Terror’, by preying on our sensitivities as Muslims. The U.S. decided to play an extremely deadly game, one in which the horror of their actions will only serve to alienate and disaffect Muslims worldwide.

The honor and dignity of Muslims is considered to be inviolable, but it is this very concept that has been attacked through the policies that have been practiced by the U.S.

This continued humiliation will only last so long, for as the Arab Spring has shown us all, there is only so much that the people can take.

 

W

hen moral conscience fails to constrain, what societal mechanism serves redress, to right the wrong?  Given the state of affairs Qureshi describes, who is more deserving of a horse whipping?

Of course, we Americans don’t horse whip, do we? Horse whipping went out with barbarisms in the eras of slavery, lynching and the Wild, Wild West. But those who have endorsed, ordered, performed barbarous acts on prisoners must be brought to defend themselves before an independent court of law. If citizens of the world fail to indict and publicly judge offenders at the highest levels of governments, related organizations, and industry, the deterioration of human rights and rule of law will become total. There will be no more universal rights and law; society itself, global and domestic, will break down entirely. I don’t know about you but I don’t want this ever to happen.  

Sources and notes

“The sexual humiliation of Muslims in the War on Terror” written by Asim Qureshi, http://www.cageuk.org/article/sexual-humiliation-muslims-war-terror

See also

http://ccrjustice.org/files/report_tiptonThree.pdf

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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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A young life cut short, a protest remembrance

Aaron Swartz2008
Wikipedia image

Who was Aaron Swartz?

 Notes edited, end comment by Carolyn Bennett

The eldest son of Susan and Robert Swartz, the latter founder of the software firm Mark Williams Company, Chicago-native Aaron Swartz was a high school dropout and an American computer programmer, writer, political organizer and Internet activist who in 2013 was found dead in his Brooklyn, New York, apartment, having “hanged himself.”

Swartz contributed to the development of the web feed format RSS, the organization Creative Commons, the website framework web.py, and the social news site, Reddit, in which he became a partner after its merger with his company, Infogami. He then “focused on sociology, civic awareness, and activism”: founded Watchdog.net, “‘the good government site with teeth,’ to aggregate and visualize data about politicians”, and wrote Open Access Guerilla Manifesto (2008); helped launch Progressive Change Campaign Committee “to learn more about effective online activism” (2009); conducted research studies on political corruption (academic year 2010-2011 at Harvard University).

Aaron Swartz2012Wikipedia image

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) police on January 6, 2011, arrested Swartz. The charge was “state breaking-and-entering” for having “systematically download[ed] academic journal articles from JSTOR” (pronounced jay-stor, short for Journal Storage, a digital library founded in 1995). “Federal prosecutors later charged him with 2 counts of wire fraud and 11 violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.” These charges carried cumulative penalties of “$1 million in fines, 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution and supervised release.” In 2013, two days after the prosecution denied his counsel’s “second offer of a plea bargain, Aaron Swartz was found dead in his Brooklyn, New York, apartment, where he had hanged himself.”

T

he vast majority of people could live a thousand years and never come close to the accomplishments of this young man. A brilliant life cut short: Aaron Hillel Swartz, November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013). Murderers commit high crimes, retain their high offices, and get off scot-free. How sad.

Sources and notes

Wikipedia biographical notes on Aaron Swartz, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSTOR

Today “The Day We Fight Back”: broad coalition of activist groups, companies, and online platforms hold a worldwide day of activism in opposition to the NSA’s mass spying regime; in remembrance of activist, technologist Aaron Swartz; protest “in his honor, in celebration of victory over the Stop Online Piracy Act he helped spur” https://thedaywefightback.org/press/

https://thedaywefightback.org/?r=ca
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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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Women U.S. diplomats exemplify worst male aggression, arrogance, extremism

Dangerous to domestic, international relations

Editing and comment by 

Carolyn Bennett

Author and journalist Finian Cunningham asks, “What is it about America’s women diplomats?” And concludes that women diplomats “seem so hard and cloned — bereft of any humanity or intelligence. … [F]ar from displaying female independence, they are pathetic copies of the worst traits in American male politicians — aggressive, arrogant and completely arrant in their views.” Cunningham’s principal examples in his Sunday article are the clearly unqualified U.S. Department of State officials Victoria Nuland and Wendy Sherman.

Social worker turned senior officer at State

U.S. Department of State Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Ruth Sherman holds the third highest-ranking position in the U.S. Department of State. Her experiential credits include working as a social worker, director of EMILY’s list (acronym for “Early Money Is Like Yeast”,   a political action committee that helps elect pro-choice Democratic Party female candidates to office), director of the State of Maryland’s office of child welfare, and founding president of the Fannie Mae Foundation. The William Jefferson Clinton government employed her as Counselor of the United States Department of State and Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State and North Korea Policy Coordinator. Well beyond her qualifications, she was, under Clinton, “instrumental in negotiations related to North Korea’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs.” She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in sociology and urban studies, and social work from Boston and Maryland universities.

Vicious appointee turned senior officer at State

U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Jane Nuland (original family name Nudelman), a Wikipedia article recalls,  has been “one of the key figures … accused by various sources of initiating a cover up of the 2012 Benghazi (Libya) attack.

After reading the first draft of the State Department talking points that stated that the incident was a coordinated terrorist attack, she [Nuland] sent a message writing that they ‘could be abused by members of Congress to beat the State Department for not paying attention to agency warnings so why would we want to seed the Hill.’

After [Nuland’s] memo, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice was given talking points that formed the basis of her statements on [media programs] This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Meet the Press, State of the Union with Candy Crowley, and Fox News Sunday.

More recently, Victoria Jane Nuland was exposed making an “obscene reference to the European Union.” In a January 28, 2014, telephone conversation with the United States Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, broadcast February 6, 2014, on YouTube her “obscene reference to the European Union” and her belittling of heads of state and the United Nations “caused a diplomatic scandal.”

Appointed by three administrations, Nuland was a Foreign Service Officer, chief of staff to the Clinton government’s deputy secretary of state, then deputy director for former Soviet Union affairs. She was the George W. Bush/Richard Cheney government’s principal deputy foreign policy adviser then U.S. ambassador to NATO; then the Barack Obama government’s special envoy for Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, State Department spokesperson then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. Nuland holds a Brown University undergraduate degree.

“In her previous posting as a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department,” Cunningham continued, “Nuland had the demeanor of a robotic matron with a swivel eye. Now in her new role of covertly rallying anti-government protesters in Ukraine, Nuland has emerged to sound like a bubblegum-chewing Mafia doll.” As to Sherman, he wrote, she “is another flinty-eyed female specimen of the American political class, who, like Nuland, seems to have a block of ice for a heart and a frozen Popsicle for a brain.” These women “illustrate the cold-hearted logic at work in American robotic politics: it’s a system programmed for imperialism and war, and it doesn’t matter whether the officials are Democratic, Republican, male or female; they are all clones of a war criminal state.”

Perhaps such women officials — “in the goldfish-bowl environment of Washington politics…” where “the uniform monopoly of America’s political class is dictated by militarism (weapons manufacturers, oil companies and Zionist lobbyists) … — are to be even more feared,” Cunningham concludes. “The only way to ‘succeed’ in this cesspool is to be even more aggressive and imperialist than your peers.”

Ignorance, incompetence, vulnerability

Incompetence means, as the English put it, you are not “fit for purpose.” You are not up to the job to which someone has appointed you or voters have elected you. Ignorance is either a state of genuine unknowing, you cannot help yourself; or it is arrogantly willful, you know you don’t know and just do not care, qualifications don’t count with you and your class. In any case, ignorance and incompetence together with a character lacking in moral and human sensibility weaken person and position leaving both at the mercy of pernicious manipulative forces. In high level, influential positions — whether in government or in religious, NGO, non/not-for profit industries, or private corporations — they are terribly dangerous to their country and to the world. These women (I agree with Cunningham) — together with the whole of government in federal Washington — stand exposed before the world.

I am a feminist. I believe women are and must be different and that their difference is imperative to constructive change in domestic and international affairs. In their own right, women should hold positions in whatever area, whatever position they choose. I also believe women should be clearly qualified in every way to hold those positions so that they are not vulnerable to and dangerously at the mercy of nor put others at the mercy of entrenched pernicious forces.  

Sources and notes

“Washington's cloned female warmongers” by Finian Cunningham, February 9, 2014,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/02/09/349910/washingtons-cloned-female-warmongers/

Finian Cunningham

East Africa-based author, journalist, columnist on international politics for Press TV and the Strategic Culture Foundation Finian Cunningham “is writing a book on Bahrain and the Arab Spring, based on eyewitness experience working in the Persian Gulf as an editor of a business magazine and subsequently as a freelance news correspondent.”  He was “deported from Bahrain in June 2011” where he had been reporting on “systematic human rights violations by regime forces.” Native of Belfast, Ireland and former editor and writer for news outlets such as The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent, Finian Cunningham has also credits as a musician.

Nuland and Sherman biographical notes from Wikipedia

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

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

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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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Arresting thoughts worth pondering: Walsh, Lantier’s U.S. sinister “Imperialist ‘Left’”

Wolves in sheep’s clothing

Excerpts, minor edit by 

Carolyn Bennett

U.S. domestic imperialist “Left”

“For more than twenty years,” WSWS editor David Walsh writes, “one wave after another of former radicals and liberals has signed up for Western intervention in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, Haiti, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Libya, Syria and elsewhere to forestall ‘genocide,’ avert ‘mass atrocities,’ block the use of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ or ‘chemical weapons,’ stop the spread of ‘Islamo-fascism,’ bring ‘democracy’ and ‘stability’ to various global flashpoints, and so forth.

“These social forces, whose task is to confuse and benumb the population with arguments that falsely make use of ‘left’ terminology and phrases, have become prominent mouthpieces for imperialist policy.…”

However,  Walsh concludes, “genuine political health and wisdom begin in the U.S. and internationally … by separating and demarcating oneself as firmly and distinctly as possible from the phony ‘human rights’ campaigners, the feminist moralizers, and the pro-imperialist ‘left.’”

U.S. international imperialist “Left”

WSWS writer Alex Lantier commenting on a recent “‘Open letter on the future of Ukraine’ issued by a group of Western academics and foreign policy operatives” calls it “a vile defense of the ongoing far-right protests in Ukraine supported by Washington and the European Union (EU).”  This letter, he says, “peddles the old lie, repeated over nearly a quarter century of imperialist wars and interventions in Eastern Europe since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991: that U.S. and EU policy is driven only by a disinterested love of democracy and human rights.”

Some of the signers of this open letter “are top diplomats or ‘non-governmental’ imperialist operatives … [but most] are academics and intellectuals who are lending their names to give credibility to far-right reaction in Ukraine, through a foul combination of learned ignorance and historic blindness.…

“After decades of intellectual war on Marxism in universities and the media,” Lantier concludes, “cultural life is in a disastrous state … and these layers [of Western academics and foreign policy operatives] are left unmoved by imperialist crimes — the destruction of Fallujah during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the drone murder campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, their pens spring into action when EU politicians excite their moral glands by denouncing regimes targeted for imperialist intervention. They can be led by the nose, even behind fascists, with a few empty invocations of human rights.”

Sources and notes

“In latest ‘human rights’ crusade, NY Times’ Kristof promotes allegations against Woody Allen” by David Walsh, February 5, 2014, http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/05/alle-f05.html

“Ukraine and the Pro-Imperialist Intellectuals” by Alex Lantier, Global Research, February 5, 2014, World Socialist Web Site [Region: Europe, Russia and FSU], http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraine-and-the-pro-imperialist-intellectuals/5367496

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/05/pers-f05.html

Alex Lantier writes regularly for the World Socialist Web Site and his articles have appeared in a variety of other news sources online, including Global Research (Ca.), Countercurrents and Axis of Logic.

Writer and journalist David Walsh is arts editor of the World Socialist Web Site and writes about film, the arts, politics and history.  http://www.indiewire.com/critic/david_walsh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Walsh_(writer)

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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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CELAC declares peace culture: friendly relations, respect for self-determination, sovereignty, human rights, international law

CELAC Proclamation

Excerpt, end brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

Proclamation of Latin America and Caribbean as a zone of peace (Original signed by the Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), Wednesday January 29, 2014

“…Cognizant also of the catastrophic global and long-term humanitarian impact of the use of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and the ongoing discussions on this issue … Declare[d] (eight points):

Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace based on respect for the principles and rules of International Law, including the international instruments to which Member States are a party to, the Principles and Purposes of the United Nations Charter;

Our permanent commitment to solve disputes through peaceful means with the aim of uprooting forever threat or use of force in our region;

The commitment of the States of the region with their strict obligation not to intervene, directly or indirectly, in the internal affairs of any other State and observe the principles of national sovereignty, equal rights and self-determination of peoples;

The commitment of the peoples of Latin American and Caribbean to foster cooperation and friendly relations among themselves and with other nations irrespective of differences in their political, economic, and social systems or development levels; to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors;

The commitment of the Latin American and Caribbean  States to fully respect for the inalienable right of every State to choose its political, economic, social, and cultural  system, as essential conditions to ensure peaceful coexistence among nations;

The promotion in the region of a culture of peace based, inter alia, on the principles of the United Nations Declaration on a Culture of Peace;

The commitment of the States in the region to guide themselves by this Declaration in their International behavior;

The commitment of the States of the region to continue promoting nuclear disarmament as a priority objective and to contribute with general and complete disarmament, to foster the strengthening of confidence  among nations;

“We urge all Member States of the International Community to fully respect this Declaration in their relations with CELAC Member States in witness of the undersigned having duly signed this Proclamation in Havana, on the 29th day of the month of January of 2014, in a copy written in the Spanish, English, French and Portuguese languages.”

HEAR! HEAR!  

Well done.

Sources and notes

Zone of Peace declared

Summit: Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) gathered in Havana, Cuba, on January 28 and 29, 2014 at the Second Summit, on behalf of their peoples and faithfully interpreting their hopes and aspirations … signed declaration, http://celac.cubaminrex.cu/en/articles/proclamation-latin-america-and-caribbean-zone-peace-original-signed-heads-state-and-governm

 

T

he Community of Latin American and Caribbean States is a regional group of Latin American and Caribbean states which rose out of the February 23, 2010 Rio Group–Caribbean Community Unity Summit and was established on December 3, 2011, in Caracas, Venezuela, with the signature “The Declaration of Caracas.” CELAC consists of 33 sovereign countries in the Americas representing roughly 600 million people.

CELAC Member States: 33 countries speaking five different languages: 

Eighteen Spanish-speaking countries (56 percent of the area/63 percent of the population)
Argentina
Bolivia	Chile
Colombia	Costa Rica
Cuba	Dominican Republic
Ecuador	El Salvador
Guatemala	Honduras
Mexico	Nicaragua
Panama	Paraguay
Peru	Uruguay
Venezuela
One Portuguese-speaking country (42 percent of the area/34 percent of the population)	Brazil
	One French-speaking country (0.1 percent of the area/1.6 percent of the population)
	Haiti
Twelve English-speaking countries (1.3 percent of the area/1.1 percent of the population)
Antigua and Barbuda	Bahamas
Barbados	Dominica
Belize	Guyana
Grenada	Saint Lucia
Jamaica	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Trinidad and Tobago
One Dutch-speaking country (0.8 percent of the area/0.1 percent of the population)	Suriname
	Twelve countries are in South America: 87 percent of the area/68 percent of the population.

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

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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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