Bennis, Avnery discuss historical context, credibility, talking with perceived enemies

United States, Western countries must cease decade’s old-style relations with Middle East

Editing, brief commentary by Carolyn Bennett

U.S. journalist, activist, and political commentator Phyllis Bennis is Director of New Internationalism at the Institute for Policy Studies.  The New Internationalism project “works to challenge U.S. domination of the UN and to help democratize and empower the global organization,” according to its website. It works primarily on Middle East and United Nations issues with key areas of interest including U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Instrumentally, the NI project focuses on “education and activism to change the failed and failing U.S. policies and retool those policies to meet the goals of peace with justice” [http://www.ips-dc.org/projects/new-internationalism/]

Today in light of the U.S. Executive Government’s resumption of overt violent aggression in Iraq and again cloaking unprovoked violence in “humanitarianism” and false mandate to protect, Phyllis Bennis talked with Democracy Now.

Phyllis Bennis

Killing them as they feed them

“The notion that there is going to be the need for airstrikes to protect the few dozen U.S. diplomats and a couple of hundred military people in Erbil,” Phyllis Bennis said, “is widely understood as a legal feint (a ruse, trick, maneuver, hoax, hoodwink)  away from the reality.”

In making such a statement, the U.S. Executive undertakes a military operation without the consent of the co-equal U.S. legislative branch of government. In this amped up aggression against a sovereign nation, the U.S. president ignores the expressed view of the American people at large and the constitutional responsibility of public officials who are supposed to represent the American people at large.

The U.S. president has also in this move to return to war against the people of Iraq bypassed the 192 nations comprising the United Nations. Before this latest move by the U.S. president, Bennis said, the United Nations “had offered the Iraqi government technical help to carry out real humanitarian airlifts to the people stuck on the Sinjar Mountain.”

Echoes of sinister priors

The U.S. act of pretending to help people, dropping food packages while killing them, has a sinister history, she said.  This last time this occurred was November 2001 in Afghanistan; Afghan refugees were fleeing the U.S. bombing of the cities. And U.S. operatives, military personnel simultaneously dropped food packs (Meals Ready to Eat or MREs) “wrapped in strong, bright yellow plastic” as they were also dropping “cluster bombs that also happened to be made with bright yellow plastic of exactly the same color.” Bennis said “no one knows how many children, in particular, were killed running to what they thought were food packages that turned out to be cluster bombs.”

Whose life Humanitarian hoax exposed

Afghanistan

Common denominator massacre: As the White House reenters violent aggression against the Iraqi people, the U.S. arms Israel in massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.

The U.S. president’s language, “that there are innocent people facing violations on a massive scale,” Phyllis Bennis said, “describes the situation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and yet, rather than providing humanitarian aid [to the people of Gaza] and demanding that Israel open the gates of Gaza, that it open the border crossings, the United States instead is sending more weapons and more money to buy more weapons and more ammunition for those Israeli attacks.”

Deliberate Compounding: crises created by war are worsened by more war. Crises created by U.S. violence are worsened by more U.S. violence. This is not only immoral and insensible, it is criminal, unconscionably so.   

Back in Iraq, the situation on the ground, the misery perpetrated endlessly against the people – the 2003 war never ended -- was created, manufactured, exacerbated by one after another U.S. official in high office and their partners in crime.

The Islamic State (IS) also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) the U.S. claims to be protecting whomever from, Bennis said, “is a small operation of somewhere around 10,000 fighters … well armed with U.S.-supplied equipment that they have picked up all over Iraq.” 

Part of the reason the group seems so strong, she said, “is that they are backed by military support from former generals, former strategists, former leaders of the Baathist army in Iraq who lost their jobs, lost their positions, in many cases lost their ability to protect their families at the time of the 2003 U.S. invasion; and have been sort of waiting for an opportunity to challenge the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad.” What now exists in Iraq, Bennis concludes, is “an ugly kind of sectarianism that was put in place by the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003” -- all of which “can be traced back to that [invasion].”

Must Talk cannot be ignored

“I was a member of a terrorist organization when I was 15 years old,” Uri Avnery explained on Democracy Now today.  “I believe,” he said that “I understand the psychology of young people who join organizations which are called terrorists by their enemies, but which themselves think of themselves as freedom fighters.

“Hamas thinks it’s fighting for the freedom of Palestine. They are deeply convinced of this, and therefore they are fighting. And everybody must admit that they are fighting very well, because what you have here during the last month is a guerrilla organization of [roughly] … 10,000 fighters, fighting against one of four biggest and strongest armies in the world.

“It’s not an even fight yet they are standing there—they are still standing there after more than a month.…”

Palestine

Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement Uri Avnery was born in Beckum, Germany, as Helmut Ostermann of a German Jewish family that in 1933, after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, emigrated to “Mandatory Palestine”. Thirty-two years later, he created a political party called HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash, and in the 1965 Israeli election won a seat in the Knesset. In late 1975, Avnery was among the founders of the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. After the 1977 election, he served in the legislature as a member of the Left Camp of Israel. He was also involved with the Progressive List for Peace, “a left-wing political party in Israel formed from an alliance of both Arab and Jewish left-wing activists.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Avnery]

On Democracy Now today, Uri Avneri reflected that the situation today between Hamas and Israel is similar to the situation with Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization

Uri Avnery

Before his death on November 11, 2004, Yasser Arafat, who had spent his lifetime fighting for Palestinian self-determination, was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), and leader of the Fatah political party and former paramilitary group, which he founded in 1959.  Background reports on the decade’s long crisis in Palestine show one of the most severe PLO cross-border raids extending to March 11, 1978, when a force of nearly a dozen Fatah fighters landed their boats near a major coastal road connecting the city of Haifa with Tel Aviv-Yafo. There they hijacked a bus and sprayed gunfire inside and at passing vehicles. Thirty-seven civilians died. Israeli Defense Forces then launched Operation Litani aimed at taking control of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. On June 6, 1982, the Lebanon war began when Israel again invaded this country for the purpose of attacking the Palestine Liberation Organization. An estimated 1,000 to 8,000 civilians died and the Israeli army laid siege to Beirut. In 1985 Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat narrowly survived an Israeli assassination attempt when Israeli Air Force F-15s participating in “Operation Wooden Leg” bombed his headquarters in Tunisia. Seventy-three people died. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli%E2%80%93Lebanese_conflict; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat]

“One of the basic problems at this moment,” Uri Avnery said, “is that Israelis and Hamas do not talk to each other.” Currently Egypt siding with Israel against Hamas is also “appearing as a negotiator, as a mediator, an honest broker," which is as "ridiculous [as] the American mediation was ridiculous. America is a very, very, very close ally of Israel,” Avnery noted. The U.S. president “repeats like a parrot the most basic Israeli propaganda, and so does [the U.S. Secretary of State]. So we don’t have somebody who can mediate and who’s being trusted by both sides.

Hamas went to the recent ceasefire negotiations in Cairo “full of apprehension, full of distrust towards Egypt.”

For eight years the people of Gaza have been suffering under a blockade, meaning that “all the borders are closed, including the sea border and you cannot get in anything except by the permission of Israel; and you cannot get anything out at all. There is no export from the Gaza area.… The Palestinians, Hamas cannot and will not agree to a real ceasefire, a long-lasting ceasefire, if there is a blockade on the Gaza Strip. This is a basic, local problem.”

Hamas cannot be ignored, Avnery said. People abroad and in Israel have completely distorted what Hamas is. But Hamas is neither “militia” nor “military organization.” It is “a Palestinian political party which, in the last Palestinian elections, supervised by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter,” won by a majority vote: “Majority of the Palestinian people, including the Gaza Strip, voted for Hamas.”

But “when a Palestinian government was set up by Hamas, it was destroyed by Israel and the United States and Europe. It was brought down. It was then that Hamas took over power in the Gaza Strip by force, but it took power after it won a big majority in free elections in the Gaza Strip. So it’s much more complicated than just a fight between Israel and a military or terrorist or whatever-you-want-to-call-it organization.”

The simple solution Avnery sees to ending the suffering and violence is conversation. He said, “When people are firing on each other and trying to kill each other—indeed, killing each other—the best solution is that they start to talk with each other.

If the Israelis and the Palestinians would sit together opposite each other at one table and thresh out their real problems, trying to understand, be able to understand each other, the whole thing would look very differently.

Indicating that he has spoken many times with many Hamas leaders and found them to be people with whom he does not necessarily agree but with whom he can talk, he says, 

You cannot wish Hamas away. You can do to Hamas whatever you want. You can kill all the 10,000 fighters of Hamas but Hamas will remain because Hamas is an ideology and Hamas is a political party accepted by the Palestinian people. In the end, he said, “after all the killing and after all this terrible destruction…, we will have to talk with Hamas.

Sources and notes

“As U.S. Airstrikes in Iraq Begin, Will Military Intervention Escalate Growing Crisis? August 8, 2014, http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/8/as_us_air_strikes_in_iraq

“Uri Avnery on Gaza Crisis, His Time in a Zionist "Terrorist" Group & Becoming a Peace Activist,” August 8, 2014, http://www.democracynow.org/2014/8/8/uri_avnery_on_gaza_crisis_his

Sinjar Mountain also Shengar/Shengal Mountains: a single ridge of mountains inhabited by Yazidis located in Nineveh Governorate in northwestern Iraq. It is situated near a city of the same name (Sinjar). Reportedly in August 2014, “an estimated 40,000 Yazidis fled to the mountains” after attacks on the city of Sinjar “by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinjar_Mountains]

Yazidi is a religious sect found primarily in the districts of Mosul, Iraq; Diyarbakır, Tur.; Aleppo, Syria; Armenia and the Caucasus region; and in parts of Iran; the religion is reportedly a fusion or combination “of Zoroastrian, Manichaean, Jewish, Nestorian Christian, and Islāmic elements.” [Britannica]

Also Wikipedia and Institute for Policy Studies   

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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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U.S. Pres junkets as East/West descends into Cold War 2

Syrian opposition to
 U.S. interference

Leader-impersonators throw away years: Result: regression

Editing, re-reporting, commentary by Carolyn Bennett

The Reagan and post-Reagan years failed to seize a gaping opportunity begging for the founding of a more progressive era. Officials particularly in Washington wasted critical years, choosing instead an ever-expanding siege of violence: global, perpetual wars.

Today's news

 

Further destabilizing Middle East

Provocation USA on Jordan/Syria border 

Though Washington and Amman have imposed a news blackout on U.S. deployment of troops on Jordanian soil, news sources are reporting that more than “1,000 U.S. troops arrived in the Jordanian port of Aqaba via Israel earlier in the week”; and “under heavy Jordanian military escort,” these troops (members of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Force)… have headed toward the kingdom’s (Jordan’s) border area with Syria.”

U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced in April that Washington was sending 200 military troops to Jordan “to help contain the violence in Syria,” increasing speculation among international media that the United States “is setting the stage for intervention” in another Middle Eastern country.

Russia echoes Cold War

For the purpose of shoring up the nation’s security, Russian officials said this week that their country has deployed a permanent naval unit ─ 16 warships and three ship-based helicopters to the Mediterranean Sea region. Russian president Vladimir Putin while denying mere “saber-rattling” noted that the Mediterranean Sea is “‘a strategically important region” and his nation has “tasks to carry out” in the region “to provide for the national security of the Russian Federation.”

Russia’s revitalization of its military power was also indicated in an earlier announcement that the country intends “to resume patrols by nuclear-armed submarines in the southern seas.”

Cold War 2 ─  The first nuclear-powered Russian Borei-class submarine was put into service in January and five months later an anonymous source on the Russian General Staff tells the Itar-Tass news agency that “Moscow is planning to deploy submarines equipped with nuclear ballistic missiles to southern international waters for the first time since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.”

Expanding, Deepening Conflict spells Regression

The continuing U.S. aggression against and destabilization of the Middle East region is at odds not only with the needs of the inhabitants of this region but with concerns of Eastern Europe and South/Central Asia and the Middle East.

Kofi Annan
Peace Envoy, Mediator
Former UN Secretary-General

Despite proposals time and again calling for relations of inclusion of all affected nations and proposals for nonviolence, political resolution of conflict, peaceful negotiation and conversation, U.S. officials have as many times obstructed these attempts ─ this includes relatively recently the attempts by UN envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan. U.S. officials one after another have effectively destroyed the unity, principles and conventions of “United Nations” and continued a foreign relations policy in violence: arrogance and condescension, belligerence, invasion and occupation.

Jordanians protest
44th U.S. President Barack Obama

Jordanian official’s dissent

On the U.S. ratcheting up of violence on the Jordan/Syrian border, Jordan’s opposition party, the Islamic Action Front, has denounced the presence of American troops in the kingdom and asked the government to review its decision to authorize the deployment of foreign troops on Jordan’s soil.

Russian official’s dissent and reprimand

Leading into the Geneva 2 conference on Syria tentatively scheduled for July, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, Jennifer Psaki, reportedly claimed that participants in a preparatory meeting  ─ the trilateral meeting held on Wednesday with the participation of UN-Arab League Special Representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and representatives from Russia and the United States ─ had agreed that the Geneva conference should focus on overthrow and replacement of Syria’s head of state: “the forthcoming talks on Syria should focus on the formation of a transitional government to which the current administration should give up all powers.”

Speaking to the press the following day (yesterday), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov essentially said the U.S. official was lying or, more kindly, had misrepresented what had occurred in the preparatory meeting. “If this was really said by the U.S. State Department,” Lavrov said, “it is a very strong distortion of what the talks were about.”

Also contrary to U.S. and other Western obstructionism and arrogance, Lavrov reemphasized Moscow’s “push for Iran’s participation in the upcoming Geneva conference.

UN official’s dissent

 

Though the preparatory meeting failed to set a firm date for the Geneva meeting and U.S. officials have again been stalling on peaceful resolution to the conflict, the UN-Arab League Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, expressed hope that the Geneva conference will convene in July.

Mairead Corrigan Maguire

Northern Irish peace activist

Co-founder of Peace People 

(Community of the Peace People)

Assessment and a way forward

A corrupt, distracted and inept national leadership in Washington over the past several years (Reagan onward) has given up the chance to change the ethos and character of U.S. foreign relations. The world is neither the enemy of World War II victor-states nor the enemy of the Cold War West nor should the West be afraid or paranoid about leaders or factions of the East and South. A flawed sameness has gone on for far too long and, for all its technological gadgetry (or because of it), the West has entered a sharp descent into regress (Is this the intent of the “take back America-ites” or sundry nationalists and “Patriots” or the “occupiers”?).

I think nations of the West and particularly my country (land that I love) should: 

Start accepting leaders and nations, without judging or lecturing them

Start engaging leaders and factions nonviolently, respectfully, as equals

Instead of ridiculing, lecturing, condescending to and disparaging difference, seek understanding directly from the rich varieties of cultures and peoples of which we are pathetically lacking, dangerously ignorant, and stupidly dismissive.

Sources and notes

“U.S. Marines deployed along Jordan border with Syria: Report” (Press TV latest update), June 7, 2013 2:5PM GMT, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/307672.html

“Russia deploys permanent naval unit to Mediterranean Sea,” June 7, 2013 8:22AM GMT,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/307620.html

“Russia slams U.S. for distorting results of trilateral talks on Syria,” June 7, 2013 5:38AM GMT, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/307605.html

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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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GSRBO — Presidentially certifiable

Center for Responsive Politics
image

Lethal mixture of insanity, ignorance, prone to violence

Re-reporting, editing, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

We can do better than this staged “leadership”

Madison was right: “Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”  Knowledge — not threats and drones. Critical judgment, independent thought — far from the herd, moneyed politics and partisanship, celebrity and fan worship, messianic mentality.

Without it, we are screwed — as in what goes for “leadership” in the United States of America today. This cast is not only antagonistic to U.S. public interests but it is the Number One enemy of global well being. Glaring examples are to be found in the U.S. presidential candidates declaring war on countries, increased destabilization in the Middle East, and assassination of foreign nationals.

U.S. presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on the record

“… [T]here are a number of ways to be smart about Iran and there are also a few ways to be dumb, and the administration has skipped all the ways to be smart.…

“First of all, maximum covert operations to block and disrupt the Iranian program, including taking out their scientists, including breaking up their systems, all of it covertly, all of it deniable.

“Second, maximum coordination with the Israelis in a way which allows them to maximize their impact in Iran.

“Third, absolute strategic program comparable to what President Reagan, Pope John Paul II and a Margaret Thatcher did to the Soviet Union of every possible aspect short of war of breaking the regime and bringing it down.”

Daniel Larison comments on Gingrich

“Many Republicans flatter Gingrich by treating him as one of the party’s intellectuals, but Gingrich frequently shows that he is unable or unwilling to make crucial distinctions in his treatment of international problems.

“He complains on his campaign website that ‘we currently view Iraq, Afghanistan, and the many other danger spots of the globe as if they are isolated, independent situations,’ and that America ‘lacks a unified grand strategy for defeating radical Islamism.’

“However, these conflicts are largely separate from one another, and there is no such thing as a monolithic, global, radical Islamism that can be addressed by one strategy. No conflicts around the world can be properly understood except by focusing on local circumstances, but for Gingrich, the ideological emphasis on a unified global threat takes priority over proper analysis.

  

“There is every reason to expect that U.S. foreign policy under a President Gingrich would become even more militarized and confrontational, and America’s relations with much of the world would deteriorate quickly.

U.S. presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s quest to murder scientists

“On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead … I think that's a wonderful thing, candidly.…

“I think we should send a very clear message that if you are scientist[s] from Russia or North Korea or from Iran, and you are going to work on a nuclear program to develop a nuclear bomb for Iran, you are not safe.”

In addition to his quest for murder and the U.S. presidency, he was a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and on occasion has “declared that life was a civil right” not extended apparently to “scientists in other counties.”

American Iranian Eleanor Ommani comments on candidates’ Iran “cover”

Ommani said she was appalled by “American political figures’ talk against all international laws and the U.S. Constitution [which any student knows] “do not advocate assassination, killing scientists, breaking down the regime …”

However, she suggested that both major U. S. political parties and candidates are using Iran as a cover. The reasons being, “To boost their own career and at the same time strengthen U.S. capitalism, U.S. imperialism, which has been dealt a blow by Washington failures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and changes in Egypt and Tunisia, and the fight going on in Yemen.

“It is truly regional uprising of the oppressed people,” she said, “of poor people against the very wealthy people; and the center of wealth exists in the United States, in my country.”  

Former U.S. Senator and former presidential candidate Mike Gravel also responded to the rhetoric of murder.

“I can't tell you how dangerous this kind of rhetoric is in the United States,” Gravel said, “and how the American people have been hoodwinked by these people and by U.S. mainstream media organizations that give credibility to these statements, which have no credibility.

“They’re immoral. They’re dishonest. They’re wrong, internationally. I just can’t give you enough reaction to the stupidity of Newt Gingrich, the irresponsibility of Mitt Romney, and the insanity in the others in articulating this.”

For the past five, six to eight years, the American government has been doing this …  Congress has been appropriating money on average about $200 million a year to bring about regime change in Iran. … Now we see this [latest] incident with the drone that was over Iranian territory.”

“Iran is doing nothing illegal. The intelligence community has repeatedly said that Iran is not pursuing any weaponization program. Yet the president has said it twice — once he said that they [Iranians] are not pursuing, and then on another occasion he said that they are.”

Even if weaponization were a fact in Iran, Gravel said, “In this insanity of our global situation,” to acquire such use, “is for self defense. Morally, international law dictates that any country is entitled to pursue its self defense.”

However, “to go out and advocate war when we’ve just been through ten years of it … and for these people to be considered as presidential candidates in the United States, [this is] really a sad reflection on the state of our government.

“… As an American, I am deeply ashamed of the ridiculous nature of these charges,” Gravel said. “The kindest thing I can say about [the candidates] is that they are morally bankrupt and somewhat insane.”

SOMEWHAT?

Again, Madison, “Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty but also by the abuse of power. …

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

I believe the progressive must take the best from the past — not entrench or merely reference leaders such as Lincoln or Roosevelt (FDR or ER), Eisenhower, Kennedy or King; but intelligently, critically, consciously (with conscience and care) push constructively forward, beyond ideas and actions and leadership which might have, to the best of our knowledge, seemed to contain the best.

Sources and notes

James Madison (1751-1836) was the fourth President of the United States (1809-1813).

 “Newt Gingrich Advocates Assassinating Iranian Scientists as Drum Beat for War Continues at GOP Debate,” posted November 12, 2011, at http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/newt-gingrich-advocates-assassinating-iran

“Newt Gingrich’s dangerous, self-aggrandizing foreign policy” (Daniel Larison The Week), http://news.yahoo.com/newt-gingrichs-dangerous-self-aggrandizing-foreign-policy-104800717.html

“Santorum: Dead Foreign Scientists a ‘Wonderful Thing,’ posted October 27, 2011, at http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/santorum-dead-foreign-scientists-wonderful-t

“U.S. Gingrich says kill Iranian scientists — U.S. presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich has openly called for sabotaging Iran’s nuclear program through terrorism and assassinating Iranian scientists as part of Washington’s policy,” November 14, 2011,

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/210013.html

Press TV has conducted an interview with Co-founder of American-Iranian Friendship Committee Eleanor Ommani.

“‘Insane’ U.S. politicians to wage more wars — Republican presidential hopefuls Newt Gingrich  and Rick Santorum U.S. Republican presidential candidates have renewed calls for covert operations including acts of sabotage, assassination and aid to terrorist groups against Iran”  [Press TV interview], December 8, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/214513.html

More related news context, update

Bachmann, Obama

U.S. Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann reveals plans to close the U.S. embassy in Iran though the U.S. has had no embassy there since 1980.  The candidate reportedly told a crowd in Waverly, Iowa, “‘That’s exactly what I would do [if I were president]. … We wouldn’t have an embassy in Iran. I wouldn’t allow that to be there.’”

The sitting president apparently “slipped up when “denouncing the storming of an ‘English’ embassy in Tehran, which is actually ‘British.’”

“Oops! Presidential hopeful plans to close U.S. embassy in Iran,” December 1, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/213227.html

“Speaking at a Wednesday gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington D.C, former House speaker and leading Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said he would resort to ‘covert capability’ to bring about ‘regime replacement’ in Iran. ‘They only have one very, very large refinery. I would be focused on how to covertly sabotage it every day’ [AFP quoted him as saying].

“Last month, Gingrich proposed that Washington kill Iranian scientists to disrupt the country’s atomic energy program. At the Wednesday gathering, former senator Rick Santorum redoubled the call for assassination of Iranian scientists. ‘We need to say very clearly that we will be conducting covert activity to do everything we can to stop their nuclear program.’

“The other Republican presidential hopeful, Mitt Romney, called on Washington to even openly help seditionists in Iran. ‘We should also have covert and overt activities to encourage voices of dissent within the country. Ultimately regime change is what's going to be necessary in that setting.’

“On November 12, during a debate among a number of Republican presidential hopefuls, calls ranging from executing covert operations such as terrorism and assassinations to launching a military strike on Iran to subvert Tehran’s nuclear program were made.

“The calls for assassinations and terrorist acts directed at Iran are not idle threats as a number of Iranian scientists have been assassinated over the past few years, including Professor Majid Shahriari and Professor Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, who were both killed in 2010.

“On Nov. 4, 2011, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, announced that Tehran had irrefutable evidence proving that the U.S. government was involved in anti-Iran conspiracies and dispatched elements to carry out acts of sabotage and terrorism in Iran and other regional countries.

“The United States, Israel, and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used the false charge as a pretext to push for the imposition of sanctions on the country.

“Iran argues that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

“Iranian officials have promised a crushing response to any military strike against the country, warning that such a measure could spark a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.” [ASH/GHN/MA], Press TV transcript of news report

“GOPers call for covert ops on Iran,” December 8, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/214448.html

MIKE GRAVEL

A former U.S. presidential candidate (2008) Maurice Robert ‘Mike’ Gravel (b. May 13, 1930)   is a former U.S. Senator (1969-1981) from Alaska most prominently known for his release of the Pentagon Papers, the secret official study that revealed the lies and manipulations of successive U.S. administrations that misled the country into the Vietnam War. After the New York Times published portions of the leaked study, the Nixon administration moved to block any further publication of information and to punish any newspaper publisher who revealed the contents.

From the floor of the senate, Gravel (a junior senator at the time) insisted that his constituents had a right to know the truth behind the war and proceeded to read 4,100 pages of the 7,000-page document into the senate record. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Senator Gravel did not have the right and responsibility to share official documents with his constituents.

He then published The Senator Gravel Edition, The Pentagon Papers, Beacon Press (1971). This publication resulted in litigation, Gravel v. U.S., resulting in a landmark Supreme Court decision (No. 71-1017-1026) relative to the Speech and Debate Clause (Article 1, Section 6) of the United States Constitution.

.

Mike Gravel is said to be “a passionate advocate of direct democracy and the National Initiative” and ran for the presidency on these ideas in the 2007-08 campaign/election season.

Gravel served in the Alaska House of Representatives (1963-66), and as Speaker (1965-66). He then represented Alaska in the U.S. Senate (1969-81) where he served on the Finance, Interior, and Environmental and Public Works committees, chairing the Energy, Water Resources, Buildings and Grounds, and Environmental Pollution subcommittees.

In 1971, Gravel waged a successful one-man filibuster for five months that forced the Nixon administration to cut a deal, effectively ending the draft in the United States.

Senator Gravel served in the U.S. Army (1951-54) and as special adjutant in the Communication Intelligence Services and as a Special Agent in the Counter Intelligence Corps. His academic credentials are in economics (B.S., Columbia University); and in law and public affairs (four honorary degrees). Mike Gravel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to French Canadian immigrants.

He was founder and president of The Democracy Foundation, Philadelphia II, and Direct Democracy, nonprofit corporations dedicated to the establishment of direct democracy in the United States, through the enactment of the National Initiative for Democracy by American voters.  Senator Gravel is author of Jobs and More Jobs, and Citizen Power. He lectures and writes about governance, foreign affairs, economics, Social Security, tax reform, energy, environmental issues and democracy. http://www.mikegravel.us/bio

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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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Callous disregard for life, law — Rumsfeld re-released

There is an entrenched pathology, a raw callousness acted out repeatedly in U.S. governance that an indifferent, a tribal sect/sexuality/race/partisan-centered populace tolerates and in its tolerance endorses. 

Excerpts, editing, re-reporting, comment by Carolyn Bennett

CONSEQUENCES OF ENTRENCHMENT

U.S. President Gerald Ford (right) with
Donald Rumsfeld Oval Office of  White House,
February 6, 1975

As U.S. Defense Secretary, he said he had a “high tolerance” for other people’s pain and death — and demonstrated this in repeated acts and orders of lawlessness — and for forty years, not unlike leaders of Arab countries, this man was given high positions in U.S. business, government, and academic institutions.

Document 20 – Working Paper, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Working Paper, ‘Discussions w/CENTCOM re: Sy Hersh Article,’ October 22, 2001, 1:19 p.m., Secret, 2 pp.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (center)
U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Robert Finn
U.S. Embassy compound
Kabul, Afghanistan  April 27, 2002

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was talking about drone missiles. He was recorded saying, “‘I have a high tolerance level for possible error. That is to say, if he [U.S. Central Command Thomas (Tommy) Franks] thinks he has a valid target and he can’t get me or he can’t get Wolfowitz in time, he should hit it.… I expect him to be leaning far forward on this.’”

“The paper … contradicts previous instructions that aerial attacks should be precise and limited in Afghanistan.”

America’s own 

RUMSFELD

Politician and business owner Donald Henry Rumsfeld (b. 1932) was U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 in the Gerald R. Ford administration and Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 in the George W. Bush administration.

Chronology of influence

In the Richard Nixon administration, Rumsfeld was Director of the United States Office of Economic Opportunity, assistant and counselor to the President, Director of the Economic Stabilization Program (member of the Cabinet) 1969-1970

In 1973, Rumsfeld was U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium, and the United States’ Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council and the Defense Planning Committee, and the Nuclear Planning Group (representing the United States in wide-ranging military and diplomatic matters).

In 1974-1975, Rumsfeld was Gerald R. Ford’s White House Chief of Staff and later U.S. Secretary of Defense (George H. W. Bush became Director of Central Intelligence).

Business — Government/Business revolving door

From 1977 to 1985, Rumsfeld was Chief Executive Officer, President, and then Chairman of G. D. Searle and Company, a worldwide pharmaceutical company based in Skokie, Illinois.

From 1990 to 1993, he was a ‘foreign policy consultant’ to the U.S. State Department

From January 1997 until being sworn in as Secretary of Defense in January 2001, Rumsfeld was Chairman of Gilead Sciences, Inc. [Gilead Sciences is the developer of Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), used in the treatment of bird flu].

Reagan Administration (1982–1983) Special Envoy on the Law of the Sea Treaty; (1982–1986) member of President’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control; (1983–1984) Special Envoy to the Middle East

On his visit to Baghdad on December 19–December 20, 1983, Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein had a 90-minute discussion during which “they largely agreed on opposing Syria’s occupation of Lebanon; preventing Syrian and Iranian expansion; preventing arms sales to Iran.

“Rumsfeld suggested that if U.S.-Iraq relations could improve the U.S. might support a new oil pipeline across Jordan, which Iraq had opposed but was now willing to reconsider. In that visit, Rumsfeld brought many gifts, including pistols, medieval spiked hammers and a pair of golden cowboy spurs, from the Reagan administration to Saddam Hussein …

During his brief bid for the 1988 Republican nomination, Rumsfeld said that restoring full relations with Iraq was one of his best achievements.

Ten years later, (January 29, 1998), he signed a Project for the New American Century (he was a founder and active member PNAC) letter calling for President Clinton “to implement ‘regime change’ in Iraq.”

(1989–2005) Chairman Emeritus, Defense Contractor, Carlyle Group;

(1990–2001) Board of Directors (member) ABB Ltd

Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, operating mainly in the power and automation technology areas, ABB is one of the largest engineering companies and one of the largest conglomerates in the world with operations in around 100 countries with approximately 130,000 employees, reported global revenue (2010) $31.6 billion, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABB_Ltd.

In 2000, ABB sold two light-water nuclear reactors to KEDO for installation in North Korea, as part of the 1994 agreed framework reached under the Clinton administration.

Rumsfeld’s office said the Rumsfeld then Secretary of Defense “did not ‘recall [the sale] being brought before the board at any time’ but ABB representative Björn Edlund told Fortune that ‘board members were informed about this project.’”

(2000) Chairman of the U.S. Commission to Assess National Security Space Management and Organization

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
President George W. Bush  

In 2001, Rumsfeld was named Defense Secretary in the George W. Bush administration

In the earliest stages of the September 11 attacks, despite the lack of evidence, Rumsfeld was looking to tie Saddam Hussein and Iraq to these attacks.

In April 2006, a Rumsfeld memo listed instructions to Pentagon staff including:

Keep elevating the threat ... Talk about Somalia, the Philippines etc.

Make the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld “was deliberate in crafting the public message from the Department of Defense.

“People will ‘rally’ to the word ‘sacrifice,’ Rumsfeld noted after a meeting.

“‘They are looking for leadership. Sacrifice = Victory.’

“In May 2004, Rumsfeld considered whether to redefine the war on terrorism as a fight against ‘worldwide insurgency.’

“He advised aides ‘to test what the results could be’ if the war on terrorism were renamed.

“Rumsfeld ordered [and reviewed] specific public Pentagon attacks on and responses to U.S. newspaper columns that reported the negative aspects of the war

“Rumsfeld defended the George W. Bush administration’s decision to detain ‘enemy combatants’ without protection under the Third Geneva Convention.”

November 2006, former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, who was in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison until early 2004, told Spain’s El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld that allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.

The methods consisted of making prisoners stand for long periods, sleep deprivation ... playing music at full volume, [and more]...

Rumsfeld authorized these specific techniques.

She said that this was contrary to the Geneva Convention and quoted from the document: ‘Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind.’

According to Karpinski, the handwritten signature was above his printed name and, in the same handwriting in the margin, was written, ‘Make sure this is accomplished.’

Pentagon headquarters U.S. Department of Defense
Arlington county, Virginia

December 18, 2006, Donald Vance filed suit against the U.S. government and former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld on grounds that he was tortured and his rights of habeas corpus were violated.

To criticisms of the U.S. military’s failure, after its 2003 invasion, to protect Iraq’s historical artifacts and treasures located at the museum and other cultural institutions, Rumsfeld is quoted saying, ‘Stuff happens ... and it’s untidy and freedom’s untidy, and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things.…’

In early 2006, eight retired U.S. generals took the unprecedented step of calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation on the grounds of ‘abysmal’ military planning and lack of strategic competence. The Bush government in early November announced Rumsfeld’s resignation as U.S. Defense Secretary.

A year later, Rumsfeld received a one-year appointment as a “Distinguished Visiting Fellow” at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

Recently released documents showing the lawlessness of the man

“Document 18 – Memorandum and Attached Paper: Office of the Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld to Douglas Feith, ‘Strategy,’ Attachment, ‘U.S. Strategy in Afghanistan,’ National Security Council, October 16, 2001, 7:42 a.m., Secret/Close Hold/ Draft for Discussion, 7 pp. [Excised], http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB358a/index.htm#16

The U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld five weeks after the events of September 11, 2001: “Operationally the U.S. will ‘use any and all Afghan tribes and factions to eliminate Al-Qaida and Taliban personnel [while inserting] CIA teams and special forces in country operational detachments (A teams) by any means, both in the North and the South. … Third country special forces UK [excised] Australia, New Zealand, etc., should be inserted as soon as possible.’

“Diplomacy is important ‘bilaterally, particularly with Pakistan, but also with Iran and Russia [however] engaging UN diplomacy… beyond intent and general outline could interfere with U.S. military operations and inhibit coalition freedom of action.’”

U.S. General Tommy Franks (left)
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
2002

Breathing contempt, violence to rule the world

Document 13 – Memorandum for the President , The Office of the Secretary of Defense, Memorandum for the President, "Strategic Thoughts," September 30, 2001, Top Secret/Close Hold, 2 pp. [Excised], http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB358a/index.htm#16

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld advises President George W. Bush: “Instead of focusing exclusively on al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the U.S. should think more broadly —  

 
‘It would instead be surprising and impressive if we built our forces up patiently, took some early action outside of Afghanistan, perhaps in multiple locations, and began not exclusively or primarily with military strikes but with equip-and-train activities with local opposition forces coupled with humanitarian aid and intense information operations.’

 “The memo argues that the U.S. should ‘capitalize on our strong suit, which is not finding a few hundred terrorists in the caves of Afghanistan [but using] the vastness of our military and humanitarian resources, which can strengthen enormously the opposition forces in terrorist-supporting states.’ The approach to the war should not focus ‘too heavily on direct, aerial attacks on things and people.’

U.S. Geopolitics
Asia-Middle East-Horn of Africa
Britannica image

“‘If the war does not significantly change the world’s political map, the U.S. will not achieve its aim.

“‘There is value in being clear on the order of magnitude of the necessary change. The USG [U.S. Government] should envision a goal along these lines: New regimes in Afghanistan and another key State (or two) that supports terrorism (To strengthen political and military efforts to change policies elsewhere).’”

Press TV reports today on newly released U.S. documents concerning the roots of the United States’ global war: “The U.S. in Afghanistan was the beginning of a broader plan devised by the Bush neo-conservatives administration for the Middle East region.

“The Bush administration used the 9/11 attacks as the pretext to launch new wars of aggression. On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush declared the so-called ‘war on terror’” and on October 7, 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan “with the stated mission of removing the Taliban and capturing al-Qaeda elements.

“In March 2003, the U.S. expanded the reach of its ‘war on terror’ by invading Iraq. The U.S. claimed that Saddam Hussein had links to al-Qaeda and was in possession of massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.” Various independent investigations later discredited both allegations.  

“Ten years on, the U.S. is [said to be] seeking to lure the Taliban to the negotiating table.”

Today the United States, its entrenched politicians and policies of destruction are being protested in demonstrations across the Middle East, Southwest/Central Asia and within the United States of America.

Sources and notes

The Project for the New American Century is “a neo-conservative think-tank dedicated to maintaining U.S. Primacy.”

Rumsfeld profile from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumsfeld

“Secret U.S. Message to Mullah Omar: ‘Every Pillar of the Taliban Regime Will Be Destroyed’

New Documents Detail America's Strategic Response to 9/11, Bush White House, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB358a/index.htm

Document notes from George University the National Security Archive, http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/index.html

GWU Photo captions http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB358a/index.htm

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (center) and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Robert Finn, given a tour of the U.S. Embassy compound in Kabul, Afghanistan on April 27, 2002. OSD Package No. A07D-00238 (DOD Photo by Robert D. Ward)

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and President George W. Bush  (Source: Department of Defense)

Britannica captions

President Gerald Ford (right) meeting with Donald Rumsfeld in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, D.C., February 6, 1975 [Marion S. Trikosko/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital. id. ppmsca.08465)]

General Tommy Franks (left), commander in chief of Central Command, with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 2002 [Robert D. Ward—U.S. Department of Defense]

The Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, Arlington county, Virginia

America’s own

WOLFOWITZ

A leading neoconservative (Republican and former Democrat), Paul Dundes Wolfowitz was Deputy Secretary of Defense in the George W. Bush administration, a ‘major architect of this president’s Iraq policy “and ... its most hawkish advocate.”

Chronology of Wolfowitz influence

After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Wolfowitz and his then-assistant Scooter Libby wrote the Wolfowitz Doctrine to ‘set the nation’s direction for the next century.’ At that time, the official administration line was ‘containment.’ The contents of Wolfowitz’s plan called for ‘preemption’ and ‘unilateralism.’

In 1992, Defense Secretary Richard Cheney produced a revised plan which included many of the Wolfowitz Doctrine ideas, later part of the Bush Doctrine.

In 1977, Wolfowitz was U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Regional Programs for the U.S. Defense Department, under U.S. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown in the Jimmy Carter administration

In 1982, Wolfowitz was Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz

From 1986 to 1989, Wolfowitz was the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia during the military-backed Suharto government

From 1989 to 1993, Wolfowitz was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy under then-U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in George H.W. Bush administration

From 2001 to 2005, during the George W. Bush administration, Wolfowitz was U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense reporting to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

In 2005, Wolfowitz was nominated by U.S. President George W. Bush (and confirmed by Congress) to be president of the World Bank

As a Visiting Scholar of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Wolfowitz has blogged with the AEI and appeared in group events. He writes columns that appear in publications such as The Independent, 

The Sunday Times, and Newsweek.

Wolfowitz is a former steering committee member of the Bilderberg group. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz#Undersecretary_of_Defense_for_Policy

Bilderberg group —

The original conference was held at the Hotel de Bilderberg, near Arnhem in the Netherlands, from May 29 to May 31 1954; initiated by several people, including Polish politician Józef Retinger, concerned about the growth of anti-Americanism in Western Europe.

The original Bilderberg group proposed an international conference at which leaders from European countries and the United States would be brought together with the aim of promoting ‘Atlanticism’ – better understanding between the cultures of the United States and Western Europe to foster cooperation on political, economic, and defense issues.

The role of the Bilderberg meetings in the flow of events since its founding in 1954 is a matter of debate among scholars and journalists such as G. William Domhoff and Caroline Moorehead.

“In his 1980 essay The Bilderberg and the West, researcher Peter Thompson argues that the Bilderberg group is a meeting ground for top executives from the world’s leading multinational corporations and top national political figures to consider jointly the immediate and long-term problems facing the West. According to Thompson, Bilderberg itself is not an executive agency.

“However, when Bilderberg participants reach a form of consensus about what is to be done, they have at their disposal powerful transnational and national instruments for bringing about what it is they want to come to pass.

“That their consensus design is not always achieved is a reflection of the strength of competing resisting forces outside the capitalist ruling class and within it.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group

“[DOCUMENT] Bush’s premeditated ‘regime-change’ policy revealed,” October 5, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/202742.html

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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]; 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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