Cover Photo from “Revolution’ by Russell Brand ColdType Issue 91 / December 2014

3. Russell brand’s call for revolution David Edwards 12. the mystery of my arrest Roy McGovern 17. Redefining ‘imminent’ Brian terrell 21. better dead than different George monbiot 23. after cheney Michael S. Rozoff 27. hurwitt’s eye mark hurwitt 28. too many prying eyes bill buchanan 30. propaganda, pride, art and nostalgia nate robert 36. the syrian labyrinth conn m. Hallinan 39. a world of fantasy eric walberg 42. the history of blowback in one sentence william rivers pitt 45. bendib’s world Khalil bendib 45. the forgotten coup john pilger 47. the fix is in carol osler 49. eight reasons to oppose Obama’s latest war Alan maass & eric ruder 54. america’s secret police john w. Whitehead 58. march of a million masks various photographers 62. the imperative of revolt chris hedges 67. canada’s heart of darkness jim miles 70. turning gaza into a super-max prison jonathan cook 72. exceptionalism rules philip giraldi 75. ebola’s link with reaganomics? michael I. Niman 77. an electronic ‘silent spring’ Katie singer 81. Russia invades Ukraine. Again and again william blum 87. this is what democracy looks like’ jeff nygaard

Editor: Tony Sutton – [email protected]

2 ColdType | December 2014 Cover Story Russell Brand’s ColdType call for revolution David Edwards discusses comedian Russell Brand’s call for revolution and the British media’s hysterical reaction

Part 1 terview or the New Statesman guest issue. Brand was The Fun Bus It is clear that an unprepared Brand was speaking out largely winging it with Paxman. In response with a level n October 23, 2013, Russell Brand to the predictable question of what politi- of passionate appeared to crash through the fil- cal alternative he was proposing, Brand re- sincerity and ter system protecting the public plied: conviction that from dissident opinion. ‘Well, I’ve not invented it yet, Jeremy. are just not O seen in today’s His 10-minute interview with Jeremy I had to do a magazine last week. I had a Paxman on the BBC’s Newsnight pro- lot on my plate. But here’s the thing it manufactured, gramme not only attracted millions of shouldn’t do. Shouldn’t destroy the planet. conformist, viewers – the YouTube hit-counter stands Shouldn’t create massive economic dispari- marketing-led at 10.6 million – it won considerable praise ty. Shouldn’t ignore the needs of the people. media and support from corporate journalists on The burden of proof is on the people with Twitter. Brand was arguing for ‘revolution’ the power, not people doing a magazine.’ and yet was flavour of the month, cool to In his new book, ‘Revolution,’ Brand rec- like. Something didn’t add up. ognises that the first part of this response The hook for the interview was Brand’s ‘ain’t gonna butter no spuds on Newsnight guest-editing of New Statesman magazine, or Fox News’ (Brand, ‘Revolution’, Century, promoted by him in a video that featured 2014, ebook, p.415) and he is clearly keen to editor Jason Cowley giggling excitedly in move on from ‘the policy-bare days of the the background among besuited corporate Paxman interview’ (p.417). On the other journalists. Again, this seemed curious: hand, the second part of Brand’s answer why would a drab, ‘left of centre’ (i.e., helps explain the huge impact of the corporate party political) maga- interview – he was speaking zine support someone calling out with a level of passion- for a ‘Revolution of con- ate sincerity and convic- sciousness’? tion that are just not The answer is per- seen in today’s manu- haps easier to fath- factured, conformist, om now than it was marketing-led media. then, for time has Brand looked real, not been kind either human. He was telling to the Newsnight in- the truth!

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‘A small minority Similarly, the New Statesman guest edi- been empirically proven, and the only peo- cannot control an tion was a curious hodgepodge, with good ple who tell you it’s not real are, yes, people uncooperative articles by Brand, Naomi Klein and Noam who make money from creating the condi- majority, so Chomsky alongside offerings from BBC tions that cause it. (pp.539-540) they must be sports presenter Gary Lineker, rock squib We are therefore at a crossroads: distracted, Noel Gallagher, actors Alec Baldwin and ‘ “Today humanity faces a stark choice: divided, Rupert Everett, multi-millionaire entrepre- save the planet and ditch capitalism, or tyrannised or neur Martha Lane-Fox, and even Russian save capitalism and ditch the planet.” anaesthetised into media oligarch, Evgeny Lebedev. This was ‘The reason the occupants of the [elite] compliance . . . ’ revolution as some kind of unscripted ce- fun bus are so draconian in their defence which means ‘the lebrity pantomime. of the economy is that they have decided to colonisation of Brand’s Newsnight performance, then, ditch the planet.’ (p.345) consciousness by was an inspiring cri de coeur. But a 10- And so ‘we require radical action fast, corporations’ minute, impassioned, ill-formed demand and that radical action will not come from for ‘Change!’ from a lone comedian is not the very interests that created and benefit a problem for the media’s gatekeepers. It from things being the way they are. The one makes for great television, enhances the il- place we cannot look for change is to the lusion that the media is open and inclusive, occupants of the bejewelled bus.’ (p.42) and can be quickly forgotten – no harm The problem, then, is that ‘we live un- done. der a tyranny’. (p.550) The US, in particular, ‘acts like an army that enforces the busi- Killing corporate power ness interests of the corporations it is allied – humanity’s stark choice to’. (p.493) Brand’s new book, ‘Revolution,’ is different But this is more than just a crude, Big – the focus is clear, specific and fiercely an- Brother totalitarian state: ti-corporate. As we will see in Part 2 of this ‘A small minority cannot control an essay, the media reaction is also different. uncooperative majority, so they must be Brand begins by describing the grotesque distracted, divided, tyrannised or anaes- levels of modern inequality: thetised into compliance . . . ’ which means ‘Oxfam say a bus with the eighty-five ‘the colonisation of consciousness by cor- richest people in the world on it would con- porations’. (p.165) tain more wealth than the collective assets Brand notes that 70 per cent of the UK of half the earth’s population – that’s three- press is controlled by three companies, 90 and-a-half billion people.’ (p.34) per cent of the US press by six: And: ‘The people that own the means for ‘The richest 1 per cent of British people conveying information, who decide what have as much as the poorest 55 per cent.’ knowledge enters our minds, are on the fun (p.34) bus.’ (p.592) But even these facts do not begin to de- He even manages a swipe at the ‘quality’ scribe the full scale of the current crisis: liberal press: ‘The same interests that benefit from this ‘Remember, the people who tell you this . . . need, in order to maintain it, to deplete can’t work, in government, on Fox News or the earth’s resources so rapidly, violently MSNBC, or in op-eds in the Guardian or the and irresponsibly that our planet’s ability Spectator, or wherever, are people with a to support human life is being threatened.’ vested interest in things staying the same.’ (p.36) (p.514) For example: Thus, the ‘political process’ is a non- ‘Global warming is totally real, it has sense: ‘voting is pointless, democracy a fa-

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çade’ (p.45): ‘a bloke with a nice ‘We have been told that Brand smile and an angle is swept freedom is the ability to understands into power after a more obvi- pursue petty, trivial de- that progressive ously despicable regime and sires when true freedom is change is stifled then behaves more or less ex- freedom from these petty, by the shiny, actly like his predecessors’. trivial desires.’ (p.66) silvery lures (p.431) In a wonderfully candid of corporate The highly debatable passage – unthinkable from consumerism merit of voting aside, most leftists, who write as that hook into our anyone with an ounce though they were brains in desires and egos of awareness will accept jars rather than flesh-and-blood pretty much everything sexual beings – Brand describes Brand has to say above. seeing a paparazzi photo of him- Put simply, he’s right – self emerging from an exclusive this is the current state of peo- London nightclub at 2 a.m with a ple, planet and politics. A cata- Revolution beautiful woman on each arm: strophic environmental collapse Russell Brand ‘I can still be deceived into is very rapidly approaching with Ballntine Books thinking, “Wow, I’d like to be $ US26 nothing substantive being done him,” then I remember that I was to make it better and everything him.’ (p.314) being done to make it worse. Brand tells his millions of admirers and Even if we disagree with everything else wannabe, girl-guzzling emulators: he has to say, every sane person has an in- ‘That night with those two immaculate terest in supporting Brand’s call to action girls . . . did not feel like it looked.’ (p.315) to stop this corporate genocide and biocide. So how did it feel? A thought we might bear in mind when we ‘Kisses are exchanged and lips get deriv- subsequently turn to the corporate media atively bitten, and I am unsmitten and un- reaction. forgiven, and when they leave I sit broken and longing on the chaise.’ (p.316) ‘Wow, I’d like to be him’ The point, again: Even more astutely – and this is where he ‘This looks how it’s supposed to look leaves most head-trapped leftists behind – but it doesn’t feel how it’s supposed to feel.’ Brand understands that progressive change (p.186) is stifled by the shiny, silvery lures of cor- Exactly reversing the usual role of the porate consumerism that hook into our ‘celebrity’ (‘how I loathe the word’ (p.191)) desires and egos. He understands that fo- – Brand sets a demolition charge under one cused awareness on the truth of our own of the great delusions of our time: ‘Fame af- personal experience is a key aspect of lib- ter a while seems ordinary.’ (p.189) eration from these iChains: Everything, after a while, seems ordi- ‘Get money. I got money, I got the stuff nary – external, material pleasures do not on the other side of the glass and it didn’t deliver on their promises. work.’ (p.56) So why are we destroying humanity and And: the planet for a vampiric corporate dream ‘I have seen what fame and fortune have that enriches a tiny elite and brings alien- to offer and I know it’s not the answer. That ation and dissatisfaction to all? The an- doesn’t diminish these arguments, it en- swer? Thought control: hances them.’ (p.202) ‘We are living in a zoo, or more accu- And: rately a farm, our collective consciousness,

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Brand argues for our individual consciousness, has been hi- This is the crucial, perennially-ignored the rewriting of jacked by a power structure that needs us to link between spirituality and politics, be- trade agreements remain atomised and disconnected.’ (p.66) tween meditation and the ability to relin- to support the And: quish our dependence on corporate trin- needs of people ‘Incrementally indoctrinated, we have kets and ‘service’, and it has been made by and planet forgotten how to dream, we have forgotten far too few people in the history of Western through localised who we are. We have abandoned our con- thought. farming. He nection to wonder and placed our destiny If all of this wasn’t enough to earn Brand wants to cancel in unclean hands.’ (p.600) support and applause, he even challenges personal debt, Again leaving most ‘mainstream’ and the taboo that associates seriousness with for communities leftist thought far behind, Brand urges us virtue: ‘people mistake solemnity for seri- to use modern to liberate ourselves from the marketised ousness, [assuming] that by being all stern high tech dreams of future happiness ‘out there’ – the and joyless their ideas are somehow levi- communications fame, the indulgence, the wealth – to focus tated’. (p.399) to take control on a bliss that is available here, now, inside And indeed leftist writers are almost of politics ourselves. What is he talking about? Is this universally angry, solemn and stern – se- just ‘mumbo-jumbo’, as critics claim? Far riousness is worn like a badge of sincer- from it, this is a truth that is subtle, elusive, ity by people who are supposed to abhor but real: conformity and uniformity. Brand has the ‘You never know when you will encoun- self-belief to joke and jape with childish ter magic. Some solitary moment in a park abandon when discussing even the most can suddenly burst open with a spray of serious subjects. Again, he is asserting the pre-school children in high-vis vests, hand right to be whoever he chooses to be – an in hand; maybe the teacher will ask you for authentic, juicy human being, rather than a directions and the children will look at you hard-boiled ‘intellectual’. curious and open, and you’ll see that they In the effort to escape from illusions, are perfect.’ (p.105) both political and personal, Brand throws Bliss is there in that tiny, fleeting instant all kinds of ideas for action at his readers. when the mind, for once – for a moment! – He argues for the rewriting of trade agree- stops its ceaseless chatter to make space for ments to support the needs of people and ‘another awareness. A distinct awareness. planet through localised farming. He wants An awareness beyond, behind and around to cancel personal debt, for communities these thoughts’. (p.82) to use modern high tech communications This is brave and truthful; in fact, it is to take control of politics. He wants to ‘kill’ the central message of all the world’s spiri- particular corporations like General Mo- tual traditions freed from their political, tors, ‘sell them off and use the money to theistic and superstitious baggage. compensate victims and former workers, Yes, the hard-headed Chomskys and Pilg- or we could collectivise it and run it as a ers are of course right, the world is shackled worker-based cooperative’. (p.409) He by economic and political chains. But these wants genuinely participatory democracy hook into our most personal dreams and along the lines of Porto Alegre in Brazil. desires. Activism often does, and perhaps Energy companies need to be stopped from more often should, arise from the ultimate wrecking the climate through oil refining inactivism of sitting silently, doing nothing, and fracking, and so on. thinking nothing, realising deeply that the All of this is courageous for another rea- bliss we seek ‘out there’ is an imposed illu- son. Brand writes: sion that obstructs an authentic bliss only ‘I know too with each word I type that available, in fact, ‘in here’. I am building a bridge of words that leads

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me back to the poverty I’ve come from, that from just about everyone across the me- The Guardian’s by decrying this inequality, I will have to dia ‘spectrum’, it becomes a real challenge Suzanne Moore relinquish the benefits that this system has to continue taking that person seriously, lampooned ‘the given me. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t let alone to continue supporting them. winklepickered frighten me.’ (p.62) We know that doing so risks attracting the Jesus Clown If by this he means that, in writing of the same abuse. who preaches need for revolution, he will lose the sup- Below, we will see how many of the same revolution’, port of the corporate media that lifted him corporate journalists are now directing a repeating ‘Jesus to a place of prominence, he certainly has a comparable campaign of abuse at Russell Clown’ four times point, as we will see. Brand in response to the publication of his book, ‘Revolution’. The impact is perhaps Part 2 indicated by the mild trepidation I expe- rienced in tweeting this very reasonable From Messiah comment from the book: to Monty Python ‘Today humanity faces a stark choice: save the planet and ditch capitalism, or save f Julian Assange was initially perceived capitalism and ditch the planet.’ (p.345) by many as a controversial but respect- Sure enough, I immediately received this ed, even heroic, figure challenging pow- tweet in response: Ier, the corporate media worked hard to ‘As a big supporter of your newsletters change that perception in the summer of and books, I’m embarrassed by your pro- 2012. After Assange requested political asy- motion of Brand as some sort of visionary.’ lum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Mark Steel explained in the Indepen- the faux-feminists and corporate leftists of dent: the ‘quality’ liberal press waged war on his ‘This week, by law, I have to deride Rus- reputation. sell Brand as a self-obsessed, annoying id- This comment from the Guardian’s Deb- iot. No article or comment on Twitter can orah Orr summed up the press zeitgeist: legally be written now unless it does this ‘It’s hard to believe that, until fairly re- . . . ’ cently, Julian Assange was hailed not just as Or as Boris Johnson noted, gleefully, in a radical thinker, but as a radical achiever, the Telegraph: too.’ ‘Oh dear, what a fusillade of hatred A sentiment echoed by Christina Patter- against poor old Brandy Wandy. I have be- son of the Independent: fore me a slew of Sunday papers and in al- ‘Quite a feat to move from Messiah to most all there is a broadside against Russell Monty Python, but good old Julian Assange Brand . . . ’ seems to have managed it.’ Once again, the Guardian gatekeepers The Guardian’s Suzanne Moore ex- have poured scorn. Suzanne Moore lam- pressed what many implied: pooned ‘the winklepickered Jesus Clown ‘He really is the most massive turd.’ who preaches revolution’, repeating ‘Jesus The attacks did more than just criticise Clown’ four times. Moore mocked: Assange; they presented him as a ridicu- ‘To see him being brought to heel by an lous, shameful figure. Readers were to un- ancient Sex Pistol definitely adds to the gai- derstand that he was now completely and ety of the nation.’ permanently discredited. After all: ‘A lot of what he says is sub- We are all, to some extent, herd animals. Chomskyian [sic] woo.’ When we witness an individual being sub- An earlier version of Moore’s article was jected to relentless mockery of this kind even more damning: ‘A lot of what he says

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There is a strong is ghostwritten sub-Chomskyian woo.’ commentators of the liberal press. The ti- case for arguing This was corrected by the Guardian after tle of David Runciman’s Guardian review that mindfulness Moore received a letter from Brand’s law- read: – awareness of yers. ‘His manifesto is heavy going, light on how we actually The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman impe- politics and, in places, beyond parody. Has feel, as opposed riously dismissed Brand’s highly rational the leader of the rebellion missed his mo- to how corporate analysis of corporate psychopathology: ment?’ advertising tells ‘I’m not entirely sure where he thinks Runciman wrote: us we should feel he’s going to go with this revolution idea ‘This book is an uncomfortable mashup – can help deliver because [SPOILER!] revolution is not go- of the cosmic and the prosaic. Brand seems us from the shiny ing to happen. But all credit to the man to believe they bolster each other. But re- cage of passive for making politics seem sexy to teenagers. ally they just get in each other’s way. He consumerism What he lacks, though – aside from specif- borrows ideas from various radical or pro- ics and an ability to listen to people other gressive thinkers like David Graeber and than himself – is judgment.’ Thomas Piketty but undercuts them with Tanya Gold commented in the Guard- talk about yogic meditation.’ ian: As we saw in the first part of this alert, ‘His narcissism is not strange: he is a there is a strong case for arguing that mind- comic by trade, and is used to drooling fulness – awareness of how we actually feel, rooms of strangers.’ as opposed to how corporate advertising In the Independent, Yasmin Alibhai- tells us we should feel – can help deliver us Brown’s patronising judgement was clear from the shiny cage of passive consumer- from the title: ism to progressive activism. ‘Russell Brand might seem like a sexy Alas, ‘too often he sounds like Gwyneth revolutionary worth getting behind, but he Paltrow without, er, the humour or the self- will only fail his fans – Politics needs to be awareness. The worst of it is beyond parody cleaned up, not thrown into disarray by ir- . . . his revolution reads like soft-soap ther- responsible populists’ apy where what’s needed is something with Alibhai-Brown commented: a harder edge’. ‘It is heartening to see him mobbed by Also in the Guardian, Martin Kettle teenagers and young people . . . Brand, I dismissed ‘the juvenile culture of Russell fear, will only fail them.’ Brand’s narcissistic anti-politics’. Grace Dent of the Independent perceived Hard-right ‘leftist’ warmonger Nick Co- little point in throwing yet more mud: hen of the ‘left-of-centre’ hard-right Ob- ‘with the lack of a political colossus on server was appalled. Having accumulated the horizon like Tony Benn, we can make 28,000 followers on Twitter after decades in do with that guy from Get Him To The the national press spotlight, Cohen mocked Greek who was once wed to Katy Perry. I the communication skills of a writer with 8 shall resist pillorying Brand any further. He million followers: looks exhausted. I’m not entirely evil’. ‘His writing is atrocious: long-winded, Sarah Ditum sneered from the New confused and smug; filled with references Statesman: to books Brand has half read and thinkers ‘Russell Brand, clown that he is, is taken he has half understood.’ seriously by an awful lot of young men who This is completely false, as we saw; Brand see any criticism of the cartoon messiah’s has an extremely astute grasp of many of misogyny as a derail from “the real issues” the key issues of our time. (whatever they are).’ As ever – think Assange, Greenwald, Brand fared little better among the male Snowden – dissidents are exposed as ego-

8 ColdType | December 2014 Cover Story ists by corporate media altruists: tual snobbery: Writing from that ‘Brand is a religious narcissist, and if the ‘When Russell Brand uses the word “he- other powerhouse British left falls for him, it will show itself to gemony” something dies in my soul.’ of corporate be beyond saving.’ Oh dear, does he drop the ‘haitch’? For dissent, the Cohen strained so hard to cover Brand in Jacobson, who studied English at Cam- oligarch-owned ordure he splashed some on himself, com- bridge under the renowned literary critic Independent, menting: F.R. Leavis, it was ‘a matter of regret’ that Steve Richards ‘Brand says that he is qualified to lead a Brand didn’t ‘stick to clowning’. Why? Be- praised Brand’s global transformation . . . ’ cause it detracts from the enjoyment of a style and decried Not quite. Brand writes in his book: comedian’s efforts ‘to discover they are the right-wing ‘We don’t want to replace Cameron fools in earnest’. Brand, alas, has not ‘the conformity of with another leader: the position of lead- first idea what serious thought is’. To read journalism, er elevates a particular set of behaviours.’ the book is to know just how utterly self- before providing (p.216) damning that last comment is. an example And: James Bloodworth of the hard-right Left of his own ‘There is no heroic revolutionary figure Foot Forward blog, commented in the Inde- in whom we can invest hope, except for pendent: ourselves as individuals together.’ (p.515) ‘Russell Brand is one of those people Similarly, Cohen took the cheap shot of who talks a lot without ever really saying casually lampooning Brand’s ‘cranky’ focus much.’ on meditation: Bloodworth clumsily sought to mock ‘Comrades, I am sure I do not need to tell Brand’s clumsiness: you that no figure in the history of the left ‘Well-intentioned, he can often come has seen Buddhism as a force for human across like the precocious student we all emancipation.’ know who talks in the way they think an Ie tweeted in reply: educated person ought to talk – all clever- ‘@NickCohen4 “no figure in the history sounding adjectives and look-at-me vocab- of the left has seen Buddhism as a force for ulary.’ human emancipation”. Erich Fromm, for Words like ‘hegemony’, perhaps. Or as one.’ Nick Cohen wrote in 2013: ‘He writes as Cohen was so unimpressed by this re- if he is a precocious prepubescent rather sponse that he immediately blocked Medi- than an adolescent . . . ’ alens on Twitter. Bloodworth’s damning conclusion: Writing from that other powerhouse of ‘Millions of people may be fed up of the corporate dissent, the oligarch-owned In- racket that is free market capitalism, but dependent, Steve Richards praised Brand’s this really is Revolution as play, and in in- style and decried the right-wing conformity dulging it the left risks becoming a parody of journalism, before providing an example of itself.’ of his own. He lamented Brand’s ‘vague ba- The Tory press – ‘a snort nalities’ and ‘witty banalities’: of derisive laughter’ ‘He is part of a disturbing phenomenon – the worship of unaccountable comedians If we dare turn to the more overtly right- who are not especially funny and who are wing press, in the Sunday Times, Camilla limited in their perceptions . . . We await a Long lamented: revolutionary who plots what should hap- ‘Brand’s mincing tintinnabulations, his pen as well as what is wrong.’ squawking convulsions, his constant gar- In the same newspaper, Howard Jacob- bling of words such as “autodidact” and son effortlessly won the prize for intellec- “hegemony”.’

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It seems clear That word again! Could the real problem ert Colvile noted in his review for the Daily that some of the be that a working class author has appro- Telegraph, ‘sub-undergraduate dross’. hatred directed priated words reserved for his classically- Reviewing the book in the Sunday Times, at Brand by both educated betters? Wikipedia records of Christopher Hart wrote: male and female Long: ‘There’s no doubt that Brand can some- critics is rooted in ‘Descended from the aristocratic Clinton times articulate what a lot of people are something other family (Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of feeling . . . ’ than politic Newcastle . . . is an ancestor through her As if panicked by the possibility that paternal grandmother), she was educated this might be thought to signify approval, at Oxford High School and Corpus Christi Hart erupted: College, Oxford.’ ‘But when the cry comes from some- Again, any thought of discussion had to one who seems the epitome of a vapid, make way for mockery: ill-informed, coke-frazzled, self-adoring ‘And what a mediocre, hypocritical, and grossly hypocritical celeb, preaching dancing, prancing and arrogant perm on a to us from the back of his chauffeur-driven stick he is . . . I would be more comfortable Merc, then the only response it deserves is with the former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell as a snort of derisive laughter.’ a public intellectual.’ The bottom line: From the moral summit of Murdoch’s ‘Some of this stuff does indeed need media Mount Doom, Perpetual Warmonger saying, but Russell Brand is not the man David Aaronovitch of The Times of course to say it.’ declared Brand’s book ‘uniquely worthless Again, less a review, more a Soviet-style both as an exercise in writing and as a man- ‘personality disorder’ smear. ifesto for social change – I feel able to dis- The Daily Mail really loathes Brand. miss Brand’s new self-ascriptions, both as For the journalist who for some odd rea- self-taught man and revolutionary’. (Aar- son describes himself as ‘The Hated Peter onovitch, ‘A unique Brand of dozy drivel,’ Hitchens’, Brand is a ‘Pied piper who ped- The Times, November 1, 2014) dles poison’. It seems clear that some of Again, as we saw in Part 1, this is just the hatred directed at Brand by both male false. There may be much to debate, but and female critics is rooted in something in identifying the fundamental disaster of other than politics. In a telling passage that a corporate system subordinating people reads like an outtake from a Carry On film, and planet to profit, Brand is exactly right. Hitchens observed: Aaronovitch heard only ‘a wall of sound ‘But there’s also no doubt he has a po- and words designed to drown out the pos- tent effect on women – I watched him, sibility of thought’. But the wall of sound in less than a minute, charm two pretty was coming from Aaronovitch’s own head, young Olympic medal winners into taking from the psychological investments that off their medals and draping them over his prevent him perceiving words that would scrawny, naked chest. make it impossible for him to continue the ‘The sad thing was that they acted as if role he is playing. they were the ones being honoured by the For Aaronovitch, like Cohen, it was all encounter.’ ‘sub-Yoko mysticana that [has] been the We can imagine that Hitchens would “it’s really all about me” staple of pop have been only too ‘honoured’ to meet the stars, actors and princesses since the days ‘two pretty young’ women and to admire of the Maharishi’. the medals on their chests where they be- So Brand just produces ‘sub-Yoko mys- longed. ticana’, ‘sub-Chomskyian woo’ and, as Rob- In the same paper, Stephen Glover also

10 ColdType | December 2014 Cover Story snorted derisively: Boris Johnson wrote in the Daily Tele- As with Assange, ‘Why does anyone take this clown of a graph: the intent and poseur seriously? . . . Russell Brand is a ‘Of course his manifesto is nonsense – effect of all this is ludicrous charlatan.’ as I am sure he would be only too happy, to portray Brand Glover, who had either not read, or not in private, to admit . . . Yes, it is bilge; but as so ridiculous, understood a word of the book, comment- that is not the point. Who cares what he re- so pitiable, that ed: ‘Revolution is one of the worst books ally means or what he really thinks?’ the public will feel I have ever read. It is repetitive, structure- For this was ‘semi-religious pseudoeco- ashamed to be less, poorly argued (if it can be said to be nomic mumbo-jumbo’. associated with argued at all) and boring . . . [from] our Again, another busy individual who had him and his cause narcissistic hero . . . Why should we listen surely not troubled to seriously read the to this clown?’ book. Another Daily Mail altruist, Max Hast- As with Assange, the intent and effect ings, also perceived gross egotism at play: of all this is to portray Brand as so ridicu- ‘Mr Brand is a strutting narcissist, who, lous, so pitiable, that the public will feel despite having no idea what he is talking ashamed to be associated with him and his about . . . ’ cause. For the now thoroughly corporatised The corporate media system, with its Piers Morgan in the Mail, Brand was a ‘bo- fraudulent ‘spectrum’ of opinion, is a ham- gus revolutionary . . . this whole “revolu- mer that falls with a unified, resounding tion” he’s trying to wage is a load of old crash on anyone who dares to challenge sanctimonious hog-wash’. Morgan was elite interests. It works relentlessly to beat happy to sign-off with a lazy dismissal: down human imagination, creativity and ‘Like most great revolutionaries, he’s hope, to smash the awareness, love and quite happy wallowing in his own hypoc- compassion that might otherwise termi- risy.’ nate the ‘nightmare of history’. Is resis- The Mail quoted James Cleverly, Conser- tance futile? Will they always win? vative London Assembly Member for Bex- Well, for once, we will give the corpo- ley and Bromley: ‘Why do the BBC give so rate press the last word. On November 7, much airtime to the vacuous, narcissistic the Daily Mail reported that Brand’s new drivel of Russell Brand?’ book ‘has enjoyed monumental sales – We tweeted Cleverly: earning the star and his publishers a stag- ‘Exactly how often do you see a Brand- gering £230,000 in just 11 days’. The Mail, style, anti-corporate perspective on the no doubt reluctantly, cited a publishing BBC? Every day?’ expert: Cleverly did not respond. ‘It’s an awful lot of money to turnaround The Mail also noted that Conservative in such a short period.’ MP Philip Davies, a member of the Culture, Unmentioned by the Mail, Brand has Media and Sport select committee, had de- said that profits from the book will go to- manded that the corporation look again at wards a non-hierarchical, not-for-profit its public service remit: café and production company managed by ‘Why on earth are BBC giving so much the workforce ‘where recovering addicts air time to such an idiot is beyond me. Es- like me can run a business based on the pecially on such supposedly serious pro- ideas in this book’. (p.593) CT grammes. ‘I just don’t think that’s what the BBC is David Edwards is co-editor of there for. It is not there to give idiots like Medialens, the British media watchdog Russell Brand time to promote his book.’ – http://medialens.org

December 2014 | ColdType 11 why we protest / 1 The mystery of my arrest Ray McGovern is surprised at what happened when he tried to listen to a talk by a retired and discredited US general in New York City

Many an aging hy, I asked myself, would the Also, let me make clear that I had no inten- male ego has New York City police arrest tion of embarrassing the retired four-star been massaged me and put me in The Tombs general and ex-CIA director with a question by the attentions overnight, simply because a se- about his extramarital affair with his admir- of someone like W curity officer at the 92nd Street Y told them ing biographer Paula Broadwell, which pre- Paula Broadwell, I was “not welcome” and should be denied cipitated his CIA resignation in November and she seemed entry to a talk by retired General David Pe- 2012. happy to do the traeus? In my hand was a ticket for which I Many an aging male ego has been mas- massaging to had reluctantly shelled out $50. saged by the attentions of someone like expedite the I had hoped to hear the photogenic but Broadwell, and she seemed happy to do the research on inept Petraeus explain why the Iraqi troops, massaging to expedite the research on “All “All In”, her which he claimed to have trained so well, In”, her biography of the fabled general. I biography of the had fled northern Iraq leaving their weap- had decided to resist the temptation to refer fabled general ons behind at the first whiff of Islamic State to the Biblical admonition against entrust- militants earlier this year. I even harbored ing large matters to those who cannot be some slight hope that the advertised Q & A faithful in small things. might afford hoi polloi like me the chance to The affair may not have been a small ask him a real question. thing to Mrs. Petraeus, but it pales in sig- However rare the opportunity to ask real nificance when compared to the death and questions has become, it can happen. Wit- destruction resulting from Petraeus’s self- ness my extended (four-minute) question- aggrandizing disingenuousness and dissem- ing of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rums- bling about prospects for eventual success feld in Atlanta on May 4, 2006. The exchange in Iraq and Afghanistan. wasn’t exactly the oh-so-polite give-and-take Petraeus agonistes of the Sunday talk shows but it represented what Americans should expect of democra- Assuming that Petraeus’s expertise in coun- cy, a chance to confront senior government terinsurgency warfare was more than mere officials when they engage in deception or pretense, he knew both expeditions were demonstrate incompetence – especially on doomed to failure. And he certainly now issues of war or peace. knows the inevitable answer to the ques- It seems a safe guess that somebody tion he famously posed to journalist Rick wanted to protect Petraeus from even the Atkinson in 2003 as US forces troops began possibility of such accountability on Oct. 30. to get mired down in the sand of Iraq – “Tell

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Me How This Ends.” earth did they know I was coming? In response to The twin conflicts in Afghanistan and My initial reaction was that the culprit my silent protest, Iraq “ended” – if that’s the right word for could be a lingering BOLO, the “Be on the I was roughed these late-stage fiascos – with two additional Look-Out” warning that the State Depart- up, cuffed, stars pinned to Petraeus’s uniform and with ment had issued against me earlier for my arrested, and some 6,700 gold stars sent to the wives, hus- non-violent anti-war stances. In September, jailed as Clinton bands, or parents of US troops killed, plus thanks to a civil rights lawsuit filed on my be- delivered a major tens of thousands of purple hearts for those half by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund speech at George badly injured in both body and mind. A bad (PCJF), the State Department rescinded that Washington bargain for the American people and espe- BOLO alert for me, under which State De- University cially the dead and maimed US troops – not partment agents had been ordered to stop admonishing to mention the hundreds of thousands of and question me on sight. foreign dead and maimed Afghans and Iraqis – but State Department documents acquired governments not a pretty successful career move for Petraeus, under the Freedom of Information Act to stifle dissent if not for his fateful extramarital affair. showed that the damning evidence behind Surely, in the grim light of all the blood- that draconian (and patently unconstitu- shed, L’Affaire Broadwell can be seen as a tional) order was “political activism, primar- minor peccadillo, the least of Petraeus’s sins. ily anti-war.” But many of his ardent admirers view the The proximate cause was my standing sexual indiscretion as the only blot on his silently with my back to then-Secretary of otherwise spotless dress uniform festooned State Hillary Clinton on Feb. 15, 2011, to pro- with row after row of medals and ribbons. test the unconscionably violent policies she It was my intent to put the spotlight, via a had promoted, including her vote for the question or two, on Petraeus’s far more con- Bush-Cheney war of aggression against Iraq sequentially dishonest behavior. And this (which she thought politically smart at the seemed particularly important at this point time) and her infamous suggestion during in time, as his starry-eyed emulator generals her political campaign that we could “oblit- seem no less willing than Petraeus to throw erate” Iran. a new wave of youth from a poverty draft In response to my silent protest, I was into a fool’s-errand sequel in Iraq and Syria. roughed up, cuffed, arrested, and jailed as In any event, it seems reasonably clear Clinton delivered a major speech at George why they did not let me enter the 92nd Washington University admonishing foreign Street Y on Oct. 30. Someone thought that governments not to stifle dissent. Heed- the thin-skinned ex-general might be dis- less of the irony, Clinton did not miss a syl- comforted by a less-than-admiring question. lable, much less a word, as she watched me His speech was to be another moment for Pe- snatched directly in front of her and brutally traeus to bathe in public adulation, not con- removed. front a citizen or two who might pose criti- The charges were immediately dropped, cal queries. [For more on Petraeus and his since there were simply too many cam- acolytes, see Consortiumnews.com’s “Petra- eras recording what actually did happen to eus Spared Ray McGovern’s Question.”] me. A State Department investigation into my background came up dry; but the words Lingering mystery “political activism, primarily anti-war” were But one mystery lingers. The “organs of enough to get me BOLOed. state security” (the moniker that we in the The State Department assured my pro CIA used to apply to the Soviet intelligence/ bono lawyers at the Partnership for Civil Jus- security services) were lying in wait for me tice Fund that State not only had rescinded when I walked into the Y? Why? How on the BOLO but also had notified other law

December 2014 | ColdType 13 why we protest / 1

In recent years, enforcement agencies that the BOLO was At that point, I chose what I thought many of my “non-operational.” But I remained suspi- would be a safe way to purchase a ticket. But Catholic Worker cious that, while the State Department’s as- I apparently failed to practice the kind of friends have surance may have been made in good faith, “tradecraft” in terms of limiting associations been arrested for God only knows (and then only if God has that is needed to function in today’s demo- protesting the use the proper clearances) what other organs of cratic society. of drones to kill state security had entered the “derogatory” How did the organs of state security learn foreigners dubbed information about the danger of my “politi- I was coming? It is more likely to have been “militants,” most cal activism” into their data bases. guilt by association than the residue from a of whom don’t look Had my “derog” been shared, perhaps, BOLO. In short, when I travel to New York like most of us with the ever-proliferating number of “fu- to teach, I normally email my friend Martha sion centers” that were so effective in shar- at Maryhouse in the Bowery – the Catholic ing information to track and thwart the ac- Worker house founded by her grandmother, tivists of Occupy – including subversives like Dorothy Day. Quakers and Catholic Workers? However, as If there is a free bed, I gratefully receive I reflected on the circumstances of my arrest Catholic Worker hospitality and have a on Oct. 30, I came to discount the possible chance to enjoy the company of those who role of the BOLO. have been placed at the margins of society, as well to witness the selfless kindness of Taken by surprise those forming authentic relationships with As I walked up the steps to the 92nd Street them. Y on Oct. 30, I had no idea there would be a Here’s the catch. Catholic Workers are in- reprise of the treatment accorded me three- volved not only in extending hospitality but and-a-half years ago at Hillary Clinton’s also in activism, trying, as Dorothy Day did, speech. to make the world a less violent, more caring My friend and associate in Veteran In- place. It is primarily the activism, of course, telligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) that brings scrutiny from the organs of secu- Bill Binney, a former Technical Director at rity, but you might call it “political activism, the National Security Agency before he left primarily anti-war,” as the State Department in protest against NSA’s unconstitutional did. eavesdropping on Americans, long since ad- Moreover, the Catholic Worker Move- vised me to assume that I am one of several ment is an international organization widely thousands subjected to post-Fourth-Amend- looked upon as subversive of the Establish- ment surveillance. ment, and this adds to the suspicion. In So I had taken the precaution of asking a recent years, many of my Catholic Worker friend, who was in no way linked to me via friends have been arrested for protesting email or phone records, to order the ticket the use of drones to kill foreigners dubbed for me, just on the off-chance the organs of “militants,” most of whom don’t look like state security might learn I intended to hear most of us. Petraeus speak at the 92nd Street Y and But the targets can now include Ameri- might do something to prevent my attend- can citizens, as President Barack Obama ing. turns the Constitution upside down and Actually, it was pure coincidence that takes it upon himself to act as judge, jury I happened to be in New York on the day and executioner. Yes, the Fifth Amendment of the Petraeus event. Months before, I had has gone the way of the Fourth, and the First committed to teaching classes at Manhat- has become an endangered species. Worth tan and Fordham universities on Oct. 30. I protesting before it too is extinct, would you learned of the Petraeus event much later. not agree?

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In a kind of poetic justice, it turns out companying that message might seem sin- I sat quietly for my friend Martha has the same court date gularly unsuspicious, eavesdroppers cover- Michael Medved’s as I have – the morning of Dec. 8 at the New ing Martha’s or my email addresses (or both) opening rant York City Criminal Court building (aka “The would have had no trouble ferreting out an about radical, Tombs”) at 100 Centre Street in New York, email exchange following an earlier attempt fundamentalist where I spent the night/morning of Oct. to attend an event at the 92nd Street Y, three Muslim terrorists, 30/31. She was arrested with about 100 oth- years ago. but then stood ers at a Sept. 22 action dubbed “Flood Wall On Sept. 8, 2011, a group of Catholic Work- up in silent Street,” protesting the important role of the ers, together with others – all of us with valid witness against financial industry in facilitating air pollution tickets – were summarily expelled, most of the right-wing and global warming. us 10 minutes before an event sponsored by invective. I was In an aside, Martha told me that the po- the Jewish Policy Center. That event bore the unceremoniously, lice had as much trouble getting handcuffs title “9/11 a Decade Later: Lessons Learned violently thrown on the “polar bear” sitting next to her that and Future Challenges” and featured former out after a mere day as they did on Oct. 30 trying to bend my Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, ex-Attorney two minutes injured left shoulder back far enough to get General Michael Mukasey, and George W. the cuffs on me. I look forward to standing Bush’s press spokesman Ari Fleisher. It was at the same dock where Martha will be de- moderated by neoconservative talk show fending her action which was very much in host Michael Medved. the tradition of “Grannie.” Since I was not among those subjected to My Catholic Worker friends comfort the Y security’s preventive strike before the per- afflicted, while in no way shying away from formance, I sat quietly for Medved’s opening afflicting the comfortable, as the saying rant about radical, fundamentalist Muslim goes. And for that, they often pay a price, in- terrorists, but then stood up in silent wit- cluding being snooped upon, in violation of ness against the right-wing invective. I was the Fourth Amendment, for exercising their unceremoniously, violently thrown out after rights under the First. a mere two minutes. I am not making this up: In the fall of More relevant here: I still have in my email 2010, Justice Department Inspector General inbox a message of encouragement dated Glenn Fine criticized the FBI for conducting Sept. 12, 2011, in which Martha reminded me “anti-terrorism” spy operations against the that every action, “successful” or not, is im- Catholic Worker Movement and even the portant; adding, “We of the Catholic Worker Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh. Ac- are ‘fools for Christ,’ as the saying goes.” cording to Fine, spies were sent into the Only metadata Merton Center to “look for international ter- rorists.” One of the informers photographed You are perhaps thinking that the Nation- a woman he thought was of “Middle Eastern al Security Agency stores only metadata; descent” to have her checked out by “terror- and, if so, you would be wrong. Content is ism analysts.” saved. So if the government wants to ac- So my possible tradecraft lapse may have cess the content of emails from the past, no been contacting my Catholic Worker friends. problem. On Oct. 26, I sent Martha an email with the As Bill Binney reminded me, former FBI innocuous title, “Room in the Inn?” It con- director Robert Mueller let that particular cat tained the usual request for simple lodging out of the bag three-and-a-half years ago. In at the Catholic Worker together with details his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Com- regarding my classes at Fordham and Man- mittee on March 30, 2011, Mueller bragged hattan and the Petraeus event. about having access to “past emails and fu- While the title and other metadata ac- ture ones as they come in.”

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Substitute Binney explains that the metadata is used particular. Americans to access the content. And, thanks to the Why ironic? In the years after my birth in for Germans, documents provided by Edward Snowden, 1939, Germany was widely considered the terrorists for we know that under NSA’s PRISM opera- cutting edge on matters of eavesdropping Communists, tion, data is routinely collected directly and enhanced interrogation techniques. and September 11, from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook, most Germans didn’t challenge these forms 2001, for 1933, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple (and of oppression even when it touched them and give some God knows where else, again assuming God personally. Perhaps saddest of all, those thought to is cleared). with some pretense to moral leadership – where we seem So my best guess is that I can blame first and foremost the Catholic and Lutheran to be headed the “subversive” activities of the Catholic Churches – could not find their voice. Is that Workers and the monitoring of them by the history repeating itself in the US? organs of state security, for my recent ar- In “Defying Hitler”, Sebastian Haffner’s rest and overnight accommodations in The journal of his life as a lawyer in training to Tombs. become a judge in Berlin in the early 1930s, The people at the World Can’t Wait the author (whose real name was Raimund in New York, who were also aware of my Pretzel) provides an eerily reminiscent ac- plan to take in the Petraeus performance, count of what ensued after Berlin’s equiva- are known to have been targets of eaves- lent of the attacks of 9/11 – the burning of dropping, too. With the surfeit of people the Reichstag. sorting through emails from suspicious “I do not see that one can blame the folks, it may be that both the Catholic Work- majority of Germans who, in 1933, believed ers and the World Can’t Wait were both that the Reichstag fire was the work of the monitored – all to keep us safe, of course. Communists. What one can blame them It seems the height of irony that it may for, and what shows their terrible collective have been NSA’s eavesdropping that en- weakness of character … is that this settled abled the White House to get rid of Petraeus, the matter. when he was getting too big for his britches “With sheepish submissiveness, the Ger- (and I allude here not only to his dalliance man people accepted that, as a result of the Ray McGovern with Broadwell). To Bill Binney, it is clear as fire, each one of them lost what little per- works for Tell day that the President was ready to move sonal freedom and dignity was guaranteed the Word, a against Petraeus right after Obama’s re-elec- by the constitution, as though it followed publishing arm tion in November 2012. as a necessary consequence. If the Commu- of the ecumenical nists had burned down the Reichstag, it was A final, sad irony Church of the perfectly in order that the government took Saviour in inner- A couple of days after my arrest and jail- ‘decisive measures.’ … from now on, one’s city Washington. He ing, I received a sympathetic email from telephone would be tapped, one’s letters served as an Army “George” in Germany, who described him- opened, and one’s desk might be broken officer and then a self as a national security whistleblower in into.” (pp. 121-122). CIA analyst for a his own right. George strongly suggested I Substitute Americans for Germans, ter- total of 30 years, ditch my Gmail account. rorists for Communists, September 11, 2001, including two tours “Before Edward Snowden’s revelations for 1933, and give some thought to where we in Germany. He last spring,” he said, “I too was using Gmail seem to be headed. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. now serves on the as my primary address. I was dismayed to warned that “there is such a thing as being Steering Group of learn that Google was an NSA PRISM part- too late,” a quotation that, ironically, Presi- Veteran Intelligence ner.” George strongly suggested that I switch dent Obama is fond of citing. It would be a Professionals for to a more trustworthy email provider out- good thing if we Americans woke from our Sanity (VIPS) side the US and actually suggested one in lethargy before it is too late. CT

16 ColdType | December 2014 why we protest / 2 Redefining ‘imminent’ Brian Terrell tells how the US Department of Justice makes murder respectable, kills the innocent and jails their defenders

olitical language can be used, George no real threat to us at all. Any male 14 years Orwell said in 1946, “to make lies The use of armed remotely controlled or older found sound truthful and murder respect- drones as the United States’ favored weapon dead in a drone able, and to give an appearance of in its “war on terror” is increasing exponen- strike zone is P a “combatant” solidity to pure wind.” In order to justify its tially in recent years, raising many disturb- global assassination program, the Obama ing questions. Wielding 500 pound bombs unless there administration has had to stretch words and Hellfire missiles, Predator and Reaper is explicit beyond their natural breaking points. For drones are not the precise and surgical in- intelligence instance, any male 14 years or older found struments of war so effusively praised by posthumously dead in a drone strike zone is a “combat- President Obama for “narrowly targeting proving him ant” unless there is explicit intelligence our action against those who want to kill innocent posthumously proving him innocent. We us and not the people they hide among.” It are also informed that the constitutional is widely acknowledged that the majority guarantee of “due process” does not imply of those killed in drone attacks are unin- that the government must precede an ex- tended, collateral victims. The deaths of the ecution with a trial. I think the one word drones’ intended targets and how they are most degraded and twisted these days, to chosen should be no less troubling. the goriest ends, is the word “imminent.” Those deliberately targeted by drones Just what constitutes an “imminent” are often far from conflict zones, often they threat? Our government has long taken are in countries with whom the US is not at bold advantage of the American public’s war and on some occasions have been US willingness to support lavish spending on citizens. They are rarely “taken out” in the armaments and to accept civilian casualties heat of battle or while engaged in hostile ac- in military adventures abroad and deple- tions and are more likely to be killed (with tion of domestic programs at home, when anyone in their vicinity) at a wedding, at a told these are necessary responses to deflect funeral, at work, hoeing in the garden, driv- precisely such threats. The government has ing down the highway or enjoying a meal vastly expanded the meaning of the word with family and friends. These deaths are “imminent.” This new definition is crucial counted as something other than murder to the US drone program, designed for pro- only for the curious insistence by the gov- jecting lethal force throughout the world. It ernment’s lawyers that each of these victims provides a legal and moral pretext for the represent an “imminent” threat to our lives annihilation of people far away who pose and safety here at home in the US

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As far as In February 2013, a US Department of fine the word so narrowly as to convict and the Justice Justice White Paper, “Lawfulness of a Lethal imprison law abiding and responsible citi- Department is Operation Directed Against a US Citizen zens who act to defend the innocent from concerned, an Who Is a Senior Operational Leader of Al- genuinely imminent harm by the actions of “imminent” threat Qa’ida or an Associated Force,” was leaked the US government. On example especially is now whomever by NBC News. This paper sheds some light relevant to the issue of killing by drone is an “informed on the legal justification for drone assas- the case of the “Creech 14.” high-level US sinations and explains the new and more After the first act of nonviolent resis- government flexible definition of the word “imminent.” tance to the lethal use of unmanned and official” “First,” it declares, “the condition that an remotely controlled drones in the United determines operational leader present an ‘imminent’ States took place at Creech Air Force Base to be such, based threat of violent attack against the United in Nevada back in April, 2009, it took more on evidence States does not require the United States to than a year before the 14 of us accused of known to that have clear evidence that a specific attack on criminal trespass had our day in court. As official alone, US persons and interests will take place in this was the first opportunity for activists never to be made the immediate future.” to “put drones on trial” at a time when few public or reviewed Before the Department of Justice lawyers Americans were aware they even existed, by any court got a hold of it, the meaning of the word we were especially diligent in preparing our “imminent” was unmistakably clear. Vari- case, to argue clearly and cogently, not in ous dictionaries of the English language are order to keep ourselves out of jail but for all in agreement that the word “imminent” the sake of those who have died and those explicitly denotes something definite and who live in fear of the drones. With coach- immediate, “likely to occur at any moment,” ing by some fine trial lawyers, our intention “impending,” “ready to take place,” “loom- was to represent ourselves and drawing on ing,” “pending,” “threatening,” “around the humanitarian international law, to offer a corner.” Nor has the legal definition of the strong defense of necessity, even while we word left room for ambiguity. After World were aware that there was little chance that War II, the Nuremberg Tribunal reaffirmed the court would hear our arguments. a 19th-century formulation of customary in- The defense of necessity, that one has ternational law written by Daniel Webster, not committed a crime if an act that is oth- which said that the necessity for preemp- erwise illegal was done to prevent a greater tive use of force in self-defense must be “in- harm or crime from being perpetrated, is stant, overwhelming, and leaving no choice recognized by the Supreme Court as a part of means, and no moment for deliberation.” of the common law. It is not an exotic or That was in the past. Now, any possible fu- even a particularly unusual defense. “The ture threat – and any person on earth ar- rationale behind the necessity defense is guably might pose one – however remote, that sometimes, in a particular situation, a can satisfy the new definition. As far as the technical breach of the law is more advan- Justice Department is concerned, an “im- tageous to society than the consequence of minent” threat is now whomever an “in- strict adherence to the law,” says West’s En- formed high-level US government official” cyclopedia of American Law “The defense determines to be such, based on evidence is often used successfully in cases that in- known to that official alone, never to be volve a Trespass on property to save a per- made public or reviewed by any court. son’s life or property.” It might appear, then, The breadth of the government’s defini- that this defense is a natural one for minor tion of “imminent” is murderous in its enor- infractions such as our alleged trespass, in- mity. It is all the more ironic that the same tended to stop the use of drones in a war of Department of Justice will also regularly de- aggression, the crime against peace that the

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Nuremburg Tribunal named “the supreme trespass’ sign would be poor public policy to Our appreciation international crime.” put it mildly. Criminal.” for a judge’s In reality, though, courts in the US al- Judge Jensen by this time was obviously extraordinary most never allow the necessity defense intrigued. His ruling to limit the testimony attention to the to be raised in cases like ours. Most of us to trespass held, but as his fascination grew, facts of the case were experienced enough not to be sur- so his interpretation of his own order grew aside, we still prised when we finally got to the Justice more elastic. Over the repeated objections expected nothing Court in Las Vegas in September, 2010, and of the prosecution team, the judge allowed but an immediate Judge Jensen ruled in lockstep with his ju- limited but powerful testimony from Ram- conviction and dicial colleagues. He insisted at the onset sey and our other witnesses, retired US sentencing of our case that he was having none of it. Army Colonel and former diplomat Ann “Go ahead,” he said, allowing us to call our Wright and Loyola Law School Professor Bill expert witnesses but sternly forbidding us Quigley that put our alleged trespass into its from asking them any questions that mat- context as an act to stop a heinous crime. ter. “Understand, it is only going to be lim- I had the honor of making the closing ited to trespass, what knowledge he or she statement for the accused, which I ended has, if any, whether you were or were not with, “We 14 are the ones who are seeing the out at the base. We’re not getting into in- smoke from the burning house and we are ternational laws; that’s not the issue. That’s not going to be stopped by a ‘no trespassing’ not the issue. What the government is do- sign from going to the burning children.” ing wrong, that’s not the issue. The issue is Our appreciation for a judge’s extraordi- trespass.” nary attention to the facts of the case aside, Our co-defendant Steve Kelly followed we still expected nothing but an immediate the judge’s instructions and questioned our conviction and sentencing. Judge Jensen first witness, former US Attorney General surprised us: “I consider it more than just Ramsey Clark, about his firsthand knowl- a plain trespass trial. A lot of serious issues edge of trespass laws from working at the are at stake here. So I’m going to take it un- Department of Justice during the Kennedy der advisement and I will render a written and Johnson administrations. Steve specifi- decision. And it may take me two to three cally guided the witness to speak of “the months to do so, because I want to make cases of trespass … of lunch counter activi- sure that I’m right on whatever I rule on.” ties where laws stated you were not to sit When we returned to Las Vegas in Janu- at certain lunch counters” in the struggle ary, 2011, Judge Jensen read his decision that for civil rights. Ramsey Clark acknowledged it was just a plain trespass trial, after all and that those arrested for violating these laws we were guilty. Among several justifications had not committed crimes. Steve pushed for convicting us, the judge rejected what his luck with the judge and offered the clas- he called “the Defendants’ claim of neces- sic illustration of the necessity defense: “A sity” because “first, the Defendants failed situation where there is a ‘no trespassing’ to show that their protest was designed to sign and there is smoke coming out of a prevent ‘imminent’ harm.” He faulted our door or a window and a person is up on the case for not presenting the court with “evi- upper floor in need of help. To enter that dence that any military activities involving building, in a real narrow technical sense, drones were being conducted or about to be would be trespass. Is there a possibility, in conducted on the day of the Defendants’ ar- the long run, it wouldn’t be trespass to help rest,” seeming to forget that he had ordered the person upstairs?” Ramsey replied, “We us not to submit any such evidence, even if would hope so, wouldn’t we? To have a baby we had it. burn to death or something, because of a ‘no Judge Jensen’s verdict was amply sup-

December 2014 | ColdType 19 why we protest / 2

Although the ported by the precedents he cited, including cused of trespass from even mentioning victims of drone a 1991 appellate court ruling, US v Schoon, the fact that they were arrested while re- violence on the that concerned a protest aimed to “keep sponding to an imminent threat to inno- day of our arrest US tax dollars out of El Salvador” at an IRS cent life, and the courts obligingly accept were far away office in Tucson. In this protest, the Ninth this contradiction. in Afghanistan Circuit ruled, “the requisite imminence was The defense of necessity does not sim- and Iraq, those lacking.” In other words, because the harm ply justify actions that technically violate crimes were being protested was taking place in El Salvador, a the law. “Necessity,” says West’s Encyclope- committed by trespass in Tucson cannot be justified. So, dia of American Law, is “a defense asserted combatants sitting Judge Jensen reasoned, burning children by a criminal or civil defendant that he or at computer in a house in Afghanistan cannot excuse a she had no choice but to break the law.” As screens in trailers trespass in Nevada. Ramsey Clark testified in a Las Vegas court- not far from The NBC leak of that Department of room five years ago, “to have a baby burn to where we were Justice White Paper wouldn’t happen for death because of a ‘no trespass sign’ would apprehended by two more years (call it suppression of evi- be poor public policy to put it mildly.” In a Air Force police dence?) and as far as Judge Jensen knew, time of burning children, the “no trespass- the dictionary definition of “imminent” was ing” signs attached to the fences that pro- still operant. Even so, had we been allowed tect the crimes executed with drones and to testify beyond the narrow confines set at other instruments of terror hold no potency trial, we would have shown that with new and they do not command our obedience. satellite technology, the lethal threat we The courts that do not recognize this reality were addressing there is always imminent allow themselves to be used as instruments by any reasonable definition of the word. of governmental malfeasance. Although the victims of drone violence on There have been many more trials since the day of our arrest were indeed far away the Creech 14 and in the meanwhile, many in Afghanistan and Iraq, those crimes were more children have been incinerated by actually being committed by combatants missiles fired from drones. On December sitting at computer screens, engaged in real- 10, International Human Rights Day, Geor- time hostilities in trailers on the base, not so gia Walker and Kathy Kelly will go to trial in far at all from where we were apprehended US District Court in Jefferson City, Missouri, by Air Force police. after they peacefully brought their griev- The government does not believe that ance and a loaf of bread onto Whiteman Air it needs to have “clear evidence that a spe- Force Base, another in the growing number cific attack on US persons and interests of stateside remote control killer drone cen- will take place in the immediate future” to ters. establish an imminent threat and so carry Two years ago in that same court in a out extrajudicial executions of human be- similar case, Judge Whitworth rejected the ings anywhere on the planet. Citizens who necessity defense offered by Ron Faust and act to stop killing by drones, on the other me, subsequently sentencing Ron to five hand, are required to have specific “evi- years of probation and sending me to prison dence that any military activities involving for six months. It is to be hoped that Judge drones were being conducted or about to Whitworth will take advantage of this sec- be conducted,” in order to justify nonvio- ond chance that Kathy and Georgia coura- lently entering into government property. geously offer and exonerate himself and his The government’s position on this lacks profession. CT coherence, at best. Even after the publica- tion of its White Paper, the Department of Brian Terrell is a co-coordinator for Voices Justice continues to block defendants ac- for Creative Nonviolence – http://vcnv.org

20 ColdType | December 2014 Where we belong Better dead than different Our visions of the future are defined, like the film Interstellar, by technological optimism and political defeatism, writes George Monbiot

“ t’s like we’ve forgotten who we are,” the committed but big, brave things were done It takes an effort hero of the film Interstellar complains. “Ex- to put them right: think of the New Deal and to remember that plorers, pioneers, not caretakers … We’re the Civilian Conservation Corps. That world such fantasies are not meant to save the world. We’re meant is almost as different from our own as the taken seriously by I millions of adults, to leave it.” It could be the epigraph of our planets visited by Interstellar’s astronauts. age. They leave the Earth to find a place to who consider Don’t get me wrong. Interstellar is a mag- which humans can escape or, if that fails, one them a realistic nificent film, true to the richest traditions in which a cargo of frozen embryos can be de- alternative to of science fiction, visually and auditorily as- posited. It takes an effort, when you emerge, addressing the tounding. See past the necessary silliness and to remember that such fantasies are taken problems we face you will find a moving exploration of parent- seriously by millions of adults, who consider on Earth hood, separation and ageing. It is also a clas- them a realistic alternative to addressing the sic exposition of two of the great themes of problems we face on Earth. our age: technological optimism and political NASA runs a website – http://settlement. defeatism. arc.nasa.gov – devoted to the idea. It claims The Earth and its inhabitants are facing that gigantic spaceships, “could be wonder- planetary catastrophe, caused by “six billion ful places to live; about the size of a Califor- people, and every one of them trying to have nia beach town and endowed with weightless it all”, which weirdly translates into a succes- recreation, fantastic views, freedom, elbow- sion of blights, trashing the world’s crops and room in spades, and great wealth.” Of course, sucking the oxygen out of the atmosphere. no one could leave, except to enter another (When your major receipts are in the US, you spaceship, and the slightest malfunction can’t afford to earn the hatred of the broad- would cause instant annihilation. But “settle- cast media by mentioning climate change. ments in earth orbit will have one of the most The blight, an obvious substitute, has prob- stunning views in our solar system – the liv- ably averted millions of dollars of lost tak- ing, ever-changing Earth.” We can look back ings). and remember how beautiful it was. The civilisational collapse at the start of And then there’s the money to be made. the film is intercut with interviews with veter- “Space colonization is, at its core, a real es- ans of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Their worn tate business. … Those that colonize space faces prefigure the themes of ageing and loss. will control vast lands, enormous amounts But they also remind us inadvertently of a of electrical power, and nearly unlimited world of political agency. Great follies were material resources. [This] will create wealth

December 2014 | ColdType 21 Where we belong

Just as it is easier beyond our wildest imagination and wield the tropics might adapt to a world in which to pray for life power – hopefully for good rather than for four degrees of global warming had taken after death than ill.” In other words, we would leave not only place. He replied: “I imagine tropics adapt to it is to confront the Earth behind but also ourselves. 4C world by being wastelands with few folk oppression, this That’s a common characteristic of such living in them. Why’s that not an option?” fantasy permits fantasies: their lack of imagination. Wild Re-reading his article in the light of this us to escape the flights of technological fancy are accompa- comment, I realised that it hinged on the complexities of nied by a stolid incapacity to picture the inner word “we”. When the headline maintained life of Earth for a life of those who might inhabit such systems. that “We have failed to prevent global warm- starlit wonderland People who would consider the idea of living ing, so we must adapt to it”, the “we” referred beyond politics. in the Gobi Desert intolerable – where, an es- in these instances to different people. We in tate agent might point out, there is oxygen, the rich world can brook no taxation to en- radiation-screening, atmospheric pressure courage green energy, or regulation to dis- and 1g of gravity – rhapsodise about living on courage the consumption of fossil fuels. We Mars. People who imagine that human life cannot adapt even to an extra penny of tax. on Earth will end because of power and greed But the other “we”, which turns out to mean and oppression imagine we will escape these “they” – the people of the tropics – can and forces in pressure vessels controlled by tech- must adapt to the loss of their homes, their nicians, in which we would be trapped like land and their lives, as entire regions become tadpoles in a jam jar. wastelands. Why is that not an option? If space colonisation is impossible today, The lives of the poor appear unimagina- when Richard Branson, for all his billions, ble to people in his position, like the lives of cannot even propel people safely past the those who might move to another planet or atmosphere, how will it look in a world that a space station. So reducing the amount of has fallen so far into disaster that leaving it energy we consume and replacing fossil fuels for a lifeless, airless lump of rock would be with other sources, simple and cheap as these perceived as a good option? We’d be lucky in are by comparison to all other options, is in- these circumstances to possess the where- conceivable and outrageous, while the mass withal to make bricks. abandonment of much of the inhabited sur- Only by understanding this as a religious face of the world is a realistic and reasonable impulse can we avoid the conclusion that request. “It is not contrary to reason to pre- those who gleefully await this future are in- fer the destruction of the whole world to the sane. Just as it is easier to pray for life after scratching of my finger”, David Hume noted, death than it is to confront oppression, this and here we see his contemplation reified. fantasy permits us to escape the complexi- But at least Andrew Lilico could explain ties of life of Earth for a starlit wonderland what he meant, by contrast to most of those beyond politics. In Interstellar, as in many who talk breezily about adapting to cli- other versions of the story, space is heaven, mate breakdown. Relocating cities to higher overseen by a benign Technology, peopled by ground? Moving roads and railways, divert- delivering angels with oxygen tanks. ing rivers, depopulating nations, leaving the George Monbiot’s Space colonisation is an extreme version planet? Never mind the details. Technology, book “Feral” was of a common belief: that it is easier to adapt our interstellar god, will sort it out, some day, recently released in to our problems than to solve them. Earlier somehow. paperback format. this year, the economist Andrew Lilico ar- Technological optimism and political de- This article was gued in the Telegraph that we can’t afford to featism: this is a formula for the deferment originally published prevent escalating climate change, so instead of hard choices to an ever-receding neverland in the Guardian we must learn to live with it. He was chal- of life after planetary death. No wonder it is newspaper lenged on Twitter to explain how people in popular. CT

22 ColdType | December 2014 Prophets of doom After Cheney

Michael S. Rozoff looks back at the disastrous Cheney-Powell-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz Strategy for world domination

he US never demobilized after the In the past, no such goals had ever pre- Carrying over Cold War ended. It constructed new vented the US from demobilizing and re- the Cold War missions for its military. It adopted turning to a peacetime posture. None of mentality, the US a new post-Cold War strategy but these goals was ever serious enough or re- blithely referred to T democracy as if it kept its military forces intact. garded as so serious as to require that the Americans received no peace dividend. US be on a continuous war footing. The US were a criterion of To the contrary, as the years have passed had not before regarded itself as a sole su- goodness and as and America’s wars have proliferated, Amer- perpower. It had not conceived itself as hav- if peace required icans have expended enormous wealth. ing these missions to fulfill, with the atten- its extension The war policies of Barack Obama and dant military superiority and applications everywhere George W. Bush grew out of defense plans of force that they implied. of the George H.W. Bush and Clinton ad- It is argued below that the defense policy ministrations. These plans maintained the plans were constructed so as to justify the Cold War mentality. This involved the US military. The justifications and arguments constantly being heavily armed against they contained failed to reflect all sorts of foes and enemies. The Defense Department realities. Consequently, when put into prac- planners transmuted “Global threats” of tice, they have failed miserably. They have the Cold War into “regional challenges and not lived up to the aspirations of the plan- opportunities.” These plans retained a US ners. military force structure suitable for a war- In its planning, the US established mis- time situation, rather than the actual peace- sions for itself that relied on war and force. time situation. The missions were broad, open-ended, In order to keep the US on a military vague, and subject to interpretation. They footing despite being at peace, these plans opened up into new pro-active vistas. The replaced the Soviet Union with an array of language of the plans often sounded in- other justifications. They appealed to such nocuous or even sensible and reasonable, goals as maintaining regional stability, be- but they were disturbing in many ways. ing able to fight two wars, defending Ameri- Carrying over the Cold War mentality, they can overseas interests in natural resources, blithely referred to democracy as if it were warding off foreign threats, fighting terror- a criterion of goodness and as if peace re- ism and preventing the emergence of rivals. quired its extension everywhere. American The planners multiplied missions and mag- interests everywhere were taken for granted. nified their importance. The plans were global in scope. The seeds of

December 2014 | ColdType 23 Prophets of doom

Any country that pre-emptive warfare were planted. open economic systems, the Defense De- the US regarded In the January, 1993 document contain- partment furthers these ends through ef- as nondemocratic ing “Defense Strategy for the 1990s”, Dick forts to counter terrorism, drug trafficking, became an Cheney would write and other threats to internal democratic automatic threat, “Together with our allies, we must pre- order, assistance to peacekeeping efforts; especially if its clude hostile nondemocratic powers from the provision of humanitarian and security region contained dominating regions critical to our interests assistance; limits on the spread of militar- resources that and otherwise work to build an internation- ily significant technology, particularly the the US regarded al environment conducive to our values.” proliferation of weapons of mass destruc- as critical Plans to extend NATO were in place: tion along with the means to deliver them; “The second goal is to strengthen and and the use of defense-to-defense contacts extend the system of defense arrangements to assist in strengthening civil-military in- that binds democratic and like-minded na- stitutions and encourage reductions in the tions together in common defense against economic burden of military spending.” aggression…” Pre-emption and spreading democracy The US planned full spectrum domi- became part of US doctrine: nance everywhere. Any country that the “Our strategy is designed to preclude US regarded as nondemocratic became an threats and to encourage trends that ad- automatic threat, especially if its region vance US security objectives in the future. contained resources that the US regarded as This is not simply within our means; it is critical: critical to our future security…If we and “The third goal is to preclude any hostile other leading democracies continue to build power from dominating a region critical to a democratic security community, a much our interests, and also thereby to strength- safer world is likely to emerge.” en the barriers against the reemergence of a In 2002, David Armstrong identified global threat to the interests of the United some of the US defense planning and strat- States and our allies. These regions include egy documents that have guided major el- Europe, East Asia, the Middle East/Persian ements of US foreign policy for about the Gulf, and Latin America. Consolidated, non- past 25 years. He identified the men directly democratic control of the resources of such responsible for drawing up these plans and a critical region could generate a significant strategies as Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, threat to our security.” Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld. As time Defense was redefined to include ac- went on, the plans and strategies evolved. tivities that involved social and political In May of 1997, Defense Secretary William changes in foreign regions under the theory S. Cohen issued a new Quadrennial Defense that doing this produced a good known as Review. reduced regional instability. The US would In a journal article published in 2011, Al- spread democracy in its own defense. Un- exandra Homolar writes that between 1989 der the umbrella of national security policy, and 1995, these formal defense reviews the US would see fit to meddle in all sorts “provided a medium for political bar- of wasy and in all sorts of regions and coun- gaining between key actors in the defence tries: policymaking community which enabled “The fourth goal is to help preclude con- the maintenance of core elements of the flict by reducing sources of regional insta- status quo. This bargaining process lead to bility and to limit violence should conflict a rearticulation of actors’ interests that in occur. Within the broader national security turn enabled a new strategic consensus to policy of encouraging the spread and con- emerge that preserved many of the princi- solidation of democratic government and pal pillars of US Cold War defence policy,

24 ColdType | December 2014 Prophets of doom the linchpin of which was a shared belief in much less alter its basic presumptions. The US missions the need to maintain an absolute superior- Under the Cheney-Powell-Rumsfeld- are so broad that ity in US military power.” Wolfowitz (CPRW) strategy, a huge mili- the government She also identifies Powell, Cheney and tary is kept alive and US policy is reshaped has the option Wolfowitz as key players. Les Aspin resisted around that military force. The CPRW strat- of making the direction being taken, but Bill Clinton egy creates a military force structure that’s continuous acceded. She concludes: not needed for maintaining peace or for se- war, but more “…all major defence reviews in the post- curity. This has major negative effects. For importantly it Cold War era have underlined the US sta- one thing, the US government then has op- has the option of tus as the sole military superpower and the tions to apply military force throughout the making war at will to persist as the world’s preeminent world. The missions are so broad that the junctures military power as well as the willingness to government has the option of making con- that favor resort to the use of military force, despite tinuous war, but more importantly it has swaying domestic a strategic environment where manifest the option of making war at junctures that political outcome military threats to US interests appeared favor swaying domestic political outcomes. to have declined substantially. In short, the War at chosen junctures brings certain ben- maintenance of ‘unipolarity’ quickly be- efits to government officials, including a came defined as a central objective of US way to re-align domestic political opposi- defence policy in the post-Cold War era… tion and a way to win elections. The result At the same time, this reconfiguration of US is wars being made for political purposes. strategic objectives served to avert radical Second, politicians who have their own per- changes within the US defence establish- sonal reasons for making war have a ready- ment.” made tool to do so. Third, any group with These defense plans that embody the skill to work the levers of government the Cheney-Powell-Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz power or convince officials can instigate (CPRW) strategy would lead to the US war wars for its own reasons. Project for a New policies of the twenty-first century. They American Century (PNAC) did just that. would lead to the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were also and Libya among others. They would lead associated with PNAC. These groups can to the effort to oust Syria’s government, to mobilize important segments of the pub- sanctions on Iran and Russia, and to drone lic in support of their aims. Fourth, even if warfare in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. war is avoided, the US government stands They would lead to the blowback of 9/11 ready to intervene in almost any country for and to the Islamic State. They would lead almost any reason. This meddling has very to the Department of Homeland Security, high costs. Beside being difficult to reverse, to the growth of the national security state, it ties the US into local and regional predica- and to the TSA. They would lead to con- ments that the US cannot resolve. Where a frontation with Russia over Ukraine and to regional hegemon might be able to keep a Pacific “pivot” that confronts China. They order, the US cannot. Regional instability would lead to AFRICOM. rises. The planners saw their plans as relevant The CPRW strategy created a standing for the next 100 years, and they have not war-making machine, and a standing war- yet been proven incorrect in their assess- making machine is an invitation to the ment. Even though these plans in practice making of war. Consequently, the wrong have produced enormous failures that can wars in the wrong places and for the wrong be traced back to the false assumptions and reasons become more probable. Wars for mistaken ideas of the planners, the US gov- non-rational reasons or without rational ernment has yet to acknowledge its failures calculation of the war’s costs and benefits

December 2014 | ColdType 25 Prophets of doom

The NATO become more likely. Because it provides the How believable is it that the US could bombing of Serbia military means, the CPRW strategy encour- grow in strength but others would not feel in 1999 showed ages government and those who influence threatened? That might well be a first in how wrong government to push other nations around human history, but Cheney thought that Cheney’s thinking and dominate them in the name of doing American exceptionalism (its “fundamen- was. The role good. At the same time, the CPRW strategy tal belief in democracy and human rights”) of NATO in the reflects this aim to begin with. assured this result. How could other nations Libyan campaign A tremendous gulf divides the lofty not feel threatened when the US in practice provided a further CPRW strategy of the elite defense estab- used its military power to violate human instance. NATO’s lishment from the results that have actually rights and to violate international law? response to the occurred on the ground when these plans Cheney’s thinking in this 1993 docu- Ukrainian conflict were put into practice. ment, which was US official doctrine, made makes total this assertion: hash out of his “But Mousie, thou art no thy lane, “Similarly, NATO’s new strategy not only statement In proving foresight may be vain: reflects an adjustment to the reduced threat The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men environment in Europe but equally it reas- Gang aft agley, sures our former adversaries of the truly de- An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, fensive nature of the NATO alliance.” For promis’d joy!” The NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 showed how wrong his thinking was. The Instead of a safer world, the world is less role of NATO in the Libyan campaign pro- safe. Cheney’s defense document contains vided a further instance. NATO’s response one erroneous statement after another, to the Ukrainian conflict makes total hash which explains why his best-laid schemes out of this statement. went astray. For example, he wrote One last example of many that could be “One of the primary tasks we face today cited shows again that the US plans were in shaping the future is carrying long stand- shaped without sufficient regard to reali- ing alliances into the new era, and turning ties. The documents live in a rarified world old enmities into new cooperative relation- of their own in which the writers seem to ships. If we and other leading democracies think that what they express about the continue to build a democratic security world actually makes it so. It doesn’t. Their community, a much safer world is likely to ignorance of everything involved is so vast emerge.” that they could not help but go wrong. Extending NATO’s life and range to Rus- Cheney wrote sia’s borders didn’t make Russia more coop- “Our ability to reduce sources of regional erative. How could it possibly do so? With- instability and to limit violence should con- drawing from the ABM treaty didn’t achieve flict occur also is critical to shaping the envi- that end either. How could it do anything ronment This includes, for example, updat- but interfere with cooperation? The US ing our strategy to counter the proliferation built and extended its “democratic secu- of militarily significant technology, particu- rity community”, but that hasn’t made the larly the proliferation of weapons of mass world safer. destruction along with the means to deliver Cheney opined that: them. Our traditional export control efforts “Our fundamental belief in democracy must not only be updated and strengthened and human rights gives other nations con- in this new era, but supplemented by politi- fidence that our significant military power cal dissuasion, bilateral and multilateral ne- threatens no one’s aspirations for peaceful gotiations, and inspection and destruction democratic progress.” missions, as illustrated in the case of Iraq.”

26 ColdType | December 2014 Prophets of doom

There was a fixation on Iraq and weap- Eventually these ideas would lead him and Here we have ons of mass destruction revealed here and Bush to an attack on Iraq. These ideas could Cheney piling up elsewhere in the thought of American de- be made to sound sensible and logical by one erroneous, fense planners. They seem to have lost all practitioners of the art of persuasion on talk distorted or wild sense of proportion. Accompanying this shows, interviews and speeches; but they idea atop another was the sense that it was up to the US to “re- are all flawed and they led to disaster, it be- duce sources of regional instability”. Why? ing widely thought, as is easy to document, And could it be done? Cheney was intent that the decision to invade Iraq was a huge on “shaping the environment”, another policy blunder. fixation. Why attempt this? Was this really The CPRW plans and strategy are official necessary for security of Americans? Is it US policy to this date. They are a loser. CT even feasible? Were Cheney and his plan- ners even cognizant of the difficulties in do- Michael S. Rozeff [[email protected]] is ing so? He thought this was “critical”. Why? a retired Professor of Finance living in East How much difference does it really make to Amherst, New York. He is the author of the Americans if various regions have changes free e-book Essays on American Empire: or instability? Isn’t this as old as the hills? Liberty vs. Domination and the free e-book Here we have Cheney piling up one erro- The US Constitution and Money: Corruption neous, distorted or wild idea atop another. and Decline. hurwitt’s eye Mark Hurwitt

December 2014 | ColdType 27 spy watch Too many prying eyes Bill Buchanan tells why the head of Britain’s signals intelligence agency is upset at internet companies increasing security for their users

Now more obert Hannigan, the new head of The fifth version of Google’s Android op- connected, British signals intelligence agency erating system, codenamed Lollipop, was more mobile GCHQ, has accused technology released last month with similar security than ever, we companies of aiding terrorists and upgrades. Besieged by thefts and leaks of carry our most R criminals by providing them secure com- anything from intimate photos to financial sensitive data munications through their products and data, users might legitimately ask why it has with us all the networks. taken so long. time: what was Far from adopting a conciliatory tone The protection for digital files on com- once protected following last year’s revelations from docu- puters or phones provided by file attributes by firewalls ments leaked by Edward Snowden about and content types has barely changed in and physical government spying on citizens, the intel- decades, and is based on concepts of stand- security is now ligence chief has doubled down, railing alone computer systems, and with little in our pocket against companies like Microsoft, Google, thought on keeping things truly private. Facebook, Yahoo and Apple for what some This works well from a corporate point of will see as trying to balance user privacy view, where we can keep backwards compa- against the rapacious demands of the sur- tability and allow IT department adminis- veillance services. trators to keep full control. Hannigan’s statement is bound to rile The firms creating mobile devices, how- some. Privacy, he says, has never been “an ever, have different issues, as their devices absolute right”. Extremist groups are using are on the move, and often stolen or mislaid. the liberties granted them by the web: while The internet itself is built from the protocols some have been harboured by dark areas of used in the days of mainframe computers the net in the past, ISIS instead uses the in- and teletype terminals, with little thought ternet to openly “promote itself, intimidate given to protecting data as it is stored and people, and radicalise new recruits.” transmitted. Now more connected, more Apple recently released iOS 8, the lat- mobile than ever, we carry our most sensi- est version of its mobile phone and tablet tive data with us all the time: what was once operating system, with encryption for the protected by firewalls and physical security phones contents enabled by default. This is now in our pocket. led to outcries from the FBI that it would With mobile phones increasingly inte- make their work harder, while a Chicago grated into our lives, the devices need to be police chief claimed the iPhone would be- more protected that our traditional desktop come to “choice of phone for paedophiles”. computers. So Apple and Google now find

28 ColdType | December 2014 spy watch themselves with consumers who will switch access, with the support of a warrant. The FBI currently mobile devices to keep up to date, without In both cases this will undoubtedly be- sees the status many decades of previous operating sys- come harder with encryption-by-default, quo, where major tems and application software to maintain and the same tension exists with encrypted tech companies compatibility with – the ball and chain and anonymised “dark net” service Tor, are persuaded or around Microsoft’s neck, particularly. With where law enforcement are scared that brow-beaten into the power and speed of even mobile phone crime can go un-noticed, whereas privacy cooperating with hardware now considerable and growing advocates promote the privacy capabilities police and security all the time, the days when a special maths it offers. agencies under chip was needed to perform complex cryp- But the introduction of improved secu- the PATRIOT Act, tography are gone. rity is a predictable response to a situation as necessary to This tension between law enforcement in which the agencies headed by Hanni- pursue criminals and the right to privacy remains unresolved. gan’s predecessors and fellow spooks have and terrorists The FBI currently sees the status quo, where been seen to ease themselves past those major tech companies are persuaded or safeguards to citizens’ information that re- brow-beaten into cooperating with police main. CT and security agencies under the PATRIOT Act, as necessary to pursue criminals and Bill Buchanan is the head of the Centre terrorists. for Distributed Computing, Networks and In the UK the Regulation of Investigatory Security at Edinburgh Napier University. Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) defines what infor- This article was first published at mation of citizens that law enforcement can http://theconversation.com

DAVID MICHAEL GREEN | DISPATCHES FROM THE END OF EMPIRE CAPITALISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY | ERIC RUDER IMPERIAL HUBRIS | RICK ROZOFF JOHN W. RUTHERFORD | A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF A POLICE STATE MAD, PASSIONATE LOVE. AND VIOLENCE | REBECCA SOLNIT A GLIMPSE OF ANOTHER BRITAIN | JOHN PILGER DIANA JOHNSTONE | THE IMPERIALIST CRIME COVER‒UP COOKIES WITH CHRISTIANITY | BILL BERKOWITZ THE FIFTH HORSEMAN | GLENN ASHTON MARCH ���� AUGUST ���� JUNE–JULY ����

Cold ype Cold ype WRITING WORTH READING T ISSUE �� WRITING WORTH READING T ISSUE �� Cold T ype WRITING WORTH READING ISSUE 57 WHY IS THE WEST SO INTENT ON REPEATING ITS MILITARY DISASTERS IN IRAQ AND LIBYA? THE ROAD

TO WAR Essays by ● DAVID EDWARDS ● DIANA JOHNSTONE ● PHILIP GIRALDI BLACK HAT ● STUART LITTLEWOOD ● WILLIAM BLUM ● BARRY LANDO AGENT OF THE PEOPLE ● DAVID SWANSON HYPOCRISY Why Julian Assange won top journalism award BLAIR’S LEGACY – TWO OPINIONS: Jonathan Cook tells why the West has no right to play God JOHN PILGER AND TREVOR GRUNDY in Iraq, Libya, Syria, or anywhere else in the Middle East

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December 2014 | ColdType 29 in the frame Propaganda, pride, art and nostalgia Nate Robert visits Kyrgyzstan’s decaying museum of communism where he is intrigued by the exhibits on display

The State History ife back in the 80’s was Saturday Museum in morning cartoons, Russian and Bishkek is chock American leaders on the news, Dead full of displays Kennedys and Beastie Boys on the featuring Lenin, L boombox. An inevitable nuclear war was Marx, and the imminently about to rain down upon us, whole commie and give anyone who wasn’t wearing 2 mil- gang lion-strength sunblock a really fucking bad day. Back then, to a teenager in the West, communism was just a bunch of poor na- tions where mono-browed men drove boxy cars, on the same muddy streets women wore scarves and lined up for bread. No, I didn’t experience communism. However, the outlandish communist propa- ganda murals on the ceiling of Kyrgyzstan’s State History Museum forced the memories of my very Western upbringing to come flooding back. It’s not always rational, but nostalgia can be exquisitely powerful. Housed in a typically Soviet-era build- ing, and formerly known as the “Museum of Lenin” (of course), the State History Mu- seum in Bishkek is chock full of displays featuring Lenin, Marx, and the whole com- mie gang. Sure, there’s a decent amount of Kyrgyzstan’s non-Soviet cultural history

30 ColdType | December 2014 Goose-stepping guards on patrol outside the National Museum of History at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

October/November 2014 | ColdType 31 in the frame

Communism promotes peace while American presidents ride nuclear missiles and wear skeleton masks.

There’s a lot of – however, the Soviet-era propaganda that like to forget that whole communist peri- fire, brimstone, fills most of the ceiling space is the main od. Around the world, any evidence of the and skeletons, event. Images show just how swell life un- communist/socialist-era is being actively just to put a little der communism is, capitalism is bad, the destroyed, or passively left to quietly decay. fear into the evil West is always out for war, communists From Macedonia removing any reference mind of anyone have tractors and being a worker is so great to the Socialist era of Tito and the former doubting the so let’s all drink wine, and all religions suck. Yugoslavia, to Lenin statutes dropping like party line And of course, there’s a lot of fire, brim- flies in the Ukraine, history is vanishing. stone, and skeletons, just to put a little fear Ironically, there is currently a huge interest into the mind of anyone doubting the party in the history of the communist era, and it’s line. Unfortunately, the beautifully painted not just from doe-eyed Western tourists. murals are decaying, and either through There’s a reason so many people in post- lack of money or lack of will, the result will communist, post-socialist nations yearn to be the same – all of these communist mu- go back to the “good old days”. It’s not the rals will soon disappear. bread-lines, or having to book a plumber Most contemporary governments would fourteen months in advance. It’s nostalgia.

32 ColdType | December 2014 in the frame

sodiso9iswooiso osix osixosi xoso xw

Communism will save you from the Nazi’s, especially if you’re Jewish.

Throw your children in the air, like you just don’t care. The Destruction of royal families is one ideal of communism I’m joys of communism are depicted at the National Museum actually more than OK with – National Museum of History, of History, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

December 2014 | ColdType 33 in the frame

That sailor, well, he’s just fabulous. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – National Museum of History, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Most westerners That twisted happiness of pain and longing, be the understatement of the year. How- would be amazed reminding them of a time they can never ever, it’s more than likely that the imagery at the number of return to. Time travel doesn’t exist, but a adorning the ceiling of the National History people who yearn fleeting jolt of nostalgia has the same effect. Museum in Bishkek is seeing its last days. for a return of the Whether communism made any sense or So, I thought it would be a good idea to take communist era not, whether life was objectively better or a bunch of photos of the ceiling, just for pos- worse during communism, is not the point. terity. I have a feeling these images will be Most westerners would be amazed at the floating around the internet for some time number of people who yearn for a return of to come, being dug out whenever someone the communist era. The emotional power of has a strange nostalgic twang for the good nostalgia allows people to travel back to a old days of communism. place that in their minds, was utopia. Per- Personally, I enjoyed the National His- ception is reality. tory Museum so much, I’ve already visited I know, not everyone is a fan of soviet-era twice. communist propaganda art. And that, may I may have a problem. CT

34 ColdType | December 2014 in the frame

Flames, skulls, bullets, cannons, pretty blonde, an armless doll being stabbed by a gun – National Museum of History, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Don’t doubt progress, little girl, for with communism we “We shall dig for bread, and young children will supply us have Fordson tractors. with military uniforms in case of nuclear war.”

December 2014 | ColdType 35 book review / 1 The Syrian labyrinth Conn Hallinan reviews Inside Syria, an important new book by Reese Erlich

The mainstream eese Erlich’s informative and in- Erlich, Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn media generally sightful book “Inside Syria” brings understand that the history of the region considers history to mind the Greek myth of a vast and current events are one and the same, a an afterthought, maze under the palace at Knossos, sort of paraphrase of William Faulkner’s ob- which explains R with one exception: King Minos’ labyrinth servation that history is as much the pres- why it does such on Crete concealed a single Minotaur, Syria ent as the past. an awful job is teeming with the beasts. While understanding the historical con- reporting on the Erlich has spent almost three decades re- text of a story is a pretty good rule of thumb Middle East porting from the Middle East, and he brings for producing competent journalism in his considerable knowledge of the region general, that is particularly so in the Middle into this analysis of the Syrian East, precisely because many people think civil war. A winner of the Peabody they know about that past. Didn’t Award and the Society of Profes- they see “Lawrence of sional Journalists explanatory Arabia”? Read “Exodus”? journalism award for “Inside Or – God help them – read the Syrian Revolution,” Erlich the mainstream press or combines on-the-ground re- watch television news? porting with an encyclopedic The book begins with the background in the region’s initial revolt – “The Uprising history. It is a combination That Wasn’t Supposed to Be” that is particularly useful – and then backs into broader for a subject as complex historical context, including and nuanced as the cur- a chapter on T.E. Lawrence (if rent war, one that has this particular period is of inter- gradually drawn Lebanon, est to readers, they also might Israel, Turkey, Iran, and the mon- consider picking up Scott Ander- archies of the Persian Gulf, along inside Syria son excellent book, “Lawrence In with the US, France and Britain. Reese Erlich. Arabia”). How Syria was created, The mainstream media gener- Forward by Noam and the imperial machinations of ally considers history an after- Chomsky her architects, Britain and France, thought, which explains why it Prometheus Press, is essential to understanding not does such an awful job reporting New York only the internal dynamics of the on the Middle East. Journalists like $25 country, but its place in the re-

36 ColdType | December 2014 book review / 1 gion. The current hostility between Turkey think the evidence against Assad was a Erlich carefully and Syria has roots that reach back almost slam-dunk, a fact that the Obama admin- unpacks the a century. If you want to understand Leba- istration deliberately obscured. It is a fasci- evidence that the non – a key player in the Syrian civil war – nating treatment of the subject – there were Assad regime knowing how it was created and the strate- several incidents involving the use of chem- used Sarin gas gies of ethnic division that France employed ical weapons, not just the most horrendous and finds that to maintain its colonial grip on this small at Al-Ghouta that killed several hundred some of it has but strategically placed country is essential. people – and a good example of Erlich’s dili- been exaggerated The book covers Syrian history without gence as a reporter. or even possibly bogging the reader down. This is, after all, His chapters on “the Uprising begins,” fabricated. Which a report on the on-going civil war. But Er- and “Who Supports Assad” are a must for doesn’t mean the lich does not glide over the important de- anyone trying to figure out who is who in Damascus regime tails, including how the US camel first put this complex tragedy. Erlich details the vari- is innocent its nose under the tent. Two chapters cover ous factions, how they interlink and how the period just after World War I, the impact they differ, and why the US policy of arm- of World War II, and the appearance of the ing “moderate forces” is doomed to failure. Assads in 1970. These chapters are essential for understand- Erlich maintains that Syrian President ing the internal dynamics of the two sides, Bashar al-Assad’s economic “reforms” which are more like a Rubik Cube than two helped impel the current uprising. Adopt- opposing poles. The book includes an in- ing neoliberal policies, Assad sold off state- valuable appendix on the groups involved, owned enterprises – generally to regime al- as well as a useful timeline of the current lies and insiders – and opened the economy uprising. to outside competition. The result – aided Syria is part of a much larger picture, and by a long-running drought – was growing its strategic placement – bordering Turkey, impoverishment and lots of unemployed Iraq, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon – means youth. Joblessness and economic crisis is a what happens in Damascus doesn’t stay in volatile mix and needs only an “incident” Damascus. Why is Iran backing Assad? Is to set it off. That happened in March 2011 this all about religion? (Hint: nope). What in the southern city of Daraa, when Syrian will this mean for the 30 million or so Kurds security forces brutally attacked peaceful trying to form their own country? Do all the demonstrators. Kurds want to form a country, and, if they After laying the historical groundwork do, what will moving that particular piece for his reporting, Erlich follows with a de- on the Middle East chessboard do? How tailed chapter on the 2011 uprising. might this affect the on-going fight by the While Erlich has a clear point of view – Palestinians to form their own country? he detests dictatorship and neo-colonialism The Syrian civil war has morphed into in equal measure – he is a careful and thor- a proxy battle with Iran and Russia on one ough reporter. His discussion of the use of side, and the US, Gulf monarchies and some chemical weapons is a case in point. Erlich NATO members on the other. While the carefully unpacks the evidence that the As- battle is not over religion per se, religion sad regime used Sarin gas and finds that greases the movement of arms and aid. “To some of it has been exaggerated or even the pious go the guns,” writes Erlich, which possibly fabricated. Which doesn’t mean means that adherence to the reactionary the Damascus regime is innocent. His dis- brand of Islam favored by Saudi Arabia and cussion weighs the charges on all sides and other Gulf monarchies is a litmus test for concludes that we really don’t know. What whether you get arms and ammunition. It is we do know is that US intelligence didn’t not an atmosphere in which the American’s

December 2014 | ColdType 37 book review / 1

Because Erlich favored “moderates” can thrive. flawed, but it should still gives us pause is one of those Erlich says the White House recognizes – for one, Vietnam demonstrated that air old-fashioned that the “ultra-right wing Islamic groups” wars don’t work unless you have reliable journalists who like the ISIS, Al-Nusra, and the Islamic allies on the ground. Once again, the US is believes that Front are growing at the expense of the at war. Once again, the US is ignoring inter- you need to talk less extreme or secular groups and at one national law and choosing to use military to the principals point considered simply “re-defining” the force over diplomacy. Once again there is a involved, the extremist Islamic Front as “moderate” so it logic at work here that leads to yet another readers get an could send aid to that organization. dark tunnel of escalation. opportunity to Because Erlich is one of those old-fash- In 1966 journalist Robert Scheer wrote listen to what ioned journalists who believes that you a small book, “How the United States Got Kurds and need to talk to the principals involved, Involved in Vietnam,” that undercut the Palestinians the readers get an opportunity to listen to popular narrative about Communist ag- have to say what Kurds and Palestinians have to say. gression and toppling dominos. The book This combination of street interviews, suite shattered the official paradigm and gave the discussions – he beards the US State De- infant anti-war movement ammunition for partment in Foggy Bottom – and historical its confrontation with the administration of background makes for a thoroughly engag- Lyndon Johnson. Erlich’s “Inside Syria” has ing read. While he generally keeps his dis- similar heft and should be widely read, be- tance, Erlich injects himself when needed, cause we are once again at war without the or when he wants the reader to know that slightest idea of where it leads or what its this is his opinion, not God’s. He also has a ultimate goals are. CT sense of humor. There is a wonderful mo- ment when he gets off a bus in Gaza to be Conn M. Hallinan is a columnist for met by Hamas officials. Foreign Policy In Focus, “A Think Tank His final chapter – “US, Russia, and out- Without Walls, and an independent side powers” – discusses the international journalist. He oversaw the journalism dimensions of the civil war – virtually any- program at the University of California thing major that happens in the Middle at Santa Cruz for 23 years, and won the East, with its enormous oil and gas reserves, UCSC Alumni Association’s Distinguished has an international dimension – and what Teaching Award, as well as UCSC’s ought, and ought not, be done, to solve it. Innovations in Teaching Award, and The Obama administration is slipping Excellence in Teaching Award. He is a into a quagmire that some have even com- winner of a Project Censored “Real News pared to Vietnam. That analogy is probably Award,” and lives in Berkeley, California.

38 ColdType | December 2014 book review / 2 World of fantasy Eric Walberg reviews Agent Storm, by Morten Storm

ecruiting Muslims has not been easy “agent provocateurs who by 1995 were delib- Nasiri’s loudly for western ‘intelligence’. The New erately shifting the campaign of violence into proclaimed motive York Police Department has tried France, to try and draw Paris into the conflict in helping the for decades to recruit Muslim immi- in opposition to the Islamists and in support French and British R security forces grants, and was finally embarrassed by a 2013 for the Algerian state.” ACLU lawsuit to disband its most public re- Nasiri realized the GIA was undermin- was to prevent cruiting unit, which essentially blackmailed ing the genuine Islamist struggle and he terrorism, though anyone with a Muslim name arrested on any suddenly found that the French and British he still wants pretext, including parking tickets. intelligence were his allies (however dubi- imperialists out The most successful double ous) against rogue elements in the Algerian agent prior to Morten Storm was military dictatorship. Nasiri, Omar Nasiri (b. 1960s), the pseud- who seems to be a sin- onym of a Moroccan spy who cere Muslim, bitterly op- infiltrated al-Qaeda, attending posed to the Wahhabis and training camps in Afghanistan Salafis, did not prevent any and passing information to the spectacular terrorist attacks, UK and French intelligence but by monitoring the jihad- services. He revealed all in ist movement in Europe in his fascinating memoir, “In- the 1990s, was instrumental side the Jihad: My Life with in helping intelligence agen- Al Qaeda A Spy’s Story,” in cies keep track of recruiting. 2006. His loudly proclaimed motive Nasiri offered his servic- in helping the French and Brit- es not so much for money ish security forces was to prevent (at least, so he claims) but terrorism, though he still wants to counter the descent into vio- agent storm: imperialists out (and told his lence among Islamists following My Life Inside minders so to the end), and wants the military coup against the elect- Al Qaeda And The CIA a dignified Muslim culture not ed Islamist government in Algeria Morten Storm modelled on the West. in 1992. “The GIA [the Algerian with Tim Lister “What I want more than any- Armed Islamic Groups] was rid- & Paul Cruickshank thing is to save Islam from these dled from the start with spies from Atlantic Monthly Press terrible excesses and innovations.” the Algerian secret service” and $ 12.38 The insurgents buying Israeli

December 2014 | ColdType 39 book review / 2

Storm became a Uzi machine guns was humiliating, but “now Storm’s dubious credibility, given his street militant and something much worse is happening: we’re background, never seemed to have bothered martial-arts trainer fighting our wars using our enemies’ tactics. If his Salafi brothers. But his Islam soon proved in London, joining we, as Muslims, let ourselves become like them to be skin-deep. He missed his cocaine, the inner circle – which is to say, like you – then there will be drinking and cavorting, and was successfully of leading radical nothing left to fight for. This is my jihad.” recruited by the Danish Security and Intel- cleric Omar Bakri On BBC in 2006 he said that the UK in- ligence Service (PET) in 2006, after a crisis telligence services were warned in the mid- of faith. He couldn’t accept the Salafi “drum- 1990s about the threat posed by al-Qaeda, beat of jihadism … moving on from the de- but failed to act quickly enough. He ended fence of Muslim lands towards a declaration his covert activities by 2000, offered to re- of war against all disbelievers.” new them after 9/11 but was snubbed by the He flitted back and forth from the UK and German intelligence. He now lives under a Denmark to Yemen, and befriended Anwar pseudonym. His memoirs are an indictment Awlaki, even arranging his final marriage – of both the West’s policies in the Middle East to a Croatian Muslim convert ‘Aminah’ (born and the bureaucratic bungling of the intel- Irena Horak) in 2010, for which the CIA paid ligence agencies. him $250,000 (his memoirs proudly include Morten Storm is a very different kettle of a picture of the suitcase full of US dollars). fish. Born in 1976 in a troubled (white) envi- But his appetite proved equal to the talks, ronment, he was abused as a child, joined the and he was soon cash-starved, so he agreed feared Bandidos gang, and became a criminal to help the CIA assassinate his friend Awlaki, tough convicted of multiple armed robberies hoping to pocket the $5m reward. Awlaki was and violence, earning up to $10,000 a week killed in September 2011, but the CIA never smuggling drugs through Europe. As a social coughed up, and Storm decided to go public outcast, he befriended Muslim immigrants, with a series of articles in the Jyllands-Posten and converted to Islam in 1997 at the age of newspaper (publisher of the notorious car- 21, inspired by a fellow prisoner Suleiman. toons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammed A lost soul in search of meaning, he visited in 2005), and publish his memoirs, which the (Salafi) Regent’s Park mosque, and was like Nasiri’s, show the ‘intelligence’ agencies quickly recruited and offered a free study in a shocking light. program in Yemen. But, unlike Nasiri, Storm is genuinely He adopted the Salafi Islamic package proud to be fighting Islam. “In a school proj- wholesale, even telling the head of the Mus- ect, my son Osama decided to make me his lim Brotherhood (MB) in Yemen, Sheikh subject … and wrote an essay entitled: ‘My Abdul Majeed al-Zindani, that “you will lead Dad, the Hero’.” Storm has twinges of regret me to hellfire,” since the MB are “innovators for murdering his bosom buddy (if his claims where it suited their political ends”, sup- are to be believed). Nowhere in the memoir porting the concept of democratic elections. is Awlaki’s guilt for any terrorist operation (Zindani is no shrinking violet. Banned from actually shown without a doubt. He was the US since 2004 as a “Specially Designated rather always on the run, writing fiery tracts Global Terrorist”, he was acquainted with for Inspire, encrypting messages, and trying Osama bin Laden and Anwar Awlaki.) – mostly unsuccessfully – to get supplies of Storm became a street militant and mar- items that might or might not be for build- tial-arts trainer in London, joining the inner ing bombs. circle of leading radical cleric Omar Bakri All this seems faintly irrelevant given IS’s who was active in Hizb ut-Tahrir and Al-Mu- success in the past six months. What formerly hajiroun in the UK (he was arrested in 2010 looked like a wildly optimistic long term plan in Lebanon). on the part of al-Qaeda remains eerily on-

40 ColdType | December 2014 book review / 2 track despite the killing of thousands of “ter- tory, Storm was unable to shed his cultural Storm’s most rorists”, including Bin Laden and Awlaki. baggage. shocking What can we learn from these memoirs? For a century now, since western secular- revelation is his First, while Wahhabi-inspired Islam at- ism has taken hold, many disillusioned west- revelation of a tracts some disillusioned westerners, their ern youth have embraced eastern beliefs, in- letter from Saudi commitment is easily jettisoned. Its rote cluding Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. But officials to Al- nature creates a rigid mindset conducive to the first two stop short of trying to transform Qaeda in the Arab both terrorism and corruption. For the past society through a political movement of re- Peninsula leader three decades thousands of Saudi youth have form. Islam does not shy away from politics; Nasir al-Wuhayshi chosen death fighting the corrupt, pro-US that is why spies like Nasiri keep the faith, in 2011 proposing monarchy, be it by fighting in Syria-Iraq or while flotsam like Storm stumble into Wah- a deal underground in Saudi Arabia. Uneducated habism, which mimics the nihilism of west- westerners like Storm are easily seduced by ern anarchism. a kind word from a Salafi imam, an offer of a Some western strategists reach out to free study course in Yemen, and the simplis- nonviolent Islamists such as the Muslim tic rote beliefs of Wahhabism, which dismiss Brotherhood. In 2010, President Obama is- the scholarly and peaceful activist tradition sued Presidential Study Directive 11 (PSD-11) of the MB (let alone Shiism). advising a shift from support for dictators Storm’s most shocking revelation is his to working with “moderate” Islamic po- revelation of a letter from Saudi officials to litical movements (though his actions since Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula leader Na- then show how wobbly this commitment to sir al-Wuhayshi in 2011 proposing a deal: peaceful evolution is). They are searching for “They would pardon Wuhayshi and donate ways other than war to deal with the now weapons and money if they stopped fighting uncontrollable extremists, to stabilize Mus- the Saudis and the Americans and focused lim society where the post-colonial neolib- instead on fighting Shia rebels in northern eral model has failed. Yemen.” Other strategists, like Storm’s handlers, Clearly, for western converts to Islam, continue to live in a fantasy world of 007 and however well-meaning, secular consumer- double agents, sure that if they can only kill ism is a heavy burden hard to shake. Despite that nasty Bin Laden, Awlaki, whomever, we admiring Islam for its truths and its great his- will all live happily ever after. CT

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December 2014 | ColdType 41 Taking stock The history of blowback in one sentence Want to know why your world is going to hell? William Rivers Pitt has the answer

When you punch ince you’re probably wondering economy on a wartime footing to do so, and someone in the why the Canadian Parliament was in the fullness of time, it worked, and the face, odds are shot up and your friendly neighbor- war was over . . . very good that hood police officer is driving a tank . . . but actually, it never ended, because you’re going S and your savings account is a sad joke and the manufacture of war materiel made the to get your road is littered with potholes and you manufacturers rich beyond the dreams of punched back can’t find a job and three of your friends avarice, and they began to exert influence who joined the Army to pay for college died over American politics, and then FDR died, in Iraq and Afghanistan and two others and Harry Truman took the big chair, and have brain trauma from IED explosions and then George Kennan, the American Ambas- won’t ever be the same and your tap water sador to the Soviet Union, wrote what has is flammable and the ocean is coming for come to be known as the “Long Telegram,” your home, well . . . in which he described the bedlam of Stalin . . . let me introduce you to the con- and Soviet intentions, and Truman along cept of “blowback,” which author Chalm- with a bunch of other people read it, and ers Johnson explained as “another way of it scared the cheese out of them, and so the saying that a nation reaps what it sows,” National Security Act of 1947 was passed, which basically means that when you making America’s economic wartime foot- punch someone in the face, odds are very ing a permanent thing that endures to this good that you’re going to get punched back, day, and thus the Cold War was born . . . and maybe they land that counterpunch, . . . which was bully news for the weap- or maybe they don’t, but that fist is going ons manufacturers who got rich on WWII, to come whistling at your face, count on it, because now they were indispensable as a and if it misses, there is always another fist, matter of policy, “national security” assets, curled and hard and ready to fly . . . and before long, tank after tank and war- . . . so let’s talk about blowback, the story ship after warship and nuclear missile after of which began seventy-three years ago at nuclear missile and bullet after bullet and Pearl Harbor, when we were attacked by the rifle after rifle and bomb after bomb rolled Japanese Empire, and the United States en- down the production lines, each and every tered the war in Europe and Asia simultane- one paid for with tax dollars collected from ously, and President Roosevelt endeavored an American populace which was led to be- to manufacture the Reich and the Empire lieve this was all vitally necessary because out of existence, and placed the American the readers of Kennan’s telegram decided

42 ColdType | December 2014 Taking stock

the thing to do was to make sure everyone . . . which led, of course, to another de- The Mujeheddin felt threatened because a fearful populace is cade of war after all the other decades of learned, with easily controlled . . . war that came on the heels of Pearl Har- the help of . . . and so the Cold War unfolded, and bor and the National Security Act, which American money in the words of Stephen King, O my Lord has in this brave new moment led to ISIS, and American how the money rolled in, because conflict as well as a dementedly paranoid United weapons and a for conflict’s sake became the operational States that doesn’t blink at cops dressed CIA ally named ethos in Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia and armed like soldiers while driving tanks Osama bin Laden, and Africa and South America and Central down Main Street because OMG TERROR- how to take down America and especially in the Middle East ISTS YOU GUYS . . . a superpower, for decades, and in the process of this multi- . . . but when you stop and think about which they generational permanent state of conflict the it, really think about it, when you attach eventually weapons manufacturers became wealthier thread to thread and event to event and did before and wealthier, and more and more power- actually put context to history, you real- metastasizing ful, and exerted that power on the body ize that everything that has gone wrong into the Taliban politic of the United States to such a degree and sideways in this country – the lack of and al Qaeda that they eventually began purchasing the money for roads and bridges and education news media brick by brick, so the people and health care and old people and veter- would hear day after day how the corpora- ans and schools, the hyper-militarization of tions who profit from war are actually keep- the police, the end of big dreams and the ing them safe and stuff . . . permanent establishment of big fears and . . . and this went on and on, growing eternal war . . . and expanding, even to far-flung places like . . . can be traced back to the process by Afghanistan, where big brains like Zbignew which the United States stopped being a Brzezinski decided in 1978 to give the USSR country and was transformed into a war-fi- its own Vietnam, and began a process that nanced empire, an exporter and importer of Reagan eventually took over to underwrite violence, a creator of enemies it has to fight the Mujeheddin, who took on the Soviet in order to feed the machine, which creates Union and learned, with the help of Ameri- more enemies, which creates more reasons can money and American weapons and a to fight, and all the while the weapons deal- CIA ally named Osama bin Laden, how to ers sell their products as fast as they can, take down a superpower, which they even- until we arrive at the present moment when tually did before metastasizing into the Tali- American warplanes are dropping Ameri- ban and al Qaeda . . . can armaments on American weapons in . . . because Brzezinski’s original plan was Iraq and Syria to the tune of billions of your to arm, train and fund anti-Soviet fighters taxpayer dollars and with wall-to-wall tele- in Pakistani religious schools to destabilize vision coverage, again . . . Afghanistan and dare the Soviets to invade, . . . .so, when you sit in the darkness of and that plan was executed, and it worked, your personal night and wonder what hap- and the word “Taliban” when translated pened to your country, to your aspirations means “Religious student,” so congratula- and dreams, to the potholed road you drive tions, Zbignew, for kicking the pebble down every day to the job that has no chance of the hill that turned into an avalanche which letting you retire in comfort, to your barren came in the fullness of time to deprive the savings account, when you turn on your New York City skyline of two very tall build- television and see paid shills shriek about ings and the thousands of people who were how and why you’re about to die while your in them on a perfect blue Tuesday thirteen neighbor’s kid comes home in a flag-draped years ago . . . box and you have to ask again where your

December 2014 | ColdType 43 Taking stock

Every lethal black suit is so you can go properly dressed . . . which is why we as a people must ab- decision always to yet another funeral . . . solutely endeavor to do better from here on comes knocking . . . remember that history exists, and ac- out, because we are already in a deep hole, at your door tions have consequences, and this event is and The First Law Of Holes says, “When someday tied to that event is tied to the other event you’re in a hole, stop digging . . . ” in a tapestry of escalating cascading fallout, . . . so, please, put down the shovel. CT which is called “blowback,” which always carries a dear price unless you’re getting William Rivers Pitt is senior editor and paid for it, which is why you think very hard lead columnist at http://truthout.org before making a lethal national decision, where this essay was first published. because every lethal decision always comes Copyright, Truthout.org. Reprinted with knocking at your door someday . . . permission.

Bendibb’s world http://otherwords.org

44 ColdType | December 2014 power play The forgotten coup John Pilger tells how and why America and Britain crushed the government of their ‘ally’, Australia

cross the political and media elite Latin Americans will recognise the au- Whitlam in Australia, a silence has descend- dacity and danger of this “breaking free” demanded to ed on the memory of the great, in a country whose establishment was know if and why reforming prime minister Gough welded to great, external power. Australians the CIA was A running a spy Whitlam, who died on October 22. His had served every British imperial adven- achievements are recognised, if grudgingly, ture since the Boxer rebellion was crushed base at Pine Gap his mistakes noted in false sorrow. But a in China. In the 1960s, Australia pleaded near Alice Springs, critical reason for his extraordinary political to join the US in its invasion of Vietnam, a giant vacuum demise will, they hope, be buried with him. then provided “black teams” to be run by cleaner which, as Australia briefly became an independent the CIA. US diplomatic cables published Edward Snowden state during the Whitlam years, 1972-75. last year by WikiLeaks disclose the names revealed recently, An American commentator wrote that no of leading figures in both main parties, in- allows the US to country had “reversed its posture in in- cluding a future prime minister and foreign spy on everyone ternational affairs so totally without going minister, as Washington’s informants dur- through a domestic revolution”. Whitlam ing the Whitlam years. ended his nation’s colonial servility. He Whitlam knew the risk he was taking. abolished Royal patronage, moved Austra- The day after his election, he ordered that lia towards the Non-Aligned Movement, his staff should not be “vetted or harassed” supported “zones of peace” and opposed by the Australian security organisation, nuclear weapons testing. ASIO – then, as now, tied to Anglo-Ameri- Although not regarded as on the left can intelligence. When his ministers public- of the Labor Party, Whitlam was a maver- ly condemned the US bombing of Vietnam ick social democrat of principle, pride and as “corrupt and barbaric”, a CIA station of- propriety. He believed that a foreign power ficer in Saigon said: “We were told the Aus- should not control his country’s resources tralians might as well be regarded as North and dictate its economic and foreign poli- Vietnamese collaborators.” cies. He proposed to “buy back the farm”. Whitlam demanded to know if and why In drafting the first Aboriginal lands rights the CIA was running a spy base at Pine Gap legislation, his government raised the ghost near Alice Springs, a giant vacuum cleaner of the greatest land grab in human history, which, as Edward Snowden revealed recent- Britain’s colonisation of Australia, and the ly, allows the US to spy on everyone. “Try to question of who owned the island-conti- screw us or bounce us,” the prime minister nent’s vast natural wealth. warned the US ambassador, “[and Pine Gap]

December 2014 | ColdType 45 power play

The message will become a matter of contention”. The Americans and British worked to- from Theodore Victor Marchetti, the CIA officer who had gether. In 1975, Whitlam discovered that Shackley, head helped set up Pine Gap, later told me, “This Britain’s MI6 was operating against his gov- of the CIA’s East threat to close Pine Gap caused apoplexy in ernment. “The Brits were actually decoding Asia Division, who the White House . . . a kind of Chile [coup] secret messages coming into my foreign af- had helped run was set in motion.” fairs office,” he said later. One of his min- the coup against Pine Gap’s top-secret messages were de- isters, Clyde Cameron, told me, “We knew Salvador Allende coded by a CIA contractor, TRW. One of the MI6 was bugging Cabinet meetings for the in Chile two years decoders was Christopher Boyce, a young Americans.” In the 1980s, senior CIA offi- earlier – was man troubled by the “deception and betray- cers revealed that the “Whitlam problem” read to Whitlam. al of an ally”. Boyce revealed that the CIA had been discussed “with urgency” by the It said that the had infiltrated the Australian political and CIA’s director, William Colby, and the head prime minister of trade union elite and referred to the Gov- of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield. A deputy direc- Australia was a ernor-General of Australia, Sir John Kerr, as tor of the CIA said: “Kerr did what he was security risk in “our man Kerr”. told to do.” his own country Kerr was not only the Queen’s man, he On 10 November, 1975, Whitlam was had long-standing ties to Anglo-American shown a top secret telex message sourced intelligence. He was an enthusiastic mem- to Theodore Shackley, the notorious head ber of the Australian Association for Cultur- of the CIA’s East Asia Division, who had al Freedom, described by Jonathan Kwitny helped run the coup against Salvador Al- of the Wall Street Journal in his book, ‘The lende in Chile two years earlier. Crimes of Patriots’, as, “an elite, invitation- Shackley’s message was read to Whitlam. only group . . . exposed in Congress as being It said that the prime minister of Austra- founded, funded and generally run by the lia was a security risk in his own country. CIA”. The CIA “paid for Kerr’s travel, built The day before, Kerr had visited the head- his prestige . . . Kerr continued to go to the quarters of the Defence Signals Directorate, CIA for money”. Australia’s NSA where he was briefed on the When Whitlam was re-elected for a sec- “security crisis”. ond term, in 1974, the White House sent On 11 November – the day Whitlam was Marshall Green to Canberra as ambassador. to inform Parliament about the secret CIA Green was an imperious, sinister figure who presence in Australia – he was summoned worked in the shadows of America’s “deep by Kerr. Invoking archaic vice-regal “re- state”. Known as the “coupmaster”, he serve powers”, Kerr sacked the democrati- had played a central role in the 1965 coup cally elected prime minister. The “Whitlam against President Sukarno in Indonesia – problem” was solved, and Australian poli- which cost up to a million lives. One of his tics never recovered, nor the nation its true first speeches in Australia was to the Aus- independence. CT tralian Institute of Directors – described by an alarmed member of the audience as “an John PIlger’s new film, “Utopia”, has incitement to the country’s business leaders received glowing reviews in the UK and to rise against the government”. Australia

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46 ColdType | December 2014 Money-go-round The fix is in Carol Osler tells how banks allegedly rigged the US $5.3 trillion foreign exchange market

uppose you’re in the supermarket and HSBC – agreed to pay a total of US$4.3 Traders bought shopping for groceries. While you’re billion to regulators in the US, UK and Swit- euros or dollars, strolling the aisle with your cart, zerland to resolve the allegations. The deal is driving up the rate, a shadowy figure looms over your likely only the first in a series of settlements and then profited S by selling to other shoulder and changes the prices on the items and other penalties that will emerge from the you want to buy before you get a chance to ongoing investigations. investors at a pick them up. The investors most concerned with the higher level As you reach for some vine tomatoes, you alleged manipulation are funds that invest notice the price just jumped 20 cents. When internationally, such as hedge funds, the en- you select some brie from among the cheeses, dowments of charitable or cultural institu- you witness the number on the sticker change tions and insurance companies. But it also right before your eyes. Ditto when you look includes the mutual funds in which many of for your favorite brand of granola. your 401K or IRA assets are likely invested. This is the essence of what regulators When institutions like these need to buy learned might be happening in the foreign or sell assets across borders, they call a dealer exchange market, where US$5.3 trillion of at one of the big banks, which provides what dollars, euros and yen are traded every day. is basically a wholesale version of the cambio In June 2013, Bloomberg reported that traders currency kiosks you see at the airport. The at some of the world’s biggest banks worked dealer quotes a buying price and a selling to manipulate key currency rates, racking up price, and the fund chooses whether to buy or profits and costing investors – including your sell. In addition to trading with customers, the retirement fund – hundreds of millions of dol- dealers trade among themselves, sometimes lars globally. to manage their inventory and sometimes They are accused of placing their own hoping to make money by taking speculative transactions ahead of trades requested by cli- positions for a few minutes or even seconds. ents – known as front-running – which was the And that’s how we arrive at the scandal. reason prices kept changing as people tried to Every day at 4pm in London, the market sets make their own trades, like in the shopping special “fixing” exchange rates that are used analogy above. They bought euros or dollars, to value the funds’ international investments. driving up the rate, and then profited by sell- The fixing price is set in a simple way: it’s just ing to other investors at a higher level. the average of all prices paid among dealing This week six of the currency-dealers being banks during the 30 seconds before and after investigated – including JP Morgan, Citigroup the clock strikes four.

December 2014 | ColdType 47 Money-go-round

Losses to US Many international fund managers prefer they have enough for their customers. They investors from tiny to trade currencies at exactly the fixing price could buy a lot more euros for their own ac- fix-price distortions because it’s simpler and smarter to trade at count, and then sell them at the higher fix could be anything the same price used to value your portfolio. price. If they could count on other banks do- but tiny: we could To make these transactions happen, inter- ing the same thing, it becomes a lot less risky. collectively lose national funds often place large orders with That drives up the exchange rate ahead of the almost $100 million dealers at major banks before the fix. fix and means your pension fund has to pay per year Suppose, for example, a pension fund with more to buy those euros. major investments in Europe knows it will re- Why should you care? If your IRA fund ceive a lot of new IRA money on November manager pays more to buy euros and earns 30, when many US employees get paid. And less when he sells them, your retirement ac- suppose the fund plans to invest €100 million count loses money to the traders, and your of that in European stocks. At 3:30pm that day investments will suffer. And even though the the fund might instruct its bank to purchase price differences are minuscule, they quickly €100 million at the fixing price. With this kind add up. of advance order, the bank could book its own Suppose that just 1% of total investor trad- trades before the fund does, buying the euros ing happens at the fix and that the fixing it will later sell to the investor. price is just 0.005% distorted by manipula- tion. Those may sound like tiny numbers, but What the banks are accused of foreign exchange trading by US financial in- The banks – or more accurately, specific deal- stitutions is huge: roughly $700 billion every ers at specific banks – are accused of ma- day, according to the Bank for International nipulating the fixing prices based on their Settlements. So losses to US investors from knowledge of advance customer orders. In a tiny fix-price distortions could be anything nutshell, the accusation is that dealers from but tiny: we could collectively lose almost different banks got together before the fix and $100 million per year! compared notes in chat rooms. Most currency Did this really go on? We don’t know. The trading is handled by 10 or so mega banks, dealers did have chat rooms and they were re- so if just a few of them compared notes, they portedly given names like “The Bandits” and would have a good sense of whether the ex- “The Cartel,” so it’s not a big stretch to imag- change rate would rise or fall during the fixing ine that they compared notes and manipu- interval that day. The shadowy figure looking lated prices. But dealers have other important over your shoulder at the supermarket to reasons to work together around the fix. It’s see what you’re going to buy next is like the a very risky time to trade, since the exchange banks comparing their customer orders be- rate is unusually volatile, and dealers have to fore the fix. trade such large amounts for their customers. To finish the supermarket analogy, we A dealer could easily end up buying euros at need to know how and why the dealing banks an exchange rate above the fix and then tak- could raise the fixing rate to the disadvantage ing a loss by selling low (at the fix) to the pen- Carol Osler of international pension and mutual funds. sion fund. is professor of Suppose once again that many customers Several regulators in the UK, US and Hong business at Brandeis have placed big orders to buy euros at the fix, Kong continue to investigate the activities of University. and the banks figure the euro-dollar exchange the banks, which have all set aside large sums This essay originally rate will rise during the window. This would to pay any penalties that arise. JP Morgan appeared in the US give them an incentive to buy a lot of euros alone has set aside US$5.9 billion. edition of before it’s set (remember the golden rule of Even with the settlement announced this The Conversation - trading: buy low, sell high). week, don’t expect this issue to go away any- http://theconversation.com And they don’t have to stop buying when time soon. CT

48 ColdType | December 2014 Saying ‘No’ Eight reasons to oppose Obama’s latest war Alan Maass & Eric Ruder make the case against a new Western war in the Middle East

arack obama claims his war on the war on ISIS shows that the new deploy- At stake for the the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria ment will nearly double the number of of- US is control (ISIS) is necessary to stop the men- ficial US military personnel in Iraq. over Middle East ace of terror and oppression. But Already, the US is carrying out intensive oil – not because B America needs lurking behind his rhetoric to justify the air strikes in Iraq, continuing a quarter-cen- latest American military intervention are tury of war that has reduced what was once imports, but the same imperial motives – control of oil, a developing nation to one of the poorest on because this geopolitical dominance in the Middle East, Earth, and in Syria, a country it hadn’t got control gives it international rivalries – that we know from around to bombing before. As of mid-Sep- leverage against previous US wars. tember, after just one month of the air war, international rivals Like those conflicts, the war on ISIS will US warplanes had already flown 2,750 sorties like China and make the world more violent, more oppres- – an average of nearly 100 every single day. Russia, not sive and less safe. Here, we give you some of The enemy in this new war is the Islamic to mention its the reasons why you should oppose this new State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a reactionary allies in Europe war – so you can speak out and make the military force and would-be state that grew case yourself. powerful as a direct consequence of the di- sastrous US invasion and occupation of Iraq . ONE: Obama has declared war on ISIS to Now, ISIS threatens to erase the borders of a promote US imperial interests, not to confront Middle East where the US has been the dom- tyranny and oppression. inant imperial power for half a century. The US government’s new war in the That’s why Obama gave the order to drop Middle East, launched this summer, repre- bombs this summer. At stake for the US is sents a dramatic escalation of violence by the control over Middle East oil – not because world’s most powerful military machine. As America needs imports, but because this his first major statement after his party, the control gives it leverage against international Democrats, suffered a drubbing in midterm rivals like China and Russia, not to mention elections, Barack Obama announced a “new its allies in Europe. The point was summed phase” in the war, starting with the deploy- up in a 1945 State Department report that ment of 1,500 more “advisers” to Iraq. called the region’s oil resources “a stupen- Obama insists the “advisers” won’t partic- dous source of strategic power and one of the ipate in combat, but we’ve heard that prom- greatest material prizes in world history.” ise before, dating back to the Vietnam War. A The US also wants to rehabilitate its website documenting the “mission creep” of military machine after the disasters of the

December 2014 | ColdType 49 Saying ‘No’

Most of the first “war on terror” decade – and ISIS provides cause of stepped-up tactical air strikes by the US bombs were the “perfect enemy” to win support. The US, but mostly because of the courageous dropped several stakes are high for all of us: If US imperial- defense of the city by outgunned Kurdish hundred miles ism emerges stronger by defeating ISIS, the fighters who are fighting for their people and away from where war-makers in Washington will be in a better their rights. the Yazidis were position to subdue resistance anywhere on In the aftermath, the Kurds should beware besieged the globe, including within the US of the US government claiming it will “help” the Kurds in their struggle – because there TWO: The US war won’t save religious and will be strings attached. As the American so- ethnic minorities who are being persecuted cialist John Reed said, “Whoever takes Uncle by ISIS. Sam’s promises at their face value will find The first air strikes were accompanied by himself obliged to pay for them with blood claims that the US wouldn’t “turn a blind and sweat.” eye” to the plight of the Yazidis, a religious minority besieged by ISIS fighters. Obama THREE: US imperialism bears a lot of the had the gall to talk about these “innocent responsibility for ISIS’s rise. Escalating the people” facing “violence on a horrific scale” US war is more likely to strengthen the after the US government’s main ally in the reactionaries than weaken them. Middle East, Israel, had spent the previous To listen to Barack Obama talk about the month terrorizing the people of Gaza with “cancer of violent extremism,” you’d think “violence on a horrific scale.” the US government was uncompromising in Tellingly, most of the first US bombs were its opposition to reactionary formations like dropped several hundred miles away from ISIS. where the Yazidis were besieged. The air But not if they can be used to further im- strikes were concentrated around the city of perialist aims. In the 1980s, the US govern- Erbil, where ISIS was threatening to conquer ment financed and supplied Islamic funda- the capital of the Iraqi Kurds, the US’s most mentalists fighting the former USSR’s inva- steadfast allies within Iraq during 25 years of sion of Afghanistan. The men who Ronald war. Erbil is also – surprise, surprise – a key Reagan called “freedom fighters” later came city for oil production in northern Iraq. together as al-Qaeda. The US government’s cynicism was fur- During the occupation of Iraq, US officials ther exposed when ISIS fighters launched a encouraged the sectarian division between deadly offensive against Kobanê, a city in the Sunni and Shia Muslims – as a divide-and- region of northern Syria where most of the conquer strategy against the threat of a unit- country’s Kurdish minority lives. ed resistance targeting US forces. When this At first, with the city on the verge of fall- sectarian dynamic set off a bloody civil war, ing, US officials like Secretary of State John al-Qaeda in Iraq – the predecessor organiza- Kerry nevertheless lectured reporters that tion of ISIS – gained a foothold for the first saving the Kurds of Kobanê wasn’t part of time. the plan for this “humanitarian” interven- More recently, the US looked the other tion . Meanwhile, Turkey – a staunch US ally way while its allies among the authoritarian that has inflicted terrible oppression against regimes of the region, especially Saudi Ara- its own Kurdish minority – refused to sup- bia, supported armed Islamic formations like port the defense of Kobanê, just over its ISIS – as a counter to the growing strength southern border, unless the Kurds agreed to of Shia-dominated regimes across the region. certain conditions. Thus, the toxic sectarian conflict stoked by Against the odds, ISIS has so far been re- the US during the occupation of Iraq spread pelled in its invasion of Kobanê – in part be- across the region – encouraged by the Amer-

50 ColdType | December 2014 Saying ‘No’ ican empire. most of the last two years, while both trained The US has been ISIS now claims to rule over a huge area in their guns on different sections of the mass joined in its air Iraq and Syria – and over millions of people, uprising against the dictatorship. Today, the strikes against including many Sunnis, who view its reac- regime can continue its murderous war on ISIS by Saudi tionary agenda and persecution of all dis- the revolution, knowing that its military will Arabia, among sent as abhorrent. But for now, ISIS still has be well positioned to take advantage if the other authoritarian the passive support of many Sunnis because US air strikes weaken ISIS. regimes, which it has defended their community from the We want to see ISIS overthrown. But if it executes dozens repression of the Shia-dominated regime in is accomplished by the US and its authoritar- of people by Iraq, for one. Every time the US fires another ian allies, the forces of reaction in the Middle beheading in the missile, it drives Sunnis toward ISIS – as the East will be strengthened. infamous public only force that has been successful in defend- plaza in Riyadh ing them against violence and oppression. FIVE: The violence of ISIS, as horrific as it is, known as “Chop- pales in comparison to the violence of the US Chop Square” FOUR: If the US can weaken or destroy ISIS, government. it will strengthen the network of dictatorships For 25 years, the US has deployed the and reactionary monarchs that rule the Middle world’s most deadly military against the peo- East. ple of Iraq. During the 1991 Gulf War, it fired The images from ISIS’s videotaped be- 320 tons of depleted uranium munitions, lit- headings of Western journalists have rightly tering the country with radioactive dust that horrified people everywhere. They are a bar- has led to a dramatic spike in cancer rates baric emblem of its tyranny. and birth defects. But the US has been joined in its air strikes In 1996, Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State against ISIS by Saudi Arabia, among other Madeleine Albright infamously told 60 Min- authoritarian regimes, which executes doz- utes that the deaths of half a million Iraqi ens of people by beheading in the infamous children caused by US-led sanctions against public plaza in Riyadh known as “Chop-Chop Iraq were “a price worth paying” to isolate Square.” Among the “crimes” punishable by Saddam Hussein’s regime. After Bush Jr.’s in- beheading are adultery, sedition, sorcery and vasion in 2003, the esteemed Lancet medical witchcraft. journal estimated that the latest phase of the The old order around the Middle East has US war had caused another 600,000 Iraqi reacted to the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 deaths as of 2006. by mobilizing the utmost violence against all The US war and occupation also produced dissent. When the island kingdom of Bah- one of the world’s largest refugee crises, with rain – home to the US Naval Forces Central some 4 million Iraqis – more than 10 percent Command – faced a pro-democracy uprising, of the population – living abroad or inter- the Saudi Arabian military invaded to crush nally displaced. And while US officials and the rebellion. In 2013, when Iraqi Sunnis or- media pundits decry the barbarism of ISIS’s ganized a wave of largely nonviolent mass hostage-taking, the torture of detainees by demonstrations, the Shia-dominated central US forces at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq government used all the weapons that the and Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan is no US had supplied it with to put down the dis- less horrific. senters. All told, the US has killed well over 1 mil- Meanwhile, in Syria, the dictatorship of lion Iraqis, fanned sectarian tensions that Bashar al-Assad has the most to gain from the will take more lives in the years to come, and US war on ISIS, though neither side will say condemned millions more to a slow death so out loud. The Syrian regime and ISIS have from poverty, malnutrition and sickness. cynically abided by a de facto cease-fire for Why should we believe the outcome of a new

December 2014 | ColdType 51 Saying ‘No’

Osama bin Laden war will be any less devastating for Iraq? “[P]oliticians and the media invented infamously crude provocations to justify intervention in used images of SIX: The US doesn’t go to war for humanitarian the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico, where emaciated and reasons and never has. American forces carried out the wholesale malnourished Iraqi The US hasn’t spent trillions of dollars slaughter of indigenous populations. All this children suffering and shed untold amounts of blood in the was done, according to President William under a regime Middle East to advance the spread of democ- McKinley, “not as invaders or conquerors, of US-imposed racy and human rights, but to pursue its eco- but as friends, to protect the natives in their sanctions to recruit nomic and strategic interests, from control of homes, in their employments, and in their fighters to Middle East oil to military dominance over personal and religious rights.” al-Qaeda its rivals. More than a century later, US political To carry out its wars, however, US politi- leaders are pretending to be friends to the cians must count on at least passive support people of the Middle East – but it is they who from the US population, which is unlikely to are paying the price for America’s wars. be persuaded by calls to secure the profits of multinational oil companies or cement US SEVEN: Obama’s new war on ISIS won’t make strategic influence. That’s why US war plan- people in the US or anywhere else safer. On ners invariably conceal their true aims with the contrary, it will make the world more more noble-sounding justifications about dangerous. “humanitarian intervention.” One of the most taboo questions in US If the US were truly motivated by humani- political culture is why the US was targeted tarian concerns, it wouldn’t count Saudi Ara- on September 11. The truth is that the US bia, one of the region’s worst abusers of wom- has carried out the equivalent of thousands en’s rights, as an ally. “There’s no chance, of 9/11s around the world, which is why however, of the US bombing Riyadh to end it is feared and despised in every corner of this evil,” wrote socialist journalist Eamonn the globe. Sometimes, that anger is directed McCann. “The Saudi dictatorship is top of against US targets – often people who have the list of regional allies the US needs onside nothing to do with the US war machine, but for blitzing ISIS. Recently, the Obama admin- who are victims of what US government of- istration distributed pictures of Secretary of ficials openly call “blowback.” State John Kerry in comfortable conversa- Osama bin Laden infamously used images tion with the leader of the Saudi beheaders, of emaciated and malnourished Iraqi chil- King Abdullah.” dren suffering under a regime of US-imposed Nor would the US support apartheid Is- sanctions to recruit fighters to al-Qaeda. rael in its drive to ethnically cleanse Pales- Likewise, regimes around the world have tine of its indigenous inhabitants if it truly pointed to the indefinite detention of Arab cared about confronting the “perpetrators of and Muslim detainees at the US prison camp violent extremism.” On the contrary, Israel at Guantánamo Bay – not to mention US of- remains the US government’s most valued ficials’ justification for using torture against ally – under Democrats as well as Republi- them – to legitimize their own abuses. For cans – because it is committed to helping this reason, a dozen Nobel Peace laureates the US maintain its imperial control over the have called on Obama to make “full disclo- Middle East. sure to the American people of the extent The US empire has always attempted to and use of torture” by the US, a call which give a humanitarian cover to its military ad- Obama is resisting. ventures. As SocialistWorker.org wrote in an The “war on terror” has also been used as editorial, even in the earliest days of US im- justification by the NSA and other govern- perialism at the turn of the 20th century: ment agencies for their widespread viola-

52 ColdType | December 2014 Saying ‘No’ tions of the right to privacy and other civil to be successful on any genuine metric. From Iraq to liberties . US domination of the Middle East is also Syria to the US, about speeding up the extraction and burn- ordinary people EIGHT: Another war will waste money and ing of fossil fuels – even though climate sci- won’t benefit from resources that are desperately needed in entists are united in calling for fossil fuels to another imperial every corner of the world, including the US be left in the ground if the planet is to have a adventure to keep Earlier this year, Congress passed an $8.7 fighting chance maintaining the ecosystem. money flowing billion cut in the food stamp program for From Iraq to Syria to the US, ordinary into the already the poor. Meanwhile, Obama’s new war on people won’t benefit from another imperial overflowing coffers ISIS will cost an estimated $18 billion to $22 adventure to keep money flowing into the al- of the world’s billion each year. Last month, Obama asked ready overflowing coffers of the world’s most most powerful the new Republican-dominated Congress for powerful and wealthy corporations. and wealthy $5.6 billion in additional funding – not to re- Ultimately, it is the system of capitalism corporation pair parts of the social safety net, but for the that drives nation states and corporations Pentagon and State Department as part of into an all-out struggle to defeat their rivals the war on ISIS. and dominate the planet. Only by uprooting As Middle East commentator Juan Cole this system and replacing it with a socialist wrote: society will the needs of people and the envi- “The same people who have trouble jus- ronment finally win out over the blind pur- tifying a safety net for the working poor and suit of profit. CT find it urgent to cut billions from the pro- grams that keep us a civilized society rather Alan Maas is the editor of Socialist Worker - than a predatory jungle – those same people http://socialistworker.org - where this article have no difficulty authorizing billions for was first published. Eric Ruder is a writer in vague bombing campaigns that are unlikely Chicago.

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December 2014 | ColdType 53 the enemy within America’s secret police John W. Rutherford tells of the similarity between the American police state and past totalitarian regimes such as that of Nazi Germany

In the US, it’s the “We want no Gestapo or secret police. The Whether the FBI is planting under- Federal Bureau FBI is tending in that direction. They are cover agents in churches, synagogues and of Investigation dabbling in sex-life scandals and plain mosques; issuing fake emergency letters to that does the dirty blackmail. J. Edgar Hoover would give his gain access to Americans’ phone records; work of ensuring right eye to take over, and all congressmen using intimidation tactics to silence Amer- compliance, and senators are afraid of him”. icans who are critical of the government, keeping tabs – President Harry S. Truman or persuading impressionable individuals on potential to plot acts of terror and then entrapping dissidents, and ecret police. Secret courts. Secret them, the overall impression of the na- punishing those government agencies. Surveillance. tion’s secret police force is that of a well- who dare to Intimidation tactics. Harassment. dressed thug, flexing its muscles and doing challenge the STorture. Brutality. Widespread cor- the boss’s dirty work. status quo ruption. Entrapment schemes. Indeed, a far cry from the glamorized These are the hallmarks of every au- G-men depicted in Hollywood film noirs thoritarian regime from the Roman Empire and spy thrillers, the government’s hench- to modern-day America, yet it’s the secret men have become the embodiment of how police – tasked with silencing dissidents, power, once acquired, can be so easily cor- ensuring compliance, and maintaining a rupted and abused. climate of fear – who sound the death knell Case in point: the FBI is being sued af- for freedom in every age. ter its agents, lacking sufficient evidence to Every regime has its own name for its acquire a search warrant, disabled a hotel’s secret police: Mussolini’s OVRA carried internet and then impersonated Internet out phone surveillance on government repair technicians in order to gain access officials. Stalin’s NKVD carried out large- to a hotel suite and record the activities of scale purges, terror and depopulation. the room’s occupants. Justifying the war- Hitler’s Gestapo went door to door ferret- rantless search as part of a sting on inter- ing out dissidents and other political “en- net gambling, FBI officials insisted that emies” of the state. And in the US, it’s the citizens should not expect the same right Federal Bureau of Investigation that does to privacy in the common room of a hotel the dirty work of ensuring compliance, suite as they would at home in their bed- keeping tabs on potential dissidents, and room. punishing those who dare to challenge the Far from being tough on crime, FBI status quo. agents are also among the nation’s most

54 ColdType | December 2014 the enemy within notorious lawbreakers. In fact, in addition his location. Lambasting the agency, AP at- The FBI’s to creating certain crimes in order to then torney Karen Kaiser railed, “The FBI may surveillance “solve” them, the FBI also gives certain in- have intended this false story as a trap for capabilities formants permission to break the law, “in- only one person. However, the individual boast a nasty cluding everything from buying and sell- could easily have reposted this story to so- collection of spy ing illegal drugs to bribing government of- cial networks, distributing to thousands of tools ranging ficials and plotting robberies,” in exchange people, under our name, what was essen- from Stingray for their cooperation on other fronts. USA tially a piece of government disinforma- devices that can Today estimates that agents have autho- tion.” track the location rized criminals to engage in as many as 15 Then again, to those familiar with of cell phones crimes a day. Some of these informants are COINTELPRO, an FBI program created to to Triggerfish getting paid astronomical sums: one par- “disrupt, misdirect, discredit, and neutral- devices which ticularly unsavory fellow, later arrested for ize” groups and individuals the govern- allow agents to attempting to run over a police officer, was ment considers politically objectionable, it eavesdrop on actually paid $85,000 for his help laying should come as no surprise that the agency phone calls the trap for an entrapment scheme. has mastered the art of government disin- In a stunning development reported by formation. the Washington Post, a probe into miscon- The FBI has been particularly criticized duct by an FBI agent has resulted in the in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks for release of at least a dozen convicted drug targeting vulnerable individuals and not dealers from prison. Several suspects await- only luring them into fake terror plots but ing trial have also been freed, and more actually equipping them with the organi- could be released as the unnamed agent’s zation, money, weapons and motivation caseload comes under scrutiny. As the Post to carry out the plots – entrapment – and reports: “The scope and type of alleged then jailing them for their so-called terror- misconduct by the agent have not been re- ist plotting. This is what the FBI character- vealed, but defense lawyers involved in the izes as “forward leaning – preventative – cases described the mass freeing of felons prosecutions.” as virtually unprecedented – and an indi- Another fallout from 9/11, National Se- cation that convictions could be in jeopar- curity Letters, one of the many illicit pow- dy. Prosecutors are periodically faced with ers authorized by the USA Patriot Act, having to drop cases over police miscon- allows the FBI to secretly demand that duct, but it is unusual to free those who banks, phone companies, and other busi- have been found guilty.” nesses provide them with customer infor- In addition to procedural misconduct, mation and not disclose the demands. An trespassing, enabling criminal activity, and internal audit of the agency found that the damaging private property, the FBI’s laun- FBI practice of issuing tens of thousands of dry list of crimes against the American NSLs every year for sensitive information people includes surveillance, disinforma- such as phone and financial records, often tion, blackmail, entrapment, intimidation in non-emergency cases, is riddled with tactics, and harassment. widespread violations. For example, the Associated Press re- The FBI’s surveillance capabilities, on cently lodged a complaint with the Dept. a par with the National Security Agency, of Justice after learning that FBI agents boast a nasty collection of spy tools rang- created a fake AP news story and emailed ing from Stingray devices that can track it, along with a clickable link, to a bomb the location of cell phones to Triggerfish threat suspect in order to implant tracking devices which allow agents to eavesdrop technology onto his computer and identify on phone calls. In one case, the FBI ac-

December 2014 | ColdType 55 the enemy within

The FBI has a tually managed to remotely reprogram a Eighty years after Hoover instituted long track record “suspect’s” wireless internet card so that the FBI’s first fingerprint “database” – of abusing it would send “real-time cell-site location catalogued on index cards, no less – the its extensive data to Verizon, which forwarded the data agency’s biometric database has grown powers in order to the FBI.” to massive proportions, the largest in the to blackmail Now the FBI is seeking to expand its world, encompassing everything from fin- politicians, spy already invasive hacking powers to allow gerprints, palm, face and iris scans to DNA, on celebrities agents to hack into any computer, any- and is being increasingly shared between and high-ranking where in the world. As journalist Brett federal, state and local law enforcement government Wilkins warns: agencies in an effort to target potential officials, and “If the proposed rule change is ap- criminals long before they ever commit a intimidate proved, the FBI would have the power crime. This is what’s known as pre-crime. dissidents to unleash “network investigative tech- If it were just about fighting the “bad of all stripes niques” against computers anywhere in guys,” that would be one thing. But as the world, allowing the agency to secretly countless documents make clear, the FBI install malware and spyware on any com- has a long track record of abusing its ex- puter, effectively allowing it to control that tensive powers in order to blackmail poli- computer and all its stored information. ticians, spy on celebrities and high-rank- The FBI could download all the computer’s ing government officials, and intimidate digital contents, switch its camera or mi- dissidents of all stripes. It’s an old tactic, crophone on or off and even control other used effectively by former authoritarian computers in its network.” regimes. And then there’s James Comey, current In fact, as historian Robert Gellately doc- director of the FBI, who knows enough to uments, the Nazi police state was repeat- say all the right things about the need to edly touted as a model for other nations abide by the Constitution, all the while to follow, so much so that Hoover actually his agency routinely discards it. Comey sent one of his right-hand men, Edmund has this idea that the government’s pow- Patrick Coffey, to Berlin in January 1938 at ers shouldn’t be limited, especially when the invitation of Germany’s secret police. it comes to carrying out surveillance on As Gellately noted, “[A]fter five years of American citizens. Responding to reports Hitler’s dictatorship, the Nazi police had that Apple and Google are creating smart won the FBI’s seal of approval.” phones that will be more difficult to hack Indeed, so impressed was the FBI with into, Comey has been lobbying Congress the Nazi order that, as the New York Times and the White House to force technology recently revealed, in the decades after companies to keep providing the govern- World War II, the FBI, along with other ment with backdoor access to Americans’ government agencies, aggressively re- cell phones. cruited at least a thousand Nazis, includ- It’s not all Comey’s fault, though. This ing some of Hitler’s highest henchmen, transformation of the FBI into a secret po- brought them to America, hired them on lice force can be traced back to the days of J. as spies and informants, and then carried Edgar Hoover. As author Anthony S. Sum- out a massive cover-up campaign to en- mers points out, it was Hoover who “built sure that their true identities and ties to the first federal fingerprint bank, and his Hitler’s holocaust machine would remain Identification Division would eventually unknown. Moreover, anyone who dared offer instant access to the prints of 159 mil- to blow the whistle on the FBI’s illicit lion people. His Crime Laboratory became Nazi ties found himself spied upon, in- the most advanced in the world.” timidated, harassed and labeled a threat

56 ColdType | December 2014 the enemy within to national security. lice state but it will also chart the decline It’s no coincidence So not only have American taxpayers of freedom in America: how a nation that that the have been paying to keep ex-Nazis on the once abided by the rule of law and held the similarities government payroll for decades but we’ve government accountable for its actions has between the been subjected to the very same tactics steadily devolved into a police state where American police used by the Third Reich: surveillance, mili- justice is one-sided, a corporate elite runs state and past tarized police, overcriminalization, and a the show, representative government is a totalitarian government mindset that views itself as mockery, police are extensions of the mili- regimes such as operating outside the bounds of the law. tary, surveillance is rampant, privacy is ex- Nazi Germany Yet as I point out in my book “A Govern- tinct, and the law is little more than a tool grow more ment of Wolves: The Emerging American for the government to browbeat the people pronounced with Police State”, it’s no coincidence that the into compliance. CT each passing day similarities between the American police state and past totalitarian regimes such John W. Whitehead is a constitutional as Nazi Germany grow more pronounced attorney and author. He is founder and with each passing day. This is how freedom president of The Rutherford Institute and falls, and tyrants come to power. editor of GadflyOnline.com. His latest book Suffice it to say that when and if a true “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging history of the FBI is ever written, it will American Police State” (SelectBooks) is not only track the rise of the American po- available at amazon.com

“John Whitehead is one of the most eloquent and knowledgeable defenders of liberty, and opponents of the growing American police state, writing today. I am pleased to recommend A Government of Wolves to anyone interested in learning how modern America increasingly resembles a dystopian science fiction film instead of a Constitutional Republic.”—RON PAUL

December 2014 | ColdType 57 in the frame

March of a million masks Anonymous, the hacktivist group, held its third annual “Million Mask March” in conjunction with Guy Fawkes Day in more than 400 cities worldwide on November 5. Here are scenes – via flickr.com – from some of those marches

58 ColdType | December 2014 in the frame

sodiso9iswooiso osix osixosi xoso xw

Above: Sydney, Austtralia. Photo Danijel James

Left: Chicago, USA. Photo Michael Kappel

Far left: London. Photo: BJPCorp

December 2014 | ColdType 59 in the frame

Above and right: London. Photo: BJPCorp

Centre, right: Sydney, Australia. Photo: Danijel James

60 ColdType | December 2014 Above: washington DC, USA. Photo: Joe Newman

Left: Sydney, Australia. Photo: Danijel James

December 2014 | ColdType 61 making choices The imperative of revolt Two of North America’s leading political philosophers tell Chris Hedges why we have to fight the destruction of society by the corporate elite

If these corporate met with Sheldon S. Wolin in Salem, Ore., movements willing to carry out repeated forces are able to and John Ralston Saul in Toronto and acts of civil disobedience to disrupt and use the security asked the two political philosophers the delegitimize corporate power. and surveillance same question. If, as Saul has written, we “If you continue to go down the wrong apparatus and I have undergone a corporate coup d’état road, at a certain point something happens,” militarized and now live under a species of corporate Saul said during our meeting in Toronto, police forces dictatorship that Wolin calls “inverted to- where he lives. “At a certain point when the to criminalize talitarianism,” if the internal mechanisms financial system is wrong it falls apart. And dissent, how that once made piecemeal and incremental it did. And it will fall apart again.” will change reform possible remain ineffective, if cor- “The collapse started in 1973,” Saul con- occur porate power retains its chokehold on our tinued. “There were a series of sequential and what will economy and governance, including our collapses afterwards. The fascinating thing it look like? legislative bodies, judiciary and systems of is that between 1850 and 1970 we put in information, and if these corporate forces place all sorts of mechanisms to stop col- are able to use the security and surveillance lapses which we can call liberalism, social apparatus and militarized police forces to democracy or Red Toryism. It was an under- criminalize dissent, how will change occur standing that we can’t have boom-and-bust and what will it look like? cycles. We can’t have poverty-stricken peo- Wolin, who wrote the books “Politics and ple. We can’t have starvation. The reason Vision” and “Democracy Incorporated,” and today’s collapses are not leading to what Saul, who wrote “Voltaire’s Bastards” and happened in the 18th century and the 19th “The Unconscious Civilization,” see demo- century is because all these safety nets, al- cratic rituals and institutions, especially in though under attack, are still in place. But the United States, as largely a facade for each time we have a collapse we come out unchecked global corporate power. Wolin of it stripping more of the protection away. and Saul excoriate academics, intellectuals At a certain point we will find ourselves and journalists, charging they have abrogat- back in the pre-protection period. At that ed their calling to expose abuses of power point we will get a collapse that will be in- and give voice to social criticism; they in- credibly dramatic. I have no idea what it stead function as echo chambers for elites, will look like. A revolution from the left? courtiers and corporate systems managers. A revolution from the right? Is it violence Neither believes the current economic sys- followed by state violence? Is it the collapse tem is sustainable. And each calls for mass of the last meaningful edges of democracy?

62 ColdType | October/November 2014 making choices

Is it a sudden decision by a critical mass of described as democratic,” he said. The state has people that they are not going to take it any- The mechanisms that once allowed the obliterated privacy more?” citizen to be a participant in power – from through mass This devolution of the economic system participating in elections to enjoying the surveillance, a has been accompanied by corporations’ rights of dissent and privacy – have been fundamental seizure of nearly all forms of political and nullified. Money has replaced the vote, Wo- precondition for social power. The corporate elite, through a lin said, and corporations have garnered to- totalitarian rule, puppet political class and compliant intel- tal power without using the cruder forms of and in ways that lectuals, pundits and press, still employs traditional totalitarian control: concentra- are patently the language of a capitalist democracy. But tion camps, enforced ideological conformi- unconstitutional what has arisen is a new kind of control, ty and the physical suppression of dissent. has stripped inverted totalitarianism, which Wolin bril- They will avoid such measures “as long as citizens of the liantly dissects in his book “Democracy In- that dissent remains ineffectual,” he said. rights to a living corporated.” “The government does not need to stamp wage, benefits Inverted totalitarianism does not repli- out dissent. The uniformity of imposed and job security cate past totalitarian structures, such as fas- public opinion through the corporate me- cism and communism. It is therefore harder dia does a very effective job.” to immediately identify and understand. The state has obliterated privacy through There is no blustering demagogue. There is mass surveillance, a fundamental precondi- no triumphant revolutionary party. There tion for totalitarian rule, and in ways that are no ideologically drenched and emotion- are patently unconstitutional has stripped al mass political rallies. The old symbols, citizens of the rights to a living wage, ben- the old iconography and the old language efits and job security. And it has destroyed of democracy are held up as virtuous. The institutions, such as labor unions, that once old systems of governance – electoral poli- protected workers from corporate abuse. tics, an independent judiciary, a free press Inverted totalitarianism, Wolin has writ- and the Constitution – appear to be vener- ten, is “only in part a state-centered phe- ated. But, similar to what happened during nomenon.” It also represents “the political the late Roman Empire, all the institutions coming of age of corporate power and the that make democracy possible have been political demobilization of the citizenry.” hollowed out and rendered impotent and Corporate power works in secret. It is un- ineffectual. seen by the public and largely anonymous. The corporate state, Wolin told me at his Politicians and citizens alike often seem Oregon home, is “legitimated by elections blissfully unaware of the consequences of it controls.” It exploits laws that once pro- inverted totalitarianism, Wolin said in the tected democracy to extinguish democracy; interview. And because it is a new form of one example is allowing unlimited corpo- totalitarianism we do not recognize the rad- rate campaign contributions in the name of ical change that has gradually taken place. our First Amendment right to free speech Our failure to grasp the new configuration and our right to petition the government of power has permitted the corporate state as citizens. “It perpetuates politics all the to rob us through judicial fiat, a process that time,” Wolin said, “but a politics that is culminates in a disempowered population not political.” The endless election cycles, and omnipotent corporate rulers. Inverted he said, are an example of politics without totalitarianism, Wolin said, “projects power politics, driven not by substantive issues upwards.” It is “the antithesis of constitu- but manufactured political personalities tional power.” and opinion polls. There is no national in- “Democracy has been turned upside stitution in the United States “that can be down,” Wolin said. “It is supposed to be a

December 2014 | ColdType 63 making choices

There is no government for the people, by the people. “People with power use the tools they effective But it has become an organized form of gov- have,” Saul said. “As the West has gradu- organized ernment dominated by groups that are only ally lost its economic tool it has turned to opposition to vaguely, if at all, responsible or responsive what remains, which are military tools and the rise of a to popular needs and popular demands. At violence. The West still has the most weap- neofeudalism the same time, it retains a patina of democ- onry. Even if they are doing very badly eco- dominated a racy. We still have elections. They are rela- nomically in a global sense, they can use tiny corporate tively free. We have a relatively free media. the weaponry to replace the economics or oligarchy that But what is missing is a crucial, continuous replace competition.” exploits workers opposition that has a coherent position, “They decided that capitalism and the and the poor that is not just saying no, no, no, that has market was about the right to have the an alternative and ongoing critique of what cheapest possible goods,” Saul said. “That is wrong and what needs to be remedied.” is what competition meant. This is a lie. No Wolin and Saul, echoing Karl Marx, view capitalist philosopher ever said that. As you unfettered and unregulated capitalism as a bring the prices down below the capacity revolutionary force that has within it the to produce them in a middle-class country seeds of its own self-annihilation. It is and you commit suicide. As you commit suicide always has been deeply antagonistic to par- you have to ask, ‘How do we run this place?’ ticipatory democracy, they said. Democratic And you have to run it using these other states must heavily regulate and control methods – bread and circuses, armies, po- capitalism, for once capitalism is freed from lice and prisons.” outside restraint it seeks to snuff out demo- The liberal class – which has shriveled cratic institutions and abolish democratic under the corporate onslaught and a Cold rights that are seen – often correctly – as War ideology that held up national security an impediment to maximizing profit. The as the highest good – once found a home more ruthless and pronounced global cor- in the Democratic Party, the press, labor porate capitalism becomes, the greater the unions and universities. It made reform loss of democratic space. possible. Now, because it is merely decora- “Capitalism is destructive because it has tive, it compounds the political and eco- to eliminate customs, mores, political val- nomic crisis. There is no effective organized ues, even institutions that present any kind opposition to the rise of a neofeudalism of credible threat to the autonomy of the dominated a tiny corporate oligarchy that economy,” Wolin said. “That is where the exploits workers and the poor. battle lies. Capitalism wants an autonomous “The reform class, those who believe that economy. It wants a political order subser- reform is possible, those who believe in hu- vient to the needs of the economy. The manism, justice and inclusion, has become [capitalist’s] notion of an economy, while incredibly lazy over the last 30 or 40 years,” broadly based in the sense of a relatively Saul said. “The last hurrah was really in the free entrance and property that is relatively 1970s. Since then they think that getting a widely dispersed, is as elitist as any aristo- tenured position at Harvard and waiting to cratic system.” get a job in Washington is actually an ac- Wolin and Saul said they expect the tion, as opposed to passivity.” state, especially in an age of terminal eco- “One of the things we have seen over the nomic decline, to employ more violent and last 30 or 40 years is a gradual silencing of draconian forms of control to keep restive people who are doctors or scientists,” Saul populations in check. This coercion, they said. “They are silenced by the managerial said, will fuel discontent and unrest, which methodology of contracts. You sign an em- will further increase state repression. ployment contract that says everything you

64 ColdType | December 2014 making choices know belongs to the people who hired you. outside traditional institutions and parties. “Anarchy is a You are not allowed to speak out. Take that Revolt, for a few, must become a vocation. beautiful idea, but [right] away and you have a gigantic edu- The alliance between mass movements and someone has to cated group who has a great deal to say and a professional revolutionary class, they said, run the stuff” do, but they are tied up. They don’t know offers the best chance for an overthrow of how to untie themselves. They come out corporate power. with their Ph.D. They are deeply in debt. “It is extremely important that people The only way they can get a job is to give up are willing to go into the streets,” Saul said. their intellectual freedom. They are prison- “Democracy has always been about the ers.” willingness of people to go into the streets. Resistance, Wolin and Saul agreed, will When the Occupy movement started I was begin locally, with communities organizing pessimistic. I felt it could only go a certain to form autonomous groups that practice distance. But the fact that a critical mass of direct democracy outside the formal power people was willing to go into the streets and structures, including the two main political stay there, without being organized by a po- parties. These groups will have to address litical party or a union, was a real statement. issues such as food security, education, lo- If you look at that, at what is happening in cal governance, economic cooperation and Canada, at the movements in Europe, the consumption. And they will have to sever hundreds of thousands of people in Spain themselves, as much as possible, from the in the streets, you are seeing for the first corporate economy. time since the 19th century or early 20th “Richard Rorty talked about how you century people coming into the streets in take power,” Saul said. “You go out and win large numbers without a real political struc- the school board elections. You hold the ture. These movements aren’t going to take school board. You reform the schools. Then power. But they are a sign that power and you win the towns. And you stay there. And the respect for power is falling apart. What you hold it for 30 to 40 years. And gradually happens next? It could be dribbled away. you bring in reforms that improve things. But I think there is the possibility of a new It isn’t about three years in Washington on generation coming in and saying we won’t a contract. There has to be a critical mass accept this. That is how you get change. A of leaders willing to ruin their lives as part new generation comes along and says no, of a large group that figures out how to get no, no. They build their lives on the basis power and hold power at all of these levels, of that no.” gradually putting reforms in place.” But none of these mass mobilizations, I asked them if a professional revolution- Saul and Wolin emphasized, will work un- ary class, revolutionists dedicated solely less there is a core of professional organiz- to overthrowing the corporate state, was a ers. prerequisite. Would we have to model any “Anarchy is a beautiful idea, but some- credible opposition after Vladimir Lenin’s one has to run the stuff,” Saul said. “It has disciplined and rigidly controlled Bolshe- to be run over a long period of time. Look viks or Machiavelli’s republican conspira- at the rise and fall of the Chinese empires. tors? Wolin and Saul, while deeply critical For thousands of years it has been about the of Lenin’s ideology of state capitalism and rise and fall of the water systems. Somebody state terror, agreed that creating a class has to run the water system. Somebody [in devoted full time to radical change was es- modern times] has to keep the electricity sential to fomenting change. There must be going. Somebody has to make the hospitals people, they said, willing to dedicate their work.” lives to confronting the corporate state “You need a professional or elite class

December 2014 | ColdType 65 making choices

“If you don’t devoted to profound change,” Saul said. “If to engage in the real fight that was won by a understand power you want to get power you have to be able minute group of extremists.” you get blown to hold it. And you have to be able to hold “You have to understand power to reform away by the guy it long enough to change the direction. The things,” Saul said. “If you don’t understand who does” neoconservatives understood this. They power you get blown away by the guy who have always been Bolsheviks. They are the does. We are missing people who believe in Bolsheviks of the right. Their methodology justice and at the same time understand is the methodology of the Bolsheviks. They how tough power and politics are, how to took over political parties by internal coups make real choices. And these choices are of- d’état. They worked out, scientifically, what ten quite ugly.” CT things they needed to do and in what or- der to change the structures of power. Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning They have done it stage by stage. And we reporter, writes a regular column for are living the result of that. The liberals sat Truthdig every Monday. Hedges’ most recent around writing incomprehensible laws and book, written with Joe Sacco, is “Days of boring policy papers. They were unwilling Destruction, Days of Revolt”

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PLUS GEORGE MONBIOT ● PEPE ESCOBAR ● MARK METCALF ● WILLIAM BLUM ● RICHARD PITHOUSE ● NATE ROBERT ● AHRON BREGMAN ● SHIR HEVER ● JP SOTTILE ● LINH DINH Subscribe to ColdType It’s FREE s e n d a n e m a i l to [email protected] Harper’s folly Canada’s heart of darkness Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has changed the country from peacekeeper to warmonger, says Jim Miles

nce upon a time, Canada was able corporations, in alliance with the banksters, While the act to create the illusion that it was the to do as they require to harvest the wealth of murder is a “peaceable kingdom”, an illusion of the country for their own benefit. shock to those accepted domestically and arguably The two recent attacks on uniformed Ca- witnessing it and O suffering from it, by most of the rest of the world. This his- nadian soldiers by ‘lone wolf’ attackers are tory has been well discredited with newer well known at least to those attending to it is not a shock in historical research outlining how Canada’s western media. It was the latest incident on the political usage position as a “peacekeeper,” generally un- Parliament Hill with the murder of an Hon- of the word der UN auspices, remained effectively with- our Guard at Ottawa’s War Memorial that in the realm of US foreign policy, just with a has created the most significant response. kinder gentler face. The government response while rightly Over the past decade, Canada has made denouncing the violence of the actions a clear and distinct turn towards its inner highlights some of the double standards ‘heart of darkness’, becoming much more and the direction that the current govern- overt about its right wing militarized align- ment wants to go. Many of the comments ment with the US empire and its demands. used descriptors such as “unexpected,” It has done so to the extent of front-running “shocking,” “senseless,” and “we’ll never be – or trying to out do – the hubris and ar- the same.” rogance of the US in its declamations of its What the comments truly highlight is self-righteousness concerning international the ignorance of the speakers concerning affairs (with similar impacts on domestic Canada’s role in global affairs historically affairs). and within current events in the Middle Much if not all of this is due to Canada’s East. Some kind of action like this was (neo)Conservative government under Ste- probably very much expected (otherwise, phen Harper. Harper himself has declared why a watch list of 90+ individuals?), and that Canada will be a different nation when while the act of murder is a shock to those he is finished with his reign of office. Harp- witnessing it and suffering from it, it is not er’s background is of a fundamentalist-do- a shock in the political usage of the word. minionist Christian ideology that he him- Senseless, yes, for those not cognizant of self hides reasonably well but which shows the various psychological combinations of up quite frequently in his supporters and in disempowerment, drugs, alienation, and caucus. He is determined to create a domes- religious dogma. But the ‘senselessness’ tic order that is ruled by giving freedom to goes deeper into Canada’s changing role in

December 2014 | ColdType 67 Harper’s folly

Sure, we all have world affairs. sia and Putin, accusing them of threatening a vote, but the When Harper spoke to Parliament the “NATO’s doorstep” when it is NATO that real deals are day after the Ottawa killing, he spoke of has advanced 700 km towards the Russian made behind the support he had received from other border, and supporting the ongoing colo- closed doors in countries, mentioning by name the UK, nial-settler apartheid of Israel. secret meetings, Australia, the US and Israel. An interesting And then we wonder why Canada has a distinct lack of conglomeration – of settler colonial states suffered these attacks. The ‘senseless’ as- surveillance there birthed by the racist empire of the British. pect of it all is Canada’s role in global affairs. Perhaps this is taking it too far, but it is as Various pundits in Canada are arguing about only as far as Harper has gone with his more the significance of these events, in particu- militant foreign policy. lar because the Harper regime was intend- Without qualification Harper supports ing to introduce new legislation to give CSIS Israel’s ongoing use of warfare against the (Canada’s security services) and the RCMP people of Gaza, supports the ideology of Is- (its national police force) and other police rael’s foundational myths, and supports its more surveillance powers and more powers actions in the West Bank and Jerusalem. He of pre-emptive interventions. supported the US in their role in destroy- Current Justice Minister Peter MacKay ing the government of Libya, to the extent has defended the idea of new legislation of honouring the jet fighter pilots who allowing greater surveillance for terrorists, bombed army units and infrastructure well adding that it also allows for more surveil- beyond the intent of a ‘no fly zone’. He has lance of undefined criminal acts. With the sided with the other minions of the western current governments mind-set that could powers in demonizing Putin while support- easily become translated to mean people ing the neo-Nazis in the Ukraine who over- who are protesting against corporations, for threw a duly – if corrupt – elected govern- the environment, against government ini- ment. tiatives in general. To the pundits credit on Ironically he has supported the US in CBC, they agreed that the idea was far too Syria by backing the Islamist militants try- open and intrusive. ing to overthrow Assad, who have morphed One of the pundits argued that Canadi- into ISIS which is supported and supplied by ans would normalize the surveillance as the Saudi Arabia and Qatar among other Arab US and the UK people had done, without countries who are our supposed allies. And changing the essence of democracy in those these militants had morphed into shape countries. It is easily arguable that true de- from the US’s obliteration of the Iraqi state, mocracy does not exist in either of those following its lack of success in Afghanistan. countries as they are mainly controlled by Turkey, a fellow NATO ally member, has un- the corporate-military-political elites. Sure, til recently allowed ISIS to beat up on the we all have a vote, but the real deals are Kurds as it plays out a triple game in the made behind closed doors in secret meet- region without too much concern for which ings, a distinct lack of surveillance there. militant is the good guy or the bad guy. One of the more ironic comments from These are Canada’s actions in the world a pundit returns to the idea of the violence today. Backing the US in its increasing des- of the people who committed these acts of peration to save its global hegemony, sup- terror. After mentioning briefly several vio- porting autocratic monarchies (FYI – Saudi lent acts by different people in the US and Arabia beheaded 26 people in August using Canada, Muslim and Christian alike, he said only the authority of Wahhabi religious law it was the “willingness to use violence that to do so), supporting the attempts to revive unites them.” the Cold War mythology of the evils of Rus- That sadly returns the argument back

68 ColdType | December 2014 Harper’s folly to the countries that gave verbal sympathy the potential for it when he wrote 1984.” Canada’s to the Canadian government after the sec- It comes full circle to the vanished illu- democracy ond killing. It is these very countries, on a sion of the “peaceable kingdom.” Canada’s and civility is a much larger scale, that have an underlying democracy and civility is a tarnished and tarnished and violence that unites them. Violence used cracked veneer disguising an underlying cracked veneer domestically during their years of forma- racial prejudice and fear of the ‘other’, a disguising an tion, violence ongoing against subjugated legacy of colonial-settler violence inherited underlying racial racial/religious groups, violence against from the British empire. Stephen Harper prejudice and fear other countries who are made to appear as and his (neo) Conservative government of the ‘other’ the evil ‘other’ and thus to be destroyed or have exposed these flaws in our suppos- violently contained. edly democratic civilizational superiority Final picture, of Justice Minister MacKay with his violence towards the people of the wearing a t-shirt printed with a high pow- world and the violence towards the land ered automatic rifle at a Conservative fund- and people domestically. Our inner heart of raiser supported by the National Firearms darknes has been revealed. CT Association. Ironically, that same association does not Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a want the surveillance bill,C-13, to pass, “We regular contributor/columnist of opinion think that this is probably the most dra- pieces and book reviews for The Palestine conian step towards police interference in Chronicle – http://palestinechronicle.com – people’s lives since George Orwell revealed where this article was first published

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December 2014 | ColdType 69 after the war Turning Gaza into a super-max prison Jonathan Cook tells how Israel’s attempts to control the rebuilding of Gaza after the recent war are aimed at making the occupation more efficient

Where else in the t is astonishing that the reconstruction Israel turned hundreds of homes to rubble. world apart from of Gaza, bombed into the Stone Age ac- With residents living in tents, Israel in- the Palestinian cording to the explicit goals of an Israeli sisted on the terms of Jenin camp’s rehabili- territories would military doctrine known as “Dahiya”, has tation. The alleys that assisted the Palestin- the international I tentatively only just begun two months af- ian resistance in its ambushes had to go. In community stand ter the end of the fighting. their place, streets were built wide enough by idly as so many According to the United Nations, 100,000 for Israeli tanks to patrol. people suffer homes have been destroyed or damaged, In short, both the Palestinians’ humani- leaving 600,000 Palestinians – nearly one tarian needs and their right in international in three of Gaza’s population – homeless or law to resist their oppressor were sacrificed in urgent need of humanitarian help. to satisfy Israel’s desire to make the enforce- Roads, schools and the electricity plant ment of its occupation more efficient. to power water and sewerage systems are It is hard not to view the agreement in ruins. The cold and wet of winter are ap- reached in Cairo recently for Gaza’s recon- proaching. Aid agency Oxfam warns that at struction in similar terms. the current rate of progress it may take 50 Donors pledged $5.4 billion – though, years to rebuild Gaza. based on past experience, much of it won’t Where else in the world apart from the materialise. In addition, half will be im- Palestinian territories would the interna- mediately redirected to the distant West tional community stand by idly as so many Bank to pay off the Palestinian Authority’s people suffer – and not from a random act mounting debts. No one in the internation- of God but willed by fellow humans? al community appears to have suggested The reason for the hold-up is, as ever, Is- that Israel, which has asset-stripped both rael’s “security needs”. Gaza can be rebuilt the West Bank and Gaza in different ways, but only to the precise specifications laid foot the bill. down by Israeli officials. The Cairo agreement has been widely We have been here before. Twelve years welcomed, though the terms on which Gaza ago, Israeli bulldozers rolled into Jenin will be rebuilt have been only vaguely pub- camp in the West Bank in the midst of the licised. Leaks from worried insiders, how- second intifada. Israel had just lost its larg- ever, have fleshed out the details. est number of soldiers in a single battle as One Israeli analyst has compared the the army struggled through a warren of nar- proposed solution to transforming a third- row alleys. In scenes that shocked the world, world prison into a modern US super-max after the war incarceration facility. The more civilised ex- tions are that Israeli drones will watch every The system must terior will simply obscure its real purpose: move on the ground. satisfy Israel’s not to make life better for the Palestinian Israel will be able to veto anyone it con- desire to know inmates, but to offer greater security to the siders a militant – which means anyone where every Israeli guards. with a connection to Hamas or Islamic Ji- bag of cement Humanitarian concern is being har- had. Presumably, Israel hopes this will dis- or steel rod ends nessed to allow Israel to streamline an suade most Palestinians from associating up, to prevent eight-year blockade that has barred many with the resistance movements. Hamas rebuilding essential items, including those needed to Further, it is hard not to assume that its home-made rebuild Gaza after previous assaults. the supervision system will provide Israel rockets and The agreement passes nominal control with the GPS co-ordinates of every home in network over Gaza’s borders and the transfer of re- Gaza, and the details of every family, con- of tunnels construction materials to the PA and UN in solidating its control when it next decides order to bypass and weaken Hamas. But the to attack. And Israel can hold the whole overseers – and true decision-makers – will process to ransom, pulling the plug at any be Israel. For example, it will get a veto over moment. who supplies the massive quantities of ce- Sadly, the UN – desperate to see relief for ment needed. That means much of the do- Gaza’s families – has agreed to conspire in nors’ money will end up in the pockets of this new version of the blockade, despite its Israeli cement-makers and middlemen. violating international law and Palestinians’ But the problem runs deeper than that. rights. Washington and its allies, it seems, The system must satisfy Israel’s desire to are only too happy to see Hamas and Islam- know where every bag of cement or steel ic Jihad deprived of the materials needed to rod ends up, to prevent Hamas rebuilding resist Israel’s next onslaught. its home-made rockets and network of tun- The New York Times summed up the nels. concern: “What is the point of raising and The tunnels, and element of surprise they spending many millions of dollars … to offered, were the reason Israel lost so many rebuild the Gaza Strip just so it can be de- soldiers. Without them, Israel will have a stroyed in the next war?” freer hand next time it wants to “mow the For some donors exasperated by years of grass”, as its commanders call Gaza’s repeat- sinking money into a bottomless hole, up- ed destruction. grading Gaza to a super-max prison looks Last week Israel’s defence minister like a better return on their investment. CT Moshe Yaalon warned that rebuilding Gaza would be conditioned on Hamas’s good be- Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn haviour. Israel wanted to be sure “the funds Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books and equipment are not used for terrorism, are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: therefore we are closely monitoring all of Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle the developments”. East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing The PA and UN will have to submit to a Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human database reviewed by Israel the details of Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www. every home that needs rebuilding. Indica- jonathan-cook.net.

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October 2014 | ColdType 71 exceptionalism Exceptionalism rules Israel and the US are like two peas in a pod when it comes to their arrogance, writes Philip Giraldi

In the absence o Israel is building 2,610 new hous- ally accepted standards that determine how of any serious ing units in East Jerusalem and in one should behave, Washington somehow consequences contiguous areas on the West Bank having designated itself as “leader of the coming from at a time when international senti- free world” while Tel Aviv defines itself as Washington S ment against its unending occupation of a chosen people living in a land granted by Israeli Prime Palestine is growing, particularly among Eu- covenant from Yahweh himself. Minister Benjamin ropeans if one goes by recent developments Obama would be well served by con- Netanyahu will in Sweden, Britain and in Ireland. The ad- sidering how the majority belief that the do whatever he ministration of President Barack Obama United States is somehow exceptional, wants in the firm is reported to be “deeply concerned” and blessed and guided by God, has taken firm belief that there even seriously annoyed by the latest Israeli hold of the American psyche. Which makes is no one who can thumb inserted squarely in the American it not so very different than Israel. Indeed force him to do eye, but has not taken any action to pres- the founding fathers of both nations were otherwise sure Tel Aviv into reversing course. not particularly religious, more the prod- Pardon me while I yawn. In the absence ucts of the French enlightenment than the of any serious consequences coming from Bible or Torah, but it has been largely the Washington Israeli Prime Minister Benja- successor generations in both nations who min Netanyahu will do whatever he wants have rediscovered God in its most exclusive in the firm belief that there is no one who and retributive form. This has meant that can force him to do otherwise. Israel owns tens of millions of the current generation of Congress and the mainstream media while Americans are insisting on a need to return its proliferating think tanks and promot- to their versions of Biblical morality while ers in a score of major Jewish organizations Israelis keep step by maintaining that Israel continue to spew out self-serving nonsense. is an exclusively Jewish State . So who is going to say nay? Netanyahu believes that Israel has a Obama’s mistake lies ultimately in his manifest destiny to exercise complete con- apparent belief that Israel is somehow a trol over the West Bank so any talk of a two nation guided by tangible interests much state solution is only so much wind. Wheth- like any other, which is particularly ironic er he believes that because of the argument as he shares the same type of delusion as that the historic state of Israel included that the Israeli leadership. Both he and Netan- region as a gift from God or because he gen- yahu somehow believe that their respective uinely considers a Palestinian State to be a countries are not bound by any internation- permanent security problem is somewhat

72 ColdType | December 2014 exceptionalism irrelevant. What is relevant is that many tablish historical legitimacy and to demon- A majority in Israel Israelis share the view that East Jerusalem strate Jewish claims to the land that is cur- believes that it is and the West Bank are there to be colo- rently part of the state as well as of those both fit and proper nized, a view expressed by Netanyahu when adjacent regions that it seeks to absorb. Per that Israel should he challenged anyone to “To come and tell one critic, “archeology thus becomes a na- be allowed to Jews not to live in Jerusalem – why?” tional tool through which Israelis can recov- expand without A majority in Israel believes that it is er their roots in the ancient past and the an- regard for the both fit and proper that Israel should be cient homeland.” Demonstrating continuity native population, allowed to expand without regard for the of significant Jewish presence and suppress- which they look native population, which they look down ing the evidence relating to other inhabit- down upon and upon and by some accounts hardly consider ants supports the false belief that the first by some accounts human. The devil inevitably being in the de- generation of Israelis settled a land that was hardly consider tails, the only real question becomes what to largely empty. human do with the pesky Palestinians who remain Both the continuity and suffering narra- – kill them, force them to leave or permit tives come together in a particularly odd ar- powerless Bantustans that might easily be ticle that appeared recently in Yahoo news. controlled by constructing walls and check- The article, entitled “Jewish revolt written points while exploiting the inhabitants for in stone,” states that “Israeli archaeologists cheap labor if for nothing else. said Tuesday they have discovered a large While the “moral majority” in the US stone with Latin engravings that lends cre- exploits what it perceives to be the ethical dence to the theory that the reason Jews high ground in its attacks on critics so too revolted against Roman rule nearly 2,000 the friends of Israel promote two particular ago was because of their harsh treatment. favorable narratives that permit their large- Israel’s Antiquities Authority said the stone ly unprincipled behavior. They are first that bears the name of the Roman emperor Had- Jews have always had a substantial presence rian and the year of his visit to Jerusalem, a in what is today’s Israel, which means that few years before the failed Bar Kochba revolt the creation of the country and its expand- in the second century A.D. The inscription ing borders is little more than a coming backs up historical accounts that Rome’s home, and second that Jewish suffering is Tenth Legion was present in Jerusalem in unique and therefore justifies a free pass the run-up to the revolt.” and plentiful reparations for the foresee- The inscription is actually a dedication able future. Critics of the legitimacy of ei- from the Tenth Legion, which had consti- ther narrative are routinely silenced by be- tuted the province’s military establishment ing called anti-Semites, which until recently at least since the time of Domitian in 83 AD, denied to them any serious consideration to commemorate a visit to Jerusalem by the or even civility, though the tag is currently Emperor Hadrian which took place in 130 losing its efficacy through overuse. Former AD. Hadrian famously was the first Roman Israeli government minister Shulamit Aloni Emperor to visit many of the provinces of once admitted regarding the anti-Semitism the Roman Empire to celebrate the prosper- label that “It’s a trick. We always use it.” ity and peace that Rome had given to the The US media, in which friends of Is- Mediterranean world. Whatever Hadrian’s rael are heavily overrepresented, generally attitude towards the Judeans might have toe the line on promoting Israeli national actually been, there is no suggestion any- myths, just as they do regarding the Ameri- where in the inscription that there was any can counterparts. It should surprise no one “harsh treatment” of anyone, but the author that even archeology is run by a department of the article relying on commentary from of the Israeli government in an effort to es- Israeli government archeologists made that

December 2014 | ColdType 73 exceptionalism

Israel has no the central theme relating to the discovery, ton but which nevertheless will eventually be intention of ceding combining Jewish presence (even though completed. Reasonable voices in Israel argue the West Bank to Jews are not mentioned) with unique his- that the country is on the wrong course and anyone because torical suffering (also missing). Mission ac- is facing disaster, but they are likely to be ig- it believes in its complished. nored just as their counterparts in the United own destiny and So President Obama is running head on States have been largely excluded from the righteousness against a rigorously pursued national myth debate on how to extricate the “exceptional” about Israel and there is no reason why he nation from an endless cycle of war and eco- should expect to be victorious. National nomic decline. CT myths are inevitably tricky things but they are ignored at one’s peril. Israel has no intention Phil Giraldi is a former CIA Case Officer and of ceding the West Bank to anyone because it Army Intelligence Officer who spent twenty believes in its own destiny and righteousness. years overseas in Europe and the Middle East It will continue to expand at the expense of working terrorism cases. He holds a BA with the Palestinians until the tide of history turns honors from the University of Chicago and against it, a process that can be slowed by the an MA and PhD in Modern History from the protection afforded by its patrons in Washing- University of London.

South Africa before the Freedom’srevolution Children Photographs by Duncan Mangham

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74 ColdType | December 2014 the cost of apathy Ebola’s link with Reaganonomics The West’s mistreatment of others, in the way of economic injustice, environmental injustice or just depraved indifference to human life, eventually impacts us all, says Michael I. Niman

n October we saw person to person Ebola ernments with structural debt, the public While Malaria transmission on three continents. And in sector isn’t too robust, often unable to pro- continued to a global culture obsessed with contagion vide basic infrastructure for potable water or devastate the third themed apocalypse entertainment, we’re education. Developing an advanced medical world, and Ebola I lay in hiding like seeing the beginning of a social media panic research sector ain’t happening. This leaves with the US, according to Twitter trending the continent at the mercy of American and a time bomb, the stats, leading the world in Ebola Tweets. European philanthropy, which often seems medical industry And this is only the beginning. Or is it? drawn more to sexier or trending causes, mostly ignored The Ebola story goes back almost four de- like saving wildlife or hating the eminently both, putting cades, to 1976, when the first two outbreaks hateable Joseph Kony. money into occurred in the Sudan and the Democratic First world apathy toward Ebola contin- more profitable Republic of Congo. Like Malaria, which kills ued even as the current epidemic unfolded pursuits such millions around the world, Ebola found a over the last six months, eventually spread- as developing sympathetic partner in a neo-liberal global ing to seven counties, with Sierra Leone, erectile economy that allocates resources based not Liberia and Guinea hit the hardest. In Oc- dysfunction drugs on need, but on where corporate capital can tober, the World Health Organization’s As- for octogenarians find the easiest path to profits. Malaria, by sistant Director, General Bruce Aylward, de- nature, strikes tropical regions dominated clared that the Ebola epidemic has become by poor people. Ebola, by history, has only a health crisis “unparalleled in modern hit Africa. Medical research is expensive times.” That means, since the Black Death and usually driven by private investment, ravaged Europe and the holocaust of Euro- which is drawn to profit, not service. Hence, pean diseases decimated native America. while Malaria continued to devastate the Terry Pegula Could Have Saved the World third world, and Ebola lay in hiding like a time bomb, the medical industry mostly ig- Aylward asked for one billion dollars to nored both, putting money into more prof- combat the epidemic. To put this number itable pursuits such as developing erectile in perspective, that’s $400 million less than dysfunction drugs for octogenarians. fracking magnate and uber sports fan Terry With corporate research money heading Pegula paid last month to buy the Buffalo toward more profitable products, fighting Bills football team. Weeks went by with no diseases like Ebola is left to the public sector. real support from any first world nation, Across Africa, where colonialism plundered as hospitals in Liberia turned Ebola pa- resources and neo-liberalism saddled gov- tients away, sending the infection back into

December 2014 | ColdType 75 the cost of apathy

What we saw crowded slums, while the disease jumped appreciated during health emergencies in Ferguson international borders and an ocean. To date, when resources are strained. The profit- wasn’t just the only poor and small Cuba took the threat driven health care model, combined with deployment of seriously, initially sending the most medical an almost sociopathic drive for “efficiency,” inappropriate aid to Africa, with about 450 health work- eliminated the “wasted resources” essential technology – it ers either on the ground or on their way. to having a surge capacity able to provide was also the If we are to stem a global Ebola pandemic, care in a crisis. If Ebola arrives on our shores deployment of however, tens of thousands of health care in any serious way, I’m sure we’ll have the an inappropriate workers along with hundreds of new field debate we should have been having over attitude and hospitals are immediately needed in Africa. the past four decades, only we’ll be having strategy The private sector won’t supply the it too late. money, the personnel or the infrastructure In many developing nations, it wasn’t the needed to fight Ebola. That leaves the pub- manic drive for “efficiency” in the private lic sector, which in our country has been sector that decimated health care. It was the decimated by over three decades of funding “structural adjustments” that lending agen- cuts stemming from the “shrink govern- cies such as the World Bank forced upon ment until it fits in your pocket” mental- nations, demanding that they limit or cut ity of the Reagan era. The problem is that health care funding. We’re also seeing the small government cannot meet big tasks. effect of this structural adjustment and aus- This argument comes most alarmingly from terity on the ground around the world as Dr. Francis Collins, who heads the National nations try to plan for dealing with a health Institutes of Health, which is the agency crisis they now have no infrastructure to tasked with developing a vaccine and other meet. drugs to fight Ebola. A seemingly exasper- We’re only talking about Ebola to the de- ated Collins told Huffington Post that the gree that we are now because an uninsured agency, in all likelihood, would have al- Ebola patient in Texas received minimal at- ready developed, tested and produced an tention and was sent home with some useless Ebola vaccine, “if we had not gone through pills, allowing the disease to gain strength in our 10-year slide in research support.” This his body and threaten a continent. For 38 would be due to the Reagan small govern- years we sat on our hands, thinking Ebola ment doctrine administered under the ad- only affected Africa. And, quite frankly, call it ministrations of both George W. Bush and racism, greed or just indifference, Americans Barack Obama. didn’t really give a shit about Africa. Once Collins explained that the agency didn’t upon a time, such indifference would never just start working on an Ebola response re- have come home to roost. But the world is a cently, but began its work 13 years ago. Even lot smaller now. Our mistreatment of global so, the timeline he lays out, with or with- others, be it in the way of economic injustice, out budget issues, is unacceptable, with the environmental injustice or just depraved in- agency not taking serious action until 25 difference to human life, eventually impacts years after the first Ebola outbreak. us all. Ebola might be global neo-liberal capi- talism’s greatest test. CT The Efficiency Virus

Another issue not getting much press is Michael I. Niman is a professor of how state, federal and private health care journalism and media studies at SUNY cuts have served to decimate the surge ca- Buffalo State. His previous columns are at pacity in our health care system. The old artvoice.com, archived at www.mediastudy. model provided extra beds, which almost com, and available globally through always sat empty, but sure were and are syndication.

76 ColdType | December 2014 techno-fear An electronic ‘Silent Spring’ Radiation from cell towers and the cell phone in your pocket could be killing us, so why do we ignore it? asks Katie Singer

This article is the text of a talk at the Techno- oxygen and paved the way for animals. “Harmful Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth Teach- Plants and animals still function by elec- interference” at In (www.ifg.org) at Cooper Union, New York tro-chemical signals. So do our brains and the FCC has never City, on October 25, 201 hearts. Even at rest, all cells have measur- included biological able voltage. In other words, without elec- harm n 1960, in a hospital a few miles uptown, tromagnetic energy, none of us would be my mother gave birth to me under bright, here. electric lights with an epidural that erased By 1880, we humans figured out how Iher pain and made her unconscious for my to generate, store and transmit electrical arrival. While my mother slept in a nearby energy over long distances. We got electric room, nurses fed me commercial formula lights. We got motors and built refrigerators. that I could not digest. We got radio and TV. Compared to most humans born after Since 1934, our Federal Communica- World War II, there’s nothing special about tions Commission has said, go forth and my techno-birth. Compared to most mam- invent electronics–as long as you don’t cre- mals, it’s a recipe for abandonment and a ate “harmful interference.” This means we life questioning, What is home? can’t disrupt existing radio, TV and cellular Besides home, I’m looking for people broadcasts. “Harmful interference” at the who want to know technology’s dangers FCC has never included biological harm. and who’ll practice self-regulation to pro- Call this exclusion of nature. tect nature and health. I figure I’ve come to In 1996, our FCC filled the head of a 200 the right place. pound plastic man with salty fluid. The en- I’d like to spell out some troubling rules gineers called him SAM, for Standard An- and studies about electronics, and some thropomorphic Man. They took SAM’s tem- regulations we can implement ourselves. perature. They gave the dude a cell phone But first, let’s go back a few billion years, for six minutes, then they took his tempera- before man-made laws or mobile phones, ture again. when this planet was a mass of gasses, wa- SAM’s temp had changed by less than ter, dust and rock. two degrees. After a buildup of charge, lightning be- And so, the FCC determined that mobile gan to strike. A bombardment of lightning devices are safe. Call this test insufficient. storms led to nucleic and amino acids, the Next, everybody got a cell phone. Then building blocks of life. Early plants made came smartphones, which also transmit Wi-

December 2014 | ColdType 77 techno-fear

A Swedish study Fi. Providers installed about 300,000 cell not let go of an iPad. A 31-year-old man with found that people towers. In a few short years, we blanketed Google Glass was admitted for Internet ad- who begin using a our environment with frequencies and am- diction disorder because he was online 18 digital cell phone plitudes that do not exist in nature. hours a day. as teenagers or Some of us want to know the non-ther- When people with deep brain stimula- younger have mal, biological effects of exposure to elec- tors for Parkinson’s ride in a Prius and the a 420% tromagnetic radiation from wireless tech- car breaks and recharges its battery, pulsed increased risk nologies. magnetic fields from the car’s computers of brain cancer We want to know the effects of long-term shut off the medical implant. exposure. What happens if exposure begins Men with erectile dysfunction are 2.6 in utero? What if a child can see a cell tower times more likely to keep a cell phone in from her bedroom window? What if a utility their front pants pocket. Now, we all want company installs a microwave-transmitting men to assume more responsibility with “smart” meter on your breaker box and birth control; but I don’t think this quali- you’ve got a medical implant? How do wild- fies. life react when around cell towers? Lots of folks just don’t feel well after they If the FCC has considered these ques- get Wi-Fi or a new mobile device or their tions, they’ve not made their studies pub- utility installs smart meters or a cell tower lic. goes up nearby. They don’t sleep. They get Many scientists have. For 1800 peer-re- headaches and memory problems. Their viewed studies about the biological effects eyes strain. They get nausea and strange of EMR exposure, please visit BioInitiative. rashes. org. European and Russian studies since the Most studies come from Europe, Turkey 1960s associate these symptoms and many and the Middle East, because US telecom more with exposure to radiofrequency ra- providers will not give subscribers’ usage diation from radar and now mobile devices, data to epidemiologists. Another question- cell towers, Wi-Fi and smart meters. able situation As for wildlife, a Spanish biologist stud- So what are the biological effects of ex- ied a common frog habitat 140 meters from posure to EMR? a cell tower. He built a metal box around Fundamental things are affected, includ- some frogs. Two months later, these shield- ing the rate of calcium release from a cell’s ed frogs had a mortality of 4.2%. The un- membrane, the brain’s metabolic rate, the shielded frogs had a mortality of 90%. rate of DNA breakage, melatonin produc- While white stork pairs tried to build tion, and decreased sperm production. nests near antennas, they often fought over A Swedish study found that people who sticks. Their sticks fell to the ground. The begin using a digital cell phone as teenag- nests did not get built. Chicks frequently ers or younger have a 420% increased risk died. In a German study, 65% of bee colo- of brain cancer. nies abandoned their hives when nearby South Korean teens now commonly have cell towers went live. GMOs, pesticides dementia. Their doctors think this comes and monocultures likely also play roles in from excessive screen time–and using only colony collapse. But ill bees typically die in one side of their brains. or near their hives. In this study, no ill bees After Wi-Fi was installed in Los Angeles were found. schools, some children began bleeding from Bees use cryptochromes, magnetically their noses and ears. sensitive genes in their eyes, to sense the A British toddler was admitted to an ad- Earth’s electromagnetic energy fields and to diction treatment center because she would navigate. Exposure to EMR emitted by cell

78 ColdType | December 2014 techno-fear towers disrupts cryptochrome-based navi- Dr. Jelter prescribed therapeutic-grade fish Why doesn’t the gation. oil. After three weeks, the boy’s screaming FCC employ even Humans also have cryptochromes. stopped. He slept through the night. His one person to They’re involved in our sleep cycles. mother’s seizure disorder also decreased. routinely measure Here’s another red flag. Section 704 of My report, “Calming Behavior in Chil- radiation emitted the 1996 Telecommunications Act states dren with Autism and ADHD,” is at elec- by those 300,000 that no health or environmental concern tronicsilentspring.com. And you don’t need cell towers? may interfere with the placement of telecom autism to try the protocol. equipment as long as it complies with FCC Please, let’s get informed about the bio- emissions guidelines. Among other things, logical effects of electronics. this means that even if you can prove that The smart grid aims to reduce our use of a cell phone caused brain cancer, you can’t electricity and make delivery of it more ef- sue the provider. ficient. But most “smart” meters are wire- So. Did Congress or AT&T know some- less. They emit EMR, create health hazards, thing they don’t want us to know about violate security and waste energy. “Smart” how cell phones and towers affect health or meters are not necessary for a smart grid. wildlife? “Smart” meters can transmit pulsed EMR And why doesn’t the FCC employ even every 15 seconds. They can shut off pace- one person to routinely measure radiation makers. Like other wireless technologies, emitted by those 300,000 cell towers? they’re not UL certified, which means that Many people consider electronic tech- if a smart meter fire damages your house, nologies “green.” But broadcasting data your home owner’s insurance likely won’t wirelessly takes much more energy than cover you. transmitting data on copper wire or optical Safer technology is available for an intel- fiber. A mobile call requires three times as ligent grid. Let your utility commissioners much energy as a corded landline call. To know. keep air conditioned, data centers require Learn about transformers. Big transform- the equivalent of 30 nuclear power plants. ers convert voltages on the grid. Smaller If data centers were a country, they would transformers–switch-mode power supplies– rank fifth in use of energy. are used by devices like mobile phones, For the most part, modern technologies compact fluorescent lights and solar power expand our use of energy. They do not cur- inverters. Transformers can generate mag- tail it. netic fields that apparently cause leukemia. In March of 2014, the CDC reported that Solar power can operate safely. Thor- one in 42 boys has autism. This number is oughly filtered inverters can deliver clean up by nearly a third since 2012. We don’t DC or AC electricity without harmonics. know the cause of autism nor of this alarm- Please be aware that broadband over ing trend. But a Bay Area pediatrician now powerlines and distributed antenna sys- has a free protocol that includes turning Wi- tems can blanket your town in electromag- Fi off at night, and keeping mobile devices netic rad away from children. With new “green” ordinances, provid- One family had a non-verbal ten-year- ers no longer need to prove that a new cell old who screamed from 10pm till 3am every tower can withstand 130 mph winds for ex- night. Within three days of turning Wi-Fi ample. This is another red flag. Why would off and unplugging cordless phones, this a legislator give up the permitting process boy spoke a complete sentence. This fam- when cell towers regularly collapse and ily lived on a military base, but they kept catch fire? reducing their own EMR emissions, and Around the country, school systems have

December 2014 | ColdType 79 techno-fear

We might ignore issued iPads for every child. Last July, FCC more than an electronic device, then what that depending on Chair Tom Wheeler committed $2 billion for is our responsibility? a mobile phone high speed Wi-Fi in our schools. Call these I think we’ve got to start making limits. gives technology risks to every child’s health and mind. To begin, consider not using mobile devices and corporations At the conclusion of “Silent Spring”, around pregnant women or children. control of our lives Rachel Carson called on pesticide users’ Get cabled Internet access. humility. She asked pesticide users to ac- Think twice before using a mobile device knowledge “the vast forces with which they in a moving car or train. At every mile, your tampered.” Could we get humble and ac- phone connects to a new base station and knowledge that using wireless technologies goes to maximum power. EMR gets trapped tampers with vast forces? in the car and bounces around. Not good. Because of the extraordinary powers at Join others who’ve gotten “smart” meters our fingertips, we may lose sight of laws removed and analog utility meters restored that value mobile devices more than our to their homes. ecosystem or our health. We might ignore Guard building codes for safe installation that depending on a mobile phone gives of new and upgraded cell towers. CT “ technology and corporations control of our lives. We may fail to notice that no app can Katie Singer is a medical journalist who steer us home. works with the Electromagnetic Radiation Clearly, the FCC and telecom providers Policy Institute, and the author of “An value profits more than our ecosystem and Electronic Silent Spring,” Her web site is our health. If we value health and nature http://www.electronicsilentspring.com

BIG MEDIA & INTERNET TITANS Edited by Granville Williams Published by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom Price £9.99 ISBN 978-1-898240-07-5

Media pluralism must be put back on the political agenda. That is what a new book, just published by the media reform group, the UK-based Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, argues. Big Media & Internet Titans highlights the democratic challenges posed by excessive media power, both in the hands of ‘old media’ but also through the emergence of the four giants of the internet age – Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. Never before have such global behemoths grown so fast or spread their tentacles so widely. The book poses urgent questions about media ownership and throws down the democratic challenge for politicians to embrace policies which will promote diverse, democratic and accountable media.

You can order the book online at: www.cpbf.org.uk CPBF 23 Orford Road London E17 9NL E-mail [email protected]

80 ColdType | December 2014 anti-empire report Russia invades Ukraine. Again, and again . . . Religion, ignorance, corruption and injustice are the forces behind the recent violence in Africa’s richest country, writes Don North

“ ussia reinforced what Western and sian soldiers, distributed by the Ukrainian Where are these Ukrainian officials described as a government.” The Times apparently forgot photographs? And stealth invasion on Wednesday [Au- to inform its readers where they could see how will we know gust 27], sending armored troops these videos. that these are R Russian soldiers? across the border as it expanded the con- “The Russian aim, one Western official flict to a new section of Ukrainian territory. said, may possibly be to seize an outlet to the And how will we The latest incursion, which Ukraine’s mili- sea in the event that Russia tries to establish know that the tary said included five armored personnel a separatist enclave in eastern Ukraine.” photos were taken carriers, was at least the third movement of This of course hasn’t taken place. So in Ukraine? troops and weapons from Russia across the what happened to all these Russian soldiers southeast part of the border this week.” 30 miles inside Ukraine? What happened None of the photos accompanying this to all the armored vehicles, weapons, and New York Times story online showed any of equipment? these Russian troops or armored vehicles. “The United States has photographs “The Obama administration,” the sto- that show the Russian artillery moved into ry continued, “has asserted over the past Ukraine, American officials say. One photo week that the Russians had moved artil- dated last Thursday, shown to a New York lery, air-defense systems and armor to help Times reporter, shows Russian military units the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk. moving self-propelled artillery into Ukraine. ‘These incursions indicate a Russian-direct- Another photo, dated Saturday, shows the ed counteroffensive is likely underway’, Jen artillery in firing positions in Ukraine.” Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, Where are these photographs? And how said. At the department’s daily briefing in will we know that these are Russian sol- Washington, Ms. Psaki also criticized what diers? And how will we know that the pho- she called the Russian government’s ‘un- tos were taken in Ukraine? But most impor- willingness to tell the truth’ that its military tantly, where are the fucking photographs? had sent soldiers as deep as 30 miles inside Why am I so cynical? Because the Ukrai- Ukraine territory.” nian and US governments have been feed- Thirty miles inside Ukraine territory and ing us these scare stories for eight months not a single satellite photo, not a camera now, without clear visual or other evidence, anywhere around, not even a one-minute often without even common sense. Here are video to show for it. “Ms. Psaki apparently a few of the many other examples, before [sic] was referring to videos of captured Rus- and after the one above:

December 2014 | ColdType 81 anti-empire report

Then there’s the The Wall Street Journal (March 28) re- government plane dropping bombs? Or of July 17 shootdown ported: “Russian troops massing near the bombs exploding? When the source of of Malaysia Ukraine are actively concealing their po- the story is mentioned, it’s almost invari- Flight MH17, over sitions and establishing supply lines that ably the rebels who are fighting against eastern Ukraine, could be used in a prolonged deployment, the Syrian government. Then there’s the taking 298 lives, ratcheting up concerns that Moscow is pre- “chemical weapon” attacks by the same evil which Washington paring for another [sic] major incursion and Assad government. When a photo or video would love to not conducting exercises as it claims, US of- has accompanied the story I’ve never once pin on Russia or ficials said.” seen grieving loved ones or media present; the pro-Russian “The Ukrainian government charged not one person can be seen wearing a gas rebels. The US that the Russian military was not only ap- mask. Is it only children killed or suffering? government – and proaching but had actually crossed the bor- No rebels? therefore the US der into rebel-held regions.” (Washington And then there’s the July 17 shootdown of media, the EU, and Post, November 7) Malaysia Flight MH17, over eastern Ukraine, NATO – want us all “U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove taking 298 lives, which Washington would to believe it was told reporters in Bulgaria that NATO had love to pin on Russia or the pro-Russian the rebels and/or observed Russian tanks, Russian artillery, rebels. The US government – and therefore Russia behind it. Russian air defense systems and Russian the US media, the EU, and NATO – want us The world is still combat troops enter Ukraine across a com- all to believe it was the rebels and/or Russia waiting for any pletely wide-open border with Russia in the behind it. The world is still waiting for any evidence. previous two days.” (Washington Post, No- evidence. Or even a motivation. Anything vember 13) at all. President Obama is not waiting. In a “Ukraine accuses Russia of sending more talk on November 15 in Australia, he spoke soldiers and weapons to help rebels prepare of “opposing Russia’s aggression against for a new offensive. The Kremlin has repeat- Ukraine – which is a threat to the world, edly denied aiding the separatists.” (Reu- as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of ters, November 16) MH17”. Based on my reading, I’d guess that Since the February US-backed coup in it was the Ukranian government behind the Ukraine, the State Department has made shootdown, mistaking it for Putin’s plane one accusation after another about Russian that reportedly was in the area. military actions in Eastern Ukraine without Can it be said with certainty that all the presenting any kind of satellite imagery or above accusations were lies? No, but the other visual or documentary evidence; or burden of proof is on the accusers, and the they present something that’s very unclear world is still waiting. The accusers would and wholly inconclusive, such as unmarked like to create the impression that there are vehicles, or unsourced reports, or citing “so- two sides to each question without actually cial media”; what we’re left with is often no having to supply one of them. more than just an accusation. The Ukraini- The United States punishing Cuba an government has matched them. On top of all this we should keep in mind For years American political leaders and that if Moscow decided to invade Ukraine media were fond of labeling Cuba an “inter- they’d certainly provide air cover for their national pariah”. We haven’t heard that for ground forces. There has been no mention a very long time. Perhaps one reason is the of air cover. annual vote in the United Nations General This is all reminiscent of the numerous Assembly on the resolution which reads: stories in the past three years of “Syrian “Necessity of ending the economic, com- planes bombing defenseless citizens”. Have mercial and financial embargo imposed by you ever seen a photo or video of a Syrian the United States of America against Cuba”.

82 ColdType | December 2014 anti-empire report

This is how the vote has gone (not includ- ion of other governments. How long would ing abstentions): Speaking before the General Assembly it be before CIA before last year’s vote, Cuban Foreign Min- money – secret Year Votes (Yes-No) No Votes ister Bruno Rodriguez declared: “The eco- and unlimited CIA 1992 59-2 US, Israel nomic damages accumulated after half a money financing 1993 88-4 US, Israel, Albania, century as a result of the implementation of all kinds of fronts Paraguay the blockade amount to $1.126 trillion.” He in Cuba – would 1994 101-2 US, Israel added that the blockade “has been further own or control 1995 117-3 US, Israel, tightened under President Obama’s admin- most of the media Uzbekistan istration”, some 30 US and foreign entities worth owning or 1996 138-3 US, Israel, being hit with $2.446 billion in fines due to controlling? Uzbekistan their interaction with Cuba. 1997 143-3 US, Israel, However, the American envoy, Ronald Uzbekistan Godard, in an appeal to other countries to 1998 157-2 US, Israel oppose the resolution, said: 1999 155-2 US, Israel “The international community … can- 2000 167-3 US, Israel, not in good conscience ignore the ease and Marshall Islands frequency with which the Cuban regime 2001 167-3 US, Israel, silences critics, disrupts peaceful assem- Marshall Islands bly, impedes independent journalism and, 2002 173-3 US, Israel, despite positive reforms, continues to pre- Marshall Islands vent some Cubans from leaving or return- 2003 179-3 US, Israel, ing to the island. The Cuban government Marshall Islands continues its tactics of politically motivated 2004 179-4 US, Israel, Marshall detentions, harassment and police violence Islands, Palau against Cuban citizens.” 2005 182-4 US, Israel, Marshall So there you have it. That is why Cuba Islands, Palau must be punished. One can only guess 2006 183-4 US, Israel, Marshall what Mr. Godard would respond if told that Islands, Palau more than 7,000 people were arrested in 2007 184-4 US, Israel, Marshall the United States during the Occupy Move- Islands, Palau ment’s first 8 months of protest in 2011-12 ; 2008 185-3 US, Israel, Palau that many of them were physically abused 2009 187-3 US, Israel, Palau by the police; and that their encampments 2010 187-2 US, Israel were violently destroyed. 2011 186-2 US, Israel Does Mr. Godard have access to any news 2012 188-3 US, Israel, Palau media? Hardly a day passes in America 2013 188-2 US, Israel without a police officer shooting to death 2014 188-2 US, Israel an unarmed person. As to “independent journalism” – What This year Washington’s policy may be would happen if Cuba announced that from subject to even more criticism than usual now on anyone in the country could own due to the widespread recognition of Cuba’s any kind of media? How long would it be response to the Ebola outbreak in Africa. before CIA money – secret and unlimited Each fall the UN vote is a welcome re- CIA money financing all kinds of fronts in minder that the world has not completely Cuba – would own or control most of the lost its senses and that the American em- media worth owning or controlling? pire does not completely control the opin- The real reason for Washington’s eter-

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The US sanctions nal hostility toward Cuba has not changed has performed in the previous year in areas mechanism is since the revolution in 1959 – The fear of a such as religious freedom, human rights, so effective and good example of an alternative to the capi- the war on drugs, trafficking in persons, formidable that talist model; a fear that has been validated and sponsors of terrorism. The criteria used it strikes fear (of repeatedly over the years as many Third in these reports are often political. Cuba, huge fines) into World countries have expressed their adu- for example, is always listed as a sponsor of the hearts of lation of Cuba. terrorism whereas anti-Castro exile groups banks and other How the embargo began: On April 6, in Florida, which have committed literally private-sector 1960, Lester D. Mallory, US Deputy Assis- hundreds of terrorist acts over the years, are organizations that tant Secretary of State for Inter-American not listed as terrorist groups or supporters might otherwise Affairs, wrote in an internal memorandum: of such. consider dealing “The majority of Cubans support Castro … Cuba, which has been on the sponsor-of- with a listed state The only foreseeable means of alienating in- terrorism list longer (since 1982) than any ternal support is through disenchantment other country, is one of the most glaring and disaffection based on economic dis- anomalies. The most recent State Depart- satisfaction and hardship. … every possible ment report on this matter, in 2012, states means should be undertaken promptly to that there is “no indication that the Cuban weaken the economic life of Cuba.” Mallory government provided weapons or paramili- proposed “a line of action which … makes tary training to terrorist groups.” There are, the greatest inroads in denying money and however, some retirees of Spain’s Basque supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and terrorist group ETA (which appears on the real wages, to bring about hunger, despera- verge of disbanding) in Cuba, but the re- tion and overthrow of government.” port notes that the Cuban government evi- Later that year, the Eisenhower admin- dently is trying to distance itself from them istration instituted its suffocating embargo by denying them services such as travel against its everlasting enemy. documents. Some members of the Revolu- tionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) The United States judging and punishing have been allowed into Cuba, but that was the rest of the world because Cuba was hosting peace talks be- In addition to Cuba, Washington currently tween the FARC and the Colombian govern- is imposing economic and other sanctions ment, which the report notes. against Burma, Democratic Republic of the The US sanctions mechanism is so ef- Congo, Iran, China, North Korea, South Ko- fective and formidable that it strikes fear rea, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Sri Lan- (of huge fines) into the hearts of banks ka, Switzerland, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, and other private-sector organizations that South Africa, Mexico, South Sudan, Sudan, might otherwise consider dealing with a Russia, Syria, Venezuela, India, and Zim- listed state. babwe. These are sanctions mainly against Some selected thoughts on American governments, but also against some private elections and democracy enterprises; there are also many other sanc- tions against individuals not included here. “In politics, as on the sickbed, people toss Imbued with a sense of America’s moral from one side to the other, thinking they will superiority and “exceptionalism”, each year be more comfortable.” – Johann Wolfgang the State Department judges the world, is- von Goethe (1749-1832) suing reports evaluating the behavior of all other nations, often accompanied by sanc- l 2012 presidential election: tions of one kind or another. There are dif- 223,389,800 eligible to vote ferent reports rating how each lesser nation 128,449,140 actually voted

84 ColdType | December 2014 anti-empire report

Obama got 65,443,674 votes auction for the presidency would be more How many voters Obama was thus supported by 29.3% of efficient. To make the auction more inter- does it take to eligible voters esting we need a second party, which must change a light l There are 100 million adults in the at a minimum be granted two privileges: bulb? None. United States who do not vote. This is a getting on the ballot in all 50 states and tak- Because voters very large base from which an independent ing part in television debates. can’t change party can draw millions of new votes. l The US does in fact have two parties: anything l If God had wanted more of us to vote the Ins and the Outs … the evil of two less- in elections, he would give us better candi- ers. dates. l Alexander Cockburn: “There was a l “The people can have anything they time once when ‘lesser of two evils’ actu- want. The trouble is, they do not want any- ally meant something momentous, like the thing. At least they vote that way on elec- choice between starving to death on a life- tion day.” – Eugene Debs, American social- boat, or eating the first mate.” ist leader (1855-1926) l Cornel West has suggested that it’s be- l “If persons over 60 are the only Ameri- come difficult to even imagine what a free can age group voting at rates that begin to and democratic society, without great con- approximate European voting, it’s because centrations of corporate power, would look they’re the only Americans who live in a like, or how it would operate. welfare state – Medicare, Social Security, l The United States now resembles a po- and earlier, GI loans, FHA loans.” – John lice state punctuated by elections. Powers l How many voters does it take to change l “The American political system is es- a light bulb? None. Because voters can’t sentially a contract between the Republican change anything. and Democratic parties, enforced by fed- l H.L. Mencken (1880-1956): “As democ- eral and state two-party laws, all designed racy is perfected, the office represents, more to guarantee the survival of both no matter and more closely, the inner soul of the peo- how many people despise or ignore them.” ple. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some – Richard Reeves (1936- ) great and glorious day the plain folks of the l The American electoral system, once land will reach their heart’s desire at last, the object of much national and interna- and the White House will be adorned by a tional pride, has slid inexorably from “one downright moron.” person, one vote”, to “one dollar, one vote”. l “All elections are distractions. Nothing l Noam Chomsky: “It is important to conceals tyranny better than elections.” – bear in mind that political campaigns are Joel Hirschhorn designed by the same people who sell tooth- l In 1941, one of the country’s more acer- paste and cars. Their professional concern bic editors, a priest named Edward Dowling, in their regular vocation is not to provide commented: “The two greatest obstacles to information. Their goal, rather, is deceit.” democracy in the United States are, first, l If the Electoral College is such a good the widespread delusion among the poor system, why don’t we have it for local and that we have a democracy, and second, the state elections? chronic terror among the rich, lest we get l “All the props of a democracy remain it.” intact - elections, legislatures, media - but l “Elections are a necessary, but certainly they predominantly function at the service not a sufficient, condition for democracy. of the oligarchy.” – Richard Wolff Political participation is not just a casting of l The RepDem Party holds elections as votes. It is a way of life.” – UN Human De- if they were auctions; indeed, an outright velopment Report, 1993

December 2014 | ColdType 85 anti-empire report

fter going through l “If you don’t vote, you can’t complain!” about. And that’s how they have functioned the recent I reply, “You have it backwards. If you DO ever since.” – Richard K. Moore national, state and vote, you can’t complain. You asked for it, l “As demonstrated in Russia and nu- local elections, and they’re going to give it to you, good and merous other countries, when faced with I am now hard.” a choice between democracy without capi- convinced that l “How to get people to vote against their talism or capitalism without democracy, taxation without interests and to really think against their in- Western elites unhesitatingly embrace the representation terests is very clever. It’s the cleverest ruling latter.” – Michael Parenti would have been class that I have ever come across in history. l “The fact that a supposedly sophisti- a much better It’s been 200 years at it. It’s superb.” – Gore cated electorate had been stampeded by the system Vidal cynical propaganda of the day threw serious l We can’t use our democracy/our vote doubt on the validity of the assumptions to change the way the economy functions. underlying parliamentary democracy as a This is very anti-democratic. whole.” – British Superspy for the Soviets l What does a majority vote mean other Kim Philby (1912-1988), explaining his rea- than that the sales campaign was success- sons for becoming a Communist instead of ful? turning to the Labour Party l Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius: “The l US Supreme Court Justice Louis Bran- opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none deis (1856-1941): “We may have democracy of them know anything about the subject.” in this country, or we may have wealth con- l We do have representative government. centrated in the hands of a few, but we can- The question is: Who does our government not have both.” represent? l “We don’t need to run America like a l “On the day after the 2002 election I business or like the military. We need to run watched a crawl on the bottom of the CNN America like a democracy.” – Jill Stein, Green news screen. It said, ‘Proprietary software Party presidential candidate 2012 CT may make inspection of electronic voting Notes systems impossible.’ It was the final and ab- solute coronation of corporate rights over 1. Democracy Now!, October 30, 2013 democracy; of money over truth.” – Mike 2. Huffingfton Post, May 3, 2012 Ruppert, RIP 3. Department of State, Foreign Relations l “It’s not that voting is useless or stupid; of the United States, 1958-1960, Volume VI, rather, it’s the exaggeration of the power of Cuba (1991), p.885 (online here) voting that has drained the meaning from 4. For the complete detailed list, see U.S. De- American politics.” – Michael Ventura partment of State, Nonproliferation Sanc- l After going through the recent nation- tions al, state and local elections, I am now con- 5. U.S. Department of State, “Country Re- vinced that taxation without representation ports on Terrorism 2012, Chapter 3: State would have been a much better system. Sponsors of Terrorism,” May 20, 2013 l “Ever since the Constitution was illegal- ly foisted on the American people we have William Blum is the author of “Killing lived in a blatant plutocracy. The Constitu- Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions tion was drafted in secret by a self-appoint- Since World War II”, “Rogue State: a ed elite committee, and it was designed to guide to the World’s Only Super Power,” bring three kinds of power under control: “West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Royalty, the Church, and the People. All Memoir,” and “America’s Deadliest Export were to be subjugated to the interests of a – Democracy: The Truth About US Foreign wealthy elite. That’s what republics were all Policy and Everything Else”

86 ColdType | December 2014 Socialism today This is what democracy looks like … Jeff Nygaard looks at the reasons behind Eva Morale’s overwhelming election win in Bolivia

n October 12th Evo Morales was to disappear. Morales and his elected overwhelmingly to a third The explanation in the US media for Mo- socialist party, the term as President of Bolivia. Mo- rales’ win, when it was reported at all, was MAS, keep winning rales received 60% of the vote “the strength of the economic and political elections, and O it’s fun to watch against 25% for cement magnate Samuel stability brought by his government.” Doria Medina, the top vote-getter among True, it’s pretty stable, at least at the level the bewildered four challengers, according to the Wash- of elections. The Organization of American hostility in the US ington Post. The election was little noted in States issued a statement about the recent media as they the US, and when it was Morales was gener- election in Bolivia saying that the OAS watch Bolivian ally referred to as “the former coca grower” “commends the citizenry for the high level democracy unfold who is “known internationally for his anti- of peaceful participation yesterday, betoken- imperialist and socialist rhetoric.” Morales ing the country’s democratic conviction.” and his socialist party, the MAS, keep win- The “democratic conviction” of the peo- ning elections, and it’s fun to watch the be- ple of Bolivia takes a very different form wildered hostility in the US media as they than it takes in the United States. Just a watch Bolivian democracy unfold. couple of weeks ago the Council Of Hemi- The New York Times began and ended spheric Affairs in Washington DC published their coverage of the election by showing an article by analyst Ronn Pineo called “The their sympathies fairly clearly. The headline Decline of United States Influence and the read “President of Bolivia Claims Victory Rise of Evo Morales.” The article gives just in Election,” implying that there was some a glimpse of how different Bolivian democ- doubt about the landslide victory. (There racy seems to be, and a hint of how much wasn’t.) And the concluding sentence of the we are missing when the US media fails article was also revealing: “Like other leftist to report on goings-on in Latin America, leaders in the region, Mr. Morales has been which the US has traditionally referred to as criticized for undermining democratic safe- its “backyard.” guards, like the independence of the judi- Pineo reminds readers that “Democracy ciary.” The implication here is that “leftist in Bolivia will not fit into US-centric models leaders” have some kind of monopoly on of political parties, elections, and liberal rep- anti-democratic behavior in the Western resentative government. As [Latin America Hemisphere. In this Us-vs-Them world, scholars Benjamin Kohl and Rosalind Bres- anti-democratic right-wing US allies like nahan] have noted, there is a strong “differ- Colombia, Guatemala, and Honduras seem ence between Western-liberal-individualist

December 2014 | ColdType 87 Socialism today

Democracy in and communitarian indigenous (Andean) fractures, and communities and various as- Bolivia is the democracies.” sociations begin to clamor for attention to contestations, the Kohl and Bresnahan, in a 2010 article in their needs. testing of relative Latin American Perspectives explain that “In Bolivia, as in Ecuador and Venezuela strength, of “Whereas Western[ers] … have been so- as well, the right is in retreat. Indeed, the President Morales cialized in a one-person, one-vote ideal of right is becoming, or has become, all but ir- and the MAS, democracy, in many Andean communities relevant as a political force. In Bolivia the vi- and social groups democratic deliberations take place at the olent overreach of the right in 2008 severely expressing their level of the community itself. Communal reduced its national political influence. The politics directly, decision making of this type is commonly parties of the right have been reduced to on the streets, seen, for example, in decisions on land use. rump voting clubs, the remnants of prior in protests, The ‘community’ – which is defined in dif- political configurations. Instead, democracy marches, in ferent ways according to the setting – de- in Bolivia is the contestations, the testing of highway blockage cides on how to rotate land, guarantee ac- relative strength, of President Morales and cess to pastures, assign land in colonization the MAS, and social groups expressing their zones, etc., through a consensual process. politics directly, on the streets, in protests, Thus it is not surprising for a similar com- marches, in highway blockages. Between munity consensus to be reflected in -vot elections politics begin in earnest, as the cy- ing behavior, especially among indigenous cle of left-wing pressure begins anew. This is groups that see that the MAS will represent what democracy looks like in Bolivia.” their interests.” And how does this kind of democracy Morales’ political party is called the Mo- work? Well, in early October the Center for vimiento a Socialismo, or MAS. In English, Economic and Policy Research released a that’s the Movement Toward Socialism. brief summary called “Bolivia’s Economy Back to Pineo: “The MAS is, as research- Under Evo in 10 Graphs.” The graphs, says er Santiago Anria correctly notes, ‘a hybrid CEPR, “help explain the strong support organization … participating in representa- for his re-election.” I can’t reproduce the tive institutions without abandoning non- graphs here, but will summarize what they electoral street politics.’ Bolivians like it tell us (all the words below are from the this way. Latinobarómetro polling shows CEPR study): that popular satisfaction with democracy 1. Economic Growth: Bolivia has grown in Bolivia has risen from under a quarter of much faster over the last 8 years under Pres- those surveyed in 2005 to more than half in ident Evo Morales than in any period over 2009. President Morales has not given up the past three-and-a-half decades. his involvement in Bolivia’s social move- 2. High Level of International Reserves: ments, and even now remains head of the International reserves act as a buffer against coca growers union. He is often seen cross- external shocks, preventing balance of pay- ing over and joining the people protesting ments crises. Bolivia’s international reserves in the streets.” are currently more than 48 percent of GDP, “Democratic governance in Bolivia in higher than even China; there is room for more activist, inclusionary, direct, and par- Bolivia to put these resources to greater ticipatory than that in the United States productive use, for example in public in- and the West. But above all politics in Bo- vestment. livia are not so much about elections these 3. Nationalization Shifts Hydrocarbon days. At polling time the left sets aside its Revenues to the Public Sector: A referen- differences and votes for Morales and the dum vote in mid-2004 indicated public sup- MAS. But as we are seeing, it is between the port for a greater state role in the hydrocar- elections that normal politics begin. The left bons sector, and in May 2006, newly-elected

88 ColdType | December 2014 Socialism today president Evo Morales renationalized Bo- economy. One possible livia’s oil and gas industries. The increased 10. Pursuing Alternatives to the Drug explanation for tax revenue has allowed Bolivia to vastly War: In 2008, the US added Bolivia to a Bolivia’s “stability,” increase its macroeconomic policy space. short list of countries that had “failed de- as noted by the Some of this revenue went into reserves, monstrably” to meet international counter- US media, may as noted above, and Bolivia also increased narcotics agreements. Bolivia has been on be the concrete public investment (below). the list ever since, despite having reduced improvement 4. Highest Foreign Direct Investment in the amount of coca in cultivation. Outside brought to South America: While the business press the US, President Morales has received people’s lives by a consider nationalizations to be anathema praise for his “Coca Yes, Cocaine No” policy movement toward to attracting international investment, Bo- that emphasizes protecting human rights, socialism livia actually had the highest level of foreign and recognizes traditional, legal uses for the direct investment, as a percent of GDP, in coca plant. South America in 2013. The US media reports that Morales keeps 5. Public Investment is High and Increas- getting elected because of the “economic ing: Since 2006, Bolivia has made it a prior- and political stability brought by his govern- ity to increase public investment spending. ment.” But could there be a different story, Over the last 8 years, total public investment one that is invisible to the agenda-setting doubled as a percentage of GDP. media in this country, but that is hidden in 6. Poverty Reduced by 25 Percent, Ex- plain sight? And might that story have to do treme Poverty Reduced by 43 Percent: Bo- with the fact that, in Bolivia, it is “between livia is one of the poorest countries in South elections that politics begin in earnest”? America, but poverty has been on a down- If it is true that the essence of democ- ward trend in recent years after stagnating racy in Bolivia is found “on the streets, in at a very high level for almost a decade. protests, marches, in highway blockages,” 7. Economic Inequality Decreases: Bo- then we may have a clue as to why so many livia has been praised by Alicia Barcena, Bolivians are so much better off today than the head of the Economic Commission on they were before Morales took office in Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 2006. And why most people in the United as being “one of the few countries that has States are not. reduced inequality … the gap between rich I’m not interested in romanticizing Mo- and poor has been hugely narrowed.” [The rales, nor Bolivian democracy. There are graph shows that] “the income of the poorer many ugly stories coming out of Bolivia to sectors of the population has grown much balance out the good news presented here. faster since 2006 than that of the higher- But what I am suggesting is that one pos- income households.” sible explanation for Bolivia’s “stability,” as 8. Large Increase in the Minimum Wage: noted by the US media, may be the concrete One explanation for the decrease in poverty improvement brought to people’s lives by a and inequality is that Bolivia has rapidly in- movement toward socialism. Could it be that creased the real (inflation-adjusted) mini- it is not just the rhetoric, but Bolivia’s “anti- mum wage. From 2005-2014, the real mini- imperialist and socialist” policies – and the mum wage increased by 87.7 percent. democratic processes that produce them – 9. Social Spending Increases Over 45 Per- that keep Bolivia moving forward? CT cent In 7 Years: Public spending on health, education, pensions and poverty alleviation Jeff Nygaard is the editor of Nygaard Notes programs experienced a significant increase - http:/?nygaardnotes.org - where this report (of 45 percent) in real terms, but did not was originally published fully keep up with overall growth in the

December 2014 | ColdType 89 Writing worth reading

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