INSIDE: why they want to kill the motor industry l tales from the planet bizarre l a lesson in drug enforcement l & more ColdType

TheWRITING WORTHReade READING l ISSUE 33 l Januarry 2009 “It was pitch black . . . They hung me up for two days. My legs had swollen. My wrists and hands had gone numb . . . There was loud music, Slim Shady and Dr. Dre for 20 days . . . The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night. Plenty lost their minds . . . I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off” ( PAGE 3 ) ColdType TheReader Issue 33 | January 2009

3. HIT ME BABY, ONE MORE TIME Andy Worthington 8. DETERmINinG TORTURE THROUGH THE LAW Coleen Rowley & Ray McGovern 11. Through Cheyney’s looking glass John S. Hatch 14. Tasers are an outrage we must resist Johann Hari Editor: Tony Sutton 16. LICENse to steal Danny Schechter ([email protected]) 19. TALEs from the planet bizarre David Michael Green Opinions expressed in The 23 HURWITT’s eye Mark Hurwitt ColdType Reader are not John Pilger necessarily those of the 24 Beware of obama’s groundhog day editor or publisher 26. THE paranoia squad George Monbiot 29. Why they want to kill the motor industry Michael I. Niman 32. WHY i’m a socialist Chris Hedges 35. The PU-litzer prizes for 2008 Jeff Cohen & Norman Solomon 38. America’s Other glorious war William Blum 43. Obama going easy on Bush? Lee Camp 45. A lesson in drug enforcement Paul Armentano

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2 TheReader | January 2009 On Torture / 1 Hit me baby, one more time From Britney to Barney, any music can drive you mad if it’s played enough. And unlike with physical torture, you can’t mentally prepare yourself, writes Andy Worthington

here’s an ambiguous undercur- it’s very scary to think that you might go “Once you accept rent to the catchy pop smash that crazy because of all the music, because of that you’re going introduced a pig-tailed Britney the loud noise, and because after a while to go into the Spears to the world in 1999 – so you don’t hear the lyrics at all, all you hear interrogation room muchT so that Jive Records changed the is heavy banging.” and be beaten up, song’s title to “… Baby One More Time” Despite this, the soldiers, who were it’s fine. You can after executives feared that it would be largely left to their own devices when choos- prepare yourself perceived as condoning domestic violence. ing what to play, frequently selected songs mentally. But It’s a safe bet, however, that neither with blunt messages – “Fuck Your God” when you’re being Britney nor songwriter Max Martin ever by Deicide, for example, which is actually psychologically anticipated that this undercurrent would an anti-Christian rant, but one whose title tortured, you be picked up on by US military personnel, would presumably cause consternation to can’t” when they were ordered to keep prison- believers in any religion – even though, for ers awake by blasting earsplitting music at prisoners not used to Western rock and rap them – for days, weeks or even months on music, the music itself was enough to cause end – at prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and them serious distress. When CIA operatives Guantánamo Bay. spoke to ABC News in November 2005, as The message, as released Guantánamo part of a groundbreaking report into the prisoner Ruhal Ahmed explained, was less use of waterboarding and other torture significant than the relentless, inescapable techniques on “high-value detainees” held noise. Describing how he experienced mu- in secret prisons, they reported that, when sic torture on many occasions, Ahmed said, prisoners were forced to listen to Eminem’s “I can bear being beaten up, it’s not a prob- Slim Shady album, “The music was so for- lem. Once you accept that you’re going eign to them it made them frantic.” And in to go into the interrogation room and be May 2003, when the story broke that music beaten up, it’s fine. You can prepare your- was being used by US psyops teams in Iraq, self mentally. But when you’re being psy- Sgt. Mark Hadsell, whose favored songs chologically tortured, you can’t.” He added, were said to be “Bodies” by Drowning however, that “from the end of 2003 they Pool and “Enter the Sandman” by Metal- introduced the music, and it became even lica, told Newsweek, “These people haven’t worse. Before that, you could try and focus heard heavy metal. They can’t take it.” on something else. It makes you feel like Depending on people’s musical tastes, you are going mad. You lose the plot, and responses to reports that music has been

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“If you play it for used to torture prisoners often produces ing the Korean War to elicit false confes- 24 hours, your flippant comments along the lines of, “If sions, include stripping detainees of their brain and body I had to listen to David Gray’s ‘Babylon’/ clothing, placing them in stress positions, functions start to the theme tune from Barney (the purple putting hoods over their heads, disrupt- slide, your train dinosaur)/Christina Aguilera, I’d be cry- ing their sleep, treating them like animals, of thought slows ing ‘torture’ too.” But the truth, sadly, is far subjecting them to loud music and flashing down, and your darker, as Hadsell explained after noting lights, and exposing them to extreme tem- will is broken. that prisoners in Iraq had a problem with peratures. It can also include face and body That’s when we heavy metal music. slaps, and until recently, for some who at- come in and talk to “If you play it for 24 hours,” Hadsell tended the Navy’s SERE school, it included them” said, “your brain and body functions start waterboarding. to slide, your train of thought slows down, The Senate Committee’s report, which and your will is broken. That’s when we lays the blame for the implementation of come in and talk to them.” these policies on senior officials, including Hadsell, like senior figures in the admin- President George W. Bush, former Defense istration, was blithely unconcerned that Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President “breaking” prisoners, rather than finding Dick Cheney’s former legal counsel (and ways of encouraging them to cooperate, now chief of staff) David Addington, and was not to best way to secure information former Pentagon General Counsel William that was in any way reliable, but the psyops J. Haynes II, makes it clear not only that teams were not alone. In September 2003, the use of music is part of a package of il- Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the US military legal techniques, but also that at least part commander in Iraq, approved the use of of its rationale, according to the Chinese music as part of a package of measures for authorities who implemented it, was that use on captured prisoners “to create fear, it secured false confessions, rather than the disorient … and prolong capture shock,” “actionable intelligence” that the US ad- and as is spelled out in an explosive new ministration was seeking. report by the Senate Armed Services Com- mittee into the torture and abuse of pris- The experiences of Binyam Mohamed and oners in US custody, the use of music is an Donald Vance essential part of the reverse engineering of In case any doubt remains as to the perni- techniques, known as survival, evasion, re- cious effects of music torture, consider the sistance, escape (SERE), which are taught comments by Binyam Mohamed, a British in US military schools to train personnel to resident still held in Guantánamo, who resist interrogation. The report explains: was tortured in Morocco for 18 months on “During the resistance phase of SERE behalf of the CIA, and was then tortured training, US military personnel are exposed for four months in the CIA’s “Dark Prison” to physical and psychological pressures … in Kabul, and Donald Vance, a US military designed to simulate conditions to which contractor in Iraq, who was subjected to they might be subject if taken prisoner by music torture for 76 days in 2006. enemies that did not abide by the Gene- Speaking to his lawyer, Clive Stafford va Conventions. As one … instructor ex- Smith, the director of the legal action char- plained, SERE training is “based on illegal ity Reprieve, Mohamed, like Ruhal Ahmed, exploitation (under the rules listed in the explained how psychological torture was 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the worse than the physical torture he endured Treatment of Prisoners of War) of prison- in Morocco, where the CIA’s proxy torturers ers over the last 50 years.” The techniques regularly cut his penis with a razor blade. used in SERE school, based, in part, on “Imagine you are given a choice,” he Chinese Communist techniques used dur- said. “Lose your sight or lose your mind.”

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In Morocco, music formed only a small cluding what he said was possible illegal “It was pitch part of Mohamed’s torture. Toward the weapons trading,” but that “when Ameri- black, and no end of his 18-month ordeal, he recalled can soldiers raided the company at his urg- lights on in the that his captors “cuffed me and put- ear ing, Mr. Vance and another American who rooms for most of phones on my head. They played hip hop worked there were detained as suspects by the time … They and rock music, very loud. I remember the military, which was unaware that Mr. hung me up for they played Meatloaf and Aerosmith over Vance was an informer.” two days. My legs and over. I hated that. They also played Vance, who was held at Camp Cropper had swollen. My 2Pac’s, “All Eyez On Me,” all night and all in Baghdad, explained that he was rou- wrists and hands day. … A couple of days later, they did the tinely subjected to sleep deprivation, taken had gone numb. same thing. Same music. I could not take for interrogation in the middle of the night … There was loud the headphones off, as I was cuffed. I had and held in a cell that was permanently lit music, Slim Shady to sleep with the music on and even pray with fluorescent lights. He added, “At most and Dr. Dre for 20 with it.” hours, heavy metal or country music blared days. I heard this At the Dark Prison, however, which in the corridor.” Speaking to the Associat- nonstop, over and was otherwise a plausible re-creation of ed Press, he said that the use of music as over” a medieval dungeon, in which prisoners torture “can make innocent men go mad,” were held in complete darkness and were and added more about the use of music often chained to the walls by their wrists, during his imprisonment, stating that he the use of music was relentless. As Mo- was “locked in an overcooled 9-foot-by-9- hamed explained: “It was pitch black, and foot cell that had a speaker with a metal no lights on in the rooms for most of the grate over it. Two large speakers stood in time … They hung me up for two days. the hallway outside.” The music, he said, My legs had swollen. My wrists and hands “was almost constant, mostly hard rock. had gone numb. … There was loud music, There was a lot of Nine Inch Nails, includ- Slim Shady and Dr. Dre for 20 days. I heard ing ‘March of the Pigs.’ I couldn’t tell you this nonstop, over and over. I memorized how many times I heard Queen’s ‘We Will the music, all of it, when they changed the Rock You.’” He said the experience “sort of sounds to horrible ghost laughter and Hal- removes you from you. You can no longer loween sounds. It got really spooky in this formulate your own thoughts when you’re black hole. … Interrogation was right from in an environment like that.” the start, and went on until the day I left After his release, Vance said he planned there. The CIA worked on people, includ- to sue Rumsfeld on the basis that his con- ing me, day and night. Plenty lost their stitutional rights had been violated, and minds. I could hear people knocking their he noted, “Saddam Hussein had more heads against the walls and the doors, legal counsel than I ever had.” He added screaming their heads off. … Throughout that he had written a letter to the camp’s my time, I had all kinds of music and ir- commander “stating that the same demo- ritating sounds, mentally disturbing. I call cratic ideals we are trying to instill in the it brainwashing. fledgling democratic country of Iraq, from Vance’s story demonstrates not only simple due process to the Magna Carta, we that the practice of using music as torture are absolutely, positively refusing to follow was being used as recently as 2006, but ourselves.” also that it was used on Americans. When his story broke in December 2006, the New Musicians take action York Times reported that he “wound up as In December, Reprieve launched a new ini- a whistle-blower, passing information to tiative, Zero dB (Against Music Torture), the FBI about suspicious activities at the aimed at encouraging musicians to take Iraqi security firm where he worked, in- a stand against the use of their music as

January 2009 | TheReader 5 On Torture / 1

“The idea that torture instruments. This is not the first that “if you blare the music loud enough repeating a song time that musicians have been encouraged for long enough, I guess it can become un- will drive someone to speak out. In June, Clive Stafford Smith bearable,” but refused to accept either that over the brink of raised the issue in the Guardian newspa- songwriters can legitimately have any say emotional stability, per, and when, in an accompanying article, about how their music is used, or that there or cause them the Guardian noted that David Gray’s song were any circumstances under which play- to act counter to “Babylon” had become associated with the ing music relentlessly at prisoners could be their own nature, torture debate after Haj Ali, the hooded considered torture. makes music into man in the notorious Abu Ghraib photo- “It’s absolutely ludicrous,” he wrote. “A something like graphs, told of being stripped, handcuffed song that was designed to make little chil- voodoo, which it and forced to listen to a looped sample of dren feel safe and loved was somehow go- is not” the song, at a volume so high he feared that ing to threaten the mental state of adults his head would burst, Gray openly con- and drive them to the emotional breaking demned the practice. “The moral niceties point? of whether they’re using my song or not are “The idea that repeating a song will totally irrelevant,” he said. “We are think- drive someone over the brink of emotional ing below the level of the people we’re sup- stability, or cause them to act counter to posed to oppose, and it goes against our their own nature, makes music into some- entire history and everything we claim to thing like voodoo, which it is not.” represent. It’s disgusting, really. Anything Singleton was not the only artist to mis- that draws attention to the scale of the understand how the use of music could in- horror and how low we’ve sunk is a good deed constitute torture – especially when thing.” used as part of a package of techniques de- In a subsequent interview with the BBC, signed to break prisoners. Gray complained that the only part of the Steve Asheim, Deicide’s drummer, said: torture music story that got noticed was its “These guys are not a bunch of high school “novelty aspect” – which he compared to kids. They are warriors, and they’re trained Guantánamo[‘s] Greatest Hits – and then to resist torture. They’re expecting to be delivered another powerful indictment of burned with torches and beaten and have the misappropriation of his and other art- their bones broken. If I was a prisoner at ists’ music: Guantánamo Bay and they blasted a load “What we’re talking about here is people of music at me, I’d be like, ‘Is this all you in a darkened room, physically inhibited by got? Come on.’ I certainly don’t believe in handcuffs, bags over their heads and music torturing people, but I don’t believe that blaring at them for 24 hours a day, seven playing loud music is torture either.” days a week,” he said. “That is torture. That is nothing but torture. It doesn’t mat- Enthusiastic support ter what the music is – it could be Tchaik- Furthermore, other musicians have been ovsky’s finest or it could be Barney the Di- positively enthusiastic about the use of their nosaur. It really doesn’t matter, it’s going to music. Stevie Benton of Drowning Pool, drive you completely nuts.No-one wants which has played to US troops in Iraq, told to even think about it or discuss the fact Spin magazine, “People assume we should that we’ve gone above and beyond all legal be offended that somebody in the military process and we’re torturing people.” thinks our song is annoying enough that Not every musician shared Gray’s revul- played over and over it can psychologically sion. Bob Singleton, who wrote the theme break someone down. I take it as an honor tune to Barney, which has been used exten- to think that perhaps our song could be sively in the War on Terror, acknowledged used to quell another 9/11 attack or some- in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in July thing like that.”

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Fortunately, for those who understand sic, has expressed reservations. In a radio “I suggest that using music as part of a system of interview in November 2004, he said that that they level torture techniques is no laughing matter, he was “proud” that the military had used Guantánamo Bay, the Zero dB initiative provides the most his music (even though they “hadn’t asked but they keep one noticeable attempt to date to call a halt to his permission or paid him royalties”). “For small cell, and its continued use. Christopher Cerf, who me, the lyrics are a form of expression, a they put Bush wrote the music for Sesame Street, was freedom to express my insanity,” he ex- in there ... and horrified to learn that the show’s theme plained, adding, “If the Iraqis aren’t used they blast some tune had been used in interrogations. “I to freedom, then I’m glad to be part of Rage Against the wouldn’t want my music to be a party to their exposure.” Hetfield laughed off claims Machine.” that,” he said. that music could be used for torture, say- Tom Morello of Rage Against the Ma- ing, “We’ve been punishing our parents, chine has been particularly outspoken in our wives, our loved ones with this music denouncing the use of music for torture. In forever. Why should the Iraqis be any dif- 2006, he said to Spin magazine: “The fact ferent?” that our music has been co-opted in this barbaric way is really disgusting. If you’re Relentless at all familiar with ideological teachings of However, he also acknowledged the reason the band and its support for human rights, that the military was using his music: “It’s that’s really hard to stand.” On last year’s the relentlessness of the music. It’s com- world tour, Rage Against the Machine reg- pletely relentless. If I listened to a death ularly turned up on stage wearing hoods metal band for 12 hours in a row, I’d go in- and orange jumpsuits, and during a recent sane, too. I’d tell you anything you wanted concert in San Francisco, Morello proposed to know.” taking revenge on President Bush: “I sug- While these musicians have at least spo- gest that they level Guantánamo Bay, but ken out, others – including Eminem, AC/ they keep one small cell, and they put DC, Aerosmith, the Bee Gees, Christina Bush in there ... and they blast some Rage Aguilera, Prince and the Red Hot Chili Pep- Against the Machine.” pers – remain silent about the use of their And on Dec. 11, just after the Zero dB work. initiative was announced, Trent Reznor of Britney Spears’ views are also unknown, Nine Inch Nails posted the following mes- but if her comments to CNN in September sage on his blog: 2003 are anything to go by, it’s unlikely that “It’s difficult for me to imagine anything she would find fault with it. When Tucker more profoundly insulting, demeaning and Carlson said to her, “A lot of entertainers enraging than discovering music you’ve put have come out against the war in Iraq. your heart and soul into creating has been Have you?” Britney replied, “Honestly, I used for purposes of torture. If there are think we should just trust our president in any legal options that can be realistically every decision he makes and should just taken they will be aggressively pursued, support that, you know, and be faithful in with any potential monetary gains donated what happens.” Perhaps she should speak to human rights charities. Thank GOD this to Pamela Anderson, who recently posted country has appeared to side with reason, a simple message to Barack Obama on her and we can put the Bush administration’s blog: “Please Shut down Guantánamo Bay reign of power, greed, lawlessness and – figure it out – make amends/stop torture madness behind us.” – it’s time for peaceful solutions.” CT Even James Hetfield of Metallica, who has generally been portrayed as a defender Andy Worthington is a writer and historian of the US military’s use of his band’s mu- and author of The Guantánamo Files.

January 2009 | TheReader 7 On Torture / 2 Deterring torture through the law Convicting govertnment officials for condoning torture is not vengeance, say Coleen Rowley & Ray McGovern. The key goal is deterrence, the most important goal of the criminal justice system

With virtually no irst, let’s kill all the lawyers” may tent” is also easy to grasp. It is the usual opposition, the have made sense in that Shake- label for what prompts people to commit president was spearian scene, but there is a far unplanned crimes in the heat of passion, allowed to declare simpler solution to the legal am- for example. the country in a Fbiguities regarding what to do now about It was to that third type of guilty intent – “war on terror” the torture approved by President George “recklessness” – that the old law professor and consider W. Bush. We suggest this variant: First, let’s devoted most emphasis, using his favorite himself above have the lawyers review their notes from “Russian Roulette” hypothetical to distin- the law Criminal Justice 101. guish it from the first two types and from The professor whom Coleen Rowley had mere negligence. His words still ring: “One for that course at the University of Iowa cannot simply put a gun on a table know- was the consummate curmudgeon. He ing there is a bullet in the cylinder, spin the kept repeating himself. It is now clear why. cylinder, point it at a person, pull the trigger The old fellow hammered home the basic and then say (when it goes off), ‘It’s not my purposes of the criminal justice system and fault, because I was hoping it would spin to the various kinds and degrees of criminal one of the empty chambers.’” intent. For Rowley, 24 years as a FBI special The evidence on the Bush administra- agent and attorney helped make it all real. tion’s torture decisions, which is becoming Eight years of the Bush/Cheney adminis- more abundant and damning as the weeks tration have served to make the matter of go by, rules out second-degree intent; ie, criminal intent the first essay question on unplanned crimes in the heat of passion. the final exam for Criminal Justice 101, so to These decisions were much more deliber- speak. But obfuscation (much of it deliber- ate. As the saying goes, after 9/11 “every- ate) reigns; worst of all, it impedes the im- thing changed.” With virtually no opposi- portant task of seeking accountability for tion, the president was allowed to declare those responsible for torture. the country in a “war on terror” and con- Criminal intent comes in essentially sider himself above the law. three kinds: No one needs much help un- Indeed, after his address to the nation derstanding the “deliberate-premeditated- on the very evening of 9/11, Bush assem- cold blooded” first-degree intent, because bled his top aides in the White House bun- that’s the stuff of the movies – the perfect ker and set a lawless path from the start. murder scheme or elaborate plot to pull off One of the aides present, Richard Clarke, the heist of the century. “Second-degree in- has written in his memoir, Against All Ene-

8 TheReader | January 2009 On Torture / 2 mies, that the president insisted: “[W]e are atop the proverbial barrel, as the Senate Indeed, the at war…Nothing else matters…Any barri- report demonstrates time and time again. law is not in ers in your way, they’re gone…I don’t care If you’d like still more proof of premedita- question. Water what the international lawyers say, we are tion and you missed Vice President Dick boarding was going to kick some ass.” Cheney on ABC TV bragging about his role wrong during the A bipartisan report released on Dec. 15, in facilitating water boarding, please read Spanish Inquisition Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry the transcript. and during the Into the Treatment of Detainees in US Cus- Cheney’s was the familiar above-the- Spanish-American tody, highlights in its “First Conclusion” law attitude, a reprise on his contemptuous war in the the fact that on Feb. 7, 2002 the president “So?” – in this case meaning, “So what are Philippines. It was issued a written determination that the you going to do about it?” With Cheney illegal during WW- Geneva protections for POWs did not ap- admitting to his key role in water board- II. Americans as ply to al-Qaeda or Taliban detainees; and ing, Mukasey is no doubt relieved that well as Japanese that following that determination, tech- during his confirmation hearing he obeyed have been niques like water boarding were autho- White House instructions to stonewall all convicted and rized for use in interrogation. The US Su- attempts to get him to concede what the severely punished preme Court ruled in June 2006 that such whole world knows – that water boarding for it. detainees could not be exempted from the is torture. Indeed, the law is not in ques- protections of Geneva, despite efforts to tion. Water boarding was wrong during the “redefine the law to create the appearance Spanish Inquisition and during the Span- of legality” for aggressive techniques, as the ish-American war in the Philippines. It was recent Senate report puts it. illegal during WW-II. Americans as well as Administration apologists, from Rush Japanese have been convicted and severely Limbaugh to Attorney General Michael punished for it. Mukasey claim that none of those who For those, who despite the above pre- approved or conducted torture had guilty fer to give President Bush the benefit of the intent, but were only trying to protect na- doubt regarding first-degree intent, should tional security. (That’s right – the same Mu- know that the third type of guilty intent, kasey who professes not to know whether recklessness, also applies – in spades. water boarding is torture.) For example, Cheney’s lawyer, David Mukasey’s sophistry calls to mind the Addington, and then-White House Coun- disingenuous argument of other adminis- sel Alberto Gonzales dissed the hapless tration lawyers that one could apply harsh former Gen. Colin Powell, who as secretary interrogation techniques to a detainee, as of state wrote to the White House in Janu- long as your intent is not to inflict pain but ary 2002: rather to obtain information. Not to men- “A determination that Geneva does not tion the pithy hint provided by a CIA at- apply could undermine US military culture torney: “If the detainee dies, you’re doing which emphasizes maintaining the highest it wrong.” standards of conduct in combat, and could Add to this mix the remarkable guid- introduce an element of uncertainty in the ance of Justice Department counsel, Jay status of adversaries.” Bybee (now a federal judge), quoted in the A pity Powell did not have the courage Senate report: “Violent acts aren’t neces- of his convictions, for he now has reason to sarily torture; if you do torture, you prob- be concerned about an eventual conviction ably have a defense; and even if you don’t of a different kind. Beneath the circumlocu- have a defense, the torture law doesn’t ap- tion quoted above is his clear appreciation ply if you act under the color of presidential that, if he did not fight against what was authority.” clearly in the cards, torture was likely to Clearly, the so-called “rotten apples” sat sully the Army and the nation to both of

January 2009 | TheReader 9 On Torture / 2

Barack Obama which he owed so much. to come from abusive practices. I think his- must order an “Could introduce an element of uncer- tory tells us that. I think the empirical evi- abrupt halt to tainty in the status of adversaries,” writes dence of the last five years, hard years, tells torture, as he has Powell. Could introduce, say, reckless Rus- us that.” promised – and sian roulette. In his interview with ABC, Let us have no backsliding. Barack preferably on Cheney put the old law professor’s hypo- Obama must order an abrupt halt to tor- January 20, right thetical smoking gun right out there on the ture, as he has promised – and preferably after he is sworn in table. A widespread lack of understanding on January 20, right after he is sworn in as as president regarding the purposes served by the crimi- president. A timely report from an indepen- nal justice system – and the penal system dent prosecutor would surely be helpful in – is a major obstacle to even entertaining buttressing and justifying that order. the thought of prosecuting administration Before the Senate Armed Services Com- officials for torture. All too many pundits mittee released a summary of its report on are claiming that the country should sim- Dec. 11, and before Cheney threw down the ply move on and just close the book on gauntlet four days later, what seemed to this painful chapter – and that to do oth- make the most sense was the more gradual erwise would simply be to try to extract approach proposed by the lawyer/writer, vengeance. Scott Horton (see December issue of Harp- But it is not about vengeance. The key er’s). Horton calls for the appointment of a goal here is deterrence – the final and most commission peopled by men and women of important goal of our criminal justice and unimpeachable integrity, in order to “pro- Coleen Rowley, a penal systems in such circumstances. vide a comprehensive narrative, setting out FBI special agent At this point, the emphasis needs to be in detail how US torture policy came to be for almost 24 years, on establishing the facts – not punishment. formed and identifying the key actors and came to national Priority must be given to determining how the decisions they made.” An excellent ap- attention in June our country ended up torturing people. proach. And this, of course, is where the 2002, when she Just as Cheney has termed water boarding penal factors and deterrence would come testified before a “no brainer,” it is equally a “no brainer” very much to the fore. Congress about that we must focus now on his self-admit- It is important to point out that the in- serious lapses before ted role, as well as the revelations in the dependent prosecutor and the commission 9/11 that helped Senate report and other evidence that has approaches are in no way mutually ex- account for the come to light. An independent prosecutor clusive. If both can be done expeditiously, failure to prevent like Patrick Fitzgerald would not need a lot both should be approved. What Horton the attacks. of time to establish the facts. may not have anticipated is that, in releas- Ray McGovern, a Our country’s values and the immoral- ing the shatteringly candid results of their CIA analyst for 27 ity of torture are important considerations. Senate committee’s two-year investigation, years, now works And the law, of course, is also key – or Senators Carl Levin and John McCain have with Tell the Word, should be. named names, jump-starting – and hope- the publishing arm Seldom have we seen it more cynically fully shortening – deeper investigation. of the ecumenical twisted and abused. But here is something It may be a hopeful sign of the times that Church of the else that must be thrust into public con- on Dec. 18, even the editors of the New York Saviour in inner- sciousness – the reality that, TV hero Jack Times lifted their heads out of the sand city Washington. Bauer’s mythical exploits aside, torture long enough to endorse the importance of Both are members never can be counted upon to yield reliable doing what is necessary to deter crimes like of the Steering information. torture: “Unless the nation and its leaders Group of Veteran THAT is the quintessential “no brainer.” know precisely what went wrong in the Intelligence For, as the head of US Army intelligence, Lt. last seven years, it will be impossible to fix Professionals for Gen. John Kimmons, asserted on Septem- it and make sure those terrible mistakes are Sanity (VIPS) ber 6, 2006: “No good intelligence is going not repeated.” CT

10 TheReader | January 2009 On Torture / 3 Through Cheyney’s looking glass The Vice President is like a character from Charles Dickens, writes John S. Hatch .

“Let the jury consider their verdict,” the King said Sneer, holding his breath and turn- “Unless the said, for about the twentieth time that day. ing very Cabernet Sauvignon colored. Alice amount of pain “No, no!” said the Queen. “Sentence first – feared he might have a heart attack, al- administered to verdict afterwards!” though she didn’t hope for one. Preposterous- a detainee during “Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly. ly, she dreamed of longevity in a jail cell. She an interrogation “The idea of having the sentence first!” tried to think of at least one impossible thing results in injury “Hold your tongue!” said the Queen, turn- a day, and sometimes two. His cell walls such as death, ing purple. wouldn’t be smeared in blood and feces, and organ failure, “I won’t!” said Alice. its floor wouldn’t be littered with broken or serious “Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at teeth. But he’d be in it. Maybe Halliburton impairment of the top of her voice. built the place, so he might be electrocuted body functioning, when he took a weekly shower. There would then it’s not side from writing the above de- be Tasers, and pepper spray, and dogs, and torture” lightful lines, Lewis Carroll was constant terror. He would pray for death. a master at constructing sorites, Enough! Punches. Rotten food. No medical or parasyllogisms, that is, logical attention. Beastly company. Screams in the Aarguments with several premises. Very dif- night. Despair. ficult to solve, but even more so to create. He was a genius, and used his knowledge Jay Bybee (now a judge on the appeals of logic to exploit its opposite, with immor- court, ninth circuit), with the help of John tal results Yoo (comfortably tenured law professor at As a gifted writer of nonsense fiction and Berkeley) was commissioned by Sneer to verse, perhaps Carroll would have found come up with the following logic-defying some slight admiration for Vice President conclusion: Dick Cheney, if not for his eloquence, at “Unless the amount of pain adminis- least for his effrontery of logic. Of course tered to a detainee during an interrogation Carroll’s own effrontery was constructive results in injury such as death, organ fail- and loving, so maybe not. ure, or serious impairment of body func- tioning, then it’s not torture.” “We don’t torture,” said Sneer, sneering. Oh. Pardon me. “Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice. “Of course Well, what about Mr. Frosty? He was a you do. It’s as plain as a rose by any other ‘ghost detainee’ by the name of Manadel name. And it stinks.” “I swear on my Bybee,” al-Jamadi, an invisible prisoner of the CIA

January 2009 | TheReader 11 On Torture / 3

At the morgue, his in November 2003, in Iraq at Abu Ghraib know something bad had to happen. He body was dropped prison, Saddam’s (then Bush’s) notorious was an Iraqi scooped in June 2003 (the mil- several times. torture jail in Baghdad. Already with six itary admits that 70-90% of Afghans and Then it was stored broken ribs, he was shackled from behind Iraqis arrested are innocent, so the real fig- unrefrigerated. A his back to window bars above his head. ure is probably 95-98%). bucket containing Imagine that, please. The horror. He hadn’t He was brought to a holding camp his internal organs done anything. It would be quite hard to close to Nasiriyah. He was savagely karate was left on a breathe. kicked while handcuffed and hooded. Is tarmac in the hot Aside from the broken ribs, he was pretty that terror or what? Terrific? He became ill. sun for hours banged up, with damage to his left eye and Medical staff, or whatever concluded that facial cuts. A sandbag had been placed over he might be faking. He was dragged by the his head and face. After he died, his body neck outside and left in the hot sun (130° was covered in ice, and Sneer’s proud de- or so). It’s called sun punishment. He died. fenders of freedom and democracy had tro- (The democracy-spreaders beat imprisoned phy photos of themselves taken with him, people for begging for water.) thumbs up. Is he a candidate? Of course no At the morgue, his body was dropped charges were filed. After all, it was the CIA several times. Then it was stored unrefrig- who did it. erated. A bucket containing his internal or- Or what about General Monsoush? Un- gans was left on a tarmac in the hot sun for fortunately, he doesn’t have a cute nick- hours. Body parts ended up in Washington name, (‘Mr. Monny’?) but he turned him- and Germany, while the hyoid bone, which self in after his four sons were kidnapped would have proved strangulation, disap- and imprisoned by the brave freedom lov- peared. A magic trick. A common ruse is to ers. After being beaten with sledge ham- forego autopsy, dismiss results if done by mer handles (the slouches only broke five outside pathologists, fail to interview wit- ribs, but made up for it in contusions and nesses, lose evidence or falsify evidence, bruising), he was allowed to see his young- flat out lie, or simply refuse to investigate est son, Mohammed, who was fifteen. The in the first place. General wept. Get rid of whistleblowers, no matter The democracy people then told the how high ranking. Might Nagam be con- General that Mohammed would be ex- sidered? Was that sufficient organ failure? ecuted (well, with a name like that!) They Should he have done more for democracy? took Mohammed out of his father’s view But enough. Abdul Jaleel. Mohammed and fired a gun. Probably the General Munim Izmerly. Dilar Dababa. Hundreds wept some more. They said they would or thousands of others. Bagram. Camp kill his other sons. Then they stuffed him Cropper. Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo. The into a sleeping bag head first, broken ribs Brick Factory. Camp Bucca. The Salt Pit. and all, and sat upon him. He died. But at Whitehorse. Navy ships. A hundred or a least there were consequences, for once. thousand others. Tasers. Sledgehammer The low-ranking officer, Lt. Col. Jameel handles. Phosphoric acid. Deprivations. who emphatically didn’t murder him (the Feigned executions. Fists. Karate kicks. military claimed death by natural causes) Knives. Dogs. Stress positions. Dragged by received a reprimand and a small fine. Jus- the throat. On a rope. Dragged by the pe- tice is so sweet! Does the General qualify? nis on a rope. Being urinated upon. Rape. He certainly suffered serious impairment of Sodomy. Sodomy of children. A hundred or body functioning. It sort of stopped, per- a thousand others. Enough! manently. Navy Seals, Blackwater mercenaries, No? Well what about Nagam Sadoon Military Intelligence, OGA (CIA), random Hatab? With such a funny name you just military thugs, and a hundred or a thou-

12 TheReader | January 2009 On Torture / 3 sand others. Enough! with the Constitution, apparently. Piece of Now Sneer is Sneer has had a lot of power, and has paper. Indeed. 180 countries recently voted admitting that used it with a maliciousness that has never to consider food for children a human right. he set the Dark before been seen in a Vice President. But The sole dissenter? That’s right. Age rack wheels even he doesn’t have the power to alter the A pardon by Bush or a passive pardon in motion. Even meaning of words, or to change reality. A by President-elect Obama (by pretend- bragging about it bipartisan Armed Services Committee has ing nothing happened) will mean that al- found 17-0 that the Bush/Cheney torture though Cheshire Cheney might fade away, policy was established at the highest level his evil sneer will remain to cast a pall over of the sick and sadistic Bush Administra- the future as well as the past. tion even before the convoluted logic of the Torture is the most vile behavior to Bybee/Yoo Torture Memo was conjured by which human beings can stoop. Nothing is those Mad Hatters. lower, not even murder. That Bush/Cheney Now Sneer is admitting that he set the would even torture children speaks to Dark Age rack wheels in motion. Even brag- the vile and sadistic nature of that insane ging about it. He’s proud of waterboard- bully Administration, which has not only ing, which was uncontestedly considered disgraced itself, but also diminished all of torture during the Spanish Inquisition, mankind, perhaps for centuries. when Americans did it in the Philippines, And the fools all claim to be Christians. and when Japanese soldiers were right- And fools believed them. fully convicted under the Geneva Conven- It must not be allowed to stand. CT tions of having done it to Americans during WWII. Sometimes the Geneva Conven- John S. Hatch is a Vancouver writer and film tions come in handy. Sometimes not. Same maker.

January 2009 | TheReader 13 Just Say No Tasers are an outrage we must resist Britain is following the US lead in its move towards a culture of assault by electricity, writes Johan Hari .

The electricity aniel Sylvester can’t forget the against unarmed citizens, including chil- made him spasm; night the police fired 50,000 dren. These “stun-guns” fire small metal as he fell to the volts of electricity into his skull. darts into your skin, and through the trail- ground, he felt his The 46-year-old grandfather ing wires run an agonising electric current teeth scatter on Downs his own security business, and he through your body. the tarmac and his was recently walking down the street when Smith is right to say that the police face bowels open a police van screeched up to him. a growing threat of violence, and these he- He didn’t know what they wanted, but roic frontline officers must have the means obeyed when they told him to approach to defend themselves. She’s also right to slowly. “I then had this incredible jolt of argue it better to use a Taser than to use a pain on the back of my head,” he explains. gun. But the police can already swiftly call The electricity made him spasm; as he fell out armed response teams, equipped with to the ground, he felt his teeth scatter on Tasers and firearms. If we move beyond the tarmac and his bowels open. this to a widespread culture of assault by “Then they shot me again in the head. electricity, it will only endanger the police – I can’t describe the pain.” (Another victim and the rest of us. says it is “like someone reached into my Smith wants Tasers to be distributed body to rip my muscles apart with a fork.”) well beyond the ranks of specially trained The police then saw he was not the person firearms officers, but Tasers can kill.- Am they were looking for, said he was free to nesty International has just published a go, and drove off. report showing that, since 2001, 334 people This did not happen in Egypt or Saudi have died in the US during or just after Ta- Arabia or any other country notorious for sering. using electro-shock weapons. It happened Jarrel Gray was a partially deaf 20-year- in north London and, if the Home Secre- old black man involved in an argument in tary, Jacqui Smith, has her way, it will be the street in Frederick County, Maryland, coming soon to a street near you. In Brit- when the police approached him and or- ain there are 3,000 police officers trained dered him to lie on the ground. He didn’t to use Tasers as part of specialised armed hear them – so they Tasered him. As he response units, but Smith has fired a jolt lay paralysed on the ground, they told him forward. to show his hands. He couldn’t obey. They She wants there to be 30,000 Taser- Tasered him again. Jarrel died in hospital carrying officers, authorised to use them two hours later.

14 TheReader | January 2009 Just Say No

Ryan Rich was a 33-year-old medical still Smith won’t compromise. The Metropolitan doctor who had an epileptic seizure while Everyday on-the-beat policing does n0t Police have driving his car on a Nevada highway. He happen in the tightly controlled scenarios said they won’t crashed into the side of the road. The po- imagined by the Home Office. It is messy participate in lice smashed a window to get into the car and scrappy and carried out at high speed Smith’s Taser and Ryan woke up, startled. The police of- by people who are frightened and coursing roll-out because ficer reacted by Tasering him repeatedly. with adrenaline: some 90 per cent of Taser- they know it’ll Only when they were handcuffing him did ed people in the US are unarmed. Matthew be particularly they notice he was turning blue. He was Fogg, who led a SWAT team in the US, disastrous for dead before he got to hospital. The coroner warns that Tasers create a culture where “if relations with noted dryly that the Taser “probably con- I don’t like you, I can torture you”. black and Asian tributed” to his death. Taser International’s If we slip into that policing culture, mis- communities brochures claim their weapons have “no trust and violence against police officers can after-effects.” only increase. That’s why so many senior There may, in fact, be even more deaths police are highly sceptical about Smith’s than are recorded. Taser International has plans, from the former head of the Flying responded to medical examiners saying Squad, John O’Connor, to the former head their weapons kill not by changing their of the West Midlands Police, Barry Mason. weapons, but by suing the medical exam- Far from lowering violence, Tasers seem iners. to lower the threshold by which the police After the chief medical examiner of resort to violence – and criminals respond Summit Country, Ohio, ruled that Tasering by lowering theirs. In the US, a 16-year-old caused the death of three young men, they schoolboy was Tasered by cops in a play- sued her, and she was forced to remove the ground for “using profanity”; a dementia- conclusions from her reports. The president riddled man in his eighties was shocked for of the National Association of Medical Ex- urinating in the park; 50,000 volts were aminers says Taser International’s behav- fired at a 17-year-old boy who had fallen iour is “dangerously close to intimidation”. off an overpass and broken his back. The Metropolitan Police have said they Corporate propaganda won’t participate in Smith’s Taser roll-out Yet Smith appears still to be taking the cor- because they know it’ll be particularly di- porate propaganda of Taser International sastrous for relations with black and Asian – which dominates the international stun- communities. In the US, only 18 per cent gun market – at face value. The company of Tasered people are white. Imagine if the is startlingly glib when its spiel begins to boys in Brixton and Moss Side weren’t just crumble. A recent scientific study conduct- being stopped-and-searched – which cre- ed by biomedical engineers for the Cana- ates enough grievance – but apprehended dian Broadcasting Corporation found that in this way. How many Taser attacks would nine per cent of the guns give a far larger have to make it onto YouTube before we electric shock than advertised. have riots? Some sent a 58 per cent higher voltage Daniel Sylvester still has nightmares through the victim’s body. Steve Tuttle, the about what happened to him. If we don’t vice-president of Taser, responded: “Re- stop Jacqui Smith, many more British peo- gardless of whether or not the anomaly is ple will be joining him – and we will all be accurate, it has no bearing on safety.” in for a shock. CT The UK Defence Scientific Advisory Council has warned there is research sug- Johan Hari is a columnist with the London gesting that Tasers could cause “a serious Indepenedent, in which this article first cardiac event” when fired at children. But appeared. [email protected]

January 2009 | TheReader 15 Cash Wars License to steal Tears for the rich; contempt for the poor. Danny Schechter on the $50 billion con that rocked Wall Street

Many of these very era has its bad guy, its high The notice larger-than-life profile criminal who flames into Go to The Madoff.com site today and there gangsters were public view through media circuses is this notice that thousands of investors anti-social outlaws and tabloid headlines. In the 1930’s, are reading while holding back tears and robbing banks Ethere was Al Capone brought down by the outrage. and the like. taxman. In the 40’s, Willie Sutton was a big On December 15, 2008, the Honorable Now the banks bad guy who once said he robbed banks Louis L. Stanton, a Federal Judge in the are robbing us because “that’s where the money is.” In the United States District Court for the South- 1950’s the Mafia seized our attention, while ern District of New York, appointed Ir- here in New York we had George Metetsky, ving Picard as Trustee for the liquidation the mad bomber. In the 60’s . . . well you of Bernard L. Madoff Investments Securi- know the saying: if you can rember that ties LLC (“BMIS”) pursuant to the Securi- era, you weren’t there…. ties Investor Protection Act (“SIPA”) as set Many of these larger than life gangsters forth in the attached order. were anti-social outlaws robbing banks Mr. Picard supersedes Lee S. Rich- and the like. Now the banks are robbing ards, the previously appointed Receiver us. Until he is outdone, we now have a new for BMIS and all claims by customers of poster boy for Wall Street excess and lar- BMIS will be processed by Mr. Picard as ceny: the bland personage of Bernard Ma- SIPA Trustee. Customers and claimants doff, the consummate Wall Street insider, should refer to the website of the Secu- philanthropist and pillar of the financial rities Investor Protection Corporation community. He has now been credited in for information about the processing of this credit crisis for the biggest theft in his- claims. tory. Mr. Richards continues to serve as Re- Madoff seems to have won the gold ceiver for Madoff Securities International medal for absconding with the most gold Ltd. pursuant to the attached order. The – to the tune of $50 billion and counting. Trustee Irving Picard has engaged Lazard It was all, he admitted, a Ponzi scheme. He Frères & Co. LLC to assist in the sale of was a reverse Robin Hood: he took from the trading operations of Bernard L. Mad- the rich and enriched himself in a life style off Investment Securities LLC. festooned with many houses, boats and Should you have further questions, stays at $5000 a night hotels. please contact the Trustee at the following number: 888-727-8695.

16 TheReader | January 2009 Cash Wars

In short: Good Luck at Getting Any Of lead the Securities and Exchange Commis- Bernie was a Your Money Back. sion (SEC), previously appointed one of high flyer, a part his sons to a regulatory body that oversees of a clubby and Whistleblower rebuffed American securities firms. Madoff himself incestuous elite Of course this dry legalistic language said he had often visited the SEC where he world of golf doesn’t tell the whole story, the story of the complained of over regulation. clubs, resorts, and failure of the Regulators to act, or about Bernie was in until he was out! philanthropy with the submission to the SEC on November 7 Soon he was wearing an electronic tax benefits. He 2005 of a 19 page detailed document charg- bracelet and under house arrest, a further was a leader of the ing that “The World’s Largest Hedge Fund sign of privileged treatment, by the way. Wall Street world, Is a Fraud.” Imagine what secrets he could spill. Already at one point the It was written by financial expert Harry the New York Times is reporting that this Chairman Markopolos and sent to the Securities and theft problem went much deeper with all of NASDAQ Exchange Commission with a request for the Wall Street firms posting phony profit deep confidentiality. He exposed the man reports and then giving themselves juicy now being called “made-off.” The title of bonuses. A financial blogger wrote that the his report: “The World’s Biggest Hedge Times was still obscuring the story because Fund is a Fraud.” It projected scenarios in- the practice constitutes nothing less than cluding this one: looting, a word they never use. “(Very Likely) in bold, “Madoff Securi- Unfortunately, Madoff was not unique, ties is the World’s largest Ponzi Scheme” not alone, but he was shrewder than the He believed that “this would be another people who trusted him to make earn a black eye for the brokerage industry.” good return. One financial analyst said Bingo! that some of his investors assumed he was doing something illegal – perhaps insider Victims we can relate to trading – which is why they wanted him That black eye punch was never thrown. to manage their money. They thought they Instead, it was three years before Madoff would make more money that way with- went down. He continued to operate his con out taking normal risks. game, defrauding customers worldwide. At Subprime speculators targeted low and the same time, the investors he ripped off middle-income people. Madoff marketed later became “sympathetic victims” in our to the wealthy. Editor Steven Pearlstein of media – like Steven Spielberg – as opposed the Washington Post explained that he spe- to subprime home borrowers who were of- cialized in “funds of funds” hedge funds: ten demonized as schemers and told they “These are hedge funds that raise mon- were naïve and should have known better. ey from pension funds, university endow- A CNBC “documentary” showcased a pa- ments and wealthy individuals and, for a rade of wealthy Madoff victims. fee of 1.5 percent a year, invest it in other Bernie was a high flyer, a part of a clubby hedge funds, which charge even higher and incestuous elite world of golf clubs, re- fees. In return for paying double fees, these sorts, and philanthropy with tax benefits. middlemen claim to offer investors access He was a leader of the Wall Street world, to the best hedge funds, which can be at one point the Chairman of NASDAQ. choosy about whose money they accept. Universities invited him to lecture on how They also offer the peace of mind that goes markets work. He was admired, considered with knowing that the funds have been a role model, a genius. His firm handled thoroughly checked out. 10% of all Stock Exchange trades. “Now it turns out that some of these His niece married an SEC regulator. funds of funds had parked billions of dol- Mary Schapiro, Barack Obama’s pick to lars of their clients’ money with Madoff

January 2009 | TheReader 17 Cash Wars

“Accounting without asking how he could so consis- through the window on their cellphones firms and tently produce returns in up market or moaning about losses. They looked grim. rating agencies down, or demanding to know why his Some were wiped out. When they left the are too easily books were audited by a three-person firm building, some hid their faces, perhaps in compromised that nobody ever heard of operating out of shame, like criminals photographed on by the fact that a broom closet on Long Island. “perp walks.” they are chosen “It doesn’t take a PhD in finance to see A philanthropy expert said the conse- and paid by the the pattern here: Accounting firms and rat- quences will be “Catastrophic.” An Israeli management of ing agencies are too easily compromised by newspaper said many Jewish organizations the companies the fact that they are chosen and paid by will be hurt, some irreparably. whose books they the management of the companies whose The anthropologist Lionel Tiger writes are auditing and books they are auditing and securities they in Forbes about how incidents like this securities they are are rating. There are simply too many built- undermine all respect for the business rating. There are in conflicts of interest.” world: “The invisible hand lurches be- simply too many And Madoff took advantage of them. As tween clenched fist and begging palm, and built-in conflicts of a result he had a license to steal, and steal the new Greenwich Mean Time is in Con- interest.” he did. necticut. Suddenly, the only thing taken for granted is a government grant.” “Disintermediated” investors You could never make this up even James Hedges IV of LJH Global Invest- though Wall Street history is replete with ments, says those that went with Madoff earlier versions of this Sultan of Sleaze. chose faith over evidence. “You’ve got peo- Around the world, it is not just the super- ple who were disintermediated [i.e., didn’t crook Bernie Madoff who is seen as the have a professional representative], or un- guilty party but the whole American sys- sophisticated, or went in through a person- tem of free market finance. There will be a al relationship. That’s what a con man is – reckoning. CT a confidence man is somebody that engen- ders a relationship and then subsequently News Dissector Danny Schechter is making lures somebody into doing something that a film based on his book PLUNDER: they shouldn’t do.” Investigating our Economic Calamity and In the aftermath, the small gesture the Subprime Scandal (Cosimo Books at speaks volumes. A friend was staking out Amazon.com.) Comments to dissector@ Madoff ’s former offices for a major news mediachannel.org organization. No one would talk to her Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube. including investors who could be seen com/watch?v=1jj1kjsZg0g

Read the best of David Michael Green http://coldtype.net/green.html

18 TheReader | January 2009 Our Servile Media Tales from the Planet Bizarre, Episode 473 David Michael Green couldn’t believe his eyes – or the unchallenged lies – when George W. Bush was interviewed by a top TV journalist

’m sorry, but there are moments when the wake of the 9/11 scare. Just as Jackie I just feel like a total alien who stum- So here’s what happens when one of did her Camelot bled onto some planet full of bizarre America’s most prominent journalists – rap, successfully life forms. They call this place America, Charles Gibson – sits down to interview constructing the Iand it sure is weird. And, lemme tell ya, I George W. Bush. Bush, of course, isn’t do- frame through know what I’m talking about here. I’ve vis- ing the interview because he can’t think which the Kennedy ited some pretty weird places in this part of of what else to do with himself anymore administration the universe. (although if you ask him what comes next would long be Try this on for size as an example. You after January 20, that’s pretty much exactly seen, so a ham- might think that a president who is widely what it looks like). He isn’t just killing time, fisted Burt and known for lying, who leads a party also waiting for Cheney to dream up some oth- Ernie – er, sorry, known for the same, who is at the end of er target for the administration’s predatory George and Laura his term and virtually without any puni- instincts. He’s got an agenda, which is why – are running tive power worth speaking of, and who is he’s been granting a plethora of (safe) in- around trying widely despised at home and abroad – you terviews lately. And that agenda is to write to rehabilitate, might think such a president would get a the first draft of history. Just as Jackie did for the sake of serious grilling when sitting down with the her Camelot rap, successfully constructing history, the worst American media for an exit interview. And, the frame through which the Kennedy ad- presidency ever even if that might seem like a giant leap for ministration would long be seen, so a ham- some, perhaps you’d at least be surprised if fisted Burt and Ernie – er, sorry, George and such an individual was allowed to continue Laura – are running around trying to reha- to tell revisionist historical lies without be- bilitate, for the sake of history, the worst ing called to account in the slightest for do- presidency ever. ing so. According to the Washington Post, this Yeah, well, different galaxy, I guess. On is the implementation of a strategy put Planet America it seems a lot more like it’s together at a White House meeting two still 2002, and a frightened, compliant press months ago, where it was decided that ad- is still learning how to embarrass itself by ministration officials should reiterate key becoming a tool of a massively deceitful talking points in their speeches and inter- White House. Now that it’s 2009, they’ve views. According to a memo obtained by got it down to a science. Only today they the q, those include pointing out that the don’t even have the pathetic and shame- president “‘kept the American people safe’ fully flimsy excuse they did back then, in after the September 11 terrorist attacks, lift-

January 2009 | TheReader 19 Our Servile Media

You can murder ed the economy after 2001 through tax cuts, the very best case scenario one might make in cold blood as curbed AIDS in Africa and maintained ‘the is not that this president was unprepared many hundreds of honor and the dignity of his office’”. That’s for war, but rather that he was unprepared thousands of Iraqis a cute list, isn’t it? In a certain nausea-in- for defense. That’s unforgivable, and had as you need to to ducing way. I don’t even know where to get he been a Democrat who also ignored five- get your rocks off, started with that, and it’s probably better alarm warning bells prior to 9/11, and who and that’s fine. But for all of us if I don’t. One thing I do have to spent the entire month prior on vacation if you actually do say, though. Just as in our movie rating sys- after being warned about the danger, he get your rocks off tem, what passes as the standard for honor would indeed never have been forgiven, – literally, the old- and dignity in the White House is so very least of all by Mssrs. Bush, Cheney and fashioned way – America. You can murder in cold blood Rove. And then, of course, there’s the im- you’re considered as many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis pression that Bush’s response to this ques- obscene as you need to to get your rocks off, and tion leaves, suggesting that the principal that’s fine. But if you actually do get your war of his administration – the one in Iraq rocks off – literally, the old-fashioned way – was somehow thrust upon him. A real – you’re considered obscene. Go figure, eh? interviewer would never have just let this As I said, it’s a wacky little planet. statement go. This was the ultimate war of Of course, George W. Bush trying to choice, conducted for the ultimate of disin- save his legacy is not, in and of itself, so genuous reasons. outlandish. A politician who doesn’t spin is like a conservative who doesn’t lie. It does Here’s another: happen. It has actually been observed in GIBSON: Given the fact that you did start nature. Just not that often. The outlandish campaigning for change, said you were going part is, first, the magnitude of the tales be- to change the ways of Washington, do you feel ing told and sold. And, second, that a still you did in any way? Or did 9/11 really stand obscenely compliant media allows these to in the way of doing it? be promulgated, without challenge, com- BUSH: No, you know – actually, 9/11 uni- pletely disregarding any notion of fulfilling fied the country, and that was a moment a public service mandate to actually inform where Washington decided to work together. the people, let alone to hold the country’s I think one of the big disappointments of the leaders accountable. What a concept, eh – presidency has been the fact that the tone in a critical media and governmental account- Washington got worse, not better. ... there ability? I guess all that hardball stuff is only were moments of bipartisanship. But the for Democrats. tone was rough. And I was obviously par- tially responsible because I was the President, Anyhow, here’s a good example, for although I tried hard not to call people names starters: and bring the office down during my - presi GIBSON: What were you most unpre- dency. pared for? BUSH: Well, I think I was unprepared for Again, this is remarkably disingenuous, all war. In other words, I didn’t campaign and the more so because it feigns humility and say, “Please vote for me, I’ll be able to handle quasi-responsibility. Bush may not have an attack.” In other words, I didn’t anticipate called his opponents names, but he sure as war. Presidents – one of the things about the hell marginalized them as rarely ever be- modern presidency is that the unexpected will fore in history, and he sure as hell polarized happen. the country. If you weren’t with the presi- dent, then you were with the terrorists. If Leaving aside for the moment the ques- you didn’t agree to his invasion of a coun- tion of whatever really happened on 9/11, try that had not a thing to do with 9/11 nor

20 TheReader | January 2009 Our Servile Media any other justification for attack, then you had had weapons of mass destruction, would But the greatest couldn’t be trusted with America’s national there have been a war? Absolutely. crime of the Bush security. Let’s not kid ourselves here, peo- administration, ple. There’s no Democratic equivalent to GIBSON: No, if you had known he of course, was Karl Rove. There’s no liberal guy called The didn’t. always Iraq, and Hammer, as Tom DeLay was for the GOP. BUSH: Oh, I see what you’re saying. You it is here that No Democrat ever ran an ad morphing the know, that’s an interesting question. That is the abomination- face of a triple-amputee Republican Viet- a do-over that I can’t do. It’s hard for me to in-chief lies the nam vet into that of Osama bin Laden. speculate. most egregiously True, damn few Republicans – the folks and the most who are so keen on maintaining American This astonishing little dialogue packs more shamefully. And it security, remember – actually made it over deceit, and more permission to engage in is here where he is to the jungles of Southeast Asia forty years deceit, into one passage than any ‘blivet’ given the greatest ago, but that ain’t why ads like those used (ten pounds of bullshit in a five pound free pass by the against Max Cleland in 2002 were never bag) I’ve ever seen. Or a thousand blivets. media used against the right. It’s a matter of integ- Stacked in a manure warehouse. In the Re- rity, and there was rarely an occasion when public of Crap. On the planet Turd. What the Bush administration showed any of it. an amazing string of lies. And all of it un- Moreover, Charles Gibson knows that. answered. It starts with the intelligence “failure”, The greatest crime which was no failure at all. Is this 2009 or But the greatest crime of the Bush adminis- am I stuck in some sort of time warp here? tration, of course, was always Iraq, and it is With all that has been revealed about the here that the abomination-in-chief lies the lies that were lied, the omissions omitted, most egregiously and the most shamefully. and the exaggerations exaggerated, do we And it is here where he is given the greatest still live in a country where the president free pass by the media: can continue to tell this tall tale yet again? GIBSON: You’ve always said there’s no Is it really possible that a journalist would do-overs as President. If you had one? let such an absurd claim go unchallenged BUSH: I don’t know – the biggest regret of still to this day? Can we really continue all the presidency has to have been the intel- to allow this rogue president to surround ligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their himself in exonerating complicity, pretend- reputations on the line and said the weapons ing that everyone had the same intelligence of mass destruction is a reason to remove reports that he did? And, even more ridicu- Saddam Hussein. It wasn’t just people in my lously, that they all concurred that war was administration; a lot of members in Congress, the preferred option at that point? Is that prior to my arrival in Washington D.C., dur- why the Bush administration couldn’t get ing the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of na- even half the votes it needed at the United tions around the world were all looking at Nations for a war resolution? Even after the same intelligence. And, you know, that’s beating Security Council member-states not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had over the head with skyscraper-sized sticks? been different, I guess. Even after offering them more carrots than in all of Bunny Heaven? GIBSON: If the intelligence had been It gets worse. To claim that Saddam was right, would there have been an Iraq war? unwilling to let the weapons inspectors in BUSH: Yes, because Saddam Hussein is just a sickening and complete inversion was unwilling to let the inspectors go in to of the truth, a full 180 degrees. The inspec- determine whether or not the U.N. resolu- tors were, of course, absolutely in Iraq. In- tions were being upheld. In other words, if he deed, not only were they there, they were

January 2009 | TheReader 21 Our Servile Media

And where, begging the United States government to frustratingly silent ones that no one ever exactly was tell them where the WMD could be found, mentions, and never really did (and, excuse Charles Gibson, an obvious thing to do given that the Bush me for my petulance, but shouldn’t journal- so-called administration was running around telling ists be doing this?). Like this one: Suppose ‘journalist’, the world that it not only knew for sure the Bush people had been right in their lies throughout all there were WMD, but even knew where about WMD, after all – so what? Dozens of this? Is this really the weapons were located. This is the most countries have them, including now North what it means to massive lie. Korea, and the Bush administration never be at the top of And, of course, it comes with other cool seems to have a problem with that, except this profession? benefits as well. If you’re already lying in when it does. Whatever happened to de- That you allow claiming that the inspectors were refused terrence, the little dynamic that kept the those whom entry, you no longer have to overtly lie Soviet Union and the United States from you’re supposed about how they left. If they were never unleashing their tens of thousands of nu- to be keeping there, they could never have been forced to clear weapons against each other for over watch over for leave in order to avoid being obliterated by four decades? When did that stop matter- the benefit of an Bush’s bomber squadrons. Nor, if they had ing? Does anyone seriously imagine that a entire country (not never been there carrying out most of their nuclear Saddam would have attacked the to mention the inspections, could they ever have begged United States? Knowing that he and his rest of the world) for just a few more weeks to finish their country would instantly have been atom- to say anything work. Doesn’t it all just fit together nicely? ized in response? And, speaking of incon- – including venient questions, what were we doing in- absolutely the Top of his profession? vading a country that had never attacked worst self-serving And where, exactly was Charles Gibson, nor even threatened this country? rubbish – without so-called ‘journalist’, throughout all this? Is Somebody please awaken me from this challenge? this really what it means to be at the top of nightmare! Really, I don’t mind a politician this profession? That you allow those whom acting like a politician. I suppose this is a you’re supposed to be keeping watch over sad fact in its own right, but truth be told, for the benefit of an entire country (not to my expectations there are not huge. mention the rest of the world) to say any- But what’s up with an American media, thing – including absolutely the worst self- itself drenched in blood up to its earlobes, serving rubbish – without challenge? Why still offering this guy a free pass, and a global not just sign on to the GOP payroll and get megaphone? Hey, Charlie Gibson – do you it over with? Or perhaps he already has. really earn enough to bury all that shame? Then there’s Bush telling us that, gosh, Me, I wouldn’t have thought there was that he really can’t “speculate” on whether or much money anywhere on the planet. not there would have been an invasion had there been no WMD. That’s just classic. As As for that good ol’ boy, America’s first if the decision wasn’t his. As if they didn’t cracker president, it seems he has man- build nearly their entire case on the WMD aged to figure out a couple of things, after threat. As if Saddam just absolutely had to all. Talking about his parents, who have no go, but Mubarak and Musharraf and Ab- doubt been in agony for eight years now dullah didn’t even get a good talking to (how would you like to have produced about democracy. As if Saddam’s depreda- Caligula?), he offered up this slightly too tions were enough to justify an American accurate assessment of their feelings as he invasion, even though we had previously leaves the White House: covered for him at his worst, and even as BUSH: And so, no doubt they’re going to we say almost nothing while Darfur melts be relieved to have their boy out of the lime- down into a genocidal ocean of blood. light. And I bet a lot of our friends will be Then, on top of all these lies, are the relieved, too.

22 TheReader | January 2009 Our Servile Media

Ya got that one right, pal, albeit for all the House. Maybe this is the wrong reasons. Which is no doubt what Yeah, no doubt Cheney’s there every kind of nonsense also produced the following exchange: morning to provide the president with “in- Gibson had in mind formation” about how well it’s all going. No when he asked, GIBSON: And final question, just to fin- doubt that makes it easy to leave the White “Is the president ish the sentence: I will leave the presidency House with your head held high, even after too much in a with a feeling of? you’ve wrecked everything in sight. bubble?” To which BUSH: I will leave the presidency with my That, plus a fawning press that would Bush responded: head held high. never dream of being so rude as to interrupt “I mean, believe your fantasy with the cognitive dissonance me you understand Maybe this is the kind of nonsense Gib- provoked by a tough question or two. what’s going on in son had in mind when he asked, “Is the Lordy, lord. Take me back to my home the world” president too much in a bubble?” To which planet, please. Bush responded: “I mean, believe me you This one’s way too messed up! understand what’s going on in the world.” This idea about how the President doesn’t David Michael Green is a professor of understand this, that, or the other, just sim- political science at Hofstra University in New ply is not the case. I mean, there’s a lot of York. HMore of his work can be found at his information that comes through the White website, www.progressiveantidote.net

Hurwitt’s eye Mark Hurwitt

January 2009 | TheReader 23 If This Is Change? Beware of Obama’s Groundhog Day Barak Obama’s historic victory is being tainted by appointments that contradict his election mantra of change, writes John Pilger

There is more ne of the cleverest films I have conventional weapons. continuity seen is Groundhog Day, in which Another product of “continuity” is in Obama’s Bill Murray plays a TV weather- Obama’s first choice for CIA chief, John appointment of man who finds himself stuck in Brennan, who shares responsibility for officials who will Otime. At first he deludes himself that the the systematic kidnapping and torturing deal with the same day and the same people and the of people, known as “extraordinary rendi- economic piracy same circumstances offer new opportu- tion”. Obama has assigned Madeleine Al- that brought down nities. Finally, his naivety and false hope bright to report on how to “strengthen US Wall Street and desert him and he realises the truth of his leadership in responding to genocide”. Al- impoverished predicament and escapes. Is this a parable bright, as secretary of state, was largely re- millions. As in for the age of Obama? sponsible for the siege of Iraq in the 1990s, Bill Murray’s Having campaigned with “Change you described by the UN’s Denis Halliday as nightmare, they can believe in”, President-elect Barack genocide. are the same Obama has named his A-team. They in- There is more continuity in Obama’s ap- officials who clude Hillary Clinton, who voted to attack pointment of officials who will deal with caused it Iraq without reading the intelligence as- the economic piracy that brought down sessment and has since threatened to “to- Wall Street and impoverished millions. As tally obliterate” Iran on behalf of a foreign in Bill Murray’s nightmare, they are the power, Israel. During his primary campaign, same officials who caused it. For exam- Obama referred repeatedly to Clinton’s lies ple, Lawrence Summers will run the Na- about her political record. When he ap- tional Economic Council. As treasury sec- pointed her secretary of state, he called her retary, according to the New York Times, “my dear friend”. he “championed the law that deregulated Obama’s slogan is now “continuity”. His derivatives, the... instruments – aka toxic secretary of defence will be Robert Gates, assets – that have spread financial losses who serves the lawless, blood-soaked [and] refused to heed critics who warned Bush regime as secretary of defence, which of dangers to come”. means secretary of war (America last had There is logic here. Contrary to myth, to defend itself when the British invaded in Obama’s campaign was funded largely by 1812). Gates wants no date set for an Iraq rapacious capital, such as Citigroup and withdrawal and “well north of 20,000” others responsible for the sub-prime mort- troops to be sent to Afghanistan. He also gage scandal, whose victims were mostly wants America to build a completely new African Americans and other poor people. nuclear arsenal, including “tactical” nucle- Is this a grand betrayal? Obama has nev- ar weapons that blur the distinction with er hidden his record as a man of a system

24 TheReader | January 2009 If This Is Change? described by Martin Luther King as “the symbol of the first black president in this His secretary greatest purveyor of violence in the world country of slavery, regardless of whether he for homeland today”. Obama’s dalliance as a soft critic of is a warmonger? As Noam Chomsky has security is Janet the disaster in Iraq was in line with most pointed out, Obama is a “brand” like none Napolitano who, Establishment opinion that it was “dumb”. other, having won the highest advertising as governor of His fans include the war criminals Tony campaign accolade and attracted unprec- Arizona, made her Blair, who has “hailed” his appointments, edented sums of money. The brand will sell name by stoking and Henry Kissinger, who describes the ap- for a while. He will close Guantanamo Bay, hostility against pointment of Hillary Clinton as “outstand- whose inmates represent less than one per Latino immigrants. ing”. One of John McCain’s principal advis- cent of America’s 27,000 “ghost prisoners”. She has militarised ers, Max Boot, who is on the Republican He will continue to make stirring, platitu- her state’s border Party’s far right, said: “I am “gobsmacked dinous speeches, but the tears will dry as with Mexico by these appointments. [They] could just people understand that President Obama and supported as easily have come from a President Mc- is the latest manager of an ideological the building of Cain.” machine that transcends electoral power. a hideous wall, Obama’s victory is historic, not only be- Asked what his supporters would do when similar to the one cause he will be the first black president, reality intruded, Stephen Walt, an Obama dividing occupied but because he tapped in to a great popular adviser, said: “They have nowhere else to Palestine movement among America’s minorities and go.” the young outside the Democratic Party. In Not yet. If there is a happy ending to 2006 Latinos, the country’s largest minor- the Groundhog Day of repeated wars and ity, took America by surprise when they plunder, it may well be found in the very poured into the cities to protest against mass movement whose enthusiasts reg- George W Bush’s draconian immigration istered voters and knocked on doors and laws. They chanted: “Si, se puede!” (“Yes brought Obama to power. Will they now we can!”), a slogan Obama later claimed as be satisfied as spectators to the cynicism of his own. His secretary for homeland secu- “continuity”? rity is Janet Napolitano who, as governor In less than three months, millions of of Arizona, made her name by stoking hos- angry Americans have been politicised by tility against Latino immigrants. She has the spectacle of billions of dollars of hand- militarised her state’s border with Mexico outs to Wall Street as they struggle to save and supported the building of a hideous their jobs and homes. It’s as if seeds have wall, similar to the one dividing occupied begun to sprout beneath the political snow. Palestine. And history, like Groundhog Day, can repeat On election eve, reported Gallup, most itself. Few predicted the epoch-making Obama supporters were “engaged” but events of the 1960s and the speed with “deeply pessimistic about the country’s fu- which they happened. As a beneficiary of ture direction”. My guess is that many peo- that time, Obama should know that when ple knew what was coming, but hoped for the blinkers are removed, anything is pos- the best. In exploiting this hope, Obama sible. CT has all but neutered the anti-war move- ment that is historically allied to the Dem- John Pilger’s latest book, Freedom Next ocrats. After all, who can argue with the Time, is now available in paperback. Read the best of tom engelhardt http://coldtype.net/tom.html

January 2009 | TheReader 25 Criminalising Dissent The Paranoia Squad A British police unit is demonising peaceful protesters to help it stay in business, says George Monbiot

The act, hen you hear the term “do- protest. This forbids them from “coming parliament was mestic extremist”, whom to, remaining on, trespassing or conducting told, was meant do you picture? How about any demonstrations or protesting or other to protect women someone like Dr Peter Har- activities” on land near the lake2. If anyone from stalkers. But Wbour? He’s a retired physicist and univer- breaks this injunction they could spend five as soon as it came sity lecturer, who worked on the nuclear years in prison. onto the statute fusion reactor run by European govern- The act, Britain’s parliament was told, books, it was used ments at Culham in Oxfordshire, England. was meant to protect women from stalk- to stop peaceful He’s 70 next year. He has never been tried ers. But as soon as it came onto the statute protest or convicted of an offence, except the odd books, it was used to stop peaceful protest. speeding ticket. He has never failed a secu- To obtain an injunction, a company needs rity check. Not the sort of person you had to show only that someone feels “alarmed in mind? Then you don’t work for the po- or distressed” by the protesters, a require- lice. ment so vague that it can mean almost Dr Harbour was one of the people who anything. Was this an accident of sloppy campaigned to save a local beauty spot – drafting? No. Timothy Lawson-Crutten- Thrupp Lake – between the Oxfordshire den, the solicitor who specialises in using villages of Radley and Abingdon. They this law against protesters, boasts that his used to walk and swim and picnic there, company “assisted in the drafting of the … and watch otters and kingfishers. RWE Protection from Harassment Act 19973. In npower, which owns Didcot power station, 2005 parliament was duped again, when a wanted to empty the lake and fill it with new clause, undebated in either chamber, pulverised fly ash1. was slipped into the Serious Organised The villagers marched, demonstrated Crime and Police Act4. It peps up the 1997 and sent in letters and petitions. Some peo- act, which can now be used to ban protest ple tried to stop the company from cutting of any kind. down trees by standing in the way. Their Mr Lawson-Cruttenden, who represent- campaign was entirely peaceful. But RWE ed RWE npower, brags that the purpose of npower discovered that it was legally em- obtaining injunctions under the act is “the powered to shut the protests down. criminalisation of civil disobedience”5. One Using the Protection from Harrassment of the advantages of this approach is that Act 1997, it obtained an injunction against very low standards of proof are required: the villagers and anyone else who might “hearsay evidence … is admissable in civil

26 TheReader | December 2008 Criminalising Dissent courts”. The injunctions he obtains crimi- The Observer withdrew the article after As the writer and nalise all further activity, even though, as NETCU failed to provide any justification activist Merrick he admits, “any allegations made remain for its claims10. NETCU now tells me that Godhaven points untested and unproven.”6 the report “wasn’t an accurate reflection of out, the groups Last week, stung by bad publicity, our views”11. But the article contained a clue whose tactics npower backed down. The villagers had as to why the police might wish to spread come closest to just started to celebrate when they made a such stories. “The rise of eco-extremism those of violent shocking discovery: they now feature on an coincides with the fall of the animal rights animal rights official list of domestic extremists. activist movement. Police said the animal activists are The National Extremism Tactical Co-or- rights movement was in disarray” and that anti-abortion dination Unit (NETCU) is the police team “its critical mass of hardcore extremists campaigns . . coordinating the fight against extremists. was sufficiently depleted to have halted its Yet there is no To illustrate the threats it confronts, the effectiveness.”12 If, as the police maintain, mention of the NECTU site carries images of the people animal rights extremism is no longer dan- UK Life League marching with banners, of peace campaign- gerous, it is hard for NETCU to justify its or anti-abortion ers standing outside a military base and of existence: unless it can demonstrate that campaigning on the Rebel Clown Army (whose members domestic extremism exists elsewhere. A the NETCU site. dress up as clowns to show that they have better headline for the article might have This looks to peaceful intentions). It publishes press re- been “Keep funding us, say police, or civili- me like partisan leases about Greenpeace and the climate sation collapses.” policing. camp at Kingsnorth7. All this, the site sug- NETCU claims that domestic extremism gests, is domestic extremism. “is most often associated with single-issue NECTU publishes a manual for officers protests, such as animal rights, anti-war, policing protests. To help them identify anti-globalisation and anti-GM crops.”13 dangerous elements, it directs them to a list With the exception of animal rights pro- of “High Court Injunctions that relate to tests, these campaigns in the UK have been domestic extremism campaigns”, published overwhelmingly peaceful. As the writer and on NECTU’s website8. On the first page is activist Merrick Godhaven points out, the the injunction obtained by npower against groups whose tactics come closest to those the Radley villagers, which names Peter of violent animal rights activists are anti- Harbour and others. Dr Harbour wrote to abortion campaigns14. The UK Life League, the head of NETCU, Steve Pearl, to ask for for example, has published the names and his name to be removed from the site. Mr addresses of people involved in abortion Pearl refused. So Dr Harbour remains a do- and family planning15,16. Two of its mem- mestic extremist. bers have been convicted of sending pic- It was this Paranoia Squad which tures of mutilated foetuses to doctors and briefed the Observer recently about “eco- pharmacies17. Anti-abortionists in the US terrorists”. The article maintained that “a have murdered doctors, nurses and recep- lone maverick eco-extremist may attempt a tionists. Yet there is no mention of the UK terrorist attack aimed at killing large num- Life League or anti-abortion campaigning bers of Britons.”9 The only evidence it put on the NETCU site. This looks to me like forward was that someone in Earth First! partisan policing. had stated that the world is overpopulated. Just as the misleading claims of the secu- This, it claimed, meant that the movement rity services were used to launch an illegal might attempt a campaign of mass annihi- and unnecessary war against Iraq, NET- lation. The same could be said about the CU’s exaggerations will be used to justify United Nations, the Optimum Population the heavy-handed treatment of peaceful Trust and anyone else who has expressed protesters. In both cases police and spies concern about population levels. are distracted from dealing with genuine

January 2009 | TheReader 27 Criminalising Dissent

Police and spies threats of terrorism and violence. 9. Mark Townsend and Nick Denning, 9th are distracted For how much longer will the govern- November 2008. Police warn of growing from dealing with ment permit the police forces to drum up threat from eco-terrorists. The Observer. genuine threats business like this? And at what point do 10. Stephen Pritchard, 23rd November of terrorism and we decide that this country is beginning to 2008. Anonymous sources and claims of violence look like a police state? CT eco-terrorism. The Observer. http://www. guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/ George Monbiot’s latest book is Bring On The nov/23/readers-editor-climate-change Acopalypse, Essays on Self-Destruction. 11. NETCU, pers comm, 22nd December 2008. References 12. Mark Townsend and Nick Denning, 1. http://www.saveradleylakes.org.uk/ ibid. 2. The High Court of Justice. Order arising 13. http://www.netcu.org.uk/about/do- from Case HQ07X00505. para 6.4 http:// mesticextremism.jsp www.netcu.org.uk/downloads/injunc- 14. Merrick Godhaven, 15th November tions/rwe_npoweplc.pdf 2008. Civil Disobedience is a Terrorist 3. http://www.lawson-cruttenden.co.uk/, Threat. UK Watch. http://www.ukwatch. viewed 22nd December 2008. net/blog/merrick_godhaven/civil_disobe- 4. Sections 125-127. http://www.opsi. dience_is_a_terrorist_threat\ gov.uk/acts/acts2005/ukpga_20050015_ 15. Leading article, 12th March 2006. Email en_12#pt4-pb1-l1g125 campaigns. The Observer. http://www. 5. Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden, 2007. guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/mar/12/ob- Injunctive Relief Against Harassment and serverpolitics trespass. Case Commentaries, p194. Envi- 16. Linda Harrison, 9th July 2001. Anti ronmental Liability. http://www.lawson- abortion activists step up UK Net cruttenden.co.uk/articles/157_070601_en- campaign. http://www.theregister. vironmentalliabilitiy.pdf co.uk/2001/07/09/anti_abortion_activ- 6. ibid. ists_step_up/ 7. http://www.netcu.org.uk 17. Jeremy Laurance, 8th May 2006. Anti- 8. NETCU, November 2007. Policing Pro- abortionist jailed for photo protest. test: pocket legislation guide, p51. It can be http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ viewed here: http://www.indymedia.org. crime/antiabortionist-jailed-for-photo- uk/media/2008/08/405435.pdf protest-477279.html

28 TheReader | January 2009 War On Workers Why they want to kill the motor industry Mikael I. Niman tells why the Republicans will sacrifice the US auto industry in their bid to kill off the labor unions

et me begin by reminding readers soared a year later. In 2007, as hybrids that I have no love for the Big Three Many of our environmental and social and mini-cars automakers. These are the people problems, ranging from our asphalt-choked gained traction who purposefully bought and killed cities, our dysfunctional mass transit sys- in the market, Lmass transit systems in the 1940s, engi- tems, peak oil, and resource wars, to smog Chrysler killed neered planned obsolescence in the 1950s and suburban sprawl, can be laid near the their last small car, and 1960s, and knowingly sold deadly cars doorstep of these three mega-corporations. the Neon, leaving in the 1970s when their number-crunchers So of course I didn’t respond when GM them with no fuel- figured it was cheaper to pay a few wrong- sent me an email last month asking me to efficient products ful death settlements then to issue a safe- call my congressional reps and voice my when gas prices ty recall. These were the folks who faced support for the auto industry. soared a year later down catastrophic climate change in the But then came the Republicans. I never 1980s and 1990s with a plethora of SUVs. liked the auto industry, but suddenly the And no, I don’t buy into the Nuremberg Republicans, the party of corporate subsi- defense that they were “just filling orders.” dies and tax breaks, the folks who just gave GM manufactured not only Hummers but amounts of money we can’t comprehend to the demand for Hummer as well, spending a corporations like AIG, whose actual busi- millions targeting the Viagra crowd with a ness we can’t quite figure out, suddenly has hard sell for instant manhood packaged in found mega-corporations it doesn’t like. steel. Something stinks here. People bought their Excursions and The issue is not the Big Three. Bought- Commanders because the Big Three and-paid-for Republicans from the White wrapped them in an aura of power and House down to the stinky bathrooms of privilege, using sophisticated ad campaigns the Capitol have always stepped up to to transform the reviled suburban assault whore for the auto industry when it came vehicle of the 1970s into the sexy, hip, new- to combating safety regulations and en- school SUV of the 1990s. Then, long after vironmental safeguards like fuel mileage the writing was on the wall, they bet the standards. But suddenly that romance is house on their perpetual popularity. In over. The industry that mobilized to arm 2007, as hybrids and mini-cars gained trac- the Allied powers (and the Nazis too) dur- tion in the market, Chrysler killed their ing the Second World War, America’s last last small car, the Neon, leaving them with industrial powerhouse, an industry vital no fuel-efficient products when gas prices to our national defense, can go to hell. I

January 2009 | TheReader 29 War On Workers

To hear the mean, what the fuck, I’m cool with it – but Manufacturers in repressive third world corporate right I never would have expected such radical- countries enjoyed even greater competitive noise machine ism from the party of Ronald Reagan and advantages by paying starvation wages in on Fox News the Bushes. sweatshop conditions. and talk radio, The Republican Party’s problem is not During this dark period, the UAW hung auto workers with the corporations, it’s with their work- in there, protecting what became the last comprise some ers and what auto workers in America have major bastion of middle class industrial sort of shadow come to represent. Ultimately, their prob- jobs. This is what I mean by the “last man government with lem is with the workers’ union, the UAW, standing.” Rather than look to the UAW magical powers American labor’s last man standing. and the auto workers as sources of inspira- to tax working To hear the corporate right noise ma- tion during the dark times ushered in by schmucks toiling chine on Fox News and talk radio, auto Reagan, beaten-down American workers, away honestly at workers comprise some sort of shadow struggling to survive on multiple McJobs, Wal-Marts and government with magical powers to tax instead regarded higher-paid UAW work- Starbucks, in working schmucks toiling away honestly ers with jealousy. Led by false prophets like order to support at Wal-Marts and Starbucks, in order to Rush Limbaugh, their anger was misdirect- their undeserved support their undeserved status as hang- ed at their fellow workers who were far- status as hangers- ers-on in America’s doomed middle class. ing better than them, rather than at their on in America’s How dare they militantly defend their liv- employers, who were stealing their poorly doomed middle ing wages and healthcare during the dark, compensated labor. class dank Reagan, Clinton, and Bush eras. Who Now let’s look at the UAW. They were do they think they are? often at the cutting edge of the labor, civil How bullied we as a nation have be- rights, and peace movements. They co- come. There was a time when auto work- sponsored the 1963 March on Washington ers, like other American workers, enjoyed at a time when much of America lived un- a sojourn in the middle class, with all the der apartheid-like racial segregation. They social and economic security that entailed. bailed Martin Luther King, Jr. out of jail, Gains achieved by unionized auto workers forced segregated factories to end their trickled throughout the economy, creating racist hiring policies, and, in the heyday of the most thriving middle class the world the auto industry, became one of the main had ever seen. The unionized auto industry paths for poor, economically discriminated pushed up wages in surrounding locales. against blacks to migrate into the middle You didn’t have to work at Wal-Mart for class. During the Vietnam war, the UAW eight dollars an hour back when GM was broke ranks with most of the American hiring. labor movement, and opposed the war Then came free trade and the race to that was claiming the lives of young auto the bottom. One by one, unionized, living- workers, rather than acquiesce to military wage-paying industries fell to duty-free spending that was “good for business.” In foreign competition. The playing field was the 1970s, the UAW unsuccessfully cam- anything but level. As the cost of provid- paigned for higher fuel efficiency, hoping to ing healthcare to employees skyrocketed save both their industry and the environ- in the US, with greedy healthcare corpo- ment. rations selling life-or-death treatments in The UAW in many ways stood as the po- an unregulated and often monopolized litical antithesis to the reactionary Repub- market, foreign manufacturers in industrial lican agenda ushered in by the so-called countries enjoyed a government-sponsored “Reagan Revolution.” This is why the bail- reprieve from such costs thanks to univer- out-silly Republicans today are so eager to sal healthcare systems – which are in place risk sinking what’s left of the country’s in- in every developed nation except this one. dustrial economy just to execute a sloppy

30 TheReader | January 2009 War On Workers hit against the UAW. The auto industry is would amount to $87,000 per year per UAW members collateral damage. National security is col- worker. It’s simply not accurate. average, for lateral damage, as we turn to Toyota and The UAW also led the way in forcing example, about Mercedes to mechanize our future military. employers to cover the costs of the social $28 per hour in The three million mostly non-union jobs safety net that is now bankrupting many wages – not the associated with the auto industry could be American counties and states. Laid-off $70 bandied about collateral damage. This is how bad the Re- UAW workers receive most of their salary, in the media. publican party wants to destroy the union paid for by the company and not the state. This figure is that may have delivered Ohio and Michi- Small government conservatives should competitive with gan to Barack Obama. This is how bad like this – though it seems that the mean- the $24 or so they want to punish those Rust Belt blue er-spirited among them would just as soon that foreign auto states that cost them the White House. see unemployed folks living on the streets companies pay This is what this fight is all about – both selling apples. The problem with this ar- their American old and recent vendettas. rangement isn’t that UAW workers won it; workers Much of what we’re now hearing in the as with many of the union’s other accom- corporate media about the UAW is simply plishments, it’s that no other industry fol- not accurate. UAW members average, for lowed suit, leaving auto workers standing example, about $28 per hour in wages – alone, scorned by Rush’s Dittoheads and not the $70 bandied about in the media. targeted by Republicans. This figure is competitive with the $24 or so that foreign auto companies pay their Dr. Michael I. Niman, a regualr contributor American workers. That $70 figure suppos- to ColdType, is a professor of journalism and edly includes $42 per hour in benefits. This media studies at Buffalo State College, NY.

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January 2009 | TheReader 31 Looking For Alternatives Why I’m a Socialist If the American left doesn’t follow Europe’s lead in uniting against avaricious corporations, it may soon be faced by a regime of totalitarianism capitalism, writes Chris Hedges

The free market he corporate forces that are loot- but succeeds in clinging to power by force or and globalization, ing the Treasury and have plunged fraud.” Force and fraud are all they have left. promised as the us into a depression will not be They will use both. route to worldwide contained by the two main politi- There is a political shift in Europe toward prosperity, have calT parties. The Democratic and Republican an open confrontation with the corporate been exposed as a parties have become little more than squal- state. Germany has seen a surge of support con game. But this id clubs of privilege and wealth, whores to for Die Linke (The Left), a political grouping does not mean our money and corporate interests, hostage to formed 18 months ago. It is co-led by the vet- corporate masters a massive arms industry, and so adept at eran socialist “Red” Oskar Lafontaine, who will disappear. deception and self-delusion they no longer has built his career on attacking big busi- Totalitarianism, know truth from lies. We will either find our ness. Two-thirds of Germans in public opin- as George Orwell way out of this mess by embracing an un- ion polls say they agree with all or some of pointed out, is not compromising democratic socialism – one Die Linke’s platform. The Socialist Party of so much an age of that will insist on massive government relief the Netherlands is on the verge of overtak- faith as an age of and work programs, the nationalization of ing the Labor Party as the main opposition schizophrenia. electricity and gas companies, a universal, party on the left. Greece, beset with street not-for-profit government health care pro- protests and violence by disaffected youths, gram, the outlawing of hedge funds, a radi- has seen the rapid rise of the Coalition of the cal reduction of our bloated military budget Radical Left. In Spain and Norway socialists and an end to imperial wars – or we will are in power. Resurgence is not universal, es- continue to be fleeced and impoverished by pecially in France and Britain, but the shifts our bankrupt elite and shackled and chained toward socialism are significant. by our surveillance state. Corporations have intruded into every The free market and globalization, prom- facet of life. We eat corporate food. We buy ised as the route to worldwide prosperity, corporate clothes. We drive corporate cars. have been exposed as a con game. But this We buy our vehicular fuel and our heating does not mean our corporate masters will oil from corporations. We borrow from cor- disappear. Totalitarianism, as George Orwell porate banks. We invest our retirement sav- pointed out, is not so much an age of faith as ings with corporations. We are entertained, an age of schizophrenia. “A society becomes informed and branded by corporations. We totalitarian when its structure becomes fla- work for corporations. The creation of a grantly artificial,” Orwell wrote, “that is mercenary army, the privatization of public when its ruling class has lost its function utilities and our disgusting for-profit health

32 TheReader | January 2009 Looking For Alternatives care system are all legacies of the corporate In short, the film, based on Joel Bakan’s A corporation state. These corporations have no loyalty to book, The Corporation: The Pathological Pur- that attempts to America or the American worker. They are suit of Profit and Power, asserts that the cor- engage in social not tied to nation states. They are vampires. poration exhibits many of the traits found in responsibility, “By now the [commercial] revolution has people clinically defined as psychopaths. that tries to pay deprived the mass of consumers of any inde- Psychologist Dr. Robert Hare lists in the workers a decent pendent access to the staples of life: cloth- film psychopathic traits and ties them to the wage with benefits, ing, shelter, food, even water,” Wendell Berry behavior of corporations: that invests its wrote in The Unsettling of America. “Air re- * callous unconcern for the feelings for profits to protect mains the only necessity that the average others; the environment user can still get for himself, and the revo- * incapacity to maintain enduring and limit pollution, lution had imposed a heavy tax on that by relationships; that gives way of pollution. Commercial conquest is far * reckless disregard for the safety of consumers fair more thorough and final than military de- others; deals, can be sued feat.” The corporation is designed to make *deceitfulness: repeated lying and by shareholders money without regard to human life, the so- conning others for profit; cial good or impact on the environment. Cor- * incapacity to experience guilt; porate laws impose a legal duty on corporate * failure to conform to social nors executives to make as much money as pos- with respect to lawful behavior. sible for shareholders, although many have And yet, under the American legal sys- moved on to fleece shareholders as well. In tem, corporations have the same legal rights the 2003 documentary film The Corporation, as individuals. They give hundreds of mil- the management guru Peter Drucker says: lions of dollars to political candidates, fund “If you find an executive who wants to take the army of some 35,000 lobbyists in Wash- on social responsibilities, fire him. Fast.” ington and thousands more in state capitals A corporation that attempts to engage in to write corporate-friendly legislation, drain social responsibility, that tries to pay work- taxpayer funds and abolish government ers a decent wage with benefits, that invests oversight. They saturate the airwaves, the its profits to protect the environment and Internet, newsprint and magazines with ad- limit pollution, that gives consumers fair vertisements promoting their brands as the deals, can be sued by shareholders. Robert friendly face of the corporation. They have Monks, the investment manager, says in the high-priced legal teams, millions of employ- film: “The corporation is an externalizing ees, skilled public relations firms and thou- machine, in the same way that a shark is a sands of elected officials to ward off public killing machine. There isn’t any question of intrusions into their affairs or halt messy malevolence or of will. The enterprise has lawsuits. They hold a near monopoly on all within it, and the shark has within it, those electronic and printed sources of informa- characteristics that enable it to do that for tion. A few media giants – AOL-Time War- which it was designed.” Ray Anderson, the ner, General Electric, Viacom, Disney and CEO of Interface Corp., the world’s largest Rupert Murdoch’s NewsGroup – control commercial carpet manufacturer, calls the nearly everything we read, see and hear. corporation a “present day instrument of “Private capital tends to become concen- destruction” because of its compulsion to trated in [a] few hands, partly because of “externalize any cost that an unwary or un- competition among the capitalists, and part- caring public will allow it to externalize.” ly because technological development and “The notion that we can take and take the increasing division of labor encourage and take and take, waste and waste, with- the formation of larger units of production out consequences, is driving the biosphere at the expense of the smaller ones,” Albert to destruction,” Anderson says. Einstein wrote in 1949 in the Monthly Review

January 2009 | TheReader 33 Looking For Alternatives

Labor and left-wing in explaining why he was a socialist. “The re- position? And what about that far larger activists, especially sult of these developments is an oligarchy of class, running into millions this time – the university students private capital the enormous power of which office-workers and black-coated employees and well-heeled cannot be effectively checked even by a dem- of all kinds – whose traditions are less defi- liberals, have ocratically organized political society. This is nite middle class but who would certainly failed to unite. true since the members of legislative bod- not thank you if you called them proletar- This division, ies are selected by political parties, largely ians? All of these people have the same in- which is often financed or otherwise influenced by private terests and the same enemies as the work- based on social capitalists who, for all practical purposes, ing class. All are being robbed and bullied rather than separate the electorate from the legislature. by the same system. Yet how many of them economic The consequence is that the representa- realize it? When the pinch came nearly all of differences, has tives of the people do not in fact sufficiently them would side with their oppressors and long stymied protect the interests of the underprivileged against those who ought to be their allies. concerted action sections of the population. Moreover, under It is quite easy to imagine a working class against ruling existing conditions, private capitalists inevi- crushed down to the worst depths of pov- elites. It has tably control, directly or indirectly, the main erty and still remaining bitterly anti-work- fractured the sources of information (press, radio, educa- ing-class in sentiment; this being, of course, American left tion). It is thus extremely difficult, and- in a ready-made Fascist party.” and rendered it deed in most cases quite impossible, for the Coalitions of environmental, anti-nuclear, impotent individual citizen to come to objective con- anti-capitalist, sustainable-agriculture and clusions and to make intelligent use of his anti-globalization forces have coalesced in political rights.” Europe to form and support socialist parties. Labor and left-wing activists, especially This has yet to happen in the US. The left university students and well-heeled liberals, never rallied in significant numbers behind have failed to unite. This division, which is Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader. In pick- often based on social rather than economic ing the lesser of two evils, it threw its lot in differences, has long stymied concerted ac- with a Democratic Party that backs our im- tion against ruling elites. It has fractured the perial wars, empowers the national security American left and rendered it impotent. state and does the bidding of corporations. “Large sections of the middle class are If Barack Obama does not end the flagrant being gradually proletarianized; but the im- theft of taxpayer funds by corporate slugs portant point is that they do not, at any rate and the disgraceful abandonment of our not in the first generation, adopt a proletar- working class, especially as foreclosures and ian outlook,” Orwell wrote in 1937 during unemployment mount, many in the country the last economic depression. “Here I am, for will turn in desperation to the far right em- instance, with a bourgeois upbringing and a bodied by groups such as Christian radicals. working-class income. Which class do I be- The failure by the left to offer a democratic long to? Economically I belong to the work- socialist alternative will mean there will be, ing class, but it is almost impossible for me in the eyes of many embittered and strug- to think of myself as anything but a mem- gling working- and middle-class Americans, ber of the bourgeoisie. And supposing I had no alternative but a perverted Christian fas- to take sides, whom should I side with, the cism. The inability to articulate a viable so- upper class which is trying to squeeze me cialism has been our gravest mistake. It will out of existence, or the working class whose ensure, if this does not soon change, a ruth- manners are not my manners? It is probable less totalitarian capitalism. CT that I, personally, in any important issue, would side with the working class. But what Chris Hedges’s latest book, with Laila Al- about the tens or hundreds of thousands of Arian, is Collateral Damage: America’s war others who are in approximately the same Against Iraqui Civilians.

34 TheReader | January 2009 Fame At Last! The PU-litzer Prizes for 2008 Jeff Cohenand Norman Solomon announce their 17th annual media awards

ow in their seventeenth year, cated people, downscale people,” offered “Obama’s problem the PU-litzer Prizes recognize on MSNBC in June: “Obama’s problem is is he doesn’t seem some of the nation’s stinkiest he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who like the kind of media performances. As the could go into an Applebee’s salad bar and guy who could go Njudges for these annual awards, we do our people think he fits in naturally there. And into an Applebee’s best to identify the most deserving recipi- so he’s had to change to try to be more like salad bar and ents of this unwelcome plaudit. that Applebee’s guy.” It would indeed be people think he fits hard for Obama to fit in naturally at an Ap- in naturally there. HOT FOR OBAMA PRIZE – MSNBC’s plebee’s salad bar. Applebee’s restaurants And so he’s had to Chris Matthews don’t have salad bars. change to try to This award sparked fierce competition, but be more like that the cinch came on the day Obama swept GUTTER BALL PUNDITRY AWARD – Applebee’s guy” the Potomac Primary in February – when Chris Matthews of MSNBC’s “Hardball” Chris Matthews spoke of “the feeling most In program after program during the spring, people get when they hear Barack Obama’s Matthews repeatedly questioned whether speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. Obama could connect with “regular” vot- I mean, I don’t have that too often.” ers — “regular” meaning voters who are white or “who actually do know how to BEYOND PARODY PRIZE – Fox News bowl.” He once said of Obama: “This gets In August, a FoxNews.com teaser for the very ethnic, but the fact that he’s good at “O’Reilly Factor” program said: “Obama basketball doesn’t surprise anybody. But bombarded by personal attacks. Are they the fact that he’s that terrible at bowling legit? Ann Coulter comments.” does make you wonder.”

UPSIDE DOWN “ELITIST” AWARD – STRAIGHT SKINNY PRIZE – Wall New York Times columnist David Brooks Street Journal reporter Amy Chozick For months, high-paid Beltway journal- In August, the Journal’s Chozick went be- ists competed with each other in advising yond the standard elitist charge to offer yet candidate Obama on how to mingle with another reason that average voters might working class folks. be wary of Obama. Below the headline Ubiquitous pundit Brooks won the “Too Fit to Be President?” she wrote of prize for his wisdom on reaching “less edu- Obama: “Despite his visits to waffle hous-

January 2009 | TheReader 35 Fame At Last! es, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon Treasury officials leap in to try to make the “Only the most diners around the country, his slim phy- traders feel better. Officials pretend they’re prescient could sique might have some Americans wonder- coming up with policy responses, but much have guessed … ing whether he is truly like them.” Chozick of what they do is political theater.” Now that the toll would asked: “In a nation in which 66 percent of he tells us. include tens of the voting-age population is overweight thousands of Iraqi and 32 percent is obese, could Sen. Obama’s “STATUS QUO CENTRISTS CAN’T BE civilians killed, skinniness be a liability?” To support her IDEOLOGUES” AWARD – Too many to as well as nearly argument, she quoted Hillary Clinton sup- name 4,000 American porters. One said: “He needs to put some In late November, corporate media outlets troops; or that meat on his bones.” Another, prodded by began to credit Barack Obama with making America’s financial Chozick, wrote on a Yahoo bulletin board: supposedly non-ideological Cabinet picks. costs by some “I won’t vote for any beanpole guy.” The New York Times front page reported recent estimates, that his choices “suggest that Mr. Obama would rise above “OUR CENTER-RIGHT NATION” is planning to govern from the center-right $650 billion by AWARD – Newsweek editor Jon of his party, surrounding himself with 2008” Meacham pragmatists rather than ideologues.” Con- With Democrats in the process of winning servative Times columnist David Brooks big in 2008 as they had in 2006, a media praised the picks as “not ideological” and chorus erupted warning Democratic politi- the economic nominees as “moderate and cians away from their promises of change. thoughtful Democrats.” USA Today report- Behind the warnings was the repeated ed that Obama’s selections had “records claim that America is essentially a conser- that display more pragmatism than ideol- vative country. In an election-eve News- ogy.” In mediaspeak, if you thought invad- week cover story with the sub-headline ing Iraq and signing the NAFTA trade pact “America remains a center-right nation – a were good ideas, you’re a pragmatist. If not, fact that a President Obama would forget you’re an ideologue. at his peril,” Meacham argued that the lib- eralism of even repeatedly re-elected FDR “WHO WOULD HAVE PREDICTED?” offended voters. And the editor claimed AWARD – New York Times that a leftward trend in election results The Times op-ed page marked the fifth an- and issues polling means little – as would niversary of the Iraq invasion in March by Obama’s victory after months of charges choosing “nine experts on military and for- that he stood for radical change. Evidence eign affairs” to write on “the one aspect of seemed to lose out to journalists’ fears that the war that most surprised them or that campaign promises might actually be kept. they wish they had considered in the pre- war debate.” None of the experts selected BAILOUT BLUSTER AWARD – Pundit had opposed the invasion. David Brooks That kind of exclusion made possible a On Sept. 30, just after the House defeated bizarre claim by Times correspondent John the $700 billion Wall Street bailout mea- Burns in the same day’s paper: “Only the sure, Brooks’ column in the New York Times most prescient could have guessed … that denounced the balking House members for the toll would include tens of thousands of their failure to heed “the collected exper- Iraqi civilians killed, as well as nearly 4,000 tise of the Treasury and Fed.” But a week American troops; or that America’s finan- later, after the House approved a bailout – cial costs by some recent estimates, would and with the credit crunch unabated and rise above $650 billion by 2008.” Those stock market still plunging – Brooks wrote: who’d warned of such disastrous results “At these moments, central bankers and were not only prescient, but were routinely

36 TheReader | January 2009 Fame At Last!

“The United excluded from mainstream coverage. World War. If the outcome in Iraq were to States and its destroy the credibility of American power, predominant IMPERIALLY EMBEDDED PRIZE – John to destroy America’s willingness to use its economic, political Burns, New York Times power in the world to achieve good, to fight and military power Described as “the longest-serving foreign back against totalitarianism, authoritarian- in the world have correspondent in New York Times history,” ism, gross human rights abuses, it would been the single Burns seemed less a skeptical reporter than be a very dark day.” CT greatest force a channeler of Henry Kissinger when he of- for stability in the fered his world view to PBS’s Charlie Rose Jeff Cohen, author of “Cable News world” in April: “The United States and its pre- Confidential,” is director of the Park Center dominant economic, political and military for Independent Media at Ithaca College and power in the world have been the single the founder of the media watch group FAIR. greatest force for stability in the world, Norman Solomon, author of “War Made such as it is now, certainly since the Second Easy,” is a columnist on media and politics.

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January 2009 | TheReader 37 Anti-Empire Report America’s other glorious war William Blum on the twisted web of lies and deceit, death and disaster that have resulted from the Pentagon’s attempts to create “lasting stability” in Afghanistan

It is remarkable, he Pentagon pushes hard for a houses1 ... America’s wealth bleeds out and scary, to read large increase in troops for Af- endlessly. the US military ghanistan. Barack Obama has Back in April Maj. Gen. David Rodri- writing about how been calling for the same since guez, commander of the US Army’s 82nd it goes around the wellT before the November election. Listen Airborne Division, when asked how long it world bringing to the drumbeats telling us that the securi- would take to create “lasting stability” in “stability” to (often ty of the United States and the Free World Afghanistan, replied: “In some way, shape ungrateful) people necessitates increased action in this place or form ... I think it’s a generation.”2 “Sta- called Afghanistan. As urgent as Iraq 2003, bility”, it should be noted, is a code word it is. Why? What is there about this back- used regularly by the United States since ward, reactionary, woman-hating, failed at least the 1950s to mean that the regime state that warrants hundreds of deaths of in power is willing and able to behave the American and NATO soldiers? That justi- way Washington would like it to behave. fies tens of thousands of Afghan deaths It is remarkable, and scary, to read the US since the first US bombing attacks in Oc- military writing about how it goes around tober 2001? the world bringing “stability” to (often In early December, reports the Washing- ungrateful) people. This past October the ton Post, “standing at Kandahar Air Field Army published a manual called “Stability in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Operations”.3 It discusses numerous Amer- M. Gates said the United States is making ican interventions all over the world since a ‘sustained commitment’ to that country, the 1890s, one example after another of one that will last ‘some protracted period bringing “stability” to benighted peoples. of time’.” The story goes on to discuss $300 One can picture the young American ser- million in construction projects at this one vice members reading it, or having it fed to base to house additional American forces, them in lectures, full of pride to be a mem- erecting guard stations and towers and pe- ber of such an altruistic fighting force. rimeter fencing around the barracks area, For those members of the US military putting in vehicle inspection areas, admin- in Afghanistan the most enlightening les- istration offices, cold-storage warehouse, a son they could receive is that their gov- new power plant, electrical and water dis- ernment’s plans for that land of sadness tribution systems, communications lines, have little or nothing to do with the wel- housing for 1,500 personnel who sustain fare of the Afghan people. In the late 1970s the systems, maintenance shops, ware- through much of the 1980s, the country

38 TheReader | January 2009 Anti-Empire Report had a government that was relatively pro- highlighted its uselessness and lack of mis- The building and gressive, with full rights for women; even sion. “Out of area or out of business” it was protection of oil a Pentagon report of the time testified to said. and gas pipelines the actuality of women’s rights in the coun- In June, the Canadian Center for Poli- in Afghanistan, to try.4 And what happened to that govern- cy Alternatives published a report saying continue farther ment? The United States was instrumental Taliban and insurgent activity against the to Pakistan, India, in overthrowing it. It was replaced by the US-NATO presence in Kandahar province and elsewhere, Taliban. puts the feasibility of the pipeline project has been a key Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, in doubt. The report says southern regions objective of US US oil companies have been vying with in Afghanistan, including Kandahar, would policy since before Russia, Iran and other energy interests for have to be cleared of insurgent activity and the 2001 American the massive, untapped oil and natural gas land mines in two years to meet construc- invasion and reserves in the former Soviet republics of tion and investment schedules. occupation of the Central Asia. The building and protection “Nobody is going to start putting pipe country, although of oil and gas pipelines in Afghanistan, to in the ground unless they are satisfied that the subsequent continue farther to Pakistan, India, and there is some reasonable insurance that turmoil there has elsewhere, has been a key objective of US the workers for the pipeline are going to be presented serious policy since before the 2001 American in- safe,” said Howard Brown, the Canadian obstacles to such vasion and occupation of the country, al- representative for the Asian Development plans though the subsequent turmoil there has Bank, the major funding agency for the presented serious obstacles to such plans. pipeline.8 A planned Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- If Americans were asked what they think Pakistan-India pipeline has strong support their country is doing in Afghanistan, their from Washington because, among other answers would likely be one variation or reasons, the US is eager to block a compet- another of “fighting terrorism”, with some ing pipeline that would bring gas to Paki- kind of connection to 9-11. But what does stan and India from Iran.5 But security for that mean? Of the tens of thousands of such projects is daunting, and that’s where Afghans killed by American/NATO bombs the US and NATO forces come in to play. over the course of seven years, how many In the late 1990s, the American oil com- can it be said had any kind of linkage to pany, Unocal, met with Taliban officials in any kind of anti-American terrorist act, Texas to discuss the pipelines.6 Zalmay other than in Afghanistan itself during this Khalilzad, later chosen to be the US ambas- period? Not one, as far as we know. The so- sador to Afghanistan, worked for Unocal7; called “terrorist training camps” in Afghan- Hamid Karzai, later chosen by Washington istan were set up largely by the Taliban to to be the Afghan president, also reportedly provide fighters for their civil conflict with worked for Unocal, although the company the Northern Alliance (minimally less reli- denies this. Unocal’s talks with the Taliban, gious fanatics and misogynists than the Tal- conducted with the full knowledge of the iban, but represented in the present Afghan Clinton administration, and undeterred by government). As everyone knows, none of the extreme repression of Taliban society, the alleged 9-11 hijackers was an Afghan; 15 continued as late as 2000 or 2001. of the 19 were from Saudi Arabia; and most As for NATO, it has no reason to be fight- of the planning for the attacks appears to ing in Afghanistan. Indeed, NATO has no have been carried out in Germany and the legitimate reason for existence at all. Their United States. So, of course, bomb Afghan- biggest fear is that “failure” in Afghanistan istan. And keep bombing Afghanistan. And would make this thought more present in bomb Pakistan. Especially wedding parties the world’s mind. If NATO hadn’t begun to (at least six so far). intervene outside of Europe it would have

January 2009 | TheReader 39 Anti-Empire Report

Israel has created Israel and Palestine, again, forever confined to the world’s largest open air its worst enemies Nothing changes. Including what I have to concentration camp. – they helped say on the matter. To prove my point, I’m It is a wanton act of collective punish- create Hamas as repeating part of what I wrote in this re- ment that is depriving the Palestinians of a counterweight port in July 2006 ... food, electricity, water, money, access to the to Fatah in There are times when I think this tired outside world ... and sleep. Israel has been Palestine, and old world has gone on a few years too sending jets flying over Gaza at night trig- their occupation of long. What’s happening in the Middle gering sonic booms, traumatizing children. Lebanon created East is so depressing. Most discussions of “I want nobody to sleep at night in Gaza,” Hezbollah. The the everlasting Israel-Palestine conflict are declared Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Ol- current terrible variations on the child’s eternal defense mert9, words suitable for Israel’s tomb- bombings can be for misbehavior – “He started it!” Within stone. expected to keep two minutes of discussing/arguing the lat- Israel has created its worst enemies the process going est manifestation of the conflict the -par – they helped create Hamas as a coun- ticipants are back to 1967, then 1948, then terweight to Fatah in Palestine, and their biblical times. Instead of getting entangled occupation of Lebanon created Hezbollah. in who started the current mess, I’d prefer The current terrible bombings can be ex- to express what I see as two essential un- pected to keep the process going. Since its derlying facts of life which remain from one very beginning, Israel has been almost con- conflict to the next: tinually engaged in fighting wars and tak- 1) Israel’s existence is not at stake and ing other people’s lands. Did not any bet- hasn’t been so for decades, if it ever was, ter way ever occur to the idealistic Zionist regardless of the many de rigueur militant pioneers? statements by Middle East leaders over the years. If Israel would learn to deal with The question that may never go away: its neighbors in a non-expansionist, non- Who really is Barack Obama? military, humane, and respectful manner, In his autobiography, Dreams From My Fa- engage in full prisoner exchanges, and sin- thers, Barack Obama writes of taking a job cerely strive for a viable two-state (if not at some point after graduating from Co- one-state) solution, even those who are lumbia University in 1983. He describes his opposed to the idea of a state based on a employer as “a consulting house to multi- particular religion could accept the state of national corporations” in New York City, Israel, and the question of its right to ex- and his functions as a “research assistant” ist would scarcely arise in people’s minds. and “financial writer”. But as it is, Israel still uses the issue as a The odd part of Obama’s story is that he justification for its behavior, as Jews all over doesn’t mention the name of his employer. the world use the Holocaust and conflating However, a New York Times story of 2007 anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. identifies the company as Business -Inter 2) In a conflict between a thousand- national Corporation.10 Equally odd is that pound gorilla and a mouse, it’s the gorilla the Times did not remind its readers that who has to make concessions in order for the newspaper itself had disclosed in 1977 the two sides to progress to the next level. that Business International had provided What can the Palestinians offer in the way cover for four CIA employees in various of concession? Israel would reply to that countries between 1955 and 1960.11 question: “No violent attacks of any kind.” The British journal, Lobster Magazine – But that would leave the status quo ante which, despite its incongruous name, is a bellum – a life of unmitigated misery for venerable international publication on in- the occupied, captive Palestinian people, telligence matters – has reported that Busi-

40 TheReader | January 2009 Anti-Empire Report ness International was active in the 1980s tration into Russian territory by American After the Fiji coup, promoting the candidacy of Washington- agents. And alongside Iran, also bordering the candidate favored candidates in Australia and Fiji.12 the Soviet Union, was Turkey, a member of supported In 1987, the CIA overthrew the Fiji govern- the Russians’ mortal enemy, NATO, since by Business ment after but one month in office because 1951. In 1962 during the “Cuban Missile International, of its policy of maintaining the island as a Crisis”, Washington, seemingly in a state who was much nuclear-free zone, meaning that American of near-panic, informed the world that the more amenable nuclear-powered or nuclear-weapons-car- Russians were installing “offensive” mis- to Washington’s rying ships could not make port calls.13 Af- siles in Cuba. The US promptly instituted nuclear desires, ter the Fiji coup, the candidate supported a “quarantine” of the island – a powerful was reinstated to by Business International, who was much show of naval and marine forces in the Ca- power – R.S.K. more amenable to Washington’s nuclear ribbean would stop and search all vessels Mara was Prime desires, was reinstated to power – R.S.K. heading towards Cuba; any found to con- Minister or Mara was Prime Minister or President of tain military cargo would be forced back. President of Fiji Fiji from 1970 to 2000, except for the one- The United States, however, had mis- from 1970 to 2000, month break in 1987. siles and bomber bases already in place except for the one- In his book, not only doesn’t Obama in Turkey and other missiles in Western month break in mention his employer’s name; he fails to Europe pointed toward the Soviet Union. 1987. say when he worked there, or why he left. Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev later There may well be no significance to these wrote: “The Americans had surrounded omissions, but inasmuch as Business In- our country with military bases and threat- ternational has a long association with the ened us with nuclear weapons, and now world of intelligence, covert actions, and they would learn just what it feels like to attempts to penetrate the radical left – in- have enemy missiles pointing at you; we’d cluding Students for a Democratic Society be doing nothing more than giving them a (SDS)14 – it’s valid to wonder if the inscru- little of their own medicine. ... After all, the table Mr. Obama is concealing something United States had no moral or legal quarrel about his own association with this world. with us. We hadn’t given the Cubans any- thing more than the Americans were giving On socialist Cuba’s 50th anniversary, to their allies. We had the same rights and January 1, 2009: Notes on the beginning opportunities as the Americans. Our con- of its unforgivable revolution duct in the international arena was gov- The existence of a revolutionary social- erned by the same rules and limits as the ist government with growing ties to the Americans.”15 Soviet Union only 90 miles away, insisted Lest anyone misunderstand, as Khrush- the United States government, was a situ- chev apparently did, the rules under which ation which no self-respecting superpower Washington was operating, Time magazine should tolerate, and in 1961 it undertook an was quick to explain. “On the part of the invasion of Cuba. Communists,” the magazine declared, “this But less than 50 miles from the So- equating [referring to Khrushchev’s offer viet Union sat Pakistan, a close ally of to mutually remove missiles and bombers the United States, a member since 1955 of from Cuba and Turkey] had obvious tacti- the South-East Asia Treaty Organization cal motives. On the part of neutralists and (SEATO), the US-created anti-communist pacifists [who welcomed Khrushchev’s alliance. On the very border of the Soviet offer] it betrayed intellectual and moral Union was Iran, an even closer ally of the confusion.” The confusion lay, it seems, in United States, with its relentless electronic not seeing clearly who were the good guys listening posts, aerial surveillance, and infil- and who were the bad guys, for “The pur-

January 2009 | TheReader 41 Anti-Empire Report

In the American pose of the US bases [in Turkey] was not The Tories fled to Nova Scotia and Brit- lexicon, in addition to blackmail Russia but to strengthen the ain carrying tales of the godless, dissolute, to good and bad defense system of NATO, which had been barbaric American revolutionaries. Those bases and missiles, created as a safeguard against Russian ag- who remained and refused to take an there are good and gression. As a member of NATO, Turkey oath of allegiance to the new state govern- bad revolutions. welcomed the bases as a contribution to ments were denied virtually all civil liber- The American and her own defense.” Cuba, which had been ties. Many were jailed, murdered, or forced French Revolutions invaded only the year before, could have, it into exile. After the American Civil War, were good. The seems, no such concern. Time continued its thousands more fled to South America and Cuban Revolution sermon, which undoubtedly spoke for most other points, again disturbed by the social is bad. It must be Americans: “Beyond these differences -be upheaval. How much more is such an exo- bad because so tween the two cases, there is an enormous dus to be expected following the Cuban many people have moral difference between US and Russian Revolution? – a true social revolution, giv- left Cuba as a objectives ... To equate US and Russian ing rise to changes much more profound result of it bases is in effect to equate US and Russian than anything in the American experience. purposes ... The US bases, such as those in How many more would have left the Unit- Turkey, have helped keep the peace since ed States if 90 miles away lay the world’s World War II, while the Russian bases in wealthiest nation welcoming their resi- Cuba threatened to upset the peace. The dence and promising all manner of benefits Russian bases were intended to further and rewards? CT conquest and domination, while US bases were erected to preserve freedom. The dif- Notes ference should have been obvious to all.”16 [1] Washington Post, December 25, 2008 Equally obvious was the right of the [2] Reuters, April 29, 2008 United States to maintain a military base [3]http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/Reposito- on Cuban soil – Guantanamo Naval Base ry/FM307/FM3-07.pdf by name, a vestige of colonialism staring [4] US Department of the Army, “Afghani- down the throats of the Cuban people, stan, A Country Study” (1986), pp.121, 128, which the US, to this day, refuses to vacate 130, 134, 136, 223, 232-3 despite the vehement protest of the Cas- [5] Globe & Mail (Toronto), June 19, 2008 tro government.In the American lexicon, in [6] BBC News, December 4, 1997, “Taleban addition to good and bad bases and mis- [sic] in Texas for talks on gas pipeline” siles, there are good and bad revolutions. [7] Washington Post, November 23, 2001 The American and French Revolutions [8] UPI, July 17, 2008 were good. The Cuban Revolution is bad. It [9] Associated Press, July 3, 2006 must be bad because so many people have [10] New York Times, October 30, 2007 left Cuba as a result of it. [11] New York Times, Dec 27, 1977, p.40 But at least 100,000 people left the Brit- [12] Lobster Magazine, #14, Nov 1987 ish colonies in America during and after the [13] Wlm Blum, “Rogue State: A Guide to American Revolution. These Tories could the World’s Only Superpower”, pp.199-200 not abide by the political and social chang- [14] Carl Oglesby, “Ravens in the Storm: es, both actual and feared, particularly that A Personal History of the 1960s Antiwar change which attends all revolutions wor- Movement” (2008), passim thy of the name – Those looked down upon [15] “Khrushchev Remembers” (1971) as inferiors no longer know their place. (Or pp.494, 496. as the US Secretary of State put it after the [16] Time magazine, November 2, 1962 Russian Revolution: The Bolsheviks sought [17] Cited by William Appleman Williams, “to make the ignorant and incapable mass “American Intervention in Russia: 1917-20”, of humanity dominant in the earth.”17) in David Horowitz, ed., “Containment and

42 TheReader | January 2009 Crime & Punishment Obama going easy on Bush? Say it ain’t so Comedian Lee Camp looks at a crazy judicial system

* Bill Clinton lies about having an af- hospital apologizing for causing his would-be If Bush had fair. Result: he’s brought to trial and nearly killer so much grief. Cheney will live out the stolen a $1 kicked out of office. rest of his life in a mansion in an undisclosed candy bar from * Richard Nixon conspires to cover up a location swimming through a pool of gold a convenience break-in at the Democratic National Head- coins. store rather than quarters. Result: he’s forced to resign just * Plaxico Burress shoots himself in the extorting Iraq before he would have been booted from the leg. Result: he is charged with criminal pos- out of billions of presidency. session of a firearm. He will likely spend time dollars of oil, he * George W. Bush invades a sovereign in jail. might have been country while lying to the American peo- The difference between these two inci- sentenced to 16 ple and the United Nations. He breaks the dents seems to be that unlike Harry Whit- years in jail as Geneva Conventions, illegally wiretaps tington, Plaxico Burress was shot by a black Kenneth Payne American citizens, and commits treason man. was in Texas by allowing or encouraging the outing of a CIA agent (among other extra curricular * George W. Bush is an accomplice to activities). Result: nothing more than shitty the murder of hundreds of thousands of in- approval ratings. nocent people (at least). In fact, he gave the However, if Bush had invaded a female order that started the killing. Result (if Ba- (with her consent) instead of a country, he rack Obama stops any prosecution of Bush): would’ve at least lost his job. Right, Gov. the former president will live out his days on Spitzer? If Bush had stolen a $1 candy bar a ranch in the middle of Texas where he will from a convenience store rather than ex- hopefully finally finish reading the US Consti- torting Iraq out of billions of dollars of oil, tution. He has told friends that he found the he might have been sentenced to 16 years first half very intriguing. in jail as Kenneth Payne was in Texas. Let * In Texas a man named Kenneth Foster that be a lesson to Mr. Payne: if you want drives a car with his friend. His friend gets to avoid serving hard time, shoot for the out the car, gets in a fight, and kills a man. billions in oil, not the Butterfinger. Result: as an accomplice to murder, Foster is scheduled to be put to death. The governor * After having a few drinks, Dick Cheney commutes his death sentence just hours be- shoots a man, Harry Whittington, in the fore, and Foster will instead spend the rest of face nearly killing him. Result: the victim his life behind bars gives a press conference on the steps of the The lesson here is if you’re going to be

January 2009 | TheReader 43 Crime & Punishment if you’re going to an accomplice to a crime, better it be in- * The Bush administration permits the be an accomplice ternational war crimes. Perpetrators of war use of dogs in interrogation and torture of to a crime, better crimes are generally rewarded rather than suspected terrorists. This is a violation of it be international punished. the Geneva Conventions. Result: none ex- war crimes. cept that Bush’s Scottish terrier Barney occa- Perpetrators * Martha Stewart is convicted for lying sionally gives him the stink eye. of war crimes to federal prosecutors about insider trad- * Michael Vick gets convicted of helping are generally ing and stock sales. Result: she spends five to run a dog fighting ring. Result: he’s sen- rewarded rather months in prison. tenced to 23 months in federal prison. than punished * During the 2000 presidential election So if you use dogs to harm dogs, you’re Dick Cheney retires from Halliburton with sentenced to jail time. If you use dogs to a severance package worth $36 million and harm humans, you receive no repercus- declares he will cut financial ties with his sions except a moderate grilling on Meet former company. Between then and 2004 The Press. CT he receives about $200,000 from them ev- ery year. Over the course of the occupation Stand-up comic Lee Camp was called one of in Iraq, Halliburton receives many no-bid the best New Faces at the Montreal Comedy contracts worth billions of dollars. Result: Festival; he ran for president on Comedy Cheney’s stock options in Halliburton increase Central’s “Fresh Debate ‘08”; and he’s by around 3,000%. done comedic commentary on E! Network, * Without any weapons or threats, Ricky SpikeTV, MTV, and ABC’s “Good Morning Kiser of Virginia goes to a pharmacy and America.” Camp also went live on Fox hands the clerk a note demanding meth- News and called the network a “parade of adone, to which he is addicted. Result: a propaganda and a festival of ignorance.” See judge sentences him to 120 years in prison. and read more of his routine at If only Ricky Kiser had been helpless- www.LeeCamp.net ly addicted to money as Vice President This article was originally published at Cheney, he might be a free man right now. HuffingtonPost.com

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44 TheReader | January 2009 Last Words A lesson in drug enforcement We cut cigarette smoking in half and didn’t have to arrest half a million Americans to do it. The same approach might work with drugs use, says Paul Armentano

ccording to a new report released warnings regarding the drug’s use are based If federal by the Centers for Disease Con- upon credible science. lawmakers truly trol, fewer Americans are smok- By contrast, marijuana remains an un- wished to address ing cigarettes than at any time in regulated black market commodity. Sellers marijuana use, Amodern history. The number of US adults are typically criminal entrepreneurs who, they would take who smoke has dropped below 20 percent for the most part, operate undetected from a page from for the first time on record, Reuters report- law enforcement and are free to sell their their successful ed. This is less than half the percentage (42 product to any person of any person. Un- campaign to percent) of Americans who smoked ciga- like tobacco, marijuana’s packaging carries reduce the use of rettes during the 1960s. no warning label, and government ‘edu- cigarettes Imagine that; in the past 40 years tens of cation’ campaign’s regarding pot’s use are millions of Americans have voluntarily quit based almost explicitly upon hyperbole, smoking tobacco, a legal, yet highly addictive propaganda, and laughable stereotypes. intoxicant. Millions of others have refused to Is it any wonder why use of one drug is initiate the habit. And they’ve all made this going down at the same time that use of decision without ever once being threatened the other is rising? with criminal prosecution and arrest, impris- If federal lawmakers truly wished to onment, probation, and drug testing. address marijuana use, they would take By contrast, during this same period of a page from their successful campaign to time, state and local police have arrested reduce the use of cigarettes. This would in- some 20 million Americans for pot law vio- clude taxing and regulating cannabis with lations – primarily for violations no greater the drug’s sale and use restricted to spe- than simple possession. And yet marijuana cific markets and consumers. While such use among the public has skyrocketed from an alternative may not entirely eliminate an annual rate of 0.6 million new users in the black market demand for pot, it would 1965 to some 2.5 annual new users today. certainly be preferable to today’s blanket, There’s a lesson to be learned here, of though thoroughly ineffective, expensive course. Tobacco, though harmful to health, and impotent criminal prohibition. CT is a legally regulated commodity. Sellers are licensed and held accountable by fed- Paul Armentano is the Deputy Director eral and state laws. Users are restricted by of NORML and the NORML Foundation age. Advertising and access is limited by in Washington, DC. He may be contact by state and federal governments. And health e-mail at: [email protected].

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