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Roaming Charges . . . . . 5 The CIA Came at Night articles by Jeffrey St. Clair On the trail of a rendition.
A Social History of Wiretaps Diamonds and Rust...... 6 by David Price ...... 9 Life Against Death by JoAnn Wypijewski Twilight of the Post World War II Order Buffalo and death row through by Peter Lee...... 13 the lens of Bruce Jackson. Empire Burlesque. . . . . 7 My Hollywood Adventure with the CIA Shamming into Syria by Chris Floyd by John Eskow...... 17 Obama is risking a regional war. Malaysia Teeters on the Edge of an Islamist Knife Grasping at Straws. . . . .8 by Nile Bowie ...... 20 The Worst of Times for Workers culture & reviews by Mike Whitney “Accidental Racist”: Days of Future Past Middle class living standards are under unprecedented at- by Lee Ballinger...... 24 tack.
Daydream Nation...... 9 Ave, Angelina by Kristin Kolb Celebrity, feminism & cancer.
JUNE 2013 VOL. 20 NO. 6 that same shocked surprise when Bush won in 2000. On a deeper note: American letters to the editor embassies house CIA stations, an open secret. CIA was deeply entangled Thanks for Vol 20 no.5 – the two-party duopoly. I went I know realize that the pa- in the Shāh’s pre-1979 Ed Rampell piece is brilliant to meetings with ideas and thology is across the board, Iran. The people extracted – so glad someone’s said strategies, long thought-out, including on the “Left.” seemed to know to meet it. Homeland, then Zero hoping to engage and go Some writers / humanists and find shelter away from Dark Thirty (which I could forth... I attended numerous / psychologists who are the embassy during a crisis. not watch after 10 minutes) events... getting at this topic include The Canadian embassy was and Argo ( and don’t forget And what did I find? A Bruce Levine, Robert Jay probably a prearranged The Hurt Locker!) - it was shambles and a farce of a Lipton, Joanna Macy, destination. The agency Vandana Shiva, Michael clearly propaganda – but third-party operation, at had to have been extracting Meade, and others who so slick. I had to tell my several levels. its own people for security write for CounterPunch. reasons. I cannot imagine daughter of the background I was so dismayed and Plus the books of Eduardo any other reason for such of Argo before she could see shocked at the state of Galeano and others ... drastic measures. Rescuing the spin. things in this “Left” party. Again, thank you for a good innocent civilians is not Lois Achimovich The key things that I saw but chilling article. I see CIA’s charter. and experienced were: hope (and I’m taking that Western Australia Mark Tokarski · No state or local organiz- word back) in those who Morrison, CO ing presence or organizing are actively and consciously I just read your piece on game—no ground game— healing themselves of the We’ll be sending what we Dershowitz, I think the no local visibility, despite a centuries of pathological can for now at the start difference between his national presence in the last history, inheritance and of next week. Thanks for gratuitous public support election: culture. They are out there. standing up against the of torture and illegal, in- · No effective organizing Kristina Filipovich winds of psychotic faux definite imprisonment, and strategies or plans Portland, Oregon conservatism. Tsarnaev, is that Tsarnaev is · No coherent messaging Larry Lack/Lee Ann Ward an American, wherever his or communication tools or St. Andrews, NB Canada parents came from. I think Ed Rampell’s excellent piece outreach on CIA and Hollywood Dershowitz was, maybe, St. Clair’s ‘Game of Drones’ · A smiling semi-hostility collaboration was highly lobbying for a (highly and a closed-loop phenom- informative. He does not was outstanding. The media visible) role on the enon to anyone who tried mention it, but I wonder Obama administration, defense team. His ego is to bring in new energy or about the voting process more than any, is commit- much more powerful than ideas when a mediocre film like ted to revisionism - first it his hatred of Palestinians, And this: Argo secures a best picture was the re-write of Vietnam which is the root of his ha- · People / individuals with award over an artistic last year; now it’s the turn of tred for Muslim “terrorists”. the same negative psycho- achievement like Lincoln. the ‘secret bombing’ that de- Marcus Nestor logical make-up as those If the agency is working the livered the equivalent of five producers up front, are they in the Democratic Party: Hiroshimas to Cambodia. also working the AMPAS egotistical, controlling, John Pilger Dear Jeffrey, voters behind the scenes? manipulative, dissociative, London Your article is dead on. I can think of no other dysfunctional, semi-patho- I left the Democratic Party reason for the award. Argo logical and so on three-plus years ago and was poorly acted, Affleck · People who cannot joined a prominent Third was a stiff. Green screens Send Letters to the Editor communicate coherently, were so obvious that it Party, and the local chapters to: CounterPunch functionally or socially felt like a Hollywood set. here in our area. PO Box 228, Petrolia, CA · People who need healing I laughed out loud at the I was intent on joining with 95558 or email at many levels and who have contrived airport scene. local activists, engaged (I counterpunch@ never healed themselves. I was shocked at rave hoped) in strategic activities counterpunch.org As I say, it was a shock. My reviews, and no less so and organizing to coun- when it got the best picture final shock, if I may say so. ter the destruction of the nod. I remember feeling
4 For more than two years, he followed the same routine. His legs were always shackled, his cell dark, his eyes blind- The CIA Came at Night folded as he was moved from cell to B J S. C interrogation room. Jabour’s answers remained the same. He was not a ter- rorist. He didn’t know the men in the ey came for Jabour at night. He regularly and savage threats were made photographs. He never associated with was ordered by the men to turn around against his wife and two children. He Al Qaeda. and face the wall, while his hands were was bound for four consecutive days Unknown to Jabour, in late June cu ed and his legs shackled. A blind- and refused even the right to urinate. , the Supreme Court ruled that de- fold was fastened to his head. He was He was never charged with a crime tainees held by government as enemy led from his cell in an Islamabad jail to or allowed to see a lawyer. Then the combatants came under the protection a waiting van. Americans came again. of the Geneva Convention. Four weeks Jabour was then driven to an airport e men who put him on the plane later, Jabour was told that he was going and marched into a bathroom, where that night worked for the Central to be transferred again. Once more his blindfold was removed. He was Intelligence Agency. The prison they Jabour was stripped naked. is time confronted by a group of Americans, ew him to was a ghost site, a secret he was forced to wear a diaper. talking to each other in sign language. CIA interrogation facility, in some re- Again his naked body was lmed by A doctor approached him. He took dacted corner of Afghanistan. his captors. Cotton balls were stu ed Jabour’s blood pressure and then in- Two guards led Jabour to a dark in his ears and taped over his eyes. A jected him with a drug. Jabour began cell, three feet wide and six feet long, thick rubber band was strapped around to feel dizzy. A black hood was placed where his clothes were cut o . One of his head. A mask was buckled around over his head and he was led onto a his hands was cu ed to an iron ring his face. “I felt like a mummy,” Jabour military plane. His hands were cu ed in the wall. His feet were chained to a later told Human Rights Watch inves- behind his back. His legs were locked similar ring welded to the oor. Two tigators. to a d-ring on the oor of the plane. “I video cameras were trained down on Before he was put on the plane, knew it was the end of my life,” Jabour him. Loudspeakers blared heavy metal Jabour was pushed around by his said later. music, hour after hour, night after captors and forced to sit in a chair next is is the story of a rendition, just night. He was le standing in the cell to another prisoner. He heard three one account from the hundreds of men naked. gunshots and then was shoved into who have been snatched, tortured and The guards returned the next a small plane for a four-hour ight to dehumanized in the post- wars. morning, shaved his head and his Jordan, where he was ultimately turned Marwan al-Jabour is a Palestinian beard, unchained him and led him, over to the Israelis and released in who was born in Amman, Jordan. In still naked, to an interrogation room. Gaza. He had been held prisoner under , he moved to Pakistan, where he Inside, there were ten people, includ- orders of the CIA for more than two- pursued his education. In the spring of ing two women and a doctor. The and-a-half years. , Jabour was detained by Pakistan’s doctor was lmed as he probed Jabour’s Jabour has been free now for seven notorious ISI a er having dinner with naked body. He was then pushed into years. Still he waits for justice. When a friend and university professor in a chair and his legs and hands cu ed. will it come? Who will deliver it? Lahore. He was taken to a detention fa- A large, thickly muscled man called the We assess this sequence of horrors cility where he was interrogated about “Marine” stood ominously behind him. soberly. Our teeth gnash; our stomachs his friend and about the location of His interrogators warned Jabour to quiver. Our outrage intensies with the Arab militants. cooperate fully or he would be stu ed revelation of each iniquity. For we are Through the night he was beaten, into the Dog Box. e man pointed to a people of conscience and empathy. We kicked and repeatedly shocked with small wooden box, three-feet by three- feel shame and anger at the revolting an electric prod. Two days later, three feet in size. Jabour was shown hundreds crimes committed by our government, American agents entered his cell and of photographs, quizzed about each. in our name. Because we express our questioned him about his ties to al-Qa- is went on day a er day, week a er disgust, we feel morally superior to the eda. He repeatedly denied having any week, month a er month. He was fed torturers. relation to terrorists. rancid food from cans. Arbitrarily, his But what have we done? Jabour was detained in Pakistan for captors would chain him into contorted Ask Jabour. He knows. CP nearly a month, where he was tortured stress positions for hours at a time.
5 only a series of here’s that bleed into one another, or would but for walls and concertina wire, segregated neighbor- Life Against Death hoods and the false fronts or close-held griefs of people we encounter. “Being” JA W is Bruce’s subject. I returned to the show, ignored the curator’s irksome texts and let my Bu alo is an apt place from which radiance of what is.” eyes ricochet between images, the way to launch a column by this name, a In the rst picture, a woman swings a seeing usually works in life—down city hard as a precision cutting tool, pillow at her lover’s camera. She is bare halls, through doorways, from grain and only now, thirty years into dein- and in bed, aglow, Diane in London, silos to free people having fun to pris- dustrialization, sensing possibility in . Down the museum hall two gray oners, back to portraits from the free its unique position as a living museum silos and a spiral staircase of the der- world (in prison usage) to a stone to American decline. Reyner Banham elict St. Mary’s Cement Elevator shoot ruin in the Chihuahua desert where called the city “a concrete Atlantis.” up twelve feet. I entered this retrospec- someone le behind purple panties and It was a compliment, the title of an tive of Bruce Jackson’s photographs en- a syringe. extended ode to grain elevators—in- thralled. As free-worlders, we are all in some vented, perfected and built in greater en I was enraged, walking from way at Jackson’s party, living while number here than any place on earth. rooms of photographs of convicts into someone in lock-up is dying or waiting ese machines-disguised-as-buildings a display of pictures of Jackson’s friends to. e Death Row prisoners he photo- made Bu alo the world’s largest grain and associates, of parties—how can graphed in do not ask for our pity, port, and their image in photographs they have fun while the men in the but they presume our responsibility. and drawings so inspired Gropius and next room are on Death Row!—and at bulks larger today. le Corbusier that they pronounced was immediately disgusted with myself, e condemned of the twenty-rst their design theories and ignored the like Judas Iscariot tsking over a broken century cannot dangle their arms engineering. e Bauhaus would have bottle of perfume while life gallops between bars, or look at each other some leaky roofs, but America was toward death. Jackson, a prof at the in hand mirrors, or create art from named the engine-house of modern- University of Bu alo, is an artistic poly- cigarette packs, or smoke, or chat in ism. morph, compulsive shooter, a swell guy, a dayroom, or watch soap operas to- When the engine ran out of gas, most a CounterPuncher. I decided to come gether, or play volleyball in a wire cage. people didn’t look upon the concrete back another time, and to contemplate Contained behind solid doors, they are and rusted metal monoliths and think, his title for a life’s work so far, “Being deprived of conversation, sensory ex- Ah, our Pyramids! Our Parthenon! e re .” perience, even the o en-vicious soli- Ruin was too fresh. Banham was Rarely does an exhibition force you darity of misery. writing in , a generation since the to bite down on the tough kernel of eir extremity does not argue for St. Lawrence Seaway made Buffalo’s existence. Jackson’s prison work alone extending disa ection ourselves. Being port redundant. could have filled the museum space. at the party—really living, planting Taverns that once were hiring halls So could some of his , pictures of the ag for generosity versus depriva- for the grain scoopers now sheltered Bu alo’s grain elevators. tion, love versus indi erence, soulful- refugees from shuttering steel and auto e Widelux images of a bossman ness versus cynicism—is the resistant parts plants. Local powers ran from the and work crew in the cotton fields act in a system organized for cruelty unfolding future by bulldozing what of the Cummins Prison in Arkansas and alienation. It’s what Jackson docu- they could of the past, and the people, would still overwhelm; the hands mented on Death Row, too, an image- those who didn’t run, endured amid jutting past the bars of Texas Death echo of the great radical poet Nazim what remained. Row, “doing something the rest of the Hikmet. I grew up here in the last go-go body couldn’t,” would still weigh heavy. “I mean you must take living so se- years for the working class, and was One might walk away feeling bad or riously,” Hikmet wrote from a Turkish pondering the public and private land- indignant, but attention would be di- prison, scapes of loss the other day when two rected over there somewhere, to that …because although you fear death photographs at an exhibition at the oppressed population, or this ravaged you don’t believe it, Burcheld Penney Art Center popped city. because living, I mean, weighs up like bumper stops, opening a way What’s jarring about Jackson’s col- heavier. CP into what James Agee called the “cruel lected work is that there is no “there”; 6 it opens up new opportunities for war proteering and oil deals, as in Libya and now in Syria. For example, just Shamming Into Syria one day before the intelligence apparat “conrmed” chemical weapon use by B C F Syria, the administration eased export restrictions to “help facilitate oil sales from rebel-controlled areas,” Reuters When I saw the news on June he gave for urging action, despite that reports. One of life’s little coincidences, that Bill Clinton had joined with John fact that intervention is opposed by I reckon. McCain in blasting Obama’s “inac- percent of the American people: if Equally coincidental, no doubt, is tion” on Syria and calling for direct U.S. Obama failed to help kill more people the fact that this intelligence “nding” military intervention in the conflict, in Syria, Clinton said, he would end up comes just as Team Obama is reeling I knew we would soon hear the other “looking like a wuss.” Yes, that really is from revelations of the Orwell- shoe dropping. And lo, just hours later, the level of intellect that drives policy surpassing cyber-panopticon it has pat it came, with that reliable old house at the highest reaches of the American imposed on the entire populace. What organ of the power structure, the New power structure. Yes, they really are ju- better distraction from domestic skull- York Times, portentously reporting venile neurotics with third-rate minds duggery than the ever-reliable foreign that “intelligence” had “conrmed” the obsessed with their illusory “manhood,” threat: “Look over yonder — WMDs!” use of chemical weapons by the Syrian which can apparently be expressed only Time to rally round the ag – and ll government — the ashing “red line” by the large-scale slaughter of human airtime and newsprint with endless that Obama had declared would be the beings and military domination of the blather and Pentagon propaganda trigger for more American interven- whole earth. Christ Jesus, boys — ain’t about the noble humanitarian “surge” tion. you ever heard of Viagra? Bob Dole can against Syria. One day later, the New York Times get it for you wholesale. You really don’t This is a momentous move — reported that the White House will have to kill people just to get it up.) however juvenile and shallow and ir- now supply the rebels with arms — yet For months, Obama has been redeemably stupid its perpetrators another loose, uncontrollable ood of playing this rope-a-dope game, string- may be. Syria is not Iraq, Libya or weaponry washing through the most ing along both the rabid intervention- Afghanistan, isolated regimes on the volatile region on earth, guaranteeing ists and the remaining “progressives” outskirts of the Middle East. It is in the more death, more ruin, more terror- who still believe, against all evidence, very center of the powder keg. And it ism, more needless su ering not only in the president’s good intentions. But has powerful allies in Russia and Iran. on the Syrian killing grounds, but far now the time has come to up the ante. Expanding the civil war there could beyond as well — exactly as we saw in Why? draw those countries more directly the Libyan intervention. And no doubt One reason — noted by the Times into the con ict, as well as Israel, Iraq, the Sunni militants in Iraq — currently — is the fact that the Syrian rebels are Lebanon, even Turkey. The risk of a killing dozens of people weekly in the clearly in danger of losing, despite the wider regional war — even a world war sectarian hell created by the American best e orts of close American allies like — is very real. invasion — will love the U.S. ordnance the woman-hating, head-chopping, is is the reality we are now enter- they’ll soon be getting from their al extremism-abetting religious tyrants ing. It’s not just blasts of point-scoring Qaeda allies in the forefront of the in Saudi Arabia to keep the bloodshed partisan rhetoric ricocheting around Syrian rebel campaign. going. Indeed, as As’ad AbuKhailil Capitol Hill, cable news and Twitter. e move by Clinton, the progres- points out, the Saudi and Qatari gun- ere is a real world out there beyond sive’s beloved “Big Dawg,” move was runners and paymasters of the predom- the various screens that transx us all, obviously part of a sham operation to inantly Sunni rebels in Syria are in- sealing us in an abstract, virtual space “force” poor, peace-loving Obama into creasingly using the con ict to foment of light and pixels. Real people will die significantly ramping up American a genocidal fury against Shiites and from this decision, and from the lu- military involvement in Syria. (And the related sects across the Middle East. dicrous, sinister games played by the sight of this self-infatuated gasbag — As in Iraq, Western intervention is stunted power-seekers on every side of with the blood of half a million sanc- fuelling a spiral of uncontrollable sec- the increasingly savage con ict. CP tion-murdered Iraqi children on his tarian violence at a level unseen in the hands – now demanding more blood- region for centuries, AbuKhalil notes. shed for innocent people was truly And American warmongers love to see sickening. Especially the “reasoning” Muslims killing each other, especially if
7 quarter of than anytime on record. Hourly pay for nonfarm workers fell at an annual rate of . percent in the The Worst of Times for first three months of the year while factory workers saw their wages plunge Workers by nearly percent in the same period. B M W Falling wages are a knock-on e ect of high unemployment which is a direct Wages matter. ey matter because that gure has dwindled to less than result of government decit reduction people deserve to be fairly compen- percent and is on track to drop even policy. The Obama administration’s sated for their work. They matter further. Of course, everyone knows budget cutting fiasco (the sequester) because personal consumption drives why wages are atlining. It’s because is pushing wages below -levels, the economy. ey matter because they all the money is owing upwards to the when worker pay grew by a measly provide the means to distribute wealth bankers and fatcats. As UC Berkeley . percent y-o-y barely keeping pace more broadly which reduces inequal- economics professor Emmanuel Saez with the rate of in ation. For working ity and strengthens democratic institu- discovered in his research on inequal- Americans, these are the worst of times. tions. ity, percent of the country’s income A new report in the American When wages don’t grow, person- growth between to went Sociological Review titled “The al consumption drops off and the to the top percent of households. Capitalist Machine: Computerization, economy limps along at half-speed. Surprisingly, it’s only gotten worse Workers’ Power, and the Decline in e problem can be papered over with since the recession ended. Labor’s Share within U.S. Industries,” scal stimulus or credit spending, but According to the Pew Research explains why workers have done so these are just short-term xes. e best Center the top percent of US house- poorly while corporate profits have solution is to make sure that wages holds increased their wealth by soared to record highs. Assistant pro- keep pace with productivity. at’s the percent from to , while the fessor of sociology at the University of ticket. When workers share in produc- bottom percent saw their wealth Haifa in Israel, Tali Kristal, found that tivity gains, then their income is recy- slashed by percent. The rich are labor’s share of national income had cled into the economy which increases getting richer while the poor are dropped sharply due to the decline in output, creates jobs, and boosts GDP. running as hard as they can to stay in unions. Here’s the money-quote from It’s a win-win situation for everyone. place, yet still falling behind. the report: Unfortunately, that’s not the world In the last two decades, corporations “What we have is a large de- we live in. We live in a world where have made huge strides in productivity, crease in labor’s share of income hourly compensation and productivity but stingy CEOs have kept the gains for and a signicant increase in cap- move on two separate tracks, and those themselves leaving workers to scrape italists’ share in industries where tracks are moving farther apart all the by on wages that (in ation adjusted) unionization declined, and time. have dropped for three years straight. hardly any change in industries Naturally, this hurts the economy According to the Economic Policy where unions never had much since cash-strapped workers can’t Institute (EPI), worker productiv- of a presence. is suggests that consume as much as big business pro- ity grew percent from to , waning unionization, which duces. So aggregate demand drops-o , while median hourly compensation, led to the erosion of rank-and businesses hire fewer workers, output a er in ation, grew by just one-eighth le workers’ bargaining power, shrinks, and the economy goes into a that amount. Windfall prots are being was the main force behind the long-term funk. But there is a remedy. diverted into executive bonus packages decline in labor’s share of na- The government can increase the and lavish vacation homes on the Cape, tional income.” budget decits and create more jobs. while working people are struggling When more people are working, the just to pay the mortgage or buy a few Middle class living standards are price of labor goes up, activity and rev- groceries at the supermarket. under attack in the US as never before. enues soar, and the economy clicks into Last month’s Productivity and Costs It will take a groundswell movement of high-gear. Report from the Bureau of Labor motivated working people to stop the Wages, as a share of gross domestic Statistics provides more evidence that bleeding and redirect policy so people product GDP, are at a record low. In things are rapidly getting worse for are fairly compensated for their labor. the booming ‘’s, wages accounted working people. According to the BLS, Absent stronger unions, the battle for more than percent of GDP. Now workers took a bigger hit in the rst cannot be won. CP
8 math. I’m certainly not writing o the hor- rible disease of breast cancer, which Ave, Angeina cedes control of a woman’s body to the medical industry. In fact, two of my B K K musical heroines, pioneering women of Punk and No Wave, have endured and It was a typical May day in dreary or done much for women beyond re- perished from breast cancer. Where’s Seattle, and I took shelter from the citing the script of “Tomb Raider” , , the Le ’s outrage? drizzle in Christian Mysticism, the and - is a tearful act of feminism. There’s Ari Up, the singer for The works of the 12th Century Benedictine As a licensed feminist, must I hate Slits, which was one of the rst all-girl prioress, Hildegard von Bingen. freedom of speech, and blush with rage punk bands. And when I say “girl,” she Hildegard was quite a woman. She when the titillating word “tits” appears was when they started playing. e wrote books, composed music, and in a sentence? Slits smeared war paint on their faces practiced naturopathy. Among the I thought Hooters-haunting men for shows. When I saw them in , hymns she wrote are versions of “Ave, would be more upset about Madame Up did a cartwheel o the bouncer’s Maria,” “Kyrie Eleison,” and the fasci- Jolie’s mastectomy than a smattering table. nating “Chants of 11,000 Virgins.” Her of ideologues. I wanted to read more As the UK tabloid, Metro, who inter- compositions are more gorgeous and about Hildegard’s erotic “Chants of viewed her producer, published, “‘One meditative than the popular recants of , Virgins,” but I took to the news day in , Ari phoned and said: ‘I’ve the two former. Musicologists argue cycle instead. While obsessing over got breast cancer.’ She never thought for that her music reflects Sapphic sexual- Angelina, full of grace, here’s what you a minute that she wasn’t going to beat ity, songs beatifying the female body missed: it. She was the most fearless person I’ve as the realm of desire. “e truly holy Both the Yale Law Review and the ever met.’ “ Up died a year later, at age person,” she wrote, “welcomes all that is May editorial in e New York Times . earthly.” addressed the epidemic of prison rape. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth told I was consumed by subversive Yale published a piece by Elizabeth Elle that she was diagnosed with breast nuns when I received a message that Reid, who was incarcerated here in cancer. According to the most recent CounterPunch was under attack! A Washington state. She detailed, graphi- edition of e New Yorker, Gordon had fringe group of capital-S Socialists and cally, how a guard raped her, and how a lumpectomy. “Okay,” she said, “what some liberal lieges to e Nation were the prison administration ignored her else is going to happen to me?” calling for heads due to some random brave attempt to seek justice. is struck me, as one of my power- article about Angelina Jolie, of all The Times was more oblique, but house, take-no-prisoners icons showed people. I observed the mud-slinging it’s still striking that they chose to call vulnerability. I’m not the only one and read the damned thing. I was not this horror out, let alone in the Sunday who thinks these women are devastat- impressed. edition. “Despite the federal law, it is ing artists, and Angelina Jolie is not. It was another Le circle jerk, this clear that not enough has been done But the Le chooses jolie Jolie as the time revolving around a cheap piece to make sure all inmates are protected martyr. about breast cancer and tittle-tattle re- from rape.” As for icons, I’ve added Hildegard to garding “tits.” I was reminded of my Here’s an issue over which I assumed that list. She embraced the sacredness limited tolerance for the pussy-footing Socialists would be debating organizing of earthly, feminine sexuality, and she Le . “Identity Politics, when will it die, strategy and tactics: women in poverty. might chuckle at the gossip about that die, die,” I muttered, and assumed my According to an article by economist titillating four-letter word, “tits,” and position with the prioress. Paul Buchheit, via Alternet, half of the the consecration of Jolie as emissary for Culture Wars redux. I’ve been pissed United States is in poverty. Buchheit the High Church of Socialist Feminism. o at PC since at least , when I was compiled data from the Census and I bet she’d get along with D.H introduced to ird Wave Feminism, IRS, among other sources, to reach his Lawrence, that misogynist, who wrote: which reconstructs language as the de- conclusion. “Obscenity only comes when the mind sexualized discourse of “women with Meanwhile, a Pew survey found that fears and despises the body, and the a y,” and the incomprehensible quasi- percent of American women are the body resists and fears the mind.” Kyrie vocabulary of Judith Butler. Uber-pop primary nanciers of the house, and Eleison. CP culture is revered. For example, the percent of those are single moms. health of Jolie de Arc- who hasn’t said Between the two articles, you do the
9 current themes of patriotic zealousness. But even with such Memory’s Half-life contradictions, it is clear that for the better part of a century most Americans opposed governmental wiretaps—even A Social History of wiretaps of criminals. Americans had to be coerced into ac- Wiretaps cepting these limits on privacy, freedom of association and expression, and the history of American wiretapping finds By David Price consistent efforts by governmental agencies to increase sur- With Edward Snowden’s revelations of massive NSA veillance capabilities. electronic surveillance and metadata mining of domestic Electronic surveillance violates boundaries between in- telephone and internet activities comes renewed scrutiny of dividuals and the State. State eavesdropping and metadata- American intelligence agencies intrusions into our lives. But mining threatens notions of private and public spheres, it with this news comes disturbing measures of Americans em- dislodges public understandings of freedom, and exposes the bracing governmental monitoring of our private electronic naked scaffolding of a Police State. It matters little whether communications. A Pew/Washington Post poll conducted these violations occur with the approval of courts or as days after Snowden’s disclosures showed 56% of respondents blackbag operations: wiretaps and electronic-monitoring are find the NSA PRISM program’s collection of domestic meta- primal violations not easily repaired by legal sanctions or data is “acceptable,” and 45% believe that the government oversight, and their damage is systemic and contagious. should “be able to monitor everyone’s email to prevent pos- sible terrorism.” Media and pundits spin an unchallenged Early Wiretaps narrative of NSA surveillance as a harmless, necessary, and In 1877 the world only had a single telephone line span- effective tool in network-centric borderless warfare, and we ning any significant distance, with 778 phones operating on can expect increasing public support for ubiquitous surveil- one line connecting Boston and Salem, Massachusetts. At lance, as Millennials are further socialized to accept invisible the beginning of the 20th Century, about one in a thousand omnipresent intrusions as necessary, and nonthreatening, Americans had telephones, but by the 1920s one in a hundred and normal. had phones, and at mid-century about one in three homes This shift in Americans accepting and internalizing new had them. Today, the US has more phones than people. levels of state surveillance marks a significant departure from There are over one-billion land-based telephone lines on Americans’ century-long distrust of electronic surveillance. earth, and an estimated six-billion cellphones. As an anthropologist, I know historical memory is fragile, Until the late-20th Century’s disbursement of fiber-optic and even deep-cultural values can shift and be managed lines and cellphones, wiretaps required little technical equip- by elites; yet our best defense against these memory-wipes ment or assistance from the phone company. All one needed begins with historical considerations of how we got here. to tap a traditional copper-wire phone line was access to the In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the American public phone-wire and alligator clips to attach to the red and green hastily abandoned a century of fairly consistent opposition wires, a speaker or tape recorder. to government wiretaps. Americans have forgotten that Americans were outraged when they first learned of law months before the 9/11 attacks, distrust of the FBI was at one enforcement’s use of wiretaps in the early decades of the 20th of its highest historical levels, as the June 20, 2001 USA Today century. During the First World War, wiretapping became headline proclaimed “Poll: 4 in 10 American’s Don’t Trust so commonplace that Congress outlawed the practice despite FBI.” The fear spread by the 9/11 attacks and Bush’s terror the obvious threats to national security posed by spies and wars brought uncertainties that helped cloud memories of in- saboteurs. After the war, dozens of states enacted state law telligence agencies’ historical abuses. further limiting the electronic surveillance powers of local Decades of longitudinal survey data collected by the Justice police. Department records deeply-rooted American opposition to During Prohibition, bootleggers used telephones to estab- governmental wiretaps with disapproval levels fluctuating lish lines of communication between producers, distributors, between 70-80% during the thirty years preceding 2001. But and buyers. Local and federal police agencies ignored laws on December 12, 2001 the New York Times published a poll prohibiting wiretaps and routinely eavesdropped on phone indicating that only 44% of respondents believed widespread calls. As local police increasingly used wiretaps, the federal governmental wiretaps “would violate American’s rights.” government took actions to limits law enforcement agents’ Post-9/11 fears flushed previous civil liberties concerns down uses of wiretaps. With support from the public, in 1924, the memory hole. U.S. Attorney General Stone forbid the Justice Department American views on wiretapping are complex, shifting, from conducting wiretaps. The Treasury Department, and varied and at times contradictory. While American culture the Bureau of Investigation resented Stone’s policy and both has long traditions of distrusting government, there are con- agencies continued to secretly employ wiretaps.
10 A Seattle rum-smuggling case in, which federal agents in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal— used wiretaps to prosecute former police lieutenant and would bring terrible retribution. Against that pernicious bootlegger Roy Olmstead, established important legal rulings doctrine this Court should resolutely set its face.” regarding the constitutionality of wiretaps. ough federal Most Americans were outraged by the court’s blatant dis- agents had illegally wiretapped Olmstead, the trial judge regard of Fourth and Fi h Amendment protections. Walter ruled that violations of state wiretapping law were immate- Murphy observed that across the country “the majority of rial, and Olmstead was found guilty of several Prohibition editorials disapproved of what the court had done.” Even violations. In the dissent to the Ninth Circuit Court conservative newspapers in Washington state criticized the appeal, Judge Frank Rudkin found that despite criminals’ ruling. In the thriving costal logging town of Hoquiam, the threats to the greater public good, when law enforcement conservative Washingtonian wrote, “perhaps it will be neces- officials tapped sary for Congress to phones they violated enact a law which will a basic social con- protect the secrecy of tract and threatened telephone messages the foundations of by making them in- privacy and freedom. admissible in evidence Rudkin argued that, in federal trials.” “no federal o cer or ese sentiments were federal agent has a not those of some right to take [a per- left-leaning protec- son’s] message from tor of civil liberties. the wires, in order As labor historian that it may be used Aaron Goings notes, against him. Such a the Washingtonian “at situation would be times used its pages deplorable and intol- to advocate vigilante erable, to say the least. action against labor . .if ills such as these activists.” Public must be borne, our Illustration by Ian MacEwan. outrage over the forefathers failed in Supreme Court’s ap- their desire to ordain and establish a government to secure proval of wiretaps bridged party lines. At the Republican the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity.” Convention, Nicholas Murray Butler was jeered for his When Olmstead made its way before the U.S. Supreme defense of the Olmstead decision. ere was something in- Court in , a brief led by Seattle’s Pacic Telephone and nately un-American about wiretapping, even wiretapping Telegraph Company’s supported the right of illegal smug- bad guys. glers to not have their conversations monitored by the police, Because of broad public disapproval of wiretaps, the FBI writing: “when the lines of ‘two parties’ are connected with adopted a fake public posture regarding electronic surveil- the central o ce, they are intended to be devoted to their ex- lance. e FBI’s operations manual maintained that clusive use, and in that sense to be turned over to the exclu- wiretapping was not allowed and that it was “improper, sive possession of the parties. A third person who taps the illegal. . .and unethical.” While the FBI conducted secret lines violates the property rights of both persons then using wiretaps, Hoover lied to Congress, claiming agents caught the telephone, and of the telephone company as well.” It is wiretapping would be red. Hoover consistently exploited di cult to imagine a contemporary ISP or telecommunica- high publicity crimes and public fears to push for greater tion corporation advocating for the privacy rights of their wiretapping powers. A er the Lindberg baby kidnap- customers. Instead, Facebook, MSN, Google and other cor- ping, Hoover expanded the FBI’s reach to include a new class porations identied by Snowden feign ignorance. of crimes, and Hoover argued for increased surveillance ough the Supreme Court found against Olmstead in powers. a five-to-four decision, Justice Brandeis’ dissent warned: e Communications Act federally criminalized the “Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a law- tapping of telephones, and in Nardone v. the US, the breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to Supreme Court upheld Congress’s ability to federally outlaw become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that the use of wiretaps. Yet the FBI and other law enforcement in the administration of the criminal law the end justies the agencies continued illegal wiretap operations, gathering in- means—to declare that the Government may commit crimes formation not presented in court. But Nardone stopped short
11 of repairing the damage inflicted by the Olmstead decision, searches extended to telephone conversations. The follow- and wiretaps gained new life as the Second World War years ing year Congress added a provision in Title III of the 1968 strengthened America’s intelligence agencies while weaken- Omnibus Crime Bill circumventing the Katz decision by ing civil liberties. identifying specific crimes (kidnapping, organized crime, etc.) meriting wiretaps. In intervening years the list of crimes Feeding Hot & Cold War Fears permitting wiretaps grew with bipartisan support. American attitudes towards wiretapping significantly The years following Hoover’s 1972 death brought succes- shifted during the 1940s, as the war and changes in the class sive scandalous revelations about the FBI and CIA’s illegal in- distribution of telephones helped shift judicial acceptance trusions into Americans’ private lives. The Church and Pike of wiretaps. In 1940 Hoover attempted to secure new wire- Committee investigations revealed extensive surveillance tapping powers from Congress but was defeated by FCC campaigns directed at Americans engaging in lawful politi- Chairman James Fly. But President Roosevelt issued a secret cal activities. The American public was outraged at the extent executive order authorizing widespread Justice Department of the CIA and FBI’s illegal activities, but an initial wave of wiretaps of “subversives” and suspected spies. Hoover used shock gave way to complacency, and Congress abandoned these vague new powers to investigate not just Nazis but meaningful oversight of domestic and foreign intelligence anyone he thought subversive. Hoover’s assistant, William agencies. With time, many Americans learned to forget these Sullivan, later recalled that during the war, the FBI routinely documented instances of CIA and FBI prurient surveillance, conducted warrantless wiretaps, “with the country’s future at harassment, assassination and defamation programs—by stake, getting approval from Washington seemed like an un- 2001, few Americans recalled the FBI and CIA’s abuses that necessary legal technicality. Years later, the FBI was still lis- led to the restrictions on domestic intelligence activities that tening in on other people’s conversations without the autho- were removed by the Patriot Act. rization of the attorney general.” The social history of wire- In 1978, former CIA telecommunications engineer, David taps is a history of mission creep, where FBI agents initially Watters, testified before the Senate Intelligence Subcommittee hunting for wartime Nazi spies soon monitored progressive about NSA monitoring and taping thousands of domestic activists fighting racial segregation. and international phone conversations. These revelations During the 1940s, the telephone became an increasingly brought public disapproval and empty promises of congres- ubiquitous feature of American households—not merely sional oversight. With ECHELON and Carnivore the NSA the communication instrument of the Elites with whom the and FBI’s capacities for telecommunications surveillance ca- Judicial Class consorted and protected. As the phone became pacities grew unchecked. a communication conduit not primarily for the rich, but also One trophy in the intelligence community’s campaigns for the poor, the judiciary began to reconsider past wiretap for America’s acceptance of circum-constitutional proce- opposition. dures was the 1978 establishment of the Foreign Intelligence The FBI used the fears of the McCarthy period to expand Surveillance Act (FISA), establishing a secret judicial system its use of illegal wiretaps: targeting not only suspected com- charged with authorizing wiretaps and other means of elec- munists, but a wide range of progressives struggling for tronic surveillance relating to issues of “National Security.” civil rights, union leaders, social workers, and progressive The FISA Courts conduct their work in total secrecy. A 2002 religious groups. But even during the McCarthy Period, court ruling removed requirements of establishing probable the courts did not sanction illegal FBI wiretapping. When cause before allowing FISA authorized electronic surveil- the FBI disclosed it had illegally wiretapped conversations lance, and between 1978 and 2004 the FISA’s kangaroo court between accused Soviet agent Judith Coplon and her lawyer, rejected 5 of 18,761 warrant requests, and last year authorized the appeals court overturned her conviction. Local police every received request. departments expanded wiretapping operations in the 1950s. Though the internet was in its infancy, used primarily by New York police routinely wiretapped public phone booths military personnel and on university campuses, until the during the early 1950s, and launched an estimated 3,500 wire- passage of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act taps in 1953-54. Police departments continued to conduct it was legal to intercept email messages traveling through unauthorized wiretaps during the 1960s, and even though phone lines. The Act required that all electronic communica- Benanti v. US clarified that wiretaps were criminal violations tions have the same legal protections as phone communica- of Section 605 of the Communications Act, federal and local tions—though conversations made on cordless phones were law enforcement authorities routinely tapped phones with not protected. impunity. But they did so with the disapproval of the public Many Americans opposed the 1994 Digital Telephony Act, and courts. which required all fiber-optic based switches be equipped to In 1967’s Katz v. US, the Supreme Court again ruled that facilitate court approved wiretaps. The ACLU and Electronic the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable Privacy Information Center organized widespread opposition
12 to the bill, and across the country letters to editors and edito- ing the same expectations of privacy one had when using the rials criticized the bill’s obtrusive features. There was a stark telephone or mail in the workplace. contrast between the communication industry’s embrace of Had the judiciary in the early 1990s considered the nature this bill and the industry’s stance in the 1927 Olmstead appeal of email communications as being little more than an elec- in which the opposed all efforts by law enforcement to tap tronic envelope, America might be a very different country phone lines. today. Such connections between expectations of postal and With little public notice the Reagan, Bush and Clinton ad- telephonic privacy were made in Brandeis’ Olmstead dissent, ministrations each increased the use of federal wiretaps, and anchoring his reasoning for protecting the privacy of tel- the conservative federal judiciary appointed during the 1980s ephonic communications, arguing “there is, in essence, no brought little judicial opposition to wiretaps. Throughout difference between the sealed letter and the private telephone the 1980s and 1990s there was a steady increase in wiretaps message.” But the post 9/11-world finds little hope that such undertaken by federal authorities, but given the secrecy sur- reasoning will soon protect our emails. rounding FISA approved wiretaps, these numbers only tell a The Patriot Act removed post-Church Committee layers small part of the story. According to investigative journalist of judicial oversight for federal wiretaps and pen/trap orders and longtime NSA chronicler, James Bamford, offshore sur- (recording numbers dialed); it revoked restrictions prohib- veillance networks such as ECHELON skirted pre-Patriot iting U.S. intelligence agencies from spying on American Act limitations on domestic surveillance by using third-party citizens; enacted roving wiretaps that follow the subjects of countries to monitor US citizens’ phones and email. investigation; and allowed for heavy online monitoring of During the 1980s, corporations increasingly collected data email and web-traffic. With the creation of the Department on Americans in ways that post-Watergate governmental of Homeland Security, the State gained a centralized agency agencies were prohibited to do. After initial resistance, in a to coordinate domestic intelligence operations ways only brief period of time, American public attitudes shifted from dreamed of by J. Edgar Hoover. The Patriot Act extended the resistance to acceptance. News reports in the late 1980s that powers and reach of the FBI and CIA not in a new direction, the Lotus 123 Corporation would be compiling and publish- but along the same continuum long-sought by Hoover and ing a set of CD-ROM platters containing basic information others without past legal hindrances or public opposition. on the names and addresses of most Americans show public Bush overreached with Poindexter’s failed Total Information outrage over the prospect of such centralized record keeping, Awareness program, as public outcry rose opposing a federal but decades later the internet makes such intrusions invisible, agency empowered to mine metadata, but where Bush failed, voluntary, and inevitable, in ways documenting our national Snowden’s disclosures inform us, Obama prevails. numbing and processes socializing us to accept our loss of But one of the most important shifts is that after a century privacy expectations. of stiff opposition the American public is learning to sur- Revelations during the late 1990s disclosed that the NSA render their rights to electronic privacy. Fewer and fewer monitored “international” telephone traffic, using comput- Americans remember the long historical resistance to em- ers to scan for keywords. New encryption technologies for powering our secret political police with such unchecked personal computers and other communication technologies abilities and resources. led Congress and Clinton to limit communication encryp- tion schemes that would interfere with governmental elec- Memory as Defense tronic eavesdropping. Truly private telephonic or electronic With little public debate, the Patriot Act rapidly removed communications threatened intelligence agencies’ abilities judicial controls limiting America’s domestic surveillance and to eavesdrop, and limits were placed on the distribution of persecutions. The restoration of old, and the granting of new, RSA encryption, PGP freeware, the Clipper Chip and other surveillance powers brings new levels of oppressive surveil- programs were required to include implanted backdoors and lance for all Americans, but we know that historically such escrowed keys for law enforcement personnel. powers are used to monitor those challenging American do- In the early and mid-1990s the American public’s protec- mestic or foreign policies. Perpetuated fears of terror encour- tions from electronic surveillance were further eroded by a age Americans to forget a past they barely knew, and vague series of court cases involving questions of whether work- assurances that the rights of the “innocent” will be protected place email had the same privacy protections as a letter or brush aside memories of well documented historical viola- a phone call. Many of the judges establishing this case law tions of privacy and civil liberties as if these were not struc- were internet-illiterate and needed even the most basic fea- tured outcomes. tures of email explained to them because they had never used As cultural beings we are all susceptible to the numbing email. Judges made important decisions ub realms of social and routinizing impacts of recurrent events. Time normal- life of which they had no first-hand knowledge and they did izes what were once obvious atrocities. Sustaining shock is not seem to understand arguments that they were abolish- always difficult, outrage’s half-life is short and the toll of cog-
13 nitive dissonance weighs heavy. With time the outrageous America is now so lost in surveillance that our only choice is and o ensive can be seen as the “unfortunately necessary,” between memory-loss and embracing paranoia. CP the potency of shock is short-lived as once current events D P a professor of anthropology at Saint Martin’s become historicized. University in Lacey, Washington. He is the author of e key to understanding the opinion shi s supporting Weaponizing Anthropology: Social Science in Service of the the rise of domestic metadata mining programs and wire- Militarized State published by CounterPunch Books. taps is that these developments are less something new than they are part of a long parade of legitimization validating the American intelligence agencies’ campaign to erode consti- Japanese Historical Revisionism tutional protections against rampant wiretaps. e Patriot Act dismantled the rewall separating domestic criminal in- Twiight of the Post vestigations from espionage investigations and empowered Homeland Security, FBI and NSA to oversee roving wiretap Word War II Order and surveillance operations without public oversight. B P L The Snowden leaks confirm what many scholars of For the last few weeks, the world has been distracted by American intelligence agencies have long suspected: the Bush cyberdrama—the culmination, at the Sunnylands Xi Jinping- and Obama administrations have given the NSA unprece- Obama summit, of the laborious -month US campaign dented surveillance authority to monitor domestic electronic to make alleged Chinese cybermalfeasance a driving narra- communications. e public’s acceptance of post-/ panop- tive in US-China relations…which was pre-empted by cy- tical-surveillance necessitates learning to forget past abuses. berfarce—the unexpected conrmation through a series of While fear nurtures forgetfulness, fear alone is not enough: leaks to the Guardian and the Washington Post that the NSA fear needs to be managed. Government- and media-framed and the FBI have penetrated the cell phones, e-mails, per- analysis help keep much of the nation from remembering a sonal records, and Facebook pages of American citizens in a past scarred with constitutional abuses. Television enforced massive e ort that the Chinese can only dream of emulating. amnesia coaxes the nation to coalesce with the needs of As the world tilts at cybercastles, the post-World War the intelligence-industrial complex, and each new round of II order is crumbling. e world order represented by the Terror Alert Twister shi s fears from Blue to Red to Yellow as structure of the UN Security Council—the victors of World we are socialized to surrender rights with greater ease. David War II, the United States, England, France, Russia (succeed- Altheide describes these processes of managed fear as ones ing the Soviet Union), and the People’s Republic of China where we become “accustomed to giving up civil liberties (succeeding the Republic of China) is increasingly anachro- to surveillance and enforcement e orts by formal agents of nistic and headed for obsolescence. social control.” In Asia, Japan is eager, even desperate to shed the onus of Sociologist Sigmund Diamond spent decades chronicling defeat and instead claim a leading role orchestrating a new the intrusions of intelligence agencies into American aca- security and economic alliance of Asian democracies facing demic life and the resulting threats to academic freedom. For up to the People’s Republic of China. Diamond the collective memory loss of past governmental e frictions engendered by “rising China” assertiveness abuses was an important weapon of the present. Diamond versus the similarly destabilizing “re-rising Japan” assertive- argued that, “since historical memory is one of the weapons ness have been simplistically described as “nationalism”. e against abuse and power, there is no question why those who truth, however, is more complex. have power create a ‘desert of organized forgetting.’ But why Call it “national historical revisionism” versus “national should those who have been the victims sometimes act as if historical status-quo-ism”, with di erent nations lining up, they, too, had forgotten?” America’s historical memory is the sometimes unexpectedly, on di erent sides of the equation. crucial battleground in the struggle to regain lost privacy and e “status quo” narrative supported by the United States civil liberties, and those who would engage in this struggle and many Asian countries, characterizes Japanese wartime must combat the “desert of organized forgetting” in ways activity as aggression, Japan’s neighbors as victims deserving that reawaken America’s battered public memories. But in reparations, and Japan itself condemned by its past crimes to a nation where education reform relegates the teaching of a sort of geopolitical purgatory that precludes overseas mili- history as less important than teaching to standardized tests, tary operations. these historical gaps loom large, and the recapturing of lost This attitude is enshrined in the “Peace” constitution, historical territory remains a daunting task. imposed by Douglas MacArthur and the Occupation, which In the novel, Underworld, Don DeLillo wondered whether, restricts Japanese military forces to operations within Japan’s “the state had taken on the paranoia of the individual or was borders. Therefore, the large and sophisticated Japanese it the other way around;” in our world we know the source. military establishment is o cially known as the “Japan Self-
14 Yasukuni Shrine. Photo: Japan Times Defense Force”. In the context of its competition with China, Japan has Beyond restrictions on foreign adventures, the constitution promised aid to the Philippines the form of maritime patrol also neuters Japanese foreign policy. Japan cannot leverage boats to assist it in its territorial disputes with the PRC, pro- its economic clout with overt security alliances, mutual as- moted security consultations with ASEAN in general and sistance treaties, military assistance agreements, foreign port Vietnam in particular, and, for the rst time, proposed the calls, overseas bases, arms sales, etc. overseas sale of military equipment, the US- amphibious To date the United States has virtually monopolized the aircra , to cement its alliance with India, albeit under the ag military/security role in East Asia. It is a role that America, of dual use. with its regional economic clout shrinking, is not interested e LDP has been carefully testing the public opinion in relinquishing. waters (currently less than welcoming) for a push to amend Now the “status quo” is being upset. the constitution to overtly remove its military restraints. Following landslide victories in national elections, is is a decision with sizable consequences for the balance Japan is ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, under of power in Asia. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose historical revisionism However, the idea that Japan, as a peaceful Asian democ- portends a new military and security posture in Asia and racy, should have its return to full nationhood mediated in perhaps even revision of the “Peace” constitution. consultations with its previously victimized neighbors either Even within the scope of the current constitution, espe- in the name of equity or in the interests of regional stabil- cially when generously interpreted by the current administra- ity is completely at odds with the nationalistic spirit that is tion, Japan has ample room to expand its military footprint. driving revision in the rst place. Prime Minister Abe has e Abe cabinet has decided that Japanese ground forces taken pains to assert that Japan’s revision of the Peace consti- could be dispatched overseas “to assist in the evacuation of tution is not the business of any other countries Japanese nationals” from danger zones. Defense Minister e new government has become less circumspect in visit- Itsunori Onodera asserted Japan’s legal right to engage in pre- ing the Yasukuni Shrine, an independent religious establish- emptive strike to forestall an imminent attack, while stating ment (though leadership of the lay society which supports that Japan had not developed that capability “as yet”. Abe’s it is generally regarded as a sinecure for LDP hawks) com- government also touted the concept of “collective self-de- memorating the over . million Japanese who died “in the fense”, which states that the Japanese self-defense forces could service of the Empire”. come to the defense of an ally, i.e. ght a war outside Japan’s Because Yasukuni honors convicted war criminals, borders as long as it was “defending an ally”, for instance, by including “Class A” war criminals who “died as a result shooting down a North Korean missile in international air- of war crime tribunals which have been ratied by the San space headed for the United States. Francisco Peace Treaty” i.e. Japanese political or military
15 leaders who were either executed or died during incarcera- Korean families bear the responsibility (and shame) for deliv- tion at the hands of the Occupation after the war, it is consid- ering their women to prostitution. ered to be a symbol of Japan’s unrepentant nationalism. As Japan Times reported on June 8, 2013: In an interesting/awkward conundrum for the LDP’s os- “A Lower House lawmaker of Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan tentatious emperor worship (one proposed constitutional Restoration Party) has questioned whether Koreans were revision will restore the Emperor to his prewar position such ‘cowards’ as to allow girls and women in their neighbor- of actual as opposed to symbolic head of state), Emperor hoods to be forcibly recruited as sex slaves in Japan’s wartime Hirohito ceased his visits to the shrine in disgust after the military brothels. Class A criminals were enshrined, and no emperor has Nariaki Nakayama, well known for his ultraconservative visited since. views, made the remark at an assembly of Nippon Ishin law- Japanese prime ministers have eschewed personal visits to makers Friday to emphasize his belief that “comfort women,” the shrine in recent years to forestall the outcry from China as they are known in Japan, were not “forced” to work in the and South Korea, and this year Mr. Abe cautiously confined brothels.” himself to sending an offering instead of appearing in person. However, Japanese historical revisionism is not the uni- Lower level LDP politicians, however, are another matter. versal political liability that a Westerner, Chinese, or Korean Recently, LDP’s policy director, Sanae Takeichi, organized a might imagine or hope it would be. mass visit of over 100 LDP lawmakers to the Yasukuni Shrine. Taiwan still has fond memories of the relatively benign Her remarks as recorded by Japanese media, provide Japanese occupation from 1895 to 1945. The first elected pres- a good idea of revisionist nationalist sentiments and the ident of the ROC, Lee Tenghui, an indigenous Taiwanese, is awkward circumlocutions needed to express them: an ardent Nipponophile who served in the Imperial Japanese “Takaichi acknowledged that there was “no doubt that Army in World War II and graduated from Kyoto Imperial (Japan) hurt the ethnic pride of people in colonised countries University. His brother died in the service of the Japanese and caused them tremendous sufferings,” but also questioned navy and is enshrined at Yasukuni (Lee visited Yasukuni whether a 1995 landmark apology issued by then Prime in 2007, after he left office). Lee, still an important force in Minister Tomiichi Murayama was right in referring to a “mis- Taiwan’s pro-independence political movement, is close to taken national policy.” The policy chief said that she doesn’t Japanese ultranationalist Shintaro Ishihara and frequently believe it would have been best at the time for Japan to not assures Taiwanese audiences that Japan will support Taiwan stand up against western powers in order to prevent becom- if it declares independence. ing yet another colony. The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo For many key South Asian nations the ascendancy of the Abe officially stated last week that it would not be revising Japanese revisionists returns to center stage a welcome nar- any of Japan’s formal apologies for World War II atrocities, rative—not of benevolent Japanese colonization as in Taiwan, but Takaichi mentioned without elaborating that Abe may but of Japanese-led decolonization during World War II, hold different personal views from past government that ac- which drove the British, French, and Dutch out of Asia and cepted judgements of the post-war Tokyo Trials.” helped create the modern Asian states that emerged from the In the United States and Great Britain, inculcated with the shadow of the European imperialism. narrative of Japanese World War II criminality symbolized Perhaps the most remarkable endorsement of decoloni- by Pearl Harbor, the Bataan Death March, and the horrors zation came from Thailand, which, though subjected to an of Japanese prison camps—and aware of the intense outrage influx of Japanese troops on December 8, 1941, promptly con- it elicits in China and South Korea—Japanese historical re- cluded an alliance, bore few if any postwar grudges, and has visionism looks like little more than perverse, self-defeating always uneasily straddled the “first victim/first ally” divide quixotism. for Japan as Austria does for Germany. When Japanese nationalists attempt to deny the horrors Japanese nationalists gleefully pass around a 1955 state- inflicted on Korea by Japan’s fifty-year colonization of the ment by Kukrit Pramoj, a cosmopolitan nobleman who acted Korean peninsula--a brutal effort to extinguish Korean inde- opposite Marlon Brando in The Ugly American and later pendence, culture, and even language in order to incorporate became Prime Minister of Thailand. the territory into the Japanese polity—their efforts are well- On the occasion of a visit by the onetime commander of nigh indefensible. Japanese occupation forces in Thailand, Akito Nakamura One of the ugliest exercises is the effort to remove the onus (Nakamura was, admittedly, by most accounts an impecca- from Japan on the compelled recruitment of 200,000 Korean ble gentleman who implemented an occupation of Thailand women into Japanese military brothels in World War II—and which was, by Japanese standards, exemplary and humane), slow-walk compensation talks as the elderly victims die off. Pramoj wrote: Ultra-nationalist lawmakers have variously declared that “Thanks to Japan, all Asian nations have gained inde- the recruitment didn’t occur, or was voluntary, and/or that pendence…Whom should we thank today that peoples of
16 Southeast Asia can speak to the United States and England as to meet with Pal’s son and receive two pictures of Pal with equals? It is due to our mother, Japan, who sacrificed herself Abe’s grandfather, ex-Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, who for the benefit of all.” was detained after the war as a suspected Class A criminal In Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi’s father was trained and fi- but never indicted or tried. nanced by the Japanese government and his troops fought BritPal was enshrined at Yasukuni, which gives the lie as irregulars in cooperation with the Japanese army to expel to the claim that it is simply a war dead memorial and not the British. Aung San subsequently served in the Japanese a revisionist shrine. The photo illustrating Pal’s entry in backed Burma government and was presented with the Wikipedia is his Yasukuni stele. Order of the Rising Sun by Emperor Hirohito in Tokyo. He Indian PM Manmohan Singh, is a devout Nipponophile subsequently switched sides to fight the Japanese in the last (and an emerging pillar of Japan’s anti-PRC coalition), eu- months of the war in pursuit of his final goal of Burmese in- logized Pal as a prophet of Indo-Nipponese solidarity in his dependence, but was excoriated as a “traitor rebel leader” by 2006 address to the Japanese Diet: Churchill. “The principled judgment of Justice Radhabinod Pal after Japan has sustained a special relationship with indepen- the War is remembered even today in Japan. Ladies and dent Burma—at least with the politically dominant Burmese Gentlemen, these events reflect the depth of our friend- majority, whose hardships during the Japanese occupa- ship and the fact that we have stood by each other at critical tion were moderated by the local collaborationist regime. moments in our history.” Approximately 180,000 Japanese soldiers died in the last year India itself is another country in which nationalist revi- of the war in a disastrous campaign against the British, and sionists seek to replace a pacifist narrative of the post World Japanese veterans groups have journeyed to Burma continu- War II nationhood with a more martial, Japan-centric decol- ously to honor their dead comrades. onization legend. Even during the worst years of the junta, Japan suspended Pal was an admirer of the Indian National Army-- development aid but never implemented sanctions against composed of deserters from the Indian Army in British the regime. In 2013, taking advantage of the US opening to Malaysia-- which fought with the Japanese against the British Burma, Prime Minister Abe’s government extended a $500 in Burma under the leadership of Subhas Chandra Bose in an million loan to Burma, and cancelled over $4 billion in debt. effort to liberate India from British rule. In India, the case of Radhabinod Pal illustrates the reso- When the British attempted to try the leaders of the INA nance of the Japanese decolonization narrative and histori- for treason after the war, the combination of outrage in the cal revisionism, both across the continent and across the Indian military and popular revulsion against the British ex- decades. ercise of justice was a crucial factor in Great Britain granting Radhabinod Pal was an Indian jurist on the Japan war Indian independence. crimes tribunal in 1946. Pal was enamored of the anti-colo- Indian nationalists circulate a letter from another jurist, nial rhetoric that accompanied the Japanese “advance” into the acting governor of West Bengal, one Chief Justice P.B. SE Asia. He believed the United States had provoked Japan Chakrabarty, who reported that Clement Atlee told him the into war (the Japanese response was therefore not “aggres- key factor in the British departure was the erosion of loyalty sive”), was concerned about Allied wartime atrocities, and of the Indian armed forces “as a result of the military activi- declined to endorse the “triumph of civilization” narrative of ties of Bose” and dismissed Gandhi’s influence on the British Japan’s defeat or the creation of “Class A” war criminal cat- decision as “minimal”. egory that the Occupation used to prosecute the Japanese The emerging revisionist strain concerning World War military and civilian leadership. While acknowledging the II and decolonization is also reflected in India and Japan’s commission of atrocities in the field, Pal voted for acquittal of joint campaign to reform the permanent membership of the the “Class A” defendants and prepared a 1235-page dissenting UN Security Council, seeking to supersede the World War opinion—suppressed by the Occupation until 1952-- stating II victors’ roundtable with a new, postwar structure reflect- that the trial was a “victor’s justice” travesty. ing the current economic and military clout of the world’s After his dissent was published, Pal, unsurprisingly, nations. became a hero to Japanese nationalists, and validation of the This combination of Japanese historical revisionism, a shift idea that historical revisionism was not simply a Japanese of emphasis from Japanese aggression to Asian decoloniza- effort in self-serving denialism. tion, and the downplaying of the US role as the ringmaster In 1966, the Emperor of Japan conferred upon Pal—who of Good in the Good vs. Evil World War II showdown is not stated his lifelong admiration of Japan as the one Asian particularly welcome to the United States, which is complete- country that stood up to the West-- the First Class of the ly invested in the Greatest Generation narrative. Order of the Sacred Treasure. Given the indispensability of Japan to the US pivot strat- Prime Minister Abe made a pilgrimage to Kolkata in 2007 egy, the Obama administration has been remarkably cool to
17 Shinzo Abe. ued presence of US military bases imposed on the island, also US ambivalence probably has to do with the fact that while without the say-so of the local residents. Japan cleaves to the pivot, Abe exploits it to bolster Japan’s The Abe government proclaimed April 28 as “National pursuit of an increasingly independent and unilateral foreign Sovereignty Day” to celebrate the achievement of full policy. Japanese sovereignty over its territory in 1952—full sover- Examining Abe’s peripatetic diplomacy during the first eignty, that is, except over Okinawa, which was abandoned three months of his administration (trips to Vietnam, to the United States for another 20 years. Many Okinawans Thailand, Indonesia, Mongolia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, regarded the commemoration as a “day of shame” and the UAE, Turkey, and Myanmar in addition to the US) it is clear prefectural governor of Okinawa boycotted the ceremony. at the very least he is not putting all his eggs into Uncle Sam’s When Chinese scholars posed their rather legalistic chal- basket. lenge to Japanese sovereignty over the Ryukyu Islands, It also appears that Mr. Abe is attempting to position the PRC was making the point that, if Japan wanted to jet- Japan—and to a certain extent supplant the US-- as the de- tison the baggage of the World War II aggression narrative, cisive element in the pivot’s security architecture, and within it should also be aware that an unwelcome consequence both of the competing trade regimes that China and the might be that its neighbors and even its Okinawan citizens United States are promoting for the Pacific. might choose to question the other, more favorable elements The United States failed to take up Abe on his notion of of Japan’s postwar deal—like the casual return of an entire missile shield collective self-defense and has pointedly dis- island chain to Japan by the United States in a two-govern- couraged Japanese adventurism on the Senkaku Islands. ment deal despite the apparent stipulations to the contrary of The PRC has attempted to exploit the actual and incipient the Potsdam Declaration and in disregard of the desires of its divisions between Japan and the United States by appear- people-- as well. ing in the somewhat unexpected role of defender of the post The Japanese government’s reaction to these theories is World War II order imposed on Asia by the West and the brusque dismissal—and a willingness to take the diplomatic Soviet Union and, by extension, the subordination of Japan and economic heat for the sake of advancing its revisionist and continued US pre-eminence in the region. narrative. Chinese premier Li Keqiang visited Potsdam, Germany on South Korea and the PRC are not backing down, either. his first overseas trip to extol the 1945 Potsdam Declaration, On June 4, South Korea’s new ambassador to Japan (and a which called for the unconditional surrender of Japan and close confidant of ROK President Park Geun-hye) delivered the return of territories seized from China, as in “the terms of the message that no summit would be scheduled between the the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and Japanese sov- president of the ROK and prime minister of Japan until Japan ereignty shall be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, has “a correct recognition of history and look[s] squarely at Kyushu, Shikoku and such minor islands as we determine.” h i s t or y.” Chinese scholars also returned to the issue of the post Chinese premier Li Keqiang struck a similar note at World War II dispensation to put the issue of the Ryukyu Potsdam stating that “Any attempts to deny or glorify the Islands—including Okinawa, a distinctly non-minor island-- wartime aggression during those years are nothing but a in play. challenge to international justice” and, per the press release of Japan acquired the Ryukyus—actually, China surrendered the PRC’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs: its claims to the Ryukyus, a crucial distinction if one feels “[H]istory is an objective existence and a mirror and cited the Ryukyu Islanders, subjects of an independent but tribute the ancient Chinese “By looking into a mirror, one can make paying kingdom, should have a say in the matter—in the late sure that he is dressed properly”. Only by facing history 19th century. Relations between the central Japanese govern- squarely, can one have a future.” ment and Okinawa—the largest Ryukyu Island and site of the Eager as Japan is to bury its past, China, South Korea, and kingdom’s capital—have frequently been fraught. the United States are equally interested to keep it alive, in At the end of World War II, Okinawa was the site of an order to support their own national narratives and to keep apocalyptic battle against US forces that claimed 300,000 gain a measure of leverage over an increasingly assertive and lives, including 100,000 Okinawan civilians. A not-incon- independent power in Asia. siderable section of Okinawan public opinion regards the In July, all eyes—at least in Asia and Washington—will be campaign as a bloody sacrifice of expendable Okinawan on the elections for the upper house of Japan’s parliament or subjects to deter an invasion of the Japanese “home islands”. Diet. If, as expected, the election is an LDP landslide, the After Japan’s defeat, the United States exercised occupation LDP will possess sufficient majorities in both houses to revise authority over the Ryukyu Islands until 1972, when it handed the “Peace” constitution. CP them back to Japanese authority without consulting the Peter Lee edits China Matters . Okinawans. Local resentment is compounded by the contin-
18 thing we LOVED before, and Clint doesn’t? Now we HATE My Hollywood Adventure it. OK?” I laughed; he didn’t. I sat there, waiting for more. He With the CIA looked up after a moment, as if amazed to still see me there. “Thanks for coming in,” he said by way of dismissing me.) by John Eskow Among the offers that came, in the wake of Clint’s impri- As CounterPunch writer Ed Rampell pointed out recently, matur, was a call from a director I had always admired: Bob the stunning covert operation of the 2013 Academy Awards Rafelson, the visionary behind Jack Nicholson’s wonderful — the moment when Michelle Obama surprised everyone by Five Easy Pieces, among other movies that had defined the appearing live from the Oval Office, surrounded by military ‘60s rebel ethos. Rafelson was calling to pitch me an idea personnel, to announce that Argo had won for Best Picture — called Air America — an edgy, dark-humored adventure was simply the culmination of a long and tender love-affair about the CIA’s proprietary airline, which in the late ‘60s was between Hollywood and the CIA. It’s a story of spies lusting by far the largest airline in the world, flying weapons, person- for Hollywood glamour, and stars lusting for Washington nel, opium and heroin throughout Southeast Asia. I thanked gravitas, and the crazy hi-jinks that ensue when those lusting Rafelson for the call, expressed my love for his movies, but stars and lusting politicians collide in the gleaming corridors said no, firmly — I had absolutely no interest in the project. of power. Ten days later, having devoured Alfred McCoy’s seminal I’m here to tell the exact opposite story. book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, I was on a Because I, too, wrote a movie based on a CIA operation. plane to Bangkok — flying east, from New York — to meet But my reward was not a First Lady’s gushing praise, or “the Rafelson and the film’s producer, Dan Melnick, who were thanks of a grateful nation” — appropriately enough, my flying west from L.A. Thus began, in Thailand and Malaysia, rewards were to include a stream of personal insults from an education in blood: a crash (and burn) course in the Peter Kann — the editor of The Wall Street Journal — and horrors of a secret CIA war. three anonymous, crude, but very credible death threats. To Now it’s not as if, in eviscerating the CIA, we were bravely be honest, I would’ve been disappointed with anything less. going where none had ever dared to go. If anything, the CIA In 1988 I was a screenwriter dwelling, like many others, had become an all-too-easy target ever since the Watergate in a fairly-well-furnished limbo; my scripts were getting era, serving as a one-size-fits-all Source of Evil in films as scooped up by studios — Hollywood was the Klondike then, diverse as Three Days of the Condor and Lethal Weapon and the gold-rush was truly feverish — but none were ac- (which actually includes Air America as part of the bad-guy’s tually getting, you know, produced. Then, one afternoon at resume.) As a dramatist, I wanted to go beyond the predict- the William Morris Agency, a bored Clint Eastwood went able scenes in which a guy who looks like Robert Duvall in a flipping through a bunch of scripts on his agent’s desk. He badly-fitting blue suit orders the death of a hundred innocent stopped when he came to one I’d sold to Warner Brothers brownskinned people in order to cover up some Nefarious on spec a year earlier, called Pink Cadillac, a well-regarded Government Secret — even if that particular movie cliché, script which had almost gotten made with the then-young more than most, was deeply grounded in fact. Michelle Pfeiffer and Kevin Costner, and with Ellen Barkin And so it was that I found myself waiting for hours in a and Richard Gere, and…Well, within a few days — such was seedy bar in northern Thailand listening to a Thai string Eastwood’s power at that point — the movie was green-lit by quartet play a very slow — and ever-so-slightly-out-of-tune the studio, with Eastwood to star and direct. (In the end — — chamber-music arrangement of Hank Williams’ “I’m So unfortunately for my movie — he directed the Charley Parker Lonesome I Could Cry”. It was a torture of such exquisite ba- bio, Bird, instead, and had his stunt co-ordinator direct him nality as to turn Oliver North into a raving Al-Qaeda sup- in Pink Cadillac.) porter (not that much of a leap, on second thought.) The bar Suddenly, my childhood hero — Clint Eastwood, The Man was in a sleepy village called Udon Thani. During the Viet With No Name — had midwifed my showbiz career into full, Nam war, this village was often televised on the evening news screaming life…and great was the tumult and silliness that — because it was also the home of Udorn Air Force Base, followed. (My favorite meeting of this period came when nominally a Thai installation but really the launching-spot the head of Warner Brothers, the capo di tutti capi, sum- for massive American bombing raids over Viet Nam and moned me to meet him for the first and only time. I’d been Cambodia — and, via my Air America buddies, over Laos as doing constant rewrites on the script, at Warners’ behest, for well, though that war-front was supposed to be “secret.” eighteen months; now, as I sat bewildered across a massive I was here — drinking the hideous Mekong whiskey and expanse of mahogany desk, the WB boss said: “John, I know enduring the Thai violinists as they sawed away grimly at the we’ve given you a lot of notes. Let me tell you exactly where music of a doomed American genius — to meet the man who it’s at. If there’s something in the screenplay that we HATED embodied all the worst horrors of that “secret” war: a legend- before, and Clint likes it? Now we LOVE it. If there’s some- ary guerrilla warrior who was the prototype for the Colonel
19 Kurtz character played by Marlon Brando in Coppola’s epic tion that, together, we kill the remaining nineteen cans of Apocalypse Now. The old warrior, now retired, was named beer in the case. Tony Poe; following the war, he’d married a Thai “princess,” From then on, I only remember fragments of conversa- settled down as a gentleman farmer, and, according to legend, tion. One of them served me well in writing the Air America “gone native.” He had only spoken to one other writer in the script, and the other one has served a deeper purpose over decade-and-a-half since the war’s end. Now — thanks to the the years, which I’ll try to explain in a moment. ancient ritual of Hollywood money greasing human palms — Fragment #1: We are shouting at each other, through a I’d made contact with him, via a right-wing alcoholic British beer-and-Scotch haze, about the ethics of the CIA’s strategy stringer for The Bangkok Post. in helping smuggle heroin to finance the covert war in Laos. I already loathed the drunk stringer, who seemed to have (Even though the movie was vilified in the American press wandered out of an unpublished novel by some Graham for daring to suggest that the CIA actually did this, no-one in Greene wannabe. We’d shared a turbulent flight north from Southeast Asia even bothered to dispute it. Indeed, in Asia — Bangkok, a bad flight further marred by his drunken speech- as around the world — if you argued that the US would never ifying and obvious stomach distress. It got worse as we waited smuggle drugs, you’d be laughed out of any adult gathering.) for three hours in the bar, poorly serenaded by the Thai Hank Though wildly drunk, I decide: here’s my chance to write a Williams violinists — if only they weren’t trying so hard! CIA character who’s not a cardboard bad-guy! So I drag my Jesus, they’re sweating onto their instruments! — three long rattan chair closer to Poe in the humid Asian night and say: hours after Poe was supposed to send a driver to pick us up… “Why couldn’t you guys just say to the American people: yes, Of course, it was no good just driving to Poe’s farm — no, we smuggle drugs. No one’s ever won a war in this part of the this was CIA stuff, so there had to be secret meets, furtive world unless they control the opium trade. It can’t be done. phone calls, etc etc etc ad nauseum. We’re fighting what we really believe is an evil Communist Finally a sullen driver came and drove us, past miles of system, so we have to commit a lesser evil in order to serve rice paddies shimmering in the dusk-light, out to Tony Poe’s a greater good. But we’re not gonna treat you like children, farm. America; we’re gonna talk to you like adults and tell you what Context: back then, the legends about Poe seemed too we’re actually doing…Huh, Tony? What about that?” horrifying to be true. But here’s what Wikipedia says about He takes a sip of beer and ponders it for a second. “Nah. him now (referring to him by his given name, Anthony They’d never go for it.” Poshepny): “In Laos, Poshepny gained the respect of the And then comes a two-hour memory-gap I will never Hmong forces with practices that were barbaric by agency recover, followed by: standards. He paid Hmong fighters to bring him the ears of Fragment #2: And this is the one that will underpin forever dead enemy soldiers, and, on at least one occasion, he mailed my sense of what it’s like to be a certain kind of fighter, a a bag of ears to the US embassy in Vientiane to prove his certain kind of man. body counts. He dropped severed heads onto enemy loca- Around 2 AM, we get to a point in the conversation where tions twice in a grisly form of psy-ops. Although his orders I suddenly realize that Tony Poe is looming above me in were only to train forces, he also went into battle with them his enormous, blinding-white t-shirt, and shouting down and was wounded several times by shrapnel.” (Adorable, isn’t into my face that it was his good friend and CIA trainee, his it: “barbaric by agency standards?”) beloved Felix Rodriguez who supervised the killing of Che As we bumped along the rutted Thai roads towards the Guevara. “MY BUDDY FELIX KILLED FUCKING CHE ranch, the British stringer kept drooling into my ear: “None GUEVARA, OK???” of your Communist horse-shit now, mate, d’you understand? I recall the rest in slow motion: I stand up, face-to-face He’s not having it! He fucking hates writers, and he fucking with Poe. At the edge of my vision I see the drunken British HATES lefties, so don’t go being your fucking Lefty Writer stringer flinch and throw up both hands, as if to shield Self if you value your physical well-being…and I ain’t lying, himself from an explosion. Eight beers and five whiskies either.” past any semblance of good sense, I shout back at Poe: “CHE It got tedious, and malodorous — but I didn’t ignore it. GUEVARA WAS A GREAT MAN!” At maybe 5’9”, Poe weighed about 290 pounds. He wore The Brit lets his hands drop; there will be no surviving this a XXX-Large, snowy-white Hanes t-shirt and a colorful red- explosion anyhow. There’s a moment’s deep silence. Then Poe and-yellow sari wrapped from belly to ankles. He was, in the looks at me and says, in a hushed voice: “Of COURSE he was! style of longtime exiles, beginning to lose his English. And, Che was a great warrior! He fought for his people! I hated by the time we arrived at his farm, he was well into that what Rodriguez did — they should never have shot him like night’s second case of Thai beer. that! Che Guevara deserved to die in battle!” And he wasn’t making any effort to be friendly…at least, Well, it was a long way from that night of swarming insects not until I accepted — with some reluctance — his sugges- in the northern Thai ricefields to the morning in Los Angeles
20 when we read the first reviews of Air America. Many critics grand allegations are exchanged between political factions hated it; a smaller coterie adored it. Peter Kann, the editor like bank notes in a marketplace. of the Wall Street Journal, wrote a half-page editorial raging In the fallout of a heated election held in early May, which against the CIA-drug premise, denoucing me personally at saw the incumbent Prime Minister Najib Razak and his great length, and throwing out not one but two Jane Fonda Barisan Nasional coalition continue its uninterrupted rule, smears; he concluded with “this movie would seem to be passions are high and those of the social-media generation produced, not by Tri-Star Studio in Hollywood, but Red Star are advertising their discontent in the streets, thirsty to chal- Studio in Hanoi!” Among those who defended the movie lenge the infallibility of the regime. Since his coalition failed were Noam Chomsky and a certain Alexander Cockburn. My to take power following the closest fought general election in favorite review of all came from the show-biz bible Variety — Malaysian history, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been not only because it was positive, but because it took note of leading protest rallies throughout the country alleging that the movie’s political thesis, and ended by asking a very smart the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition resorted to “massive question: “How did they get away with it?” fraud” to secure victory in the polls. Over the course of my That is not a question that will ever be asked about Argo or time in Malaysia, I have reviewed various assessments of Zero-Dark-Thirty or 24. Whatever the merits of these shows Mr. Ibrahim; I’ve had in depth discussions with his former — and that’s a conversation for another day — we only have political allies who defected from his opposition coalition, to look at Michelle Obama’s smiling face at the Academy and I’ve sat down with former PM Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Awards to know exactly how they got away with it. Forever the man who saw Anwar as a son, who groomed him to lead removed from the world of severed ears and murdered revo- the nation, only to condemn him to political free-fall for lutionaries, never daring to take the wrong side, ever ready rampant corruption and allegations that he sodomised a male to serve Power, they will never know the joy of “getting away aid. with it.” No matter if they were formerly from the government As for me, I’d rather be back in the darkness with Tony or the opposition, everyone told me the same things about Poe, where politics is worth screaming about, and warriors Anwar: that he is narcissistic chameleon, a genius of politi- share something approaching respect. CP cal opportunism, a master of public rallying and street-the- John Eskow is a writer and musician . He wrote or co-wrote atre, and that he has a ravenous obsession with becoming the movies Air America, The Mask of Zorro, and Pink Cadillac, the Prime Minister of Malaysia. Months before the election as well as the novel Smokestack Lightning . He can be reached Mahathir sat across from me, 87 and still sharp and healthy as at: johneskow@yahoo c. om ever, and told me how Anwar planned to bring down the gov- ernment through street action, taking after the Arab Spring uprisings. “The opposition is already receiving money from Malaysia Teeters on the NGOs that are financed by the US government,” Mahathir told me. “Apparently they would like to see regime change Edge of an Islamist Knife in Malaysia, and they have in mind someone who is known By Nile Bowie to be very pro-American and in defense of Israel.” To the Aside from the international media frenzy surrounding average Malaysian democracy activist who is ever critical of the sacking and trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for Mahathir’s shortcomings, this rhetoric is absolute rubbish, sodomy, and the occasional anti-imperialist tirades of former seen as diversionary tactic to distract people from the Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia has rarely Barisan Nasional’s own corrupt dealings and monopoly on made international headlines. That is partly because this re- power. Unfortunately for those activists, this author is readily source rich multi-ethnic state has been an island of stability convinced that the Doctor’s prescription is spot on. since its independence in 1957, preaching a moderate-brand Who is Anwar Ibrahim? of Islam with a steady focus on economic development. Malaysia is unique in contrast to other states in the region What I’ve observed from speaking to rally-goers and and throughout the Muslim world in that it has given un- social-medialites is that most Malaysians under 30 know precedented cultural and religious autonomy to non-Muslim very little about Anwar Ibrahim’s past dealings in govern- ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities who wield significant ment, his flirtation with Wahhabi Islam, and his unabashed influence over the economy. Although the country has prac- shoulder-rubbing with neoconservatives in the Bush admin- ticed participatory politics and democratic elections from its istration.Anwar was a man of humble beginnings, raised by inception, the ruling party, responsible for steering all devel- a middle-class family. From his early days in politics, he es- opmental efforts since independence, has never been unseat- tablished close alliances with both Wahhabi missionaries and ed. Covering local politics in the heart of Southeast Asia is a the Muslim Brotherhood; he called for Malaysia to be ruled fast-paced exercise, and in Malaysia, mistrust is rampant and by a 14th century interpretation of the Koran and sharia law.
21 Anwar was part and parcel of Saudi Arabia’s approach to re- Jonathan Smith vividly describes how US o cials “o en took ligious expansion, whereby missionaries are used to recruit with them the belief that if only Anwar were in charge in Islamists in moderate Sunni states, injecting an alien brand Malaysia, here at last could be a perfect Muslim democracy. of political Islam with the intention of undermining secular American liberals — amusingly, overwhelmingly Jews — Muslim regimes. Riyadh’s drive to Arabize states in Southeast accepted Anwar’s projection at face value. To them, he was Asia had a lot to do with o setting the in uence of revolu- their tabula rasa: A Muslim who cared about the environ- tionary Iran, which inspired much of the politically ambi- ment, about global peace and nuclear disarmament, about tious religious establishment in Malaysia and elsewhere. social justice — basically, about all of their core beliefs, Anwar was given his start in govern- yet never with any specic detail — ment by none other than Dr. Mahathir Anwar was the noble savage for these Mohamad. At the time, Mahathir’s men and women who likely believed biggest political competition was the Malaysia a tropical rainforest where Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), the natives went around naked most an Islamist political party that remains of the time.” As time went on, Anwar a strong component in the opposition embraced neoliberalism and more coalition even today. Mahathir brought brazenly endorsed the values of the Anwar onboard as the Minister of American establishment. Culture, Youth, and Sports to offset During the Asian nancial crisis on PAS’s in uence. Once in government, , Anwar implemented IMF aus- he began working closely with banks terity policies, including cutting gov- tied to the Muslim Brotherhood and ernment expenditures by per cent, the Wahhabis to build the necessary stripping funding from Mahathir’s nancial resources needed for his po- enormous infrastructure projects litical ascent. Anwar was promoted to that promised to bring Malaysia Education Minister where he worked to into the st century — a move that advance the spread of Wahhabi Islamic dismayed Mahathir and hastened doctrine in the schools as part of policy Anwar’s departure from govern- that attempted to re-order Malaysian ment, which happened dramatically society from the top down. In schools, Anwar Ibrahim. Photo: AFP. in . In the end, Mahathir rejected Muslim prayers were publicly recited, the IMF’s medicine and took credit sermons preached, and Islamic festivals celebrated as part of for spearheading Malaysia’s recovery through currency the curriculum, a far-reaching departure from the heretofore controls and protectionist measures. A er Anwar’s stint in multi-ethnic character in national schools. prison, he based himself in Washington, where he chaired Mahathir allowed this on his watch, apparently to shore up the Foundation for the Future, a US think-tank established his support base against PAS, who preached that Malaysia’s by Elizabeth Cheney, Dick’s daughter. While Ibrahim was leadership were decadent, untrue Muslims. During his time on trial for sodomy, Paul Wolfowitz and Al Gore authored in government, Anwar was known to have amassed a sig- a joint opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal in support of nificant fortune, in the multi-millions through elite cor- Ibrahim, while the Washington Post published an editorial ruption and kickbacks from cronies at Petronas, the state calling for consequences that would a ect Malaysia’s relations oil company. Anwar had dealings with Al Baraka Bank, the with Washington if Ibrahim were to be found guilty. Ibrahim world’s largest source of Islamic nance, which generously enraged many when he stated that he would support policy funded Saudi proxies and their causes from the madrassas in to protect the security of Israel in an interview with the Wall Pakistan to the glitzy capital cities of Southeast Asia. Anwar Street Journal; this is particularly controversial in Malaysia, formed an NGO in the United States, the International where support for Palestine is largely unanimous. Malaysian Institute for Islamic ought (IIIT), which labeled itself a political scientist Dr. Chandra Muza ar argues: “It is obvious harbinger of moderate Islam, and was utilized to in uence that by acknowledging the primacy of Israeli security, Anwar policymakers in the US government and academia the same was sending a clear message to the deep state and to Tel Aviv individuals who would cry foul and threaten Malaysia with and Washington that he is someone that they could trust. In diplomatic consequences over Anwar’s six-year detainment contrast, the [incumbent] Najib government, in spite of its at- a er being charged with corruption. tempts to get closer to Washington, remains critical of Israeli Anwar, ambitious and aspiring to unseat Mahathir, aggression and intransigence. Najib has described the Israeli paraded himself around Washington D.C. as the ideal stooge, government as a ‘serial killer’ and a ‘gangster’.” a force for good that stood for democracy and free markets. Anwar Ibrahim’s closest allies outside of Washington
22 and Riyadh are in Istanbul, where he enjoys close ties with Chinese voters by and large abandoned Barisan Nasional and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister voted in their favor. Despite being strange bedfellows, the Ahmet Davutoğlu, both devout protégés of the House of Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition won massive gains in the Saud. Malaysia with Anwar Ibrahim at the helm would bare recent elections, firmly entrenching a two-coalition system. strong parallels to the political direction taken by Erdogan’s It’s not all roses and sunshine though, these three parties have Justice and Development Party, which has steered secular fundamentally different ideologies, and critics have likened Turkey’s domestic policy in a noticeably Islamist direction, their coalition to a marriage of political opportunism. PAS while drifting steadily closer into the US-Saudi sphere of in- for example, ardently advocates the implementation of sharia fluence. law and hudud Islamic penal code, and from its inception has called for the foundation of an Islamic state. DAP stanchly Popular Grievances & Allegations of Fraud opposes the implementation of hudud law and the concept of Because Malaysia exists as a multi-cultural and multi- an Islamic state, while Anwar, always a man of many masks, religious state, both the ruling and opposition coalitions plays the middle ground, saying that hudud is not the official attempt to field candidates that represent the interests of policy of the coalition, but that he personally supports it. the nation’s largest ethnic groups. Approximately 60 percent Aside from instilling the perception that Malaysia’s elec- of Malaysians are Muslim ethnic-Malays, 25 percent are toral process is deeply unfair and rigged in favor of the ruling predominantly Buddhist ethnic-Chinese, and 7 percent party, the opposition campaigned on a platform of fighting are mostly Hindu ethnic-Indians. The main parties in the corruption and creating more equitable wealth distribution, Barisan Nasional governing coalition have traditionally been which resonated deeply with the electorate. Pakatan retained the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the their stronghold of Penang while making significant inroads Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), and the Malaysian in places like Sabah, Sarawak, and Johor, known to be “fixed Indian Congress (MCI), although support has dwindled in deposits” of the ruling party. Even with significant victories recent times for the latter two parties. Malaysia has become achieved by the opposition, Anwar Ibrahim has held stead- politically divided, and many — especially the online-sav- fast to his pre-election assertion that only “massive fraud” vy middle class — feel extremely disillusioned with cor- would prevent his coalition’s victory. This statement is in- ruption that pervades all levels of society, from taxi drivers herently problematic, because it presupposes that any elec- and hawkers to the elite figures in business and government. tion result that yields anything other than Anwar’s victory is: Citizen equality is a major concern, especially of minorities invalid, illegitimate, and fraud. The opposition notably meted who feel sidelined over constitutionally protected affirmative out a steady stream of allegations, which largely remain en- action policies that give ethnic Malays advantages in business tirely unsubstantiated. Anwar accused Prime Minister Najib and education. Opponents of these affirmative action poli- Razak’s office of flying in some 40,000 foreign nationals to cies routinely call them intentionally discriminatory, alleging illegally to vote on behalf of the ruling coalition in key battle- they reflect a “Malay dominance” paradigm that has not been ground states in Malaysia. shaken from the ruling polity since independence. Such an allegation is not only logistically unsound, but Proponents of the policy argue that it was historically justi- bloggers soon pointed out several mathematic discrepancies fied because some 60 percent of all Malays lived below the in the details Anwar provided, and that the feat of transport- poverty line at the time of independence, and the policy is ing such a large volume of individuals could not possibly still required, as the Malay majority are still lowest income be accomplished with the alleged flights that took place. At earners. It’s quite commonplace to find ethnic-Chinese the time of this article being written, he has produced no Malaysians railing against their self-perceived status as evidence to validate his accusation. Operators of the air- “second-class citizens,” but these frustrations don’t live up to lines Anwar claimed were involved dismissed his claims as scrutiny, as the conditions Malaysia’s Chinese community are baseless rumors. Third-party election monitors, such as the subjected to do not resemble that of a deprived community. IDEAS Institute, claimed that although structural biases The Chinese dominate the middle and upper income earning exist, such as in the uneven delineation of voting constituen- strata, they are not hindered from attending vernacular cies and the government’s control of mainstream media, the schools in their mother tongue, from practicing their respec- election process “proceeded smoothly” and that “the vast ma- tive faiths, and they are a vibrant force in politics. jority of the glitches were not major” lending credibility away The opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, currently con- from claims of that “massive fraud” took place. The Merdeka trols three state governments and is led by Anwar Ibrahim’s Centre, a widely quoted polling agency, also accused the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), the staunchly Islamist Pan- opposition of making a “host of unsubstantiated allegations Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), and the Chinese-led secular about the elections”. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Anwar, Democratic Action Party (DAP), the latter being by far the always a publicity-junkie, declared Pakatan’s victory over strongest force in the coalition, reflective in the fact that Twitter before any official results were announced, creating
23 mass confusion. If compelling evidence exists that proves foundations, when they claim to be working toward “broad- Barisan Nasional stole the elections, the opposition hasn’t ening the appeal of political parties,” a critical question made it available for public scrutiny. comes to mind — when does so-called ‘democracy-pro- motion’ become political interference? The work of the ‘Democracy does not work’ NED has ostensibly blurred the line between the two, while Haris Ibrahim from the pro-opposition group ABU re- masking their overt backing for actors they support in the cently vowed to overthrow the ruling coalition by force, benign language of electoral transparency, freedom and stating, “We will take to the streets and take over. If we the promotion of human rights. The US has displayed an really want to overthrow them, there is no other way. undeniable resurgence of interest in Southeast Asia as part Democracy does not work.” Members of the opposition of its Asia Pivot policy, ostensibly as a response to growing coalition hold conflicting views regarding attempts to Chinese economic influence in the region. PM Najib Razak overthrow the government by force; some have condoned has attached primary importance to Malaysia’s relationship it while others have condemned it. Bersih, an electoral with Beijing, Malaysia›s largest trade partner. Washington’s watchdog, has promised to mobilize protestors to descend backing for Malaysia’s US-friendly opposition must be seen on Malaysia’s administrative capital, Putrajaya. The National in the context of its moves to bolster its military muscle Endowment for Democracy or NED, is a Washington- and dominance over the Asia-Pacific region in line with based foundation that supports democratic initiatives and its pivot. Malaysia is a key player in Southeast Asia, and US-friendly opposition groups abroad; it provides over $1 Washington is doing what it can to tip the scale in favor of the million to various projects in Malaysia each year, and most opposition after its success in the 2008 elections and the 2013 of the players now calling for overthrowing the regime are elections. Despite the current administration’s considerable the recipients. According to the NED’s website, it conducts efforts to deepen ties to the US, Anwar’s history makes him training, research, and leadership cultivation exercises with more of an asset to US policy than the incumbent. the governments of Penang and Selangor, key opposition- The ruling coalition is far from perfect, it is has failed held states. Members of Barisan Nasional have denounced to stifle issues of high-level corruption and elite opulence Ibrahim’s connections to the NED in the Malaysian remains a huge problem. However, Malaysia was trans- Parliament, and the lack of transparency surrounding the formed from an exporter of rubber and tin into a key indus- funding. trial player with strong domestic industries under its watch; The electoral watchdog group Bersih has organized rallies it has overseen stable economic growth, while promising 3.3 calling for electoral reform, which many criticized as being as million new jobs in the high-income sector and attracting thinly veiled anti-government protests due to the participa- multi-million dollar investments. The ruling government will tion of key opposition figures. Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim, a likely be able to ride through the coming barrage of protes- key player in the opposition prior to defecting from the DAP, tors out with the express purpose of toppling the govern- claimed that Americans from US-based foundations were ment, but analysts say if trends continue, the opposition will calling the shots and outlining the functions and operations likely overcome and take power in the 2018 by the ballot box. of Bersih. “In the meeting, I was offered to head the watch- PM Najib is now in a delicate position, and he must make dog because they said I have the credentials, integrity and greater efforts to address the trust deficit that exists between credibility for the post. They told me that the movement was the people and the Malaysian leadership, and focus on imple- to ensure free and fair elections in the country,” he said, dis- menting reforms to the EC that are recommended by observ- closing that he was offered some $4,000 monthly plus other er groups to ensure greater transparency. The most pressing perks and allowances for his position. Aziz also accused and arduous task ahead of him will be reestablishing trust Malaysia’s opposition leader of using Bersih to channel with an angry, highly polarized and wary electorate. Malaysia support to his political campaign, “Anwar makes good use of has never experienced a change in government, but if Anwar his international networking to get these funds. I don’t know Ibrahim ever finds himself at the helm, the nation will walk whether Bersih leaders knew it or not, but Bersih is Anwar’s on unchartered political territory that will bring far-reaching vehicle to receive international funds under the guise of changes, not only in economic and diplomatic directions of democracy and free and fair elections. Bersih is not a non- the country, but also in the state’s relationship with the mod- partisan independent organisation. It’s Anwar’s baby.” Aziz erate brand of Islam it was founded upon. CP resisted overseas funding because he claims it compromises national integrity and dignity. “Local organisations should Nile Bowie is a Malaysia-based political analyst and a justify their existence to Malaysians, not to foreigners. Local columnist with Russia Today . He also contributes to PressTV, organisations should not owe their existence and allegiance Global Research, and CounterPunch . He can be reached at nile- to foreigners,” he stressed. bowie@gmail c. om . Upon closer examination of the language used by these
24 On “Accidental Racist,” Brad Paisley says “When I put on that shirt the only culture & reviews thing I meant to say is I’m a Skynyrd fan.” Even though personal, it’s hard to accept his benign assessment of the was a mistake that some other folks Confederate flag on a t-shirt as ac- “Accidental made a long time ago. curate. “Accidental Racist” venerates Racist”: Days of LL Cool J chimes in with a plea to Confederate commander Robert E. Lee be understood even though he wears and skewers Union general William Future Passed sagging pants and gold chains. He says Tecumseh Sherman, whose march to By Lee Ballinger he’s always equated guys in cowboy hats the sea across Georgia helped to end with men in white hoods. After con- the Civil War and the slavery which
demning slavery (this time by name), caused it. LL Cool J was seventeen years old he apologizes for Sherman’s March and The Confederate flag is not a symbol when I met him in 1985 at a screening gives a shout-out to Robert E. Lee. LL of misunderstandings about cowboy of the rap film Krush Groove. He was declares that “If you don’t judge my hats and gold chains. The Stars and straight out of middle class Queens, gold chains, I’ll forget the iron chains.” Bars is the battle flag of a class of sla- home to many who were taking In his review of Paisley’s Wheelhouse veowners who went to war in an hip-hop from ground zero in the South in PopMatters, Dave Heaton responds attempt to expand slavery throughout Bronx to the rest of the world. LL was that “Accidental Racist” is “saying we the Western hemisphere. In Marbury, near the cutting edge with diamond should forget about slavery—after all, Alabama, Confederate flags fly each day hard anthems like “I Can’t Live Without it wasn’t our fault, it was just our an- at Confederate Memorial Park, which My Radio” and “Rock the Bells” with its cestors—and ignore the ways that the has an annual budget of $542,000, paid war cry of “LL Cool J is hard as hell!” legacy of slavery is still around us, for entirely by taxpayers, both black Today he’s soft, just another family- every day, manifesting itself in flawed and white. The more than one hundred friendly TV star who occasionally puts structures and situations within our thousand Southern whites and the out hip-hop albums that are, without society.” hundreds of thousands of slaves who exception, so bland as to be almost un- On that song, Brad Paisley sings that fought for the Union are not honored listenable. he’s a “proud rebel son.” But he grew there or anywhere else. Yet there he is on country star Brad up in West Virginia, which became Paisley’s new album, Wheelhouse, “The slavery of the new Cotton a Union state when it seceded from standing in for all black Americans on Kingdom in the nineteenth the Confederacy because it opposed the song “Accidental Racist.” The track century must either die or slavery. Paisley now lives in Los is turgid and clumsy, surprising coming conquer a nation—it could Angeles (not too far from LL Cool from an artist as talented as Paisley. But not hesitate or pause.”—W.E.B. J) where he’s married to Hollywood what it says is more surprising, given DuBois actress Kimberly Williams, a native of that Paisley’s 2009 album American Rye, New York. Paisley isn’t speaking Brad Paisley positions himself as a Saturday Night turned country music as himself on “Accidental Racist.” He’s symbol of a monolithic white South. stereotypes on their heads with its casting himself in a role, playing a char- There is no such thing. A closer look at embrace of technology, immigration, acter who claims to speak for the white history shows there have always been and the civil rights movement. South. two white Souths. Before the civil war, “Accidental Racist” is a sung/rapped Well, does he? There’s no simple slaveowners forcefully ended poor dialogue between Paisley and LL Cool answer to that question. whites’ traditional practice of using J in which the country singer says he In 2001 in Mississippi, there was a land in common for raising food and doesn’t mean anything offensive by vote on whether the 1894 state flag, livestock. During the Civil War, there wearing a t-shirt with a Confederate with the Confederate battle flag repro- were massive desertions of whites from flag on it: “I’m just a white man…. duced in its upper left corner, should the Confederate army while the sol- caught between southern pride and be retained or whether the state should diers’ wives led bread riots across the southern blame.” He’s full of good in- adopt a new flag without the Stars and South. After the Civil War, there were tentions (“I try to put myself in your Bars. There was a large turnout and the six million white sharecroppers as com- shoes and that’s a good place to begin”) 1894 flag won by a nearly two to one pared to five million black sharecrop- but insists he’s “a proud rebel son.” margin. The vote split almost entirely pers. Today, Southern-based oil barons There’s the standard apologia about along racial lines. control much of the world while in how slavery (not mentioned by name)
25 Mississippi there is a foreclosure every at homeless shelters, and at rallies of The integrated prom did take place. minutes and the majority of these bankrupt farmers. Mayor Terry Graham said: “Black and soon-to-be-homeless are white. The Between and , the number white kids ride to the Dairy Queen to- Confederate ag represents only one of new marriages between blacks and gether, they go to ball games and most half of these unequal equations—the whites in the South grew rapidly until people don’t think anything of it.” Southern one per cent. it almost doubled the national average. In Charleston, Mississippi, the rst One reason for confusion about this Virginia—a state which once prose- integrated prom ever took place in is that for so long the South seemed to cuted an interracial married couple all . In direct competition with a sep- be a society dened arate white prom, it entirely by race. won hands down. Blacks and whites In , the same were kept separate- thing happened -at rst by law, then at Wilcox County by custom and coer- High School in cion. But that reality southern Georgia, is changing. where the county In , the state school system is so of Virginia pros- poor that students ecuted an interracial attend classes just couple for getting four days a week. married. Eight years Mixed dating is later, Duane Allman common there and and Gregg Allman of three times as many the Allman Brothers kids went to the rst Band spent two integrated prom as days in an Alabama to the white one. jail for the “crime” This push for of attempting to social integration have breakfast with didn’t take place in a black man (their Southern hipster drummer). A gen- enclaves like Austin, eration after that, I Oxford, or Athens. found myself speak- It happened in des- ing to the Aliceville, perately poor small Alabama High towns, the kind of School football team. places that are o en e school had been casually dismissed recently integrated Brad Paisley wearing Alabama shirt featuring Confederate flag. Photo: AP as “redneck.” because some white the way to the Supreme Court—led the In , I was at parents could no longer a ord to send pack. One reason for the rapid increase a planning meeting for a march that their children to segregated private in interracial marriages is what’s hap- would go from the Mississippi Delta to academies. When I nished, some of pening in the high schools. Detroit for the U.S. Social Forum. the white players came up to me and In in Wedowee, Alabama, The meeting was held in Glendora, thanked me for recognizing that not all principal Hulond Humphries tried to Mississippi, a small impoverished town Southern whites are racist. prevent interracial dating at the prom not far from legendary Highway . On Super Tuesday in , for Randolph High School, which was On the same day we were taken to see Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson white. Humphries told junior class the spot in the river where the body of got a shockingly big chunk of the white president ReVonda Bowen, who had a lynching victim Emmett Till was found vote: per cent in Georgia, per cent white father and a black mother, that in , we watched two prisoners from in Mississippi, per cent in Louisiana, her parents had “made a mistake” in the nearby private prison pick up the and per cent in South Carolina. conceiving her. is led to demonstra- garbage in Glendora. ey wore striped Jackson did so well because he was tions and the establishment of freedom uniforms. ey were white and their a constant presence on picket lines, schools in African-American churches. supervisor was black. When you turn
26 off Highway 61 on the way to Glendora, cent). During the same period of time, South, revealed that something new you soon run into a magnificent new under age ten populations declined was struggling to be born. mansion right by the road, just a stone’s in Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Consider the case of Senate throw from the Hopson plantation. Its California. District 4, which occupies the owners are black. In nearby Clarksdale, The multi-racial, multi-lingual South far northeastern corner of the some black families now have the will have a major impact on the 21st state” write Jere Nash and Andy money to send their kids to private century. “Accidental Racist,” despite its Taggart in Mississippi Politics: academies. flaws, is one reflection of that. It’s one The Struggle for Power 1976- Poverty (and wealth) continue to of many rap/country collaborations 2006. “Less than 10 per cent of spread across racial lines, yet despite (Taylor Swift/T-Pain, Tim McGraw/ its voters are African American recent changes, the South is hardly Nelly, Snoop Dogg/Willie Nelson) and, since 1992 Travis Little has post-racial. For instance, black median that reflect the blurring of racial lines. served as its senator. If there is a income in Mississippi is only 51% of Nashville insiders tell me that not only family that is synonymous with white median income. A white friend is the motive behind these records the local politics of a county, of mine who lives in the South and is mostly to create new marketing tools, it is the Little family in Alcorn married to a black woman tells me that but that they are being promoted only County. In 2003, Little switched not only are they harassed but that in to country audiences. But that’s just parties and ran for reelection as a his small town young men driving typical music industry cynicism and ig- Republican. His lone Democratic pickup trucks and waving Confederate norance. If combining rap and country opponent was Eric Powell, a flags often chase blacks at night. As reaches a larger audience, that indicates native of Alcorn County who Dave Heaton wrote, “The legacy of that the country audience is becom- worked at the local paper mill slavery is still around us.” ing more open-minded. Can country in Tishomingo County. What It wasn’t long ago that “Southern” music serve to counter the media image makes this story noteworthy is was assumed simply to mean “white.” of the black thug? Can hip-hop be a that Powell is black. The new Today, according to The New Mind vehicle for overcoming redneck stereo- flag received 2,161 votes in this of the South author Tracy Thompson, types? We may be about to find out. district compared to 12,865 for black people who live in the South But the potential implications of the 1894 flag. In the 2003 general are more likely than their white the rap/country fusion go far beyond election, however, Powell came neighbors to identify themselves as the “forgive and forget” mantra of close to winning, receiving 7,819 Southerners. Meanwhile, there are mil- “Accidental Racist.” There are indica- votes to Little’s 8,449 votes. The lions of Mexican immigrants living tions that a significant section of the contrast was even more telling all across the South. Houston, Dallas, South is straining to find a way to move in Powell’s home county of Nashville, Charlotte, Atlanta, Raleigh, forward politically. Tishomingo, where the 1894 flag and Orlando have some of the nation’s For example, a study by the Institute won 2,262 to 163 in those areas fastest-growing foreign populations. for Southern Studies revealed the allocated to his senate district. There is more internal migration in the South to be the most anti-war region Powell defeated Little in those United States to the South than to any of the country. Blacks and whites in same precincts 1,664 to 1,271. other region. Tennessee sat in at the Democratic gov- The pace of change below the ernor’s office for over three months to A black worker nearly defeats a scion Mason-Dixon line is likely to increase. try to prevent the end of their health of the Mississippi ruling class in a dis- White Southerners under 30 voted for care coverage. In 2004, Alabama voters trict that’s over 90 per cent white. Not Obama in 2012 at roughly the same opted to keep the section of their state only that, five years later Eric Powell rate (40 per cent) as white Americans constitution which said that there is no was elected State Senator from District generally (43%). The fact that Obama right to public education. But in 2012, 4. One of his first acts in office was to is no improvement on his predeces- that relic of segregation was voted out successfully sponsor a bill which raised sor doesn’t diminish the fact that by 61% of voters. They were influenced unemployment benefits. an important social barrier is being by the fact that during the previous five All in all, it sounds like a different breached. There is a growing genera- years funding for public education in song of the South is being written. We tion gap in the South and all the former Alabama had been cut by more than $1 should be ready to hear it. CP Confederate states except Mississippi billion. Lee Ballinger co-edits Rock & Rap and Louisiana gained between 5 and 10 Even the Mississippi elections of Confidential . Free email subscriptions st per cent in under age ten population the early 21 century, which seemed to are available by writing rockrap@aol . in the last decade (Texas was at 17 per verify the strength of the old segregated com . Presort ISSN 1086-2323 (print) Standard ISSN 2328-4331 (digital) U.S. Postage PAID www.counterpunch.org Eureka, CA 1 (800) 840-3683 Permit No. 76 $5.00 per issue P.O. Box 228 Petrolia, CA 95558
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