Tanks on main sTreeT | John W. Whitehead chris hedges | What happened to canada? sinking The peTrodollar | pepe escobar

FEbrUArY 2012

Cold ype Writing Worth reading T ISSUE 63

Jack Laurenson on the London Olympics, the activists, Dow Chemicals, and Bhopal’s 27 years of suffering OLYMPIC SHAME

plus: where The haiTi earThquake money did, and did noT, go cover: young Tanks on main sTreeT | John W. Whitehead a day in The life of a | philip kraske sinking The peTrodollar | pepe escobar bhopali girl FEb r U A rY 2012 responds well to

CoWriting Worthld reading T ype ISSUE 63 treatment at the

Jack Laurenson on the London Olympics, the activists, Dow Chemicals, and Bhopal’s 27 years of suffering bhopal Medical Olympıc appeal funded Shame chingari clinic in india. photo: Jack Laurenson

PLUS: WHERE THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE MONEY DID, AND DID NOT, GO ColdType FEbrUArY 2012 / ISSUE 63 ediTor’s noTe 3. tanks on Main street John W. Whitehead SEVErAL readers have asked 6. the repression strengthened us Chellis Glendinning when we were going to start 8. let theM eat rolexes Bill Berkowitz publishing fiction in ColdType. Never, has been our response, 11. big lies in the Middle east William Blum until this month when we 14. on the road to self-destruction David Michael Green changed our mind after read- 20. the World War on deMocracy ing the excellent short story, Meal (Pages 42 to 45), by 24. cover story: london’s olyMpic shaMe Jack Laurenson PuzzleMonkey, a South Afri- 30. guess Who Won the War Sherwood Ross can writer living in the Middle 33. hoW haMMas stole ’s War Uri Avnery East. This is a prime example of contemporary African fic- 36. haiti: Where the Money did, and did not, go tion, telling a wonderful story Bill Quigley & Amber Ramanauskas of day-to-day existence in a 40. haiti: raped since 2004 and still bleeding Glenn Ford world of poverty and interna- PuzzleMonkey tional corruption. 42. Meal We’re also pleased to 45. hurWitt’s eye Mark Hurwitt run novelist Philip Kraske’s 46. WelcoMe to the World’s first bunker state Jonathan Cook satirical essay, another day 48. the sacrificial castle George Monbiot in socialist europe (Pages 61-62), which takes a differ- 50. coffins for nato, contracts for Barry Lando ent look at the same theme, 52. sinking the petrodollar Pepe Escobar taking a swipe at the knee- 59. Who’s killing iran’s scientists? Alan Maas jerks in North America who believe that looking after every 61. another day in socialist europe Philip Kraske member of society is a bad, 63. killing iraqis Makes us safer, and other lies bad thing. David Swanson read both and let us know if we should be carrying more 67. the industry that couldn’t learn literary content in future. Richard C. Bell & Rory O’Connor tony sutton, editor 71. Whatever happened to canada? Chris hedges [email protected] 73. Making a farce of austerity Michael Meacher

2 ColdType | February 2012 LAW & ordEr? Tanks on Main Street John W. Whitehead looks at the disturbing trend towards militarising local police forces in the

“If we’re training cops as soldiers, giving them only seen on the battlefield. “Many police, equipment like soldiers, dressing them up as including beat cops, now routinely carry as- “17,000 local soldiers, when are they going to pick up the sault rifles. Combined with body armor and police forces are mentality of soldiers? If you look at the police other apparel, many officers look more and equipped with department, their creed is to protect and to more like combat troops serving in Iraq and such military serve. A soldier’s mission is to engage his Afghanistan.” equipment as enemy in close combat and kill him. Do we To our detriment, local police – clad in blackhawk want police officers to have that mentality? jackboots, helmets and shields and wielding helicopters, Of course not.” – Arthur Rizer, former civilian batons, pepper-spray, stun guns, and assault machine guns police officer and member of the military rifles – have increasingly come to resemble and grenade occupying forces in our communities. “To- launchers” ake a close look at your local po- day,” notes Paul Craig Roberts, former Assis- lice officers, the ones who patrol tant Secretary of the Treasury and associate your neighborhoods and ensure the editor of the Wall Street Journal, “17,000 local Tsafety of your roadways. Chances are police forces are equipped with such mili- they look less and less like the benevolent tary equipment as Blackhawk helicopters, keepers of the peace who patrolled Andy machine guns, grenade launchers, batter- Griffith’s Mayberry and more like inflexible ing rams, explosives, chemical sprays, body extensions of the military. As journalist Ben- armor, night vision, rappelling gear and ar- jamin Carlson points out, “In today’s May- mored vehicles. Some have tanks.” berry, Andy Griffith and Barney Fife could be using grenade launchers and a tank to private sercurity force? keep the peace.” This is largely owing to the increasing arsenal of weapons available to Yet, appearances to the contrary, the Ameri- police units, the changing image of the po- can police force is not supposed to be a lice within communities, and the growing branch of the military, nor is it a private se- idea that the police can and should use any curity force for the reigning political faction. means necessary to maintain order. It is an aggregation of the countless local ci- Moreover, as an investigative report by vilian units that exist for a sole purpose: to Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz reveals, in serve and protect the citizens of each and communities large and small across Ameri- every American community. ca, local law enforcement are arming them- It is particularly telling that whereas in selves to the teeth with weapons previously the past, law enforcement strove to provide

February 2012 | ColdType 3 LAW & ordEr?

a sense of security, trust, and comfort, the transformation of police operations… across in augusta, Maine, impression conveyed today is one of power, the country. More than ever before, police with fewer than dominance and inflexible authority. How- rely on quasi-military tactics and equip- 20,000 people and ever, this transformation of local police into ment.” For example: where an officer military units did not happen overnight. It If terrorists ever target Fargo, N.D., the lo- hasn’t died from cannot be traced back to a single individu- cal police will be ready. In recent years, they gunfire in the line al or event. Rather, the evolution has been have bought bomb-detection robots, digital of duty in more so subtle that most American citizens were communications equipment and Kevlar hel- than 125 years, hardly even aware of it taking place. Yet lit- mets, like those used by soldiers in foreign police bought tle by little, police authority expanded, one wars. For local siege situations requiring eight $1,500 weapon after another was added to the po- real firepower, police there can use a new tactical vests lice arsenal, and one exception after another $256,643 armored truck, complete with a ro- was made to the standards that have histori- tating turret. cally restrained police authority. What began with the militarization of not keeping track the police in the 1980s during the govern- ment’s war on drugs has snowballed into a Moreover, no one can say exactly what has full-fledged integration of military weaponry, been purchased in total across the country technology and tactics into police protocol. or how it’s being used, because the federal For example, in 1981, Congress passed the government doesn’t keep close track. State Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement and local governments don’t maintain uni- Act, which granted the military the power form records. But a review of records from 41 to help local police forces wage the “war on states obtained through open-government drugs” by sharing equipment, training, and requests, and interviews with more than two- intelligence. In 1997, Congress approved the dozen current and former police officials and 1033 Program, which allowed the Secretary terrorism experts, shows police departments of Defense to transfer surplus military sup- around the US have transformed into small plies and weapons to local law enforcement army-like forces. agencies without charge – the only thing that For example: In Montgomery County, local police departments have to pay for is Texas, the sheriff’s department owns a shipping and future maintenance. And po- $300,000 pilotless surveillance drone. In lice departments aren’t just getting boots Garland County, Ark., known for its pleasant and medkits – they’re receiving assault rifles, hot springs, a local law enforcement agency mini-tanks, grenade launchers, and remote acquired four handheld bulletproof protec- controlled robots. tive shields costing $600 each. In East Ba- Since 1997, more than 17,000 agencies ton Rouge, La., it was $400 ballistic helmets. have taken advantage of the 1033 Program, In Augusta, Maine, with fewer than 20,000 acquiring $2.6 billion dollars worth of weap- people and where an officer hasn’t died from ons and equipment, and demand is only gunfire in the line of duty in more than 125 getting higher. In fact, a record-setting $500 years, police bought eight $1,500 tactical million worth of equipment was distributed vests. And for police in Des Moines, Iowa, it in 2011, twice the amount given away in 2010, was two $180,000 bomb robots. and orders for fiscal year 2012 are already up The purchases get even more extrava- 400 percent. gant the deeper you go. For instance, police As Becker and Schulz report, more than in Cobb County, Ga., have an amphibious $34 billion in federal government grants tank and Richland County, S.C., police have made available to local police agencies in the a machine-gun-equipped armored person- wake of 9/11 “ha[ve] fueled a rapid, broad nel carrier called “The Peacemaker” the likes

4 ColdType | February 2012 LAW & ordEr? of which had previously only been seen in discussing outfitting these spy drones with war zones. The 50-person police department “nonlethal” weapons. Most recently, police police in tupelo, in Oxford, Ala., has acquired $2-3 million in North Dakota arrested a family of farmers Miss., spent about worth of equipment in recent years, includ- using information acquired by a spy drone. $274,000 over five ing M-16s and remote-controlled robots. One With violent crime nationwide at a 40- years servicing popular piece of equipment, the BearCat, a year low, most of this equipment is not only a helicopter that “16,000-pound bulletproof truck equipped largely unnecessary but is completely incon- flew an average of with battering rams, gun ports, tear-gas dis- gruous with the security needs of smaller ten missions per pensers and radiation detectors” which costs communities. Yet whether or not the use of year $237,000, has been sold to over 500 local such sophisticated and overblown milita- agencies. Police in Hanceville, Ala., (popula- rized equipment is justified, many local po- tion 3,000) have acquired $250,000 worth of lice units still feel compelled to put it to use. equipment. While these so-called “free” sur- Hence, the widespread misuse of military plus military weapons may seem like a wind- equipment by law enforcement is a grow- fall for cash-strapped communities, the main- ing and well-documented problem that has tenance costs for such extraneous equipment resulted in the deaths of innocent people, can quickly skyrocket. For example, police in nonviolent offenders and police officers. A Tupelo, Miss., spent about $274,000 over five perfect example of this is the tendency on years servicing a helicopter that flew an aver- the part of many communities to employ age of ten missions per year. heavily armed SWAT teams to carry out rou- tine police procedures such as routine search bring on the drones warrants. Consequently, SWAT team raids, which once numbered a few thousand per In addition to the military equipment ac- year in the 1980s, have grown to over 50,000 quired by police departments via the 1033 per year in the 2000s. Program, police agencies are also beginning As Paul Craig Roberts makes clear in his to use drones – pilotless, remote-controlled article, “The Empire Turns Its Guns on the aircraft that have been used extensively in Citizenry,” the government – local law en- Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan – domesti- forcement now being extensions of the feder- cally. al government – has trained its sights on the The Federal Aviation Administration has American people. We have become the en- already issued 266 testing permits to local emy. And if it is true, as the military asserts, police agencies seeking to employ drone that the key to defeating an enemy is having technology. AeroVironment Inc., a manu- the technological advantage, then “we the facturer of drones, intends to sell 18,000 people” are at a severe disadvantage. cT 5-pound drones controlled via tablet com- puter to police departments throughout the John W. Whitehead is a constitutional country. They are also touting the “Switch- attorney and founder and president of The blade,” a small, one-use drone, that has the Rutherford Institute. His new book “The ability to track a person from the air and Freedom Wars” (TRI Press) is available online then fly down to their level and explode. at www.amazon.com. He can be contacted at Moreover, some police officials are already [email protected]

read the best of toM engelhardt http://coldtype.net/tom.html

February 2012 | ColdType 5 PEoPLE PoWEr The repression strengthened us Chellis Glendinning writes from Bolivia

hen you go to the bank in Bo- cole Hollander’s “Sylvia” cartoons – “made they chased down livia, you’re met by the Ma- (himself unpopular.” To tell the truth, he fleeing indígenas, chine Gun: cadres of soldiers already had accomplished that feat, but the sometimes five Win olive green and combat Moxeño-Chimare-Yurakerés march to the officers in full boots. Make one wrong move – wear sun- capital hammered the final nail in. riot gear against glasses, talk too loud, the cell phone in your On 15 August, some 700 indígenas set a single boy in pocket chimes and ... well, let’s just say, it’s out to protest a Brazil-funded intra-conti- cotton shorts not what you want to do. And yet, oddly, nental superhighway the Bolivian state was paying the light bill alongside assault rifles erecting through their Constitutionally-pro- has become “normal.” tected, sovereign eco-reserve, the Territorio Such a transit of mind is a testimony to Indígena and Parque Nacional Isibro Sécure the human ability to adapt, yes? – and I am (TIPNIS) – where the last of the planet’s reminded of a tale that dear friend anthro- gatherer-hunter cultures thrive, while flora pologist Francis Huxley tells. and fauna in danger of extinction make It was the 1950s, and he was called to their fragile way. The purpose of the high- transport a native of the Brazilian Xingu way: to carry petroleum from Brazil across tribe to Sao Paulo for emergency medical Bolivia to Chile’s ports to be shipped to your treatment. After success with that, they cars in the US strolled through the streets of the city – The ragtag band walked day and night for the native man, the first time ever in in flip-flops, and the hearts of Bolivians such a scene. Upon passing a bank heav- went out to them in the form of a nation- ily guarded by men in military uniform, wide drive to send shoes, clothes, food, and bearing epaulets, badges, and heavy black medicines. boots and carting machine guns – the man First the government blocked the road turned and asked what this strange display from passage, including the arrival of food was all about. Grappling for words, Francis and water. Then, on Sunday 25 Septem- reported that this was where the jefe kept ber, the police attacked the encampment. his riches. The native man immediately Bursting in with tear gas, they chased down quipped, “Well! He must not be a very good fleeing indígenas, sometimes five officers jefe! (chief)” in full riot gear against a single boy in cot- And so it is here, just over the border ton shorts; with their night sticks they beat from Brazil and sixty years later. them on their backs and chests and heads; Jefe Evo Morales has – to quote one of Ni- they bound their arms, legs, and mouths

6 ColdType | February 2012 PEoPLE PoWEr with silver duct tape making it almost im- pality in Bolivia and beyond! Red flags were possible to breathe; they dragged some 300 blowing in the wind. Green flags. Yellow along the dirigente-leaders, women, children, and an- flags. Wiphala flags. Workers. Taxi drivers. boulevards the cianos to waiting trucks and hauled them Housekeepers. University students. Moth- welcomers flanked away to unknown locations. It was claimed ers with babies. Union leaders. Theater the marchers like that one child died in the violence. groups. Supporting indigenous groups a thick envelope By Monday morning a pall of shock had boasting traditional dress, flutes, and drums of protection from settled over Bolivia; everyone was glued to Former government officials who had left potential police a television somewhere – and then the pop- the MAS party. The press. International action ular response burst forth. All over, includ- support teams. Trumpets blared. Flutes ing at the Bolivian embassy in New York sang. Mariachi bands blasted accordion mu- where Morales was presenting at the United sic. Placards proclaimed: “TIPNIS=VIDA, Nations, people took to the streets. And the EVO=MUERTE,” “EL TIPNIS: NO SE TOCA, venting allowed for long pent-up emotions CARAJO!” and “¡TIPNIS SOMOS TODOS!” to flow into the public vocabulary. People rushed to meet the marchers, “Ya no tiene máscara indígena”/”Morales hugged them, kissed them on the lips. Men can no longer wear his mask of so-called and women were sobbing in the streets! indigenous support,” proclaimed Native Whole schools had been liberated to play social analyst Fernando Untoja. Long-time a role in history, and uniformed children activist Rafael Quispe trotted out the as-yet were waving flags, holding up their draw- unspoken word: “dictadura”/”dictatorship.” ings of tropical flowers, and cheering. Along And ex-government official Alex Con- the boulevards the welcomers flanked the treras termed the actions “métodos del marchers like a thick envelope of protection fascismo”/”methods of fascism.” from potential police action; in some parts Astoundingly, one marcher was quot- the shield extended five times thicker than ed in a 20 October newspaper report, “La the march itself. represión nos fortaleció”/”The repression It was the largest gathering of humanity strengthened us.” in the history of Bolivia. On 19 October what had started, two After all his grandstanding about how months before, as a march of 700 had now the state would never, ever, give in – not! swelled to 3000. After two months of trek- the president ventured into the plaza with king/camping, trekking/camping; after the his phony smile – this after months of bad- Chellis Glendinning sweltering heat of the tropics and the driv- mouthing the marchers as dupes of the im- is the author of five ing sleet of the mountains; after wearing in- perialist state to the north, denying them books, including adequate shoes, too thin jackets, foot sores, a meeting, sending para-protestors out to “When Technology injuries, dehydration, diarrhea, and exhaus- harm them, cutting off food and water, and Wounds”, “Off the tion; after enduring disregard, insults, and finally unleashing the military. Map: An Expedition arguments for disqualification spouting Against the very real possibility of his Deep into Empire” from the mouths of government officials: government going under, he gave in. No and “The Global after the official withholding of water and highway through TIPNIS. As we say in base- Economy and food; and then having endured violent re- ball, though, “It’s not over ‘till it’s over.” Chiva: A Village pression – the TIPNIS marchers rounded Now the government is finding ways to Takes on the the last crag before the descent into the backpedal. Global Heroin capital city. But this was a major triumphant event Trade”. She lives in What lay below, they say, was unexpect- that went unreported in the USA – and I Bolivia and may be ed. wanted you, for this moment, to bask in the contacted via www. The streets of La Paz were teeming with heroism that our human spirit is capable of chellisglendinning. supporters from every hamlet and munici- mustering. cT org.

February 2012 | ColdType 7 PITY ThE rICh Let them eat Rolexes Bill Berkowitz reports on a new organisation that projects billionaires as victims

ernard Marcus is sick and tired of be- At its website, the outfit explains that it is the Jca is a ing vilified, and he’s not going to take “a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)3 organiza- dallas, texas, it anymore. Marcus, who is 82, is not tion,” whose “goal is to defend and preserve based nonprofit Ba stressed out senior worried about the system of free enterprise in the United that aims to cutbacks in Medicaid and/or Social Security; States for future generations so entrepreneur- counter talk about he’s not agonizing over whether to use his re- ship can flourish, resulting in job creation.” Wall street’s sources for food or medicine; his home is not Its core membership is made up of a “group predilection for about to be foreclosed on. of retired CEOs and entrepreneurs who are ripping off almost Bernard Marcus is a billionaire and the co- the spokespeople for a marketing campaign everyone. it founder of Home Depot, and he is a founding to defend and preserve free enterprise. JCA will blanket the member of a new public relations enterprise also accepts members who wish to support its airwaves with called the Job Creators Alliance (JCA). The mission and goal financially through a tax-de- messages about JCA is a Dallas, Texas-based nonprofit that ductible donation, joining hundreds of other how wonderful aims to counter -inspired members who receive our e-newsletter and the wealthy are talk about economic inequality, fair taxation, are kept informed on the job creators issues greed and Wall Street’s predilection for rip- of the day and on the progress of our market- ping off almost everyone, by blanketing the ing campaign.” nation’s airwaves with messages about how wonderful the wealthy are. easy access Doing his best twenty-first century in- terpretation of Marie Antoinette, Marcus The group has a speakers bureau, a media recently commented about being targeted booking operation, easy access to such major by the 99%. “Who gives a crap about some media sites as the Wall Street Journal and Fox imbecile?’ he said. “Are you kidding me?” If News, and, get this ... it is asking for donations successful businesspeople don’t go public to from the public to carry out its mission. share their stories and talk about their trou- Those involved in JCA’s project include a bles, “they deserve what they’re going to get,” number of long-time right-wing partisans: Marcus added. Marcus; John Allison, a director of BB&T The JCA wants - and more likely expects Corp. (BBT), the ninth-largest US bank, and – to understand that if there is to a professor at Wake Forest University’s busi- be any kind of robust economic recovery, JCA ness school; Brad Anderson, former CEO of members, and folks like them, will be leading Best Buy; Jim Anthony, CEO and founder of the way. The Cliffs Company, a real estate develop-

8 ColdType | February 2012 PITY ThE rICh ment enterprise; Fred Eshelman, a founder of several pharmaceutical companies, including Worse than china or iran one amazing Pharmaceutical Product Development Inc., thing about these and the major funder of the highly partisan According to Max Adelson of Bloomberg. folks is that they conservative organization Rightchange.com; com, “The top 1 percent of taxpayers in the actually believe William “Lee” Hanley, chairman of Lexing- US made at least $343,927 in 2009, the last they should ton Management Group, Inc., and a member year data is available, according to the Inter- be treated as of the Board of directors of Eagle Publishing, nal Revenue Service. While average house- american heroes which considers itself “America’s leading hold income increased 62 percent from 1979 source of books, periodicals, and websites through 2007, the top 1 percent’s more than with a conservative, free enterprise focus”; tripled, an October Congressional Budget Of- Michael Holthouse, founder and president fice report showed. As a result, the US had of Paranet, Inc., a computer network services greater income inequality in 2007 than China company; Javier Loya, chairman and chief ex- or Iran, according to the Central Intelligence ecutive of OTC Global Holdings; John Mackey, Agency’s World Factbook.” the anti-health care reform and anti-union Adelson also collected a series of quotes co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Mar- from some 1 percenters: ket; David Park, managing partner, Austin * “Acting like everyone who’s been suc- Capital, LLC; Susan Story, president & CEO, cessful is bad and because you’re rich you’re Southern Co. Services; Michael Whalen: CEO, bad, I don’t understand it” -JPMorgan Chase Heart of America Group, “which designs, CEO Jamie Dimon. (2010 compensation: $23 builds and operates hotels, restaurants and million).” commercial real estate”; Gary Rabine, CEO * “If successful businesspeople don’t go and founder of the Rabine Group, “a group public to share their stories and talk about of small companies serving facilities manag- their troubles, they deserve what they’re go- ers across America, and delivering mainte- ing to get. Who gives a crap about some im- nance and construction services of parking becile? Are you kidding me?” – Home Depot lots and roofs”; Steve Zelnak, chairman of the Inc. (HD) co-founder Bernard Marcus (bil- board of directors and former CEO of Martin lionaire)” Marietta Materials, Inc.; and Fran Tarkenton, * “If I hear a politician use the term ‘pay- former National Football League quarterback ing your fair share’ one more time, I’m going and chairman of Tarkenton Financial. to vomit.” – Tom Golisano, founder of Pay- Perhaps JCA’s most active partisan politi- chex (billionaire)” cal member is Art Pope, a conservative mul- * “I am a fat cat, I’m not ashamed. If you timillionaire who is the CEO and chairman of mean by fat cat that I’ve succeeded, yeah, Variety Wholesalers Inc. He has been a major then I’m a fat cat. I stand guilty of being a fat funder of conservative candidates and causes cat.” – Ken Langone, Home Depot co-founder in his home state of North Carolina, and (billionaire)” across the country. * “My taxes are more than a medieval lord “Instead of an attack on the 1 percent, let’s would have taken from a serf” – Peter Schiff, call it an attack on the very productive,” John CEO Pacific Capital (net worth $64.7 mil- Allison complained. This attack is destructive lion)” . . . It still feels lonely, but the chorus is defi- * “Capitalists are not the scourge that they nitely increased.” are too often made out to be . . . wealthy aren’t a One amazing thing about these folks is that monolithic, selfish and unfeeling lot . . . [they] fill they actually believe they should be treated as store shelves at Christmas, provide health care American heroes. to millions.” – Leon Cooperman, hedge-fund manager of Omega (Cooperman can “barely get

February 2012 | ColdType 9 PITY ThE rICh

through the dining room of St. Andrews Coun- jobs,” Nick Hanauer, co-founder of aQuantive all their prattling try Club in Boca Raton Advisors without being Inc., an online advertising company he sold about being thanked” by fellow 1%-ers).” to Microsoft Corp. for about $6 billion, wrote unfairly targeted Amongst the recent reports touted by the in a Dec. 1 Bloomberg View article. “Let’s tax by the 99% JCA are “Why Mandated Health Insurance Is the rich like we once did and use that money is downright Unfair” by John Goodman, president and CEO to spur growth.” embarrassing of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a Instead of pitching a tent in the public conservative think tank; and “Capitalism and square JCA members are pitching a well-fi- the Right to Rise” by Jeb Bush, the former nanced hissy fit in public. governor of Florida. Bernard Marcus and his JCA cohorts want Two things should be said about the folks for nothing. All their bills get paid (except at the Job Creators Alliance and billionaires: maybe their fair share of taxes). All their fam- 1) most JCA members happen to be sup- ily members are well taken care of. All their porters of a number of charities and civic prattling about being unfairly targeted by the projects; and 99% is downright embarrassing. cT 2) Not all high profile businessmen sub- scribe to the JCA’s philosophy. Bill Berkowitz is a freelance writer covering “Rich businesspeople like me don’t create right-wing groups and movements

A great catastrophe, followed by years of illness, poverty and injustice can overwhelm and crush the human spirit, or can enable ordinary people to discover that they are extraordinary. For almost 30 years, some of the poorest people on earth, sick, on the edge of hunger, with no allies or political influence, have been fighting for their lives against a multinational corporation that has it all – wealth, power, influence, lawyers, lobbyists and PR people, the ear of presidents and prime ministers - it can buy its way out of and into anything it likes. The ‘nothing people’ have nothing. Their efforts to obtain medical care and justice in the courts are opposed and obstructed in every possible way by the corporation that gassed their families then poisoned their drinking water. Yet they don’t give up. From this poorest of communities has come a flowering of art, political wit, law and medicine. They have opened two free award-winning clinics, out of horror bringing healing to 40,000 people, pioneering work that will help others all over the world. Their tireless, peaceful struggle for justice is a legend and this story will not end until we enter and become part of it. JOIN THE BHOPALIS http://bhopal.org/donate/

read More about bhopal and the london olyMpics in our cover story on pages 24 to 29

10 ColdType | February 2012 ANTI-EMPIrE rEPorT Big lies in the Middle East William Blum on the heroes of US wars past and present

raq. Began with big lies. Ending with big gious tolerance, their safety, their security, lies. Never forget. their children, their parents, their past, their stand tall “Most people don’t understand what present, their future, their lives ... More than american gi Ithey have been part of here,” said Com- half the population either dead, wounded, hero! and don’t mand Sgt. Major Ron Kelley as he and other traumatized, in prison, internally displaced, even think of American troops prepared to leave Iraq in or in foreign exile ... The air, soil, water, ever apologizing mid-December. “We have done a great thing blood, and genes drenched with depleted or paying any as a nation. We freed a people and gave their uranium ... the most awful birth defects ... reparations country back to them.” unexploded cluster bombs lying anywhere “It is pretty exciting,” said another young in wait for children to pick them up ... a riv- American soldier in Iraq. “We are going er of blood running alongside the Euphra- down in the history books, you might say.” tes and Tigris ... through a country that may (Washington Post, December 18, 2011) never be put back together again. Ah yes, the history books, the multi- “It is a common refrain among war- volume leather-bound set of “The Greatest weary Iraqis that things were better before Destructions of One Country by Another.” the US-led invasion in 2003,” reported the The newest volume can relate, with numer- Washington Post on May 5, 2007. ous graphic photos, how the modern, edu- No matter ... drum roll, please ... Stand cated, advanced nation of Iraq was reduced tall American GI hero! And don’t even think to a quasi failed state; how the Americans, of ever apologizing or paying any repara- beginning in 1991, bombed for 12 years, tions. Iraq is forced by Washington to con- with one dubious excuse or another; then tinue paying reparations to Kuwait for Iraq’s invaded, then occupied, overthrew the gov- invasion in 1990 (an invasion instigated in ernment, tortured without inhibition, killed no small measure by the United States). wantonly, ... how the people of that unhap- And – deep breath here! – Vietnam has py land lost everything – their homes, their been compensating the United States. Since schools, their electricity, their clean water, 1997 Hanoi has been paying off about $145 their environment, their neighborhoods, million in debts left by the defeated South their mosques, their archaeology, their jobs, Vietnamese government for American food their careers, their professionals, their state- and infrastructure aid. Thus, Hanoi is re- run enterprises, their physical health, their imbursing the United States for part of the mental health, their health care, their wel- cost of the war waged against it. (William fare state, their women’s rights, their reli- Blum, Rogue State, p.304) How much will

February 2012 | ColdType 11 ANTI-EMPIrE rEPorT

the United States pay the people of Iraq? taught its flocks of the poor that there was does Mr. obama, On December 14, at the Fort Bragg, North no need to do battle with the ruling elite be- the peace Carolina military base, Barack Obama stood cause the poor would get their just rewards laureate, believe before an audience of soldiers to speak in the afterlife. the words that about the . It was a moment in • The US overthrew the Sandinistas in come out of his which the president of the United States Nicaragua because the Sandinistas “intend- mouth? found it within his heart and soul – as well ed to create a country where there was only as within his oft-praised (supposed) intel- a colony before.” – Eduardo Galeano, Uru- lect – to proclaim: guayan writer “This is an extraordinary achievement, • “[George W.] Bush said last week that nearly nine years in the making. And to- part of the purpose of the Indonesia trip ‘is to day, we remember everything that you did make sure that the people who are suspicious to make it possible. ... Years from now, your of our country understand our motives are legacy will endure. In the names of your pure’.” (Washington Post, October 22, 2003) fallen comrades etched on headstones at • “Wars may be aberrant experiences Arlington, and the quiet memorials across in the lives of most human individuals, but our country. In the whispered words of ad- some nations are serial aggressors. Ameri- miration as you march in parades, and in can society is unique in having been formed the freedom of our children and grandchil- almost wholly by processes of aggression dren. ... So God bless you all, God bless your against external and internal Others.” – The families, and God bless the United States of Black Commentator, June 8, 2006 America. ... You have earned your place in • President Obama should accompany history because you sacrificed so much for the military people when they inform par- people you have never met.” ents that their child has died in the latest Does Mr. Obama, the Peace Laureate, of America’s never-ending wars. And maybe believe the words that come out of his ask George W. to come along as well. mouth? • During the Vietnam War some Uni- Barack H. Obama believes only in being versity of Michigan students created a brou- the President of the United States. It is the haha when they threatened to napalm a only strong belief the man holds. puppy dog on the steps of a campus build- ing. The uproar of indignation at their cru- items of interest from a journal elty was heard nationwide. Of course, when i’ve kept for 40 years the time came they didn’t do it, having suc- cessfully made the point that people cared • If the US really believed in 2002-3 that more about napalming a dog than they did Iraq had weapons of mass destruction why about napalming people. did they send in more than 100,000 troops, • “It’s a lie and an illusion that we have who were certain to be annihilated? an inefficient government. This govern- • In a letter released August 17, 2006, 21 ment is only inefficient if you think its job former generals and high ranking national se- is, as stated in the Constitution, ‘to form a curity officials called on President George W. more perfect Union, establish justice, insure Bush to reverse course and embrace a new domestic tranquility, provide for the com- area of negotiation with Iran, Iraq, and North mon defense, promote the general welfare, Korea. The group told reporters Bush’s “hard and secure the blessings of to our- line” policies had undermined national secu- selves and our posterity.’ These objectives rity and made America less safe. are beyond our government’s talents only • Throughout most of the 20th cen- because they are beyond its intentions.” – tury, the Catholic Church in America Michael Ventura

12 ColdType | February 2012 ANTI-EMPIrE rEPorT

• “Get some new lawyers” - US Secretary eign policy is a remarkable thing. When of State Madeleine Albright to British Foreign Secretary of State speaks “if a bomb is Secretary Robin Cook when he told her he it seems like Khrushchev reporting to the deliberately was informed that the NATO bombing of party congress: ‘The whole world is march- dropped on a Yugoslavia in 1999 (which Albright champi- ing triumphantly toward democracy but house or a vehicle oned) was illegal under international law. some rogue states prefer to stay aside from on the grounds • The two countries of the world, along that road, etc. etc’.” – Natalia Narochnitska- that a ‘suspected with the United States, which have the ya, vice chairman of the international affairs terrorist’ is inside, greatest national obsession with baseball committee in the State Duma, the lower the resulting are two of the main targets of US foreign house of ’s parliament. (Washington deaths of women policy: Venezuela and Cuba. Post, April 3, 2006) and children may • The Cuban Five case: This is the first • Washington ... Propagandistan not be intentional. case in American history of alleged spying • The bulldozer, driven by an Israeli but neither are and espionage without a single page from army soldier on assignment to demolish a they accidental? a secret document. The government never home, rolled over Rachel Corrie, who was presented any evidence of a stolen official 23 years old. She had taken a nonviolent document or any attempt to steal an official position for human rights; she lost her life document. This is the first spy case without as a result. But she was rarely praised in secrets from the government. the same US media outlets that had gone • “If a bomb is deliberately dropped on into raptures over the image of a solitary a house or a vehicle on the grounds that a unarmed man standing in front of Chinese ‘suspected terrorist’ is inside, the resulting tanks at the time of the Tiananmen Square deaths of women and children may not be massacre. – Norman Solomon intentional. But neither are they accidental. • American sovereignty hasn’t faced The proper description is ‘inevitable’. So if a legitimate foreign threat to its existence an action will inevitably kill innocent peo- since the British in 1812. ple, it is as immoral as a deliberate attack on • There are two major patterns in for- civilians.” – eign policy: the rule of force or the rule of • “The U.N. Security Council voted law. On February 8, 1819 the US decided, af- unanimously Saturday to impose limited ter a very long debate in the House, to reject sanctions on North Korea for its recent mis- the rule of law in foreign policy. The vote was sile tests, and demanded that the reclusive 100 to 70 against requiring the Congress to communist nation suspend its ballistic mis- approve illegal invasions of other countries sile program.” (Associated Press, July 15, or peoples. This pertained to the “Seminole 2006) ... Internet commentator: “Test some War”, actually the invasion of Florida. Since missiles that land harmlessly in the ocean? then every president has had the right to Unanimous condemnation. Fire some mis- “defend America”, code words for the use of siles at targets on land, kill hundreds of peo- force against whomever he chooses. – Kelly ple, and destroy hundreds of civilian targets Gelgering cT including power plants, airports, roads, bridges, TV stations, etc., all in violation of William Blum is the author of: “Killing the Geneva Convention? Hey, no problem.” Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions • For some nine years, American B-52 Since World War 2”; “Rogue State: A Guide bombers relentlessly dropped tons of ord- to the World’s Only Superpower”; “West-Bloc nance on a southeast Asian country (Viet- Dissident: A Cold War Memoir”; “Freeing nam) that still cultivated rice fields using the World to Death: Essays on the American draft animals. Empire.” Signed copies may be purchased at • “The messianism of American for- www.killinghope.org

February 2012 | ColdType 13 ELECTIoN TrAIL On the road to self-destruction David Michael Green travels to new Hampshire, where he sees a political party on the verge of implosion in the run-up to the US election

took a busload of students to New Moreover, given that American politics a good hot shower Hampshire last month to observe the has now been reduced to a ‘choice’ between upon our return Republican primary campaign process two gangs of nearly identical corporate helped a lot at Iup close and personal. water-carriers, yet still masquerades as a disinfecting the Alright, alright, I know what you must be genuine election in a democracy, I feel more slime factor, as thinking: “Damn, Green, you sure must be than a little complicit in the fleecing of the does a creeping a dedicated professor to do that!” As it hap- country just by attending these events and sense of hope i’ve pens, you’d be partly right and partly wrong. thereby implicitly helping to legitimize this experienced over In fact, the students are great, the trip is fun kabuki process. It’s not like my individual the last year or so and a little unpredictable in nice way, and presence matters a bit, of course. On the there really still is a wee bit of genuine can- other hand, what if no one came, boycot- didate accountability remaining in the New ting the entire process as an insult to our Hampshire retail politics process. intelligence? That said, however, it’s absolutely true that the field of GOP candidates is stunning getting an education in its sheer capacity for selfishness, dishon- esty, and plain old meanness, and that lis- In any case, up we went, and we got our- tening to them for too long without wearing selves an education. A good hot shower noise-cancelling headphones could surely upon our return helped a lot at disinfecting burn off both of your ears. the slime factor, as does a creeping sense of It’s the political equivalent of staring at hope I’ve experienced over the last year or the sun, and the cult-like gaga-bots one can so, reinforced by New Hampshire. observe among these audiences seem to Indeed, reflecting upon the Republican have spent quite some time doing just that. presidential field does, oddly enough, pro- If you know just a bit about history, just a bit vide one with reason to think things might about context, or just a bit about the dark actually be looking up a bit in America, not- arts of rhetorical legerdemain, listening to withstanding the fact that one of the sick a speech by Rick Santorum or Newt Ging- puppies we heard up there could actually be rich or Mitt Romney will leave you wanting the next president of the United States. to pop up just about every half-sentence On reflection after returning from New and loudly disclaim “That’s a lie!”, “That’s Hampshire, I see multiple reasons to be- wrong!”, or “That’s complete bullshit!” It’s lieve that the GOP – or, since parties can of- a truly painful experience in that regard. ten be quite malleable, let us say the GOP as

14 ColdType | February 2012 ELECTIoN TrAIL we know it today – might be headed toward its other pathetic qualities, the Democratic implosion. What’s more, only some of that Party can at least rightly claim that it does nobody epitomizes opinion is based on wishful thinking... not begin to compete in that particular ugly the scraping of The most obvious indicator of the cur- contest.) It has therefore been amusing in the bottom of the rent state of the party is given by a quick the extreme to see him turn into a whin- gop barrel right look at the presidential field. Even Repub- ing crybaby as hardball politics, funded by down through licans – even, I think, the vast majority of unrestrained corporate money no less, was the earth’s crust Republicans – are dismayed by the quality used to unravel his presidential aspirations better than newt of candidates they have to choose from. once and for all. Golly, it almost seems like the gingrich You could get several careers worth of Newt has different ethical standards for the stand-up material from the likes of Trump, practice of politics, depending on whether Bachmann, Palin, Cain, Perry and the rest, he is giving or receiving. But that would be but last I checked your party’s leading lights disingenuous. are meant for other purposes than cheap Nevertheless, that story is actually small comic fodder. But – too bad for the GOP, potatoes when it comes to the competition and too good for the rest of the planet – for first prize among the panoply of Ging- they are what they are. And what they are rich’s rampant hypocrisies. My favorite has is an endless procession of witless buffoons, to be the moral finger-wagging of the can- shoddy charlatans and societal rejects. didate directed at the rest of us, while he is It goes without saying that you could do on his third marriage (not to mention his better in terms of intelligence and integrity third religion, about which we also have to just by randomly choosing ten individuals be lectured by the candidate). His prior two out of the phone book for any given Ameri- marriages crashed over his infidelities. can city. But I’ll go further. I think you could At the same time, of course, that he do better by randomly choosing ten individ- was impeaching a president of the United uals from any given sixth grade civics class. States and Leader of the Free World for the Or perhaps even ten crooks from the mel- heinous crime of – wait for it now – infidel- lower wings of any given medium security ity. That’s a good one alright, although tak- prison. ing almost two million bucks from Fannie Nobody epitomizes the scraping of Mae and Freddie Mac for his services as an the bottom of the GOP barrel right down “historian” (Hey, you guys, look over here! through the Earth’s crust better than Newt I’m a really great political scientist, and I’ll the Gingrich, until just recently the candi- provide my amazing academic wisdom to date du jour among desperate Republican you for a mere one million!) while simul- voters. taneously lambasting these organizations He’s a big beached whale of an alleged for wrecking the economy surely rings in humanoid, but it’s still almost unimagi- at a close second place on the Newtonian nable that anyone could’ve possibly stuffed Hypocrimeter. so much hypocrisy within the confines of a single epidermal sac. One of my favorites gingrich follies concerns Gingrich’s recent lament that he was roughed up unfairly by his competi- And that’s just for starters. The truth is that, tors in Iowa. If one were to make a list of when it comes to the Gingrich Follies, we the most destructive politicians and politi- could go on and on forever here. There are cal operatives of the post-war period, Ging- the bald-faced lies, the government shut- rich would certainly be among the top five, downs, the temper tantrums, the money along with Joe McCarthy, Dick Nixon, Lee scandals and more. Atwater and Karl Rove. (Note that for all But enough said. You can get most of what

February 2012 | ColdType 15 ELECTIoN TrAIL

you need to know about the current state of of the wholesale sanity purge that has in- today’s republican Republican Party politics just by stopping fected the GOP in the Age of Reagan. party candidates for a second to realize that a month ago this He broke the cardinal rule – in truth, the have to pretend fool was the favored candidate among GOP very raison d’etre – of the party by raising that bush never voters to be the next president of the United taxes, and so they turned on him and both happened, and States. destroyed and embarrassed him by help- that we’ve never Before Rick Santorum, that is, a guy ing Democrats show him to the door after had a very good who doesn’t have a problem with the gov- a single term. That was Poppy. On the other and very recent ernment outlawing birth control (no, as a hand, his son, the Boy Wondering, is actually empirical test matter of fact, I’m not joking), and who left guilty of precisely the opposite sin. Repub- of what would Congress with no money but somehow mi- licans these days can never stop telling you happen if we raculously became a millionaire with a cou- how conservative they are and how much followed their ple of years. Now Gingrich came before San- they revere Ronald Reagan. Conservative, identical policy torum, but after Herman Cain – stay with conservative, conservative. Reagan, Reagan, prescriptions me here – who might have seemed to you a Reagan. Which makes for a bit of a mystery lot like a guy with a severe zipper problem, (for six seconds at least): If that’s true, how but of course that critique was just a ‘high- come they never, ever, mention the guy tech lynching’, don’t you know. who was the most conservative president And Cain’s 15 minutes of fame followed in American history, who was more Rea- that of one Rick Perry, last seen skipping gan than Reagan, and who happened to down the Yellow Brick Road whistling a cer- have been in office only just the other day? tain tune about cognitive organs on holiday. Hmmm. I wonder why that could be? And, of course, Perry came after Michelle Bachmann, who... disastrous bush Well, you get the picture. But not quite. A little historical analysis suggests that the The answer, of course, is that Bush’s rodeo tawdry state of the Party’s current leadership clown presidency demonstrates precisely choices is less anomalous than Republicans what are the fruits of pursuing conserva- might like to believe. Ronald Reagan (The tive (actually, kleptocratic) policies. Those Name Which Must Be Spoken Every Thirty choices were disastrous, and we are only Seconds By Republicans Everywhere), who, beginning now to even realize how much like John Kennedy, was a lot less a great damage was caused. president than a subsequent fabricated reli- So today’s Republican Party candidates gious icon for the party faithful, was at least have to pretend that Bush never happened, a strong presidential candidate (though not and that we’ve never had a very good and one who was at all above the use of ugly tac- very recent empirical test of what would tics). happen if we followed their identical policy Look at what the party has thrown up prescriptions. since then: Bob Dole, John McCain, and two Someday, of course – perhaps in a decade guys (Whose Name Must Never Be Spoken or two – they will try to give W the same By Republicans Anytime Anywhere) who makeover they’ve given to Reagan, but right go by the oh-so-appropriate appellation of now even the otherwise all too idiot-prone Bush. Even leaving aside the abhorrent poli- American public can’t yet be fooled into re- tics, these candidates are to national politics membering how much they liked 9/11, Af- what Reagan was to acting: strictly B-rate. ghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, No Child Left Be- But let’s be bold and actually talk about hind, global warming, global hatred, torture, the Bushes, shall we? It’s ever so instructive Constitution shredding, polarized politics, to do so. Bush the Elder was the first victim doubling the national debt, massive wealth

16 ColdType | February 2012 ELECTIoN TrAIL concentration, global depression and TARP headed for P.T. Barnum’s “This way to the – all the gifts of a single president. Egress” sign over the next couple of decades. even kendoll If I could put the current crop of Republi- The GOP will face some wrenching choices romney knows can presidential candidates on the spot and as it becomes increasingly unelectable with that tax cuts ask them a single question, I would have time. Likely there will be a civil war between for billionaires, them rate the Bush presidency and indicate those who demand ideological purity and war with iran, how theirs would be different. They’re all those willing to compromise for electability. environmental slick as an oil spill, of course, so they’d find Quite probably the Romney-versus-the-rest destruction a way to finesse the question. Surely they’d motif we’re witnessing in the current cycle and putting say that they’d balance the budget, but of is already the opening salvo in that war. christ back into course, so did Reagan and so did W. It turns One could argue that Republican Party christmas won’t out that trying to do so while cutting taxes, orthodoxy is already under assault from revive the country spending more on the military, and without the Ron Paul campaign. It’s truly amazing borrowing is ... what did that one guy call it? what Paul is saying on questions such as ... voodoo economics. But here’s the central the astonishingly destructive war on drugs point, even if it requires multiple iterations campaign, or American foreign and military for Americans to learn it: The so-called con- policy, which he rightly describes as impe- servative policies advocated by the Republi- rial in nature. can Party today are manifestly disastrous. He’s far to the left of any namebrand They have been precisely so under every Democrat, let alone compared to the chick- president – most definitely including Clin- enhawk cowardly hypocrites (as he himself ton and Obama – since Reagan, and they accurately calls them) of the GOP, like Bush, will continue to be so in the future. Even Cheney, Gingrich, Romney and all the rest. KenDoll Romney knows that tax cuts for More importantly, much of what he says on billionaires, war with Iran, environmental the campaign trail is jarringly truthful for destruction and putting Christ back into any prominent American politician circa Christmas won’t revive the country. It’s just 2012. If only his economic prescriptions that he doesn’t give a shit. Getting to be weren’t so dishonest and just plain bizarro president is all he cares about. (and if only he didn’t have that stinky racist, Beyond this nightmare of its pathetic Bircher, background), I could honestly get leading figures, the GOP is also in trouble excited about Paul, despite even his party demographically. It has painted itself into a affiliation. narrow corner such that its primary appeal is to pretend pious old white men who are Mutant aberration fearful of everything (and thus constantly act as though they are fearless), but most But Ron Paul is far more a strange mutant especially afraid of independent women. aberration in the Republican Party today It’s funny to watch these guys rail against than the leader of one of the warring camps Muslim religious fanatics in Saudi Arabia or likely to define the party in the coming de- Afghanistan, without the slightest sense of cades. That battle will be between (alleged) irony or recognition of who they’re looking moderates and hard-liners – between Bush at in the mirror each morning. No matter. 41 and Bush 43, if you will – and Paul is nei- They’re finished. ther. He is far more a Libertarian than a Re- The young generation coming up in publican, but he’s also strategically smart. America today is far less sexist, far less Millions more people are being exposed homophobic, far less racist, far less xeno- to the Republican candidate’s radically het- phobic, far less religious, far less conserva- erodox and absurdly truthful critiques of tive and far less Republican than the ones American government than would never

February 2012 | ColdType 17 ELECTIoN TrAIL

hear them if he was running instead for the it, too. They’re all standing around at this the reaction to Libertarian Party’s nomination. In any case, point waiting for a Reagan to come rescue those republican by telling such truths right in the belly of them. That’s not gonna happen, not least candidates the beast, and by attracting so many votes, of which because even Reagan was never criticizing romney Paul makes life that much harder for an al- “REAGAN!”. Like Bernie Madoff, the Party’s for his career as a ready besieged Republican Party. lies and schemes are beginning to catch up vulture capitalist is In addition to its candidates and its de- with it. And as with Madoff, it is the rest of extremely telling, mographics, the GOP has another problem, us who will principally pay the price. of course, just as as well: Itself. I’m shocked that anyone else The real questions are why this hasn’t was the catholic is shocked at what’s going on within the happened sooner, why the party was able to church putting party right now as the various candidates resuscitate itself relatively unscathed from galileo under scramble for advantage. Of course Gingrich the disaster of actually governing under its house arrest and Perry and the others are saying any- avowed principles this last decade, and why thing in order to take down the front-run- it has a good shot at the White House this ning Romney. year? What the hell else would you expect Those are, of course, easy questions to from an ideology which has been peddling answer. If the top ranks of the Republican extreme individualism, unfettered greed, Party are of a quality that would be con- filthy campaign practices, and endless de- sidered pathetic anywhere outside of Zim- ceit at least since the era of Joe McCarthy? babwe, the leading lights of the Democrats Of course they are eating their young. Why are equally dismal. You have Barack Obama wouldn’t they? Because of moral qualms? and Hillary Clinton, and then there’s... Joe Concerns about integrity? Putting the needs Biden? Harry Reid? Andrew Cuomo? It’s of the many ahead of the needs of the one? quite amazing really. Add up all the promi- Very funny, people. Very funny. nent Democrats in Congress, in the cabinet The reaction to those Republican candi- and in statehouses, and there isn’t a single dates criticizing Romney for his career as one – regardless even of their politics – who a vulture capitalist is extremely telling, of remotely inspires. course, just as was the Catholic Church put- ting Galileo under house arrest. political nothingburgers In neither case did the offended institu- tion bother asking whether the ideas be- Moreover, if we’re honest about Obama and ing floated had any merit to them. No, my Clinton, it’s patently obvious that they are friends, neither the Catholic Church nor the almost entirely notable for who they physi- Republican Church have any interest in the cally are, not what they’ve done or where dissemination of truth. they stand. Take away his skin tone and Quite to the contrary, their interest is pre- her genitalia, and you’re left with a pair of cisely the opposite. Hordes of Republican two-dimensional cardboard B-rate political blowhards (pardon the redundancy there) nothingburgers. have been savaging Gingrich and Perry for will record Obama’s sole claim to fame as mounting ‘Democratic-style class warfare’ getting elected. No one will ever know what critiques of Romney, never stopping to ac- he really stands for, other than maintaining tually inquire as to what Bain Capital actu- the status quo so that he can comfortably ally did under his stewardship. Of course, tuck the one percent into bed each night. they don’t need to ask. They already know. Her only genuine political commitment in What’s critical is that you never do. life (at least, that is, before she and her hus- All in all, the GOP is in deep trouble, at band were completely coopted by the plu- least over the long haul. I think they know tocracy), seems to have been a devotion to

18 ColdType | February 2012 ELECTIoN TrAIL the controversial idea of taking good care of plausibly score endless political points com- our children. Wow. Now that’s bold. plaining about that same debt. We live in the Obama and his party are failures for the One of the worst things you can be ac- strangest of times. same reason the GOP has been failing for so cused of is trying to turn America into a ‘Eu- our politics have long. They all serve the same master, and ropean socialist state’ at exactly the moment hardly ever been I got news for you, pal: It ain’t you, me, or when the true European socialist states are more strident, and the 300 million people in America’s 99 per- precisely the countries providing the best yet we fight over cent. This isn’t complicated stuff. You can quality of life, most economic security, and almost nothing put away your slide rule. It’s simple: If you the most stable economies for their citizens are governing to advance the interest of of any in the world. predators, and doing so at the expense of Here at home, we have very clear em- the people, the predators will prosper and pirical evidence from two post-war periods the people will suffer. – one each of liberal and conservative eco- By design. What, you don’t like that? No nomic policy prescriptions – of what hap- problem, you can simply vote for the other pens when you go either of those directions, party, the one that’s not in office. Just one and no one recognizes that the experiment problem, though. They have exactly the was even conducted. The list goes on. Rod same economic policies as the one that is. Serling, you’re way overdue on the set, baby. Dee dee dee dee, dee dee dee dee... strange times Hunter Thompson was certainly right. When the going gets weird, the weird turn We live in the strangest of times. Our politics professional. But we’re beyond all that now. have hardly ever been more strident, and America has fielded its All-Century Team yet we fight over almost nothing. We have when it comes to nutty politics. The good enormous problems facing us, ranging from news, though, is that some people are final- rampant and structural unemployment to ly starting to wake up to what we’re facing, broken empire to climate holocaust, and and just who is diddling whom. yet we’re consumed with trivia. Our candi- That can’t be good news for the Geriatric date running on the platform of hope and Obfuscating Pathology otherwise known as change could not possibly be more behold- the Republican Party. cT en to the special interests who have robbed an entire global economy of hope in order David Michael Green is a professor of to prevent change and fatten their already political science at Hofstra University bulging wallets. in New York. He is delighted to receive The political party that led the country readers’ reactions to his articles (dmg@ and the world over the cliff for a decade regressiveantidote.net), but regrets that came back to win a stunning victory just time constraints do not always allow him to two years later, and is poised to possibly respond. More of his work can be found at his win another one again. The people who cre- website, www.regressiveantidote.net. ated a massive national debt can somehow

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February 2012 | ColdType 19 rIghTS & WroNgS The world war on democracy John Pilger on the fight against authoritarianism and tyranny

isette Talate died the other day. I re- that a military base could be built on the the government member a wiry, fiercely intelligent principal island, Diego Garcia. “They knew secretly agreed woman who masked her grief with we were inseparable from our pets,” said to a demand La determination that was a pres- Lisette, “When the American soldiers ar- from Washington ence. She was the embodiment of people’s rived to build the base, they backed their that the chagos resistance to the war on democracy. I first big trucks against the brick shed where we archipelago, a glimpsed her in a 1950s Colonial Office film prepared the coconuts; hundreds of our british colony, about the Chagos islanders, a tiny creole dogs had been rounded up and imprisoned be “swept” and nation located midway between and there. Then they gassed them through tubes “sanitised” of its Asia in the Indian Ocean. from the trucks’ exhausts. You could hear 2,500 inhabitants The camera panned across thriving vil- them crying.” lages, a church, a school, a hospital, set in a phenomenon of natural beauty and peace. rusting steamer Lisette remembers the producer saying to her and her teenage friends, “Keep smiling Lisette and her family and hundreds of is- girls!” landers were forced onto a rusting steamer Sitting in her kitchen in Mauritius many bound for Mauritius, a distance of 2,500 years later, she said, “I didn’t have to be told miles. They were made to sleep in the hold to smile. I was a happy child, because my on a cargo of fertilizer: bird shit. The weath- roots were deep in the islands, my paradise. er was rough; everyone was ill; two women My great-grandmother was born there; I miscarried. made six children there. That’s why they Dumped on the docks at Port Louis, couldn’t legally throw us out of our own Lisette’s youngest children, Jollice and Re- homes; they had to terrify us into leaving or gis, died within a week of each other. “They force us out. At first, they tried to starve us. died of sadness,” she said. “They had heard The food ships stopped arriving [then] they all the talk and seen the horror of what had spread rumours we would be bombed, then happened to the dogs. They knew they were they turned on our dogs.” leaving their home forever. The doctor in In the early 1960s, the Labour govern- Mauritius said he could not treat sadness.” ment of Harold Wilson secretly agreed to a This act of mass kidnapping was carried demand from Washington that the Chagos out in high secrecy. In one official file, un- archipelago, a British colony, be “swept” der the heading, “Maintaining the fiction,” and “sanitised” of its 2,500 inhabitants so the Foreign Office legal adviser exhorts his

20 ColdType | February 2012 rIghTS & WroNgS colleagues to cover their actions by “re- happened even while it was happening.” classifying” the population as “floating” Last July, American historian William Blum the sheer scale and to “make up the rules as we go along.” published his “updated summary of the re- of suffering, let Article 7 of the statute of the International cord of US foreign policy.” Since the Second alone criminality, Criminal Court says the “deportation or World War, the US has: is little known in forcible transfer of population” is a crime 1. Attempted to overthrow more than the West, despite against humanity. That Britain had com- 50 governments, most of them democrati- the presence mitted such a crime - in exchange for a $14 cally elected. of the world’s million discount off an American Polaris 2. Attempted to suppress a populist or most advanced nuclear submarine - was not on the agenda national movement in 20 countries. communications, of a group of British “defence” correspon- 3. Grossly interfered in democratic elec- nominally freest dents flown to the Chagos by the Ministry tions in at least 30 countries. and of Defence when the US base was complet- 4. Dropped bombs on the people of most admired ed. “There is nothing in our files,” said a more than 30 countries. academy ministry official, “about inhabitants or an 5. Attempted to assassinate more than evacuation.” 50 foreign leaders. Today, Diego Garcia is crucial to Amer- In total, the United States has carried out ica’s and Britain’s war on democracy. The one or more of these actions in 69 coun- heaviest bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan tries. In almost all cases, Britain has been a was launched from its vast airstrips, beyond collaborator. The “enemy” changes in name which the islanders’ abandoned cemetery - from communism to Islamism - but most- and church stand like archaeological ruins. ly it is the rise of democracy independent of The terraced garden where Lisette laughed Western power or a society occupying stra- for the camera is now a fortress housing the tegically useful territory, deemed expend- “bunker-busting” bombs carried by bat- able, like the Chagos Islands. shaped B-2 aircraft to targets in two conti- The sheer scale of suffering, let alone nents; an attack on Iran will start here. As if criminality, is little known in the West, de- to complete the emblem of rampant, crimi- spite the presence of the world’s most ad- nal power, the CIA added a Guantanamo- vanced communications, nominally freest style prison for its “rendition” victims and journalism and most admired academy. called it Camp Justice. That the most numerous victims of terror- ism - Western terrorism - are Muslims is un- ruthless democracy sayable, if it is known. That half a million Iraqi infants died in the 1990s as a result of What was done to Lisette’s paradise has an the embargo imposed by Britain and Amer- urgent and universal meaning, for it repre- ica is of no interest. That extreme jihadism, sents the violent, ruthless nature of a whole which led to 9/11, was nurtured as a weapon system behind its democratic façade, and of Western policy (“Operation Cyclone”) the scale of our own indoctrination to its is known to specialists, but otherwise sup- messianic assumptions, described by Har- pressed. old Pinter as a “brilliant, even witty, highly While popular culture in Britain and successful act of hypnosis.” America immerses the Second World War Longer and bloodier than any war since in an ethical bath for the victors, the holo- 1945, waged with demonic weapons, a gang- causts arising from Anglo-American domi- sterism dressed as economic policy and nance of resource-rich regions are con- sometimes known as globalization, the war signed to oblivion. on democracy is unmentionable in West- Under the Indonesian tyrant Suharto, ern elite circles. As Pinter wrote, “it never anointed “our man” by Thatcher, more

February 2012 | ColdType 21 rIghTS & WroNgS

than a million people were slaughtered. Whenever one of Obama’s drones wipes israel, the Described by the CIA as “the worst mass out an entire family in a faraway tribal re- exemplar of us murder of the second half of the 20th cen- gion of Pakistan, or Somalia, or Yemen, violence and tury,” the estimate does not include a third the American controllers in front of their lawlessness by of the population of East Timor, who were computer-game screens type in “Bugsplat.” proxy, has just starved or murdered with Western conniv- Obama likes drones and has joked about received its annual ance, British fighter bombers and machine them with journalists. One of his first ac- pocket money of guns. tions as president was to order a wave of $3 billion together These true stories are told in declassified Predator drone attacks on Pakistan that with obama’s files in the Public Record Office, yet rep- killed 74 people. He has since killed thou- permission to steal resent an entire dimension of politics and sands, mostly civilians; drones fire Hellfire more palestinian the exercise of power excluded from public missiles that suck the air out of the lungs land consideration. of children and leave body parts festooned This has been achieved by a regime of across scrubland. noncoercive information control, from the Remember the tear-stained headlines evangelical mantra of consumer advertising when Brand Obama was elected: “momen- to sound bites on BBC news and, now, the tous, spine-tingling”: UK. “The ephemera of social media. American future,” wrote Simon Schama, “is It is as if writers as watchdogs are extinct, all vision, numinous, unformed, light-head- or in thrall to a sociopathic zeitgeist, con- ed ...” The San Francisco Chronicle’s colum- vinced they are too clever to be duped. Wit- nist saw a spiritual “lightworker [who can] ness the stampede of sycophants eager to usher in a new way of being on the planet.” deify Christopher Hitchens, a war lover who Beyond the drivel, as the great whistleblow- longed to be allowed to justify the crimes of er had predicted, a military rapacious power. coup was taking place in Washington, and “For almost the first time in two cen- Obama was their man. turies,” wrote Terry Eagleton, “there is no Having seduced the anti-war movement eminent British poet, playwright or novelist into virtual silence, he has given America’s prepared to question the foundations of the corrupt military officer class unprecedented Western way of life.” powers of state and engagement. These in- No Orwell warns that we do not need to clude the prospect of wars in Africa and op- live in a totalitarian society to be corrupted portunities for provocations against China, by . No Shelley speaks for the America’s largest creditor and new “enemy” poor; no Blake proffers a vision; no Wilde in Asia. reminds us that “disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s encircled with missiles original virtue.” And, grievously, no Pinter rages at the war machine, as in “American Under Obama, the old source of official Football”: paranoia Russia, has been encircled with ballistic missiles and the Russian opposi- Hallelujah. tion infiltrated. Military and CIA assassina- Praise the Lord for all good things ... tion teams have been assigned to 120 coun- We blew their balls into shards of dust, tries; long-planned attacks on Syria and Iran Into shards of fucking dust … beckon a world war. Israel, the exemplar of US violence and lawlessness by proxy, has Into shards of fucking dust go all the lives just received its annual pocket money of $3 blown there by Barack Obama, the Hopey billion together with Obama’s permission to Changey of Western violence. steal more Palestinian land.

22 ColdType | February 2012 rIghTS & WroNgS

Obama’s most “historic” achievement an article of faith two generations ago, has is to bring the war on democracy home fallen to the central bank dictators. in david to America. On New Year’s Eve, he signed In David Cameron’s “big society,” the cameron’s “big the National Defense Authorization Act theft of 84 billion pounds in jobs and servic- society,” the (NDAA), a law that grants the Pentagon the es even exceeds the amount of tax “legally” theft of 84 billion legal right to kidnap both foreigners and US avoid by piratical corporations. Blame rests pounds in jobs citizens and indefinitely detain, interrogate not with the far right, but a cowardly, lib- and services and torture, or even kill them. They need eral political culture that has allowed this even exceeds only “associate” with those “belligerent” to to happen, which, wrote Hywel Williams in the amount of the United States. There will be no protec- the wake of the attacks on 9/11, “can itself tax “legally” tion of law, no trial, no legal representation. be a form of self righteous fanaticism.” Tony avoid by piratical This is the first explicit legislation to abolish Blair is one such fanatic. corporations habeas corpus (the right to due process of In its managerial indifference to the free- law) and effectively repeal the Bill of Rights doms that it claims to hold dear, bourgeois of 1789. Blairite Britain has created a surveillance On 5 January, in an extraordinary speech state with 3,000 new criminal offenses and at the Pentagon, Obama said the military laws: more than for the whole of the previ- would not only be ready to “secure territory ous century. and populations” overseas, but to fight in The police clearly believe they have an the “homeland” and provide “support to impunity to kill. At the demand of the CIA, the civil authorities.” In other words, US cases like that of Binyam Mohamed, an in- troops will be deployed on the streets of nocent British resident tortured and then American cities when the inevitable civil held for five years in Guantanamo Bay, will unrest takes hold. be dealt with in secret courts in Britain “in America is now a land of epidemic pov- order to protect the intelligence agencies” - erty and barbaric prisons: the consequence the torturers. of a “market” extremism which, under This invisible state allowed the Blair gov- Obama, has prompted the transfer of $14 ernment to fight the Chagos islanders as trillion in public money to criminal enter- they rose from their despair in exile and de- prises in Wall Street. manded justice in the streets of Port Louis The victims are mostly young jobless, and London. “Only when you take direct ac- homeless, incarcerated African-Americans, tion, face to face, even break laws, are you betrayed by the first black president. The ever noticed,” said Lisette. “And the smaller historic corollary of a perpetual war state, you are, the greater your example to oth- this is not fascism, not yet, but neither is ers.” Such an eloquent answer to those who it democracy in any recognizable form, re- still ask, “What can I do?” gardless of the placebo politics that will I last saw Lisette’s tiny figure standing consume the news until November. in driving rain alongside her comrades out- The presidential campaign, says the side the Houses of Parliament. What struck Washington Post, will “feature a clash of me was the enduring courage of their resis- philosophies rooted in distinctly different tance. It is this refusal to give up that rot- views of the economy.” ten power fears, above all, knowing it is the This is patently false. The circumscribed seed beneath the snow. cT task of journalism on both sides of the At- lantic is to create the pretence of political John Pilger recently received the top choice where there is none. prize in the annual awards, presented in The same shadow is across Britain and London, of the British Grierson Trust for much of Europe, where , his documentary films

February 2012 | ColdType 23 CoVEr STorY London’s Olympic shame Jack Laurenson thinks it’s a scandal that Dow Chemicals should be allowed to be a sponsor at the ‘greenest’ Olympics. Here’s why

stone’s throw from the abandoned committee, LOCOG, and its chairman, Lord 120,000 or more Union Carbide complex in Bhopal Sebastian Coe, are on track to insult a billion are still living with is an oasis of calm and healing. The Indians by embracing the Dow Chemical agonizing chronic ASambhavna Clinic, which is funded company as an official London 2012 spon- health problems by the UK-based Bhopal Medical Appeal sor. caused by 27 years (BMA) charity, is the only facility in Bho- It is estimated that between 9,000 and of ground-water pal that offers effective and free healthcare 15,000 Bhopalis were killed within three and soil ; to the thousands who still live in the toxic days of the initial gas-leak in 1984. The first a result of dumped shadow of the world’s most infamous pesti- incident, caused by cost-cutting measures toxic waste cide factory. and a dramatic decline in safety standards contaminating In the crowded waiting room of the clin- implemented by Carbide’s American man- communities ic, where patients look out onto lush herb agement, is infamous. Less well known is the around the factory gardens and a pond filled with turtles and fact that 120,000 or more people are still liv- fish, there is a message carved into a large ing with agonizing chronic health problems wooden beam that reads: “A heart-felt thank caused by 27 years of ground-water and soil you to the thousands of British people who pollution; a result of dumped toxic waste made this clinic a reality…” contaminating communities around the fac- For Brits – who often visit the clinic while tory. traveling through India – it’s impossible to Union Carbide is now part of the Dow read this sign without feeling somewhat pa- Chemical Company, but neither company triotic and proud. The BMA is a small char- has admitted responsibility for this mess. ity based in Brighton and through the kind support of their donors – who are, as the sign a global toxic hotspot states, mostly British – are able to help In- dian doctors and therapists save lives every Total deaths are now estimated at around day. 25,000 and still rising. Greenpeace and the Campaigners for justice in Bhopal are Indian Centre for Science & Environment outraged that Britain would undermine say the area around the factory is so satu- this excellent charitable work by engaging rated with dumped toxins and heavy metals in what they say is a ludicrously ill-advised that they have labeled Bhopal a global toxic Olympic sponsorship agreement with one hotspot and the disaster is ranked alongside of the world’s most unethical and contro- Chernobyl as one of the world’s most ter- versial companies. The Olympic organizing rible industrial catastrophes. Campaigners

24 ColdType | February 2012 CoVEr STorY

union carbide, now a fully owned subsidiary of the dow chemical company, never cleaned up their pesticide facility in bhopal. instead, they abandoned india as the toxins spread into the soil and grond-water. ucc are still wanted on criminal charges of culpable homicide and the indian courts have said that the dow chemical company is essentially harboring ‘fugitives from justice.’

February 2012 | ColdType 25 CoVEr STorY

a woman in and their lawyers argue that this unresolved outstanding lawsuits against Union Carbide, bhopal washes legacy of pain has now become the property settling with former UCC asbestos workers in her clothes with of Dow. Texas for billions of dollars. However, Dow water from pumps In recent months, heightened media at- has consistently argued that it isn’t liable that have been tention of this issue in the UK and India has for Bhopal, without offering any satisfactory found to be heavily caused outrage and it’s becoming increas- reasons why. contaminated with ingly clear that it’s not a legacy Brits want toxic chemicals their Olympics to be associated with. other crimes and heavy metals. Dow Chemicals have launched an ex- pensive and enthusiastic campaign of dam- Other activists have joined the debate, argu- age-limitation in the face of overwhelming ing that even if the thousands of dead and negative public opinion about this issue, dying in Bhopal were not the issue here; continually stating in the press that the com- Dow Chemicals would still have to answer pany never owned or operated the factory in for other crimes, such as their awful environ- Bhopal. mental record and the heart-breaking legacy Although correct, activists and Bhopal of Agent Orange and Napalm in southeast survivors argue this fact is irrelevant. Dow Asia. Dow became a major provider of Agent acquired Union Carbide in a lucrative take- Orange to the US military when many other over in 2001 and has legally inherited their companies ceased production in the face of liabilities as well as their assets. Campaign- overwhelmingly negative public opinion. ers state that Dow have essentially admitted They have, however, alongside the Monsan- this liability themselves by paying off other to company, continually avoided any kind of

26 ColdType | February 2012 CoVEr STorY

legal liability for the destruction. argue that Lord Sebastian Coe and LOCOG children play The Dow Chemical company claims to be have demonstrated their complete igno- in water full a responsible global corporate citizen, com- rance of the situation in Bhopal – and indeed of Mercury mitted to environmental sustainability, but their own policies on ethical and sustain- and carbon critics claim they are behaving like a rogue able sponsors. tetrachloride. corporation that cannot be held accountable The Bhopal Medical Appeal was joined When asked by to national or international law. in London recently by supporters of the 200 the reporter if The company is also accused of harbour- days Left to Dump Dow! campaign, includ- they knew how ing fugitives from justice, as Union Carbide ing Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent dangerous the executives are still wanted on criminal North and Chairman of the Labour Friends water was, charges of culpable homicide in India. of India organisation. He issued, via TV cam- they said that local The Dow subsidiary Union Carbide has eras, a passionate challenge to Lord Coe to officials and police created, via its negligent waste disposal drink with him a glass of Bhopal’s contami- had told them it methods, a new tragedy in Bhopal that has nated water so he could better understand was safe. slowly developed over time. Neither com- the toxic legacy of Union Carbide and Dow pany has paid a single dollar for this ongoing Chemicals. environmental damage and as Dow now op- “If he doesn’t dare do this, then he should erates Union Carbide as a full subsidiary, the kick Dow out of the Olympics. They have no liability belongs to them. place in what has been billed as the greenest They must clean up Bhopal. and most sustainable Olympics ever; it can’t By arranging and endorsing Dow’s in- have Dow Chemicals associated with it.” volvement with London 2012, campaigners Dow has dismissed Bhopal activists as

February 2012 | ColdType 27 CoVEr STorY

a young child, ‘small and noisy groups’ but Barry Gardin- “We’re not letting the Dow Chemical com- enduring er and the Bhopal Medical Appeal are not pany slip into the shadows on this one, and significant pain, alone. 17,000 members of the public have we’re not letting LOCOG ignore the issue ei- is treated for joined them in expressing outrage at this ther. Our stance is that Dow Chemicals must water-exposure sponsorship via the Change.org petition to be held accountable for the suffering in Bho- related illnesses drop Dow. pal – they bought the Union Carbide Cor- at the chingari Hundreds of organisations and personali- poration, knowing there were outstanding therapy centre ties have also signed a declaration condemn- criminal charges against it and, whether they in bhopal. ing Dow’s relationship with LOCOG and like it or not, they acquired the liability…” London 2012. So far they include Amnesty The BMA also criticised Dow’s failure to International, Greenpeace, Pesticide Action act on the pollution in India left behind by Network, Agent Orange Action Network, Union Carbide: , Martin Sheen, Raghu Rai “Thousands continue to live with chronic and Antony Gormley among others. illnesses in Bhopal and many die while Dow splash their money around on lucrative branding rights dropped sponsorship deals – it’s a disgrace. By allow- ing this deal to go ahead, Mayor Johnson and Recently, Dow agreed to drop all branding Lord Coe have demonstrated that they’re rights to the plastic wrap it’s sponsoring for happy to accept Dow Chemical’s PR blus- the London Olympic stadium, in the appar- ter but without a complete process of due ent hope it could avoid further criticism. In diligence. A simple internet search would response, the Bhopal Medical Appeal said: have revealed not only the criminal charges

28 ColdType | February 2012 CoVEr STorY

against Union Carbide but also that the Dow on the BBC’s flagship news program News- girls in a union Chemical Company themselves are a named night. In an interview with Jeremy Paxman carbide affected respondent in two Indian court cases per- she announced that her position at the community have no taining to the Bhopal disaster.” Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 choice but to Campaigners continue to protest against (CSL) was no longer tenable in light of the wash their clothes Dow Chemicals’ involvement with London LOCOG’s continued relationship with and with water that 2012 and the company seems reluctant to defence of the Dow Chemical Company. contains large step down from the sponsorship role in case She told niewe, “By coming on air tonight, amounts of heavy it’s interpreted as an admission of guilt. With I’m taking the decision to resign my position metals and toxins. a powerful opposition movement growing and stand up for my principles… I feel that – including motions in the UK and Scottish I was part of a body that has been used to parliament, mass media coverage and a pe- legitimize Dow’s involvement in the games.” tition that has attracted thousands of signa- She siad that while Dow Chemicals have an tures – it’s becoming clear that whatever hap- ‘army of PR people’ she hoped that her res- pens in this fight, this has been a spectacular ignation could bring some attention to the PR disaster for the Dow Chemical company. continuing plight of victims in Bhopal. cT

LATE NEWS: The London 2012 Olympic Jack Laurenson is a freelance journalist and Games were embroiled in further contro- documentary photographer who often works versy on January 25 when Meredith Alex- in India. He founded the Bhopal Now project ander, a Sustainability Commissioner and – www.bhopalnow.org - and now works Ethics Adviser for the games, resigned live regularly for the Bhopal Medical Appeal.

February 2012 | ColdType 29 oILINg ThE WhEELS Guess who won the Iraq war Sherwood Ross has the answer, which was always a foregone conclusion, despite an abundance of denials

“ efore the 2003 invasion and occu- a Shell-led group is to get $913 million per the iraqi pation of Iraq US and other western year. An Exxon-led group is to get $1.6 bil- government “gave oil companies were all but com- lion per year, Bloomberg News reports. Each a little piece of the Bpletely shut out of Iraq’s oil mar- calculation is based on the agreed-to per- cake for china and ket,” industry analyst Antonia Juhasz told barrel fee times the maximum production some of the other Al Jazeera wire service. “But thanks to the level, Bloomberg explains. countries and invasion and occupation, the companies David Bender, a Middle East analyst companies to keep are now back inside Iraq and producing oil at Eurasia Group, Washington, D.C., told them silent” there for the first time since being forced Bloomberg, “Iraq is one of the most attrac- out of the country in 1973.” tive oil markets in the world. The interna- “Western producers like BP, Exxon Mo- tional oil companies may feel that getting in bil, and Shell are enjoying their best access at the beginning improves their long-term to Iraq’s southern oil fields since 1972,” prospects.” Business Week noted in its issue of March The only area of Iraq where oil firms 4, 2011. (1972 was the year fare better than fee-for-service work is in nationalized Iraq’s oil fields.) the northern Kurdish autonomous region Business Week quotes Andy Inglis, BP’s (KRG) where businesses including Norway’s chief executive for exploration and produc- DNO International ASA are pumping crude tion as saying, “We see this as the beginning under production-sharing agreements “not of a long-term relationship with Iraq and recognized by the central government,” will continue to look for further opportuni- Bloomberg reports. ties.” Dr. Abdulhay Yahya Zalloum, an interna- friend of president bush tional oil consultant and economist, agrees the western firms have won contracts de- It also turns out Hunt Oil Co., of Dallas, Tex., spite “a lack of transparency and clarity of clinched a separate deal in Sept., 2007, with vision regarding the legal issues.” The Iraqi Iraq Kurdistan Regional Government. Hunt government “gave a little piece of the cake might not have won if its chief officer, Ray for China and some of the other countries Hunt, was not President George W. Bush’s and companies to keep them silent.” friend and a major fund-raiser. Some folks A group led by BP will receive $2 billion think, according to a front page New York per year to develop Iraq’s Rumalia field and Times report July 3, 2008, the deal “runs

30 ColdType | February 2012 oILINg ThE WhEELS counter to American policy and undercut without public discourse and essentially Iraq’s central government.” Apparently, at the butt of a gun. These contracts have “While we’re Bush didn’t think so. Baghdad reportedly is all been awarded during a foreign military paying more furious over it. occupation with the largest contracts go- to fill up, the Hunt got this free pass to explore Kurdis- ing to companies from the foreign occupi- three largest tan’s oil riches in Sept., 2007, when it inked ers’ countries. It seems that democracy and publicly traded oil an exploration pact likely to give the firm a equity are the two largest losers in this oil companies based share of the boodle of any future gushers. battle.” in the united “Hunt would be the first US company to Note: the Obama regime “continues to states sign such a deal,” a State Department offi- pressure Baghdad to pass the Iraq Oil Law” have been filling up cial told . over the wishes of the majority of the Iraqi on profits” And according to reporter Jay Price of people. McClatchy News Service, the Iraqi oil minis- “Thus far,” Juhasz said, “it has required ter, speaking for Baghdad, “called the Hunt a massive foreign military invasion and oc- deal illegal.” cupation to grant the foreign oil companies A State Department cable dated Sept. 12, the access they have thus far garnered.” 2007, and made public by Wikileaks, “de- Meanwhile, back at the pump, the boost in tailed official warnings from the US govern- oil supplies has not reduced the price of oil ment that the contract, regardless of lease being extracted from American motorists. location, is legally risky due to unresolved The laws of supply and demand no longer land and oil disputes between Baghdad and appear to be working. the KRG – and that such a contract could further amplify conflicts between the cen- rising prices tral and regional governments,” wrote Ben Lando of the authoritative Iraq Oil Report, According to business writer John Egan of of Aug. 25, 2011. Technorati, the average price for a gallon of Hunt seemingly would not have to press gas last Feb. 26th climbed to $3.33, compared Bush hard for the insider’s deal. Juhasz says with $2.70 the previous year. And wire ser- that ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell aggressively vice Agency France Presse (AFP) reports in lobbied their governments “to ensure that the Waynesville, Va., Augusta Free Press that the invasion would result in an Iraq open to “Average US gasoline prices began 2012 just foreign oil companies” and that “they suc- under $3.28 gal, the highest number ever to ceeded.” mark the beginning of a year and the fifth She added that the US and western oil straight weekly increase in price.” companies and their governments has been As for the profit-taking of the big oil lobbying for a new national Iraq Oil Law firms, Egan on Feb. 26, 2011, wrote: “While that would largely privatize the oil market we’re paying more to fill up, the three larg- along the lines of the old Production Shar- est publicly traded oil companies based in ing Agreements – although such PSA’s have the United States have been filling up on been rejected in most countries because profits. Those three companies – Exxon- they provide “far more benefits to the for- Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips – col- eign corporation than to the domestic gov- lectively pulled in an eye-popping $58.3 bil- ernment.” Hunt’s deal with KRG was of the lion in profits in 2010, according to financial PSA sort. figures announced in January 2011. Mind “The public is against privatization,” Ju- you, that’s profit – the amount of money hasz told al-Jazeera, “which is one reason that companies pocket after covering their the (Iraqi Oil Law) has not passed. The con- expenses.” tracts are enacting a form of privatisation Gas prices reached the point last year

February 2012 | ColdType 31 oILINg ThE WhEELS

that, according to the Washington Post of dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at oil companies are last April 30th, President Obama “blasted Andover. He notes that after CIA Mideast not simply passive oil companies for enjoying gangbuster prof- Operations Chief Kermit Roosevelt created resellers of opec its while pump prices surged to nearly $4 a a state of anarchy in Iran that toppled the production but gallon this week, and he again urged Con- elected government, the US oil companies have reserves of gress to end $4 billion a year in subsidies for cashed in. their own which the oil and gas industry.” “Our oil companies – Gulf, Standard of rise in tandem “When oil companies are making huge New Jersey, Texaco and Mobil – received a with oil prices profits and you’re struggling at the pump, 40 percent share of the new National Irani- and we’re scouring the federal budget for an Oil Co., and the shah established a tyran- spending we can afford to do without, these nical dictatorship, with the dreaded Savak tax giveaways aren’t right,” Obama said. (secret police) doing dirty work for him,” “They aren’t smart. And we need to end Velvel writes. them,” the president added. By the way, it may be noted that Iran in 1953 could not be said to have the beginning profiting from oil reserves of any development as to constitute a threat to Israel or any other And Greg Palast points out in his book, country. “Armed Madhouse” (Plume), the oil ma- So what was the 1953 overthrow of Iran jors are not simply passive resellers of OPEC all about if not oil? The pattern that has production but have reserves of their own emerged over the past 60 years is that the which rise in tandem with oil prices. Pentagon/CIA have bullied their way into “The rise in the price of oil after the seizing the oil fields of the Middle East, first three years of the (Iraq) war boosted from which Western oil companies just hap- the value of the reserves of ExxonMobil pened to enrich themselves. The history of Oil alone by just over $666-billion,” Palast past events in Iran and Iraq casts a dubious wrote. What’s more, Chevron Oil, “where light on the contemporary claims of US pol- (Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice had iticians today that Iran represents a mortal served as a director, gained a quarter trillion danger to Israel. The CIA overthrow of Iran dollars in value.” Iraq’s experience mirrors and the Pentagon attack on Iraq reveal it’s the prior overthrow in 1953 of the Iranian all about oil. cT government by the US Central Intelligence Agency. Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based public This is recounted in “An Enemy of The relations consultant who advises colleges, People” (Doukathsan) by Lawrence Velvel, universities, magazine, and businesses.

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32 ColdType | February 2012 WhAT NoW? How Hamas stole Israel’s war If the wicked enemy declares a truce, there’s no excuse to attack Gaza, writes Uri Avnery

s there no limit to the villainy of Hamas? But is a pretext needed? Our army will Seems there isn’t. Last month, they did not let itself be thwarted by the likes of When hamas something quite unforgivable. Mash’al. When the army wants a war, it will forswears I They stole a war. have a war. This was proved in 1982, when terrorism, there is For some weeks now, our almost new Ariel Sharon attacked Lebanon, despite the no pretext for an Chief of Staff, Benny Gantz, has been an- fact that the Lebanese border had been ab- attack on gaza nouncing at every possible opportunity solutely quiet for 11 months. (After the war, that a new war against the Gaza Strip is in- the myth was born that it was preceded by evitable. Several commanders of the troops daily shooting. Today, almost every Israeli around the Strip have been repeating this can “remember” the shooting – an aston- dire forecast, as have their camp-followers, ishing example of the power of suggestion. a.k.a. military commentators. One of these comforted us. True, Hamas Why attack? can now hit Tel Aviv with their rockets, but that will not be so terrible, because it will be Why does the Chief of Staff want to attack? a short war. Just three or four days. As one A cynic might say that every new Chief of of the generals said, it will be much more Staff needs a war to call his own. But we are “hard and painful” (for the Arabs) than Cast not cynics, are we? Lead I, so it will not last for three weeks, as Every few days, a solitary rocket is that did. We shall all stay in our shelters – launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel. It those of us who have shelters, anyway – for rarely hits anything but an empty field. For just a few days. months, now, no one has been hurt. Why is the war inevitable? Because of the The usual sequence is like this: our air terrorism, stupid. Hamas is a terrorist orga- force carries out a “targeted liquidation” of nization, isn’t it? Palestinian militants in the strip. The army But along comes the supreme Hamas claims invariably that these specific “terror- leader, Khaled Mash’al, and declares that ists” had intended to attack Israelis. How Hamas has given up all violent action. From did the army know of their intentions? Well, now on it will concentrate on non-violent our army is a master thought reader. mass demonstrations, in the spirit of the After the persons have been killed, their Arab Spring. organization considers it its duty to avenge When Hamas forswears terrorism, there their blood by launching a rocket or a mor- is no pretext for an attack on Gaza. tar shell, or even two or three. This “can-

February 2012 | ColdType 33 WhAT NoW?

not be tolerated” by the army, and so it goes King Hussein, Israel’s longstanding a team of Mossad on. friend and ally, was hopping mad. He pre- agents was sent After every such episode, the talk about sented Netanyahu with a choice: either the to assassinate a war starts again. As American politicians agents could be tried in Jordan and possibly Mash’al in the put it in their speeches at AIPAC confer- hanged, or the Mossad would immediately street by spraying ences: “No country can tolerate its citizens send the secret antidote to save Mash’al. his ear with an being exposed to rockets!” Netanyahu capitulated, and here we have untraceable poison But of course, the reasons for Cast Lead II Mash’al, very much alive and kicking. are more serious. Hamas is being accepted by Another curious outcome of this mis- the international community. Their Prime adventure: the king demanded that the , Isma’il Haniyeh, is now traveling Hamas founder and leader, the paralyzed around the Arab and Muslim world, after Sheik Ahmad Yassin, be released from Is- being shut in Gaza – a kind of Strip-arrest – raeli prison. Netanyahu obliged, Yassin was for four years. Now he can cross into Egypt released and assassinated by Israel seven because the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’ years later. When his successor, Abd al-Aziz parent organization, has become a major Rantissi, was assassinated soon after, the player there. path was cleared for Mash’al to become the Even worse, Hamas is about to join the Hamas chief. PLO and take part in the Palestinian govern- And instead of showing his gratitude, ment. High time to do something about it. he now confronts us with a dire challenge: Attack Gaza, for example. Compel Hamas to non-violent action, indirect peace overtures, become extremist again. the two-state solution. Not content with stealing our war, Mash’al is carrying out a series of more sin- longing for a little war ister actions. By joining the PLO, he is committing A question: why does our Chief of Staff long Hamas to the Oslo agreements and all the for a little war in Gaza, when he could have other official deals between Israel and the all the war he desires in Iran? Not just a PLO. He has announced that Hamas accepts little operation, but a big war, a very very a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. big war. He has let it be known that Hamas would Well, he knows that he cannot have it. not contest the Palestinian presidency this Some time ago I did something no expe- year, so that the Fatah candidate – whoever rienced commentator ever does. I promised that may be – would be elected practically that there would be no Israeli military at- unopposed and be able to negotiate with tack on Iran. (Nor, for that matter, an Amer- Israel. ican one.) All this would put the present Israeli gov- An experienced journalist or politician ernment in a difficult position. never makes such a prediction without Mash’al has some experience in causing leaving a loophole for himself. He puts in an trouble for Israel. In 1997, the (first) Ne- inconspicuous “unless”. If his forecast goes tanyahu government decided to get rid of awry, he points to that loophole. him in Amman. A team of Mossad agents I do have some experience – some 60 or was sent to assassinate him in the street by so years of it – but I did not leave any loop- spraying his ear with an untraceable poison. hole. I said No War, and now General Gantz But instead of doing the decent thing and says the same in so many words. No Tehran, dying quietly from a mysterious cause, like just poor little Gaza. Why? Because of that Yasser Arafat, he let his bodyguard chase one word: Hormuz. the attackers and catch them. Not the ancient Persian god Hormuzd,

34 ColdType | February 2012 WhAT NoW? but the narrow strait that is the entrance the territory from which missiles can be ef- and exit of the Persian Gulf, through which fectively launched. That would be a major the us army 20% of the world’s oil (and 35% of the sea- operation. Fierce Iranian resistance must will have to land borne oil) flows. My contention was that no be expected, judging from the experience on the shore and sane (or even mildly insane) leader would of the eight-year Iraqi-Iranian war. The oil occupy all the risk the closing of the strait, because the wells in neighboring Saudi Arabia and the territory from economic consequences would be cata- other Gulf states will also be hit. which missiles strophic, even apocalyptic. Such a war would go far beyond the di- can be effectively It seems that the leaders of Iran were mensions of the American invasions of Iraq launched not sure that all the world’s leaders read or Afghanistan, perhaps even of Vietnam. this column, so, just in case, they spelled it Is the bankrupt US up to it? Economi- out themselves. Last month they conducted cally, politically and in terms of morale? conspicuous military maneuvers around The closing of the strait is the ultimate the Strait of Hormuz, accompanied by the weapon. I don’t believe that the Iranians unequivocal threat to close it. will use it against the imposition of sanc- The US responded with vainglorious tions, severe as they may be, as they have counter-threats. The invincible US Navy was threatened. Only a military attack would ready to open the strait by force, if needed. warrant such a response. How, pray? The mightiest multi-billion If Israel attacks alone – “the most stupid aircraft carrier can be easily sunk by a bat- idea I ever heard of,” as our former Mossad tery of cheap land-to-sea missiles, as well as chief put it – that will make no difference. by small missile-boats. Iran will consider it an American action, Let’s assume Iran starts to act out its and close the strait. That’s why the Obama threats. The whole might of the US air force administration put its foot down, and hand- and navy is brought to bear. Iranian ships delivered to Netanyahu and Ehud Barak an will be sunk, missile and army installations unequivocal order to abstain from any mili- bombed. Still the Iranian missiles will come tary action. in, making passage through the strait im- That’s where we are now. No war in Iran. possible. Just the prospect of a war in Gaza. And along comes this evil Mash’al and boots on the ground tries to spoil the chances of that, too. cT

What next? There will be no alternative to Uri Avnery is an Israeli peace activist and a “boots on the ground”. The US army will former Knesset member. He is the founder of have to land on the shore and occupy all Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace movement.

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February 2012 | ColdType 35 AFTEr ThE EArThqUAKE / 1 Haiti: Where the money did, and did not, go Bill Quigley & Amber Ramanauskas follow the trail of the cash

aiti, a close neighbor of the US with Haitians ask the same question as many almost none of over nine million people, was dev- around the world “Where did the money the money that astated by earthquake on January go?” the general public H12, 2010. Hundreds of thousands Here are seven places where the earth- thought was were killed and many more wounded. quake money did and did not go. going to haiti The UN estimated international donors actually went gave Haiti over $1.6 billion in relief aid since 1. The largest single recipient of US earth- directly to haiti the earthquake (about $155 per Haitian) quake money was the US government. and over $2 billion in recovery aid (about The same holds true for donations by $173 per Haitian) over the last two years. other countries. Yet Haiti looks like the earthquake hap- Right after the earthquake, the US allo- pened two months ago, not two years. Over cated $379 million in aid and sent in 5,000 half a million people remain homeless in troops. The Associated Press discovered hundreds of informal camps, most of the that of the $379 million in initial US mon- tons of debris from destroyed buildings still ey promised for Haiti, most was not really lays where it fell, and cholera, a preventable money going directly, or in some cases even disease, was introduced into the country and indirectly, to Haiti. They documented in is now an epidemic killing thousands and January 2010 that thirty three cents of each sickening hundreds of thousands more. of these US dollars for Haiti was actually It turns out that almost none of the mon- given directly back to the US to reimburse ey that the general public thought was go- ourselves for sending in our military. Forty ing to Haiti actually went directly to Haiti. two cents of each dollar went to private and The international community chose to by- public non-governmental organizations like pass the Haitian people, Haitian non-gov- Save the Children, the UN World Food Pro- ernmental organizations and the govern- gram and the Pan American Health Organi- ment of Haiti. Funds were instead diverted zation. Hardly any went directly to Haitians to other governments, international NGOs, or their government. and private companies. The overall $1.6 billion allocated for re- Despite this near total lack of control of lief by the US was spent much the same the money by Haitians, if history is an indi- way according to an August 2010 report by cation, it is quite likely that the failures will the US Congressional Research Office: $655 ultimately be blamed on the Haitians them- million was reimbursed to the Department selves in a “blame the victim” reaction. of Defense; $220 million to Department

36 ColdType | February 2012 AFTEr ThE EArThqUAKE / 1 of Health and Human Services to provide hand, contractors from the Washington DC grants to individual US states to cover ser- area received $76 million or 39.4 percent the haitian vices for Haitian evacuees; $350 million to of the total. As noted above, the UN docu- government USAID disaster assistance; $150 million to mented that only four tenths of one percent was completely the US Department of Agriculture for emer- of international aid went to Haitian NGOs. bypassed in the gency food assistance; $15 million to the In fact Haitians had a hard time even get- relief effort by Department of Homeland Security for im- ting into international aid meetings. Refu- the us and the migration fees, and so on. gees International reported that locals were international International assistance followed the having a hard time even getting access to community same pattern. The UN Special Envoy for the international aid operational meetings Haiti reported that of the $2.4 billion in inside the UN compound. “Haitian groups humanitarian funding, 34 percent was pro- are either unaware of the meetings, do not vided back to the donor’s own civil and have proper photo-ID passes for entry, or military entities for disaster response, 28 do not have the staff capacity to spend long percent was given to UN agencies and non- hours at the compound.” Others reported governmental agencies (NGOs) for specific that most of these international aid coordi- UN projects, 26 percent was given to private nation meetings were not even being trans- contractors and other NGOs, 6 percent was lated into Creole, the language of the major- provided as in-kind services to recipients, ity of the people of Haiti! 5 percent to the international and national Red Cross societies, 1 percent was provided 4. A large percentage of the money went to the government of Haiti, four tenths of to international aid agencies, and big one percent of the funds went to Haitian well connected non-governmental orga- NGOs. nizations (NGOs). The American Red Cross received over 2. Only 1 percent of the money went to $486 million in donations for Haiti. It says the Haitian government. two-thirds of the money has been contract- Less than a penny of each dollar of US ed to relief and recovery efforts, though aid went to the government of Haiti, accord- specific details are difficult to come by. The ing to the Associated Press. The same is true CEO of American Red Cross has a salary of with other international donors. The Hai- over $500,000 per year. tian government was completely bypassed Look at the $8.6 million joint contract in the relief effort by the US and the inter- between the US Agency for International national community. Development (USAID) with the private company CHF for debris removal in Port 3. Extremely little went to Haitian com- au Prince. CHF is politically well-connected panies or Haitian non-governmental or- international development company with ganizations. annual budget of over $200 million whose The Center for Economic and Policy Re- CEO was paid $451,813 in 2009. CHF’s con- search, the absolute best source for accurate nection to Republicans and Democrats information on this issue, analyzed all the is illustrated by its board secretary, Lauri 1490 contracts awarded by the US govern- Fitz-Pegado, a partner with the Livingston ment after the January 2010 earthquake Group LLC. The Livingston Group is headed until April 2011 and found only 23 contracts by the former Republican Speaker-desig- went to Haitian companies. Overall the US nate for the 106th Congress, Bob Livingston, had awarded $194 million to contractors, doing lobbying and government relations. $4.8 million to the 23 Haitian companies, Ms. Fitz-Pegado, who apparently works the about 2.5 percent of the total. On the other other side of the aisle, was appointed by

November 2011 | ColdType 37 AFTEr ThE EArThqUAKE / 1

President Clinton to serve in the Depart- In this February 1, 2010 document, made less than a ment of Commerce and served as a member public by , Haiti Liberte and month after the of the foreign policy expert advisor team on Wikileaks, Ambassador Merten reported quake hit, the the Obama for President Campaign. CHF the President of Haiti met with former Gen- us ambassador “works in Haiti out of two spacious man- eral Wesley Clark for a sales presentation for kenneth Merten sions in Port au Prince and maintains a fleet a Miami-based company that builds foam sent a cable titled of brand new vehicles” according to Rolling core houses. “the gold Stone. Capitalizing on the disaster, Lewis Lucke, rush is on” , in an excellent article by a high ranking USAID relief coordinator, as part of his Janet Reitman, reported on another earth- met twice in his USAID capacity with the situation report to quake contract, a $1.5 million contract to Haitian Prime Minister immediately after Washington the NY based consulting firm Dalberg Glob- the quake. He then quit the agency and al Development Advisors. The article found was hired for $30,000 a month by a Florida Dalberg’s team “had never lived overseas, corporation Ashbritt (known already for its didn’t have any disaster experience or back- big no bid Katrina grants) and a prosperous ground in urban planning… never carried Haitian partner to lobby for disaster con- out any program activities on the ground…” tracts. Locke said “it became clear to us that and only one of them spoke French. USAID if it was handled correctly the earthquake reviewed their work and found that “it be- represented as much an opportunity as it came clear that these people may not have did a calamity…” even gotten out of their SUVs.” Ashbritt and its Haitian partner were Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clin- soon granted a $10 million no bid contract. ton announced a fundraising venture for Lucke said he was instrumental in secur- Haiti on January 16, 2010. As of October 2011, ing another $10 million contract from the the fund had received $54 million in dona- World Bank and another smaller one from tions. It has partnered with several Haitian CHF International before their relationship and international organizations. Though ended. most of its work appears to be admirable, it has donated $2 million to the construction 6. A fair amount of the pledged money of a Haitian $29 million for-profit luxury has never been actually put up. hotel. The international community decided “The NGOs still have something to re- it was not going to allow the Haiti govern- spond to about their accountability, because ment to direct the relief and recovery funds there is a lot of cash out there,” according and insisted that two institutions be set up to Nigel Fisher, the UN’s chief humanitar- to approve plans and spending for the re- ian officer in Haiti. “What about the $1.5 to construction funds going to Haiti. The first $2 billion that the Red Cross and NGOs got was the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission from ordinary people, and matched by gov- (IHRC) and the second is the Haiti Recon- ernments? What’s happened to that? And struction Fund (HRF). that’s where it’s very difficult to trace those In March 2010, UN countries pledged funds.” $5.3 billion over two years and a total of $9.9 billion over three years in a conference 5. Some money went to for profit compa- March 2010. The money was to be depos- nies whose business is disasters. ited with the World Bank and distributed Less than a month after the quake hit, by the IHRC. The IHRC was co-chaired by the US Ambassador Kenneth Merten sent Bill Clinton and the Haitian Prime Minis- a cable titled “THE GOLD RUSH IS ON” as ter. By July 2010, Bill Clinton reported only part of his situation report to Washington. 10 percent of the pledges had been given

38 ColdType | February 2012 AFTEr ThE EArThqUAKE / 1 to the IHRC. the money and see how it has been spent. 7. A lot of the money which was put up Without transparency and a respectful part- haitians deserve has not yet been spent. nership the Haitian people cannot hold to know where the Nearly two years after the quake, less anyone accountable for what has happened money has gone, than 1 percent of the $412 million in US in their country. That has to change. what the plans are funds specifically allocated for infrastruc- The UN Special Envoy to Haiti suggests for the money still ture reconstruction activities in Haiti had the generous instincts of people around the left been spent by USAID and the US State De- world must be channeled by international partment and only 12 percent has even been actors and institutions in a way that assists obligated according to a November 2011 re- in the creation of a “robust public sector port by the US Government Accountability and a healthy private sector.” Instead of Office (GAO). giving the money to intermediaries, funds The performance of the two interna- should be directed as much as possible to tional commissions, the IHRC and the Haitian public and private institutions. A HRF has also been poor. The Miami Herald “Haiti First” policy could strengthen public noted that as of July 2011, the $3.2 billion systems, promote accountability, and cre- in projects approved by the IHRC only five ate jobs and build skills among the Haitian had been completed for a total of $84 mil- people. lion. The Interim Haiti Recovery Commis- Respect, transparency and accountabil- sion (IHRC), which was severely criticized ity are the building blocks for human rights. by Haitians and others from its beginning, Haitians deserve to know where the money has been effectively suspended since its has gone, what the plans are for the money mandate ended at the end of October 2011. still left, and to be partners in the decision- The Haiti Reconstruction Fund was set up making for what is to come. to work in tandem with the IHRC, so while After all, these are the people who will be its partner is suspended, it is not clear how solving the problems when the post-earth- it can move forward. quake relief money is gone. cT

What to do Bill Quigley is a law professor and human rights advocate at Loyola University New The effort so far has not been based a re- Orleans. Bill is a long time Haiti advocate in spectful partnership between Haitians and his work with the Center for Constitutional the international community. The actions Rights and the Institute for Justice and of the donor countries and the NGOs and Democracy in Haiti. Amber Ramanauskas international agencies have not been trans- is a human rights lawyer in NYC. Vladimir parent so that Haitians or others can track Laguerre helped with this article.

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February 2012 | ColdType 39 AFTEr ThE EArThqUAKE / 2 Haiti: Raped since 2004 and still bleeding Glen Ford reflects on the suffering of a nation at the hands of the international community

he horrific squandering of Haitian to the United States. The Americans used a since the lives and earthquake relief and aid huge chunk of their so-called aid money to earthquake that dollars by the occupying powers reimburse themselves for the cost of their shook the life Tover the past two years are direct military occupation of the country. Dead, out of hundreds consequences of previous imperial crimes. dying, sick, starving, homeless Haitians are of thousands of Since 2004, Haiti has been methodically made to pay for their own imprisonment in already deeply stripped of its sovereignty, made into a pro- their native land, while Washington gloats wounded people, tectorate of the , which is that it is Haiti’s last, best hope, and that the the united states merely a front for the United States. catastrophic earthquake might have been a has flexed every The earthquake of January 2010 was a good thing, a chance for a “new beginning” superpower natural phenomenon that happened to take under Washington’s firm guidance. muscle to prolong place while a rape was in progress. Millions were spent to choreograph haiti’s agony In the American media, Haiti is most of- crooked elections that brought to office ten spoken of as a tragedy – when it is ac- a government with no power, even less tually the scene of horrific crimes, mainly money, and not a shred of dignity – a pup- perpetrated by the United States over the pet regime held in absolute disrespect by its span of two centuries. For the past two American puppeteers. years, since the earthquake that shook the life out of hundreds of thousands of already outlaw party deeply wounded people, the United States has flexed every superpower muscle to pro- Meanwhile, Haiti’s most popular political long Haiti’s agony. party remains, for all official purposes, an Half a million people are still homeless, outlaw, effectively banned from civic partic- two years after the quake, despite the bil- ipation. The Haitian people are not allowed lions in relief and recovery aid pledged by to speak. And this is the heart of the crime, international donors. Sixty percent of the from which all the grand and petty assaults rubble has yet to be removed from the capi- on the Haitian nation, flow. tal and its suburbs, and 6,000 people have Last month’s anniversary of the killer died from a cholera epidemic brought into earthquake is full of morbid statistics on the country by United Nations troops. The physical destruction, death and disease, UN has still not seen fit to apologize for be- but the appalling numbers cannot separate ing the vector of disease, because the UN is these two years of horror from the crimes not accountable to the people of Haiti – only that came before: the isolation and armed

40 ColdType | February 2012 AFTEr ThE EArThqUAKE / 2 extortion of Haiti by United States and The earthquake of January 2010 was a Europe following her 1804 victory against natural phenomenon that happened to haiti has been French slavery, leaving the Black republic take place while a rape was in progress. The methodically with a debt that was not paid off until the rapists in Washington take their greatest stripped of its 1940s; the 26 separate invasions of Haiti by pleasure in Haiti’s degradation. Haiti needs sovereignty, made the United States from 1849 to 1915, followed nothing from the United States, except to be into a protectorate by a nearly 20-year occupation that lasted left alone, as a free nation in the world, to of the united until 1934; and the US overthrow of Haiti’s make friends as it chooses. It is not natural nations popularly elected president, Jean Bertrand disaster that holds her back, but naked US Aristide, in 2004, the 200th anniversary of aggression – because all people have the ca- Haiti’s independence. pacity to rise, unless they are held down by Since 2004, Haiti has been methodically overwhelming force. cT stripped of its sovereignty, made into a pro- tectorate of the United Nations, which is Glen Ford is executive editor of the Black merely a front for the real rulers, the United Agenda Report at www.blackagendareport. States and its junior partners, France and com, where this commentary was first Canada. published.

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February 2012 | ColdType 41 FICTIoN Meal A short story by Puzzlemonkey

n some parts of Africa they call the sun second goat, the one with a black patch the black “The Government.” It’s as brutal, and around its eye, to the post. His hand works patch eyes its just as hard to get away from. in sharp, angry snaps, leaving the animal companion, I The heat presses down on a white- only a few inches to move. considers fighting, haired man as his short, tired steps carry “Must I give my goats away? So I sold then drops its him toward the shop. His shoes are cracked, only the one goat. I will take my bag of meal head under the but the years have buffed them with a dull and eat my other goats.” He straightens up heat and nuzzles sheen even as they’ve grown too loose for and wipes sweat from his forehead. “The at a scrap of dry his feet. The shloffs of dust they throw up good Lord alone knows what Angelique grass sink away as if they too are too weary to rise, will have to say. And you, Franco? How are and want to stoop like his shoulders under things with you?” the threadbare jacket. One hand clutches The second goat pulls against its rope, thin ropes that are tied around the necks of then wrenches its head against the lack of a pair of goats. The animals’ heads hang low, play. It is too close to the first goat, who jabs mouths open, as they trudge behind him. a horn at it. The black patch eyes its com- Franco, propped against the shop’s wall in panion, considers fighting, then drops its the shade, sips from a red and white tin with head under the heat and nuzzles at a scrap all the unconquered confidence of youth. Tall of dry grass poking through a crack in the and well-built, he has a quick smile that off- cement. sets his muscles but matches his tiny, spiky Franco grins. “A boy.” He lifts the can in dreads. He sits forward, the fingertips on his a toast. “Can you believe it? Finally! Healthy free hand raised to the tip of a non-existent too, lungs like a bull’s.” hat. “Greetings, Tata Tumba.” Tumba smiles. “Well done, young man. The old man tethers the first goat with God has certainly been kind to you.” He snapping jerks that leave it too close to the steps into the shop, pulling back his shoul- wooden post. He mumbles a greeting with- ders. Franco sips, sweet and cold winning out looking up. out against the heat for a moment. Head Franco leans back, sipping his Coke. thrown back under the can, he misses the “How was the market, Tata?” old man’s muttering. Tumba spits. “One goat. They give you “Just wait till he stops sucking milk and fifty thousand franc for a goat. What can you have to feed him.” you buy with fifty thousand today?” The cool, floury air inside braces Tumba. Franco shakes his head. Tumba ties the He is glad to see that there are only two

42 ColdType | February 2012 FICTIoN other people in the shop. Esau stands be- Tata. Was the market good today?” hind the counter that runs the length of the Oumo lowers the dress, and dips her the leathery small room, splitting it in two. Everything knees just the tiniest bit. “Greetings, Tata.” fingers with their of any value is stacked behind the counter, She puts the dress in the crate and carries gnarled joints tap along with the tins, boxes and packets of on hunting through the clothes. A yellow the edges, and normal foodstuff. and red dress catches her eye, and she pulls count the money An oil drum filled with water stands in it out. again front of the counter, a ladle and tin cups “Tchaaaa, the market. Give me one dangling from wire hooks around its rim. A month.” Tumba glances at Oumo as he faint and elusive water glint dances on the takes a handful of notes out of his pocket. underside of the tin roof. “I always thought red is a good colour for a Another crate holds a jumble of used woman in summer.” clothes. Oumo sifts through the torn jeans “Tata....” Esau stares at the old man for and new-looking t-shirts, the kids’ blouses a long moment. He opens his mouth, but and workmen’s overalls. She is wearing an then turns away towards the shelves. ankle-length skirt and a long-sleeved blouse Tumba counts out a hundred and twenty that fit her reputation for dressing smartly, five thousand franc while Esau hauls a huge even when she is not giving class. bag of ground maize meal onto the counter. Esau inherited the shop from his grandfa- The shopkeeper adds smaller paper bags of ther, and the old man had bought it from the beans, nuts, dried fish and tins of food in original owner, who, depending on who was a neat row next to the meal. He picks up a telling the story, was a Norwegian, a China- machete to cut a length from a roll of dried man or a Jew. The Jew left to join the army fruit. in Israel, or, in another version, went to Bia- The dress has narrow straps on the shoul- fra to sell weapons to both sides of the civil ders, and looks tight at the waist. Its long war. The Chinese vanished after persuading flared skirts breathe sophistication. Oumo the local tax collector to let him keep the stands up straight and holds it at arm’s money overnight in his shop safe. The Nor- length, turning it and tilting her head to the wegian married two women from Kassawa left, then the right. and went to live there, raising ground nuts Tumba squares the notes. The leathery and chickens. Or so the story went. fingers with their gnarled joints tap the Although Esau is slender, almost sinewy, edges, and count the money again. the years of lifting meal, beans and nuts Esau turns around, blade in one hand have built up muscles that gleam nearly as and a length of dried fruit in the other. He much as his shaven head. shuts his eyes and takes a breath. “I’m sor- “Three thousand franc for a shirt, four ry, Tata....” He looks at the old man. “One thousand for a dress and six for pants,” he month is now two hundred and fifty thou- says more to Tumba than to Oumo. sand.” She strokes the fabric of a dress, making Tumba’s head snaps up as if the shop- tut-tut noises, and turns it in her hands. keeper has struck him. “What?” “I’m cutting my own arm off,” Esau con- “I’m sorry, Tata. It is the government.” tinues as Oumo holds the dress out in front Oumo holds the dress against her body of her. She turns it this way and that, trying and strikes a pose, one foot forward just like to get the guinea-fowl print to catch what- the first step into church, holds her head ever light there is. high for a moment, and then looks down at “But what can a man do? No one wants the material. She juts her knee a little for- to pay for anything any more. Greetings, ward to push the fabric out and straightens

February 2012 | ColdType 43 FICTIoN

the pleats with one hand. Tumba shoves the money off the coun- tumba’s leathery “I don’t buy my meal from the govern- ter. Esau knows it’s a feint, but he can’t help frame is tougher ment.” but look down as the bills scatter at his feet. than it looks, and “No, Tata,” says Esau, “it’s the world bank Tumba snatches the machete, and holds it the machete in who’s making them raise – ” straight in front of him, waving it slightly esau’s hand stops “What world bank?” from side to side. the shopkeeper Oumo looks up at Tumba. “Tata, what do Esau lets out a cry and leaps onto the from getting a you think of – ” counter, grabbing at the handle of the ma- proper grip Esau interrupts. “They’re forcing the gov- chete. Tumba pulls away and steps back. ernment to cancel the subsi – ” He looks to the door, at the bag, and then “Do I put my money in this bank?” Tum- around the shop. For a moment he thinks ba waves the hundred thousand. about running, but he’s done nothing Oumo looks at the dress again and turns wrong, so why should he? He wants to grab a little to let the yellow weave catch the his bag of meal, but he won’t get very far dusty light. weighed down by it and Esau running after “No, Tata, but they – ” him. He wants to scream, hit something, “Do I put my money in this bank, or do I but instead he grabs hold of Oumo. give it to you?” She drops the dress and screams as Tum- “Tata, please.” ba puts the blade against her neck. Coins Oumo nods, folds the dress along its ping to the floor and roll up against the bar- creases and walks to the counter, digging in rel and under the crates. her bosom. Tumba glares at the shopkeeper’s meal- “Where is this bank, anyway?” covered hands. “Give me my month or you Esau shrugs. “In Paris, I think, but they will be the one responsible!” have men all over the world.” Franco rushes in but slams to a halt when Oumo reaches into her bra and out pulls he sees the machete. a balled handkerchief. “No,” she says, un- “Tata.” Esau edges forward on the wrapping it and picking out coins, “it’s in counter, raising his massive hands. “Put it America. Washington. Tata Tumba,” down.” Tumba smacks his money on the coun- Tumba backs away, pulling Oumo with ter and heaves the bag of meal towards him. him. “Give me my month!” “If they want my money in Washington let Franco takes a step forward but a glance them come here and get it.” from Tumba stops him. He raises a hand Esau grabs the other end of the bag. The and holds it out to the old man, palm up. men grunt and grit as they pull. Tumba’s “Please, Tata, whatever is wrong, we – ” leathery frame is tougher than it looks, and Oumo cuts him off. “All of you be quiet. the machete in Esau’s hand stops the shop- Just give the man his – ” keeper from getting a proper grip. Much as “Stay back!” shouts Tumba as Esau tens- Esau’s muscles bulge, he barely hauls the es to leap. bag an inch or so. The blade glints. Tumba presses it against Tumba lets go with one hand and pushes Oumo’s throat and she screams. A drop of the francs towards Esau. The younger man blood runs onto the blade. She grabs at her instinctively puts out a hand to stop the throat and pulls away from the old man. notes sliding off the counter, and Tumba Tumba stares at the machete. A frown yanks the bag towards his side. notches between his eyes and the fist hold- Esau lets go of the bag and raises the ma- ing the blade drops to his side. chete. “Pay half, get half.” The blade flashes Esau swears. He jumps down and rips the down into the bag, sending white dust flying. knife from the old man’s hand.

44 ColdType | February 2012 FICTIoN

Franco grabs a shirt from the crate and blood off the machete. presses it to the cut on Oumo’s throat. She # she throws waves a finger at the men. The dust tugs at the feet of an old man in the the shirt on “Shame on you! Grown men! Esau, give late afternoon gloom. Two goats follow him, the ground and the man his month. Is the world bank his heads down and tongues out. A small bag marches out of the fault? Anyway, look how you’ve cut that hangs tucked into his belt and his shoulders door, muttering as bag. And you, Tata....” sag under a bag of meal. There is just a hint she goes Her head shakes. “Ayi.” She touches the of a stagger in his steps. cut, takes the shirt from Franco and dabs it A steady trickle of meal runs from a gash at her throat. She bends down and reaches in the bag as he trudges towards the sinking for a coin on the floor. Before she gets to it, Government. cT she straightens up, throws the shirt on the ground and marches out of the door, mut- PuzzleMonkey is perpetually perplexed by tering as she goes. the behaviour patterns of the hairless apes, Franco helps Tumba shoulder the bag and tries to work through this by writing of meal, then packs the other food into an- odd pieces of short and longer fiction. For other bag. Esau picks up the shirt and looks light relief he shoots and edits video, and has ruefully at the stain before he wipes the recently started a blog at www.pzmk.co.za

HURWITT’S EYE Mark hurwitt

February 2012 | ColdType 45 KEEP oUT Welcome to the world’s first bunker state As refugees from Africa flock north, Israel decides there’s still only room for Jews in the ‘villa in ’, writes Jonathan Cook

he wheel is turning full circle. Last Israel’s intention is apparently to put as as it did with the month the Israeli parliament up- many of these refugees behind bars as pos- palestinians many dated a 59-year-old law originally sible, and dissuade others from following in years ago, israel Tintended to prevent hundreds of their footsteps. has criminalised thousands of Palestinian refugees from re- To cope, officials have approved the these new turning to the homes and lands from which building of an enormous detention camp, refugees they had been expelled as Israel was estab- operated by Israel’s prison service, to con- lished. tain 10,000 of these unwelcome arrivals. The purpose of the draconian 1954 Pre- That will make it the largest holding facility vention of Infiltration Law was to lock up of its kind in the world - according to Am- any Palestinian who managed to slip past nesty International, it will be three times the snipers guarding the new state’s bor- bigger than the next largest, in the much ders. more populous, and divine retribution-lov- Israel believed only savage punishment ing, US state of Texas. and deterrence could ensure it maintained the overwhelming Jewish majority it had re- Moral duty cently created through a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Israeli critics of the law fear their country is Fast-forward six decades and Israel is re- failing in its moral duty to help those flee- lying on the infiltration law again, this time ing persecution, thereby betraying the Jew- to prevent a supposedly new threat to its ish people’s own experiences of suffering existence: the arrival each year of several and oppression. thousand desperate African asylum seek- But the Israeli government and the large ers. majority of legislators who backed the law As it did with the Palestinians many - like their predecessors in the 1950s - have years ago, Israel has criminalised these new drawn a very different conclusion from his- refugees - in their case, for fleeing persecu- tory. tion, war or economic collapse. Whole fami- The new infiltration law is the latest in lies can now be locked up, without a trial, a set of policies fortifying Israel’s status as for three years while a deportation order is the world’s first “bunker state”- and one sought and enforced, and Israelis who offer designed to be as ethnically pure as pos- them assistance risk jail sentences of up to sible. The concept was expressed most fa- 15 years. mously by an earlier prime minister, Ehud

46 ColdType | February 2012 KEEP oUT

Barak, now the defence minister, who called tacks Israel’s neighbours might launch. Israel “a villa in the jungle”, relegating the But there is a flaw in the design of this the northern country’s neighbours to the status of wild shelter, one that is apparent even to its ar- border is already animals. chitects. Israel is sealing itself in with some one of the most Barak and his successors have been turn- of the very “animals” the villa is supposed heavily militarised ing this metaphor into a physical reality, to exclude: not only the African refugees, in the world - as slowly sealing off their state from the rest but also 1.5 million “Israeli Arabs”, descen- lebanese and of the region at astronomical cost, much dants of the small number of Palestinians syrian protesters of it subsidised by US taxpayers. Their ul- who avoided expulsion in 1948. found to great timate goal is to make Israel so impervious This has been the chief motive for the cost last summer to outside influence that no concessions steady stream of anti-democratic measures when dozens for peace, such as agreeing to a Palestinian by the government and parliament that were shot dead state, need ever be made with the “beasts” is rapidly turning into a torrent. It is also and wounded as around them. the reason for the Israeli leadership’s new- they approached The most tangible expression of this found demand that the Palestinians recog- or stormed the mentality has been a frenzy of wall-building. nise Israel’s Jewishness; its obsessions with fences there The best-known are those erected around loyalty; and the growing appeal of popula- the Palestinian territories: first Gaza, then tion exchange schemes. the areas of the West Bank Israel is not in- In the face of the legislative assault, Is- tending to annex - or, at least, not yet. rael’s Supreme Court has grown ever more The northern border is already one of complicit. the most heavily militarised in the world - Last month, it sullied its reputation by as Lebanese and Syrian protesters found to upholding a law that tears apart families great cost last summer when dozens were by denying tens of thousands of Palestin- shot dead and wounded as they approached ians with Israeli citizenship the right to or stormed the fences there. And Israel has live with their Palestinian spouse in Israel a proposal in the drawer for another wall - “ethnic cleansing” by other means, as along the border with Jordan, much of leading Israeli commentator Gideon Levy which is already mined. noted. The only remaining border, the 260km Back in the early 1950s, the Israeli army one with Egypt, is currently being closed shot dead thousands of unarmed Palestin- with another gargantuan wall. The plans ians as they tried to reclaim property that were agreed before last year’s Arab revolu- had been stolen from them. These many tions but have gained fresh impetus with years later, Israel appears no less deter- the overthrow of Egyptian dictator Hosni mined to keep non-Jews out of its precious Mubarak. villa. The bunker state is almost finished, and Missile defense with it the dream of Israel’s founders is about to be realised. cT Israel is not only well advanced on the walls of the bunker; it is also working round Jonathan Cook won the 2011 Martha the clock on the roof. It has three missile- Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His defence systems in various stages of devel- latest books are “Israel and the Clash of opment, including the revealingly named Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to “Iron Dome”, as well as US Patriot batteries Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and stationed on its soil. The interception sys- “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments tems are supposed to neutralise any com- in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website bination of short and long-range missile at- is www.jkcook.net

February 2012 | ColdType 47 PITY ThE ChILdrEN The sacrificial castle In Britain, as in other nations, there are groups of children who can be abused with impunity, says George Monbiot

exas is a largely-Christian state not be prosecuted because the beating took a 12-year-old that appears to believe in neither place eight years ago. But even if it had hap- boy with attention forgiveness nor redemption. Last pened yesterday, he might not have been deficit disorder Tmonth the Guardian revealed the charged, as he could have claimed that he was imprisoned extent to which it has criminalised its chil- was disciplining his child. In both cases the for turning dren. Police now patrol the schools, arrest- law permits people to do things to children over a desk; six ing and charging pupils as young as six for that they could not do to adults. years later, he’s breaches of discipline. Before we start feeling too superior, we still inside Among the villainies for which they have should remember that systematic injus- been apprehended are throwing paper aero- tice towards children is common to many planes, using perfume in class, cheeking the nations. Consider these cases, all from teacher, wearing the wrong clothes and ar- the past few decades: the theft of babies riving late for school. A 12-year-old boy with and forced adoptions in Spain; the teen- attention deficit disorder was imprisoned age girls pressed into slavery into Ireland’s for turning over a desk; six years later, he’s Magdalene laundries; the sexual abuse in still inside. Children convicted of these enor- its industrial schools; similar institutional mities – 300,000 such tickets were issued by abuse, also by Catholic priests, in many Texas police in 2010 – acquire a criminal re- parts of the world; buggery and beatings cord. This makes them ineligible for federal in Welsh children’s homes; the British chil- aid at university and for much subsequent dren told, wrongly, that they were orphans employment. and exported to Australia, Canada and oth- Yet most of them have committed no er Commonwealth countries; the assaults recognised crime. As one of the judges who by staff in privately-run child jails. It seems hears their cases explained to the Guardian, to me that such abuses have three common “if any adult did it it’s not going to be a vio- characteristics. lation.” On the other hand, no charges have been sacrificial caste brought against a Texas judge called Wil- liam Adams. Last year a video was released The first is that the countries in which they which showed him beating the living day- occur appear to possess a sacrificial caste of lights out of his daughter with a leather children, whose rights can be denied and belt. The attack was so savage that when I whose interests can be disregarded with im- watched it I nearly threw up. Adams can- punity. The second is that these countries

48 ColdType | February 2012 PITY ThE ChILdrEN have a powerful resistance towards con- up involves a constant negotiation between fronting and addressing this injustice: dis- parents and children. But an institution compare this cussing it often amounts to a taboo. (These cannot rebuild itself around one child. In- to the ethical two traits were chillingly dramatised in stead, the child must adapt to the system. agonising over Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go). Combined with the sudden and then re- whether or not The third is that systematic abuse becomes peated loss of parents, siblings, pets and children should widely acknowledged only after determined toys, this causes the child to shut itself off be taken into care people – such as Margaret Humphreys (the from the need for intimacy. This can cause and you encounter child migrants) and Alison Taylor (the major problems in adulthood: depression, the class prejudice Welsh care homes) – spend years trying to an inability to talk about or understand common to force it into the open in the face of official emotions, the urge to escape from or to de- all british denial. stroy intimate relationships. These symp- governments: So I want to try once more to begin a toms mostly affect early boarders: those the upper classes discussion about an issue we still refuse who start when they are older are less likely require no to examine: early boarding. It is as British to be harmed. oversight as warm beer, green suburbs and pointless It should be obvious that this system could foreign wars. Despite or because of that also inflict wider damage. A repressed, trau- we won’t talk about it. Those on the right matised elite, unable to connect emotionally will not defend these children, as they will with others, is a danger to society: look at the not criticise private schools. Those on the men who started the First World War. left won’t defend them, as they see them as privileged and therefore undeserving of deciding the age concern. But children’s needs are universal; they know no such distinctions. Over the past few days, I have phoned The UK Boarding Schools website lists 18 the education department, the Boarding schools which take boarders from the age Schools Association and the head teach- of eight, and 38 which take them from the ers of several schools to ask them a simple age of seven. I expect such places have im- question: how did they decide that seven or proved over the past 40 years; they could eight was an appropriate age for children to scarcely have got worse. Children are likely start boarding? In every case the answer was to have more contact with home; though the same: they didn’t. This, they all told me, one school I phoned last week told me that is just the way it has always been done. No some of its pupils still see their parents only inquiry, no committee, no board, no ethics in the holidays. But the nature of boarding council has, as far as they know, ever exam- is only one of the forces that can harm these ined this question. Very young children are children. The other is the fact of boarding. being sent away from home in a complete In a paper published last year in the Brit- vacuum of professional advice. Compare ish Journal of Psychotherapy, Dr Joy Schav- this to the ethical agonising over whether erien identifies a set of symptoms common or not children should be taken into care among early boarders that she calls Board- and you encounter the class prejudice com- ing School Syndrome. Her research suggests mon to all British governments: the upper George Monbiot’s that the act of separation, regardless of what classes require no oversight. latest book is might follow it, “can cause profound devel- So yes, rage against Texas and its mon- “Bring On The opmental damage”, as “early rupture with strosities, and wonder at the cruel, authori- Apocalypse”. home has a lasting influence on attachment tarian system a nominal democracy can This piece first patterns.” produce. But remember that this is not the appeared in When a child is brought up at home, the only place in which governments endorse London’s Guardian family adapts to accommodate it: growing the damage done to children. cT newspaper.

February 2012 | ColdType 49 PoWEr ShIFT / 1 Coffins for US and Nato; contracts for China Barry Lando on Iran, israel and the US

ome bitter ironies in Afghanistan Afghanistan. In 2007 Beijing signed a $3 bil- it was american these days: U.S. and French soldiers lion agreement to explore huge copper de- engineers who, gunned down by the very Afghan posits in Mes Aynak, south of Kabul. in the summer of Stroops they work with. America and India is the only other country to go after 2010, completed a its NATO allies, facing huge budget prob- Afghan minerals. Last November a deal was survey concluding lems themselves, persist in squandering signed giving Indian firms the rights to 1.8 that afghanistan billions in Afghanistan, to defeat Islamic billion tons on iron-ore, one of the largest sits atop one radicals and create a propitious climate untapped deposits in Asia. trillion dollars of for growth and investment. Right now, the It’s very unlikely that the Chinese [and untapped copper, largest investments so safe guarded are Chi- Indians] would be making such risky bets iron and lithium nese. without the security provided by the U.S. deposits Another paradox, it was American engi- and its allies. After the copper deal was neers who, in the summer of 2010, complet- inked, 2,000 US troops were deployed to ed a survey concluding that Afghanistan provide general security in Logar Province sits atop one trillion dollars of untapped where the Mes Aynak mine is located. They copper, iron and lithium deposits. If it could also protected the projected routes of the just get its act together, the country had a road and railway which will service the huge promising future. Skeptics immediately development. Another 1,500 Afghan Na- claimed that rosy estimate didn’t take ac- tional Police, presumably paid and trained count Afghanistan’s woeful infrastructure: by the U.S. and its allies, were sent to guard it could cost more to mine those resources the mine itself. than they were worth. In addition, facing restless Muslim groups But that’s not how the Chinese see it. A in their own country, the Chinese are not at few weeks ago, China’s National Petroleum all unhappy about the U.S. and Nato taking Corporation became the first foreign com- on Islamic militants in Afghanistan. pany to be allowed to explore Afghanistan’s oil and gas reserves in the Amu Darya Ba- china says no sin. The deal is estimated to be worth more than $700 million. Some speculate it could Yet, all the while, China has consistently ultimately be worth ten times that amount refused to contribute to the joint Western to China. military force. They even turned down a Even before that deal, however, China request to permit NATO to ship non-lethal was already the largest foreign investor in supplies via China to Afghanistan.

50 ColdType | February 2012 PoWEr ShIFT / 1

So why aren’t the U.S. and its allies in other recent blogs] screaming about the situation? Because, A particularly insightful comment on Without if they are to have a face-saving way out of China’s tactics in Afghanistan followed an massive military Afghanistan that doesn’t disintegrate into article in The Diplomat: deployments, chaos, they desperately need China’s huge “Achieving a peace agreement is always china has already new investments to continue and prosper. the number one preference for Chinese gov- become a major As things now stand, once the income ernment. By nature Chinese are not inter- player throughout from opium production is deducted, 97% ested in “beating” other group of people, the region of Afghanistan’s GNP comes from foreign but are interested in “gaining” concrete aid. A whole new economy is needed. benefits. This is due to the Chinese culture After China’s National Petroleum Council and history. In Chinese culture, people be- signed its recent oil agreement with Kabul, lieve in “harmony brings wealth”. Therefore, experts warned that success was far from a when dealing with a dispute, a Chinese nor- sure thing: it could take five to ten years of mally do not set his goal as completely beat- expensive exploration to see if the oil fields ing the others, but rather sequence his goals are really worth developing. according to priority, and try to achieve the goal with the highest priority first, and so china’s foot in the door on. Each disputant may achieve some goal upon settlement of the dispute.” But the Chinese are after more than oil and Case in point: thanks to the Chinese, the copper. They see each deal as another foot Afghans may benefit from a real high-speed in the door. The are also determined to reap rail system before the United States. cT huge potential profits to come from re- building Afghanistan’s shattered infrastruc- Barry Lando is a former producer with 60 ture and economy, among such projects, a Minutes, author of “Web of Deceit-the History high-speed rail system. In this way, without of Western Complicity in Iraq from Churchill massive military deployments, China has to Kennedy to G.W. Bush”. Writing a novel, already become a major player throughout “The Watchman’s File”, about Israel’s most the region. [I’ve written about China’s ac- ferociously guarded secret. [And it’s not the tivities in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and the Gulf bomb]. Canadian, currently living in Paris.

“Kraske’s command of plot, dialog and character is staggering. Whatever he puts his pen to, whether essay or fiction, makes for a great read” – ColdType flighT in feBruary did drug-trafficker Marcus Strenk escape from Minnesota’s maximum-security prison during a blizzard – or die trying? deputy Marshal henry Scott believes that Strenk found a way past the highly sophisticated security system and made it to freedom. but the search Scott puts into gear is quickly spiked by Alec barkley, the very FbI agent who had put Strenk in jail – spiked, that is, until Strenk’s cheery note from outside arrives at the prison. barkley puts every available agent on the manhunt. henry Scott meanwhile examines barkley’s earlier espionage operation against Strenk’s Mexican connections – and ends up stepping through the looking glass. ( read the first chapter at http://www.philipkraske.com/index.php?id=63 )

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February 2012 | ColdType 51 PoWEr ShIFT / 2 Sinking the petrodollar in the Persian Gulf Pepe Escobar follows the money in the Iran crisis

et’s start with red lines. Here it is, vious to dire consequences for the global the us will have Washington’s ultimate red line, economy, the US Congress – under all the to sanction any straight from the lion’s mouth. usual pressures from the Israel lobby (not third-country LSecretary of Defense Leon Panetta that it needs them) – foisted a mandatory banks and said recently of the Iranians, “Are they try- sanctions package on the Obama admin- companies dealing ing to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But istration (100 to 0 in the Senate and with with iran’s central we know that they’re trying to develop a only 12 “no” votes in the House). Starting bank, which is nuclear capability. And that’s what con- in June, the US will have to sanction any meant to cripple cerns us. And our red line to Iran is do not third-country banks and companies dealing that country’s develop a nuclear weapon. That’s a red line with Iran’s Central Bank, which is meant to oil sales for us.” cripple that country’s oil sales. (Congress How strange, the way those red lines did allow for some “exemptions.”) continue to retreat. Once upon a time, the The ultimate target? Regime change red line for Washington was “enrichment” – what else? – in Tehran. The proverbial of uranium. Now, it’s evidently an actual anonymous US official admitted as much nuclear weapon that can be brandished. in the Washington Post, and that paper Keep in mind that, since 2005, Iranian printed the comment. (“The goal of the US Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has and other sanctions against Iran is regime stressed that his country is not seeking to collapse, a senior US intelligence official build a nuclear weapon. said, offering the clearest indication yet The most recent National Intelligence that the Obama administration is at least Estimate on Iran from the US Intelligence as intent on unseating Iran’s government Community has similarly stressed that Iran as it is on engaging with it.”) is not, in fact, developing a nuclear weap- But oops! The newspaper then had to on (as opposed to the breakout capacity to revise the passage to eliminate that embar- build one someday). rassingly on-target quote. Undoubtedly, What if, however, there is no “red line,” this “red line” came too close to the truth but something completely different? Call it for comfort. the petrodollar line. Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen believed that banking on sanctions? only a monster shock-and-awe-style event, totally humiliating the leadership in Teh- Let’s start here: In December 2011, imper- ran, would lead to genuine regime change

52 ColdType | February 2012 PoWEr ShIFT / 2

– and he was hardly alone. Advocates of ac- devalued rial stands a reasonable chance of tions ranging from air strikes to invasion actually reducing unemployment in Iran. a devalued (whether by the US, Israel, or some com- rial stands a bination of the two) have been legion in More connected than google reasonable neocon Washington. (See, for instance, the chance of Brookings Institution’s 2009 report Which Though few in the US have noticed, Iran actually reducing Path to Persia.) is not exactly “isolated,” though Washing- unemployment Yet anyone remotely familiar with Iran ton might wish it. Pakistani Prime Minister in iran knows that such an attack would rally the Yusuf Gilani has become a frequent flyer population behind Khamenei and the Rev- to Tehran. And he’s a Johnny-come-lately olutionary Guards. In those circumstances, compared to Russia’s national security the deep aversion of many Iranians to the chief Nikolai Patrushev, who only recently military dictatorship of the mullahtariat warned the Israelis not to push the US to would matter little. attack Iran. Add in as well US ally and Af- Besides, even the Iranian opposition ghan President Hamid Karzai. At a Loya supports a peaceful nuclear program. It’s a Jirga (grand council) in late 2011, in front of matter of national pride. 2,000 tribal leaders, he stressed that Kabul Iranian intellectuals, far more familiar was planning to get even closer to Tehran. with Persian smoke and mirrors than ideo- On that crucial Eurasian chessboard, logues in Washington, totally debunk any Pipelineistan, the Iran-Pakistan (IP) natu- war scenarios. ral gas pipeline – much to Washington’s They stress that the Tehran regime, ad- distress – is now a go. Pakistan badly needs ept in the arts of Persian shadow play, has energy and its leadership has clearly de- no intention of provoking an attack that cided that it’s unwilling to wait forever and could lead to its obliteration. On their part, a day for Washington’s eternal pet project whether correctly or not, Tehran strategists – the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- assume that Washington will prove unable India (TAPI) pipeline – to traverse Tali- to launch yet one more war in the Greater banistan. Middle East, especially one that could lead Even Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet to staggering collateral damage for the Davutoglu recently visited Tehran, though world economy. his country’s relationship with Iran has In the meantime, Washington’s expecta- grown ever edgier. After all, energy over- tions that a harsh sanctions regime might rules threats in the region. NATO member make the Iranians give ground, if not go Turkey is already involved in covert ops in down, may prove to be a chimera. Wash- Syria, allied with hardcore fundamentalist ington spin has been focused on the sup- Sunnis in Iraq, and – in a remarkable volte- posedly disastrous mega-devaluation of face in the wake of the Arab Spring(s) – the Iranian currency, the rial, in the face of has traded in an Ankara-Tehran-Damascus the new sanctions. axis for an Ankara-Riyadh-Doha one. It is Unfortunately for the fans of Iranian even planning on hosting components of economic collapse, Professor Djavad Sale- Washington’s long-planned missile defense hi-Isfahani has laid out in elaborate detail system, targeted at Iran. the long-term nature of this process, which All this from a country with a Davuto- Iranian economists have more than wel- glu-coined foreign policy of “zero prob- comed. lems with our neighbors.” Still, the needs After all, it will boost Iran’s non-oil ex- of Pipelineistan do set the heart racing. ports and help local industry in competi- Turkey is desperate for access to Iran’s en- tion with cheap Chinese imports. In sum: a ergy resources, and if Iranian natural gas

February 2012 | ColdType 53 PoWEr ShIFT / 2

ever reaches Western Europe – something oil imports then? in May 2010, the Europeans are desperately eager for – Much was made in the US press of the brazil and turkey Turkey will be the privileged transit coun- fact that Ahmadinejad did not visit Brazil brokered a try. Turkey’s leaders have already signaled on this jaunt through , but uranium-swap their rejection of further US sanctions diplomatically Tehran and Brasilia remain agreement for against Iranian oil. in sync. When it comes to the nuclear dos- iran that might And speaking of connections, last sier in particular, Brazil’s history leaves its have cleared the month there was that spectacular diplo- leaders sympathetic. After all, that country decks on the us- matic coup de théâtre, Iranian President developed – and then dropped – a nuclear iranian nuclear Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Latin Ameri- weapons program. In May 2010, Brazil and imbroglio can tour. US right-wingers may harp on a Turkey brokered a uranium-swap agree- Tehran-Caracas axis of evil – supposedly ment for Iran that might have cleared the promoting “terror” across Latin America decks on the US-Iranian nuclear imbroglio. as a springboard for future attacks on the It was, however, immediately sabotaged by northern superpower – but back in real Washington. A key member of the BRICS, life, another kind of truth lurks. All these the club of top emerging economies, years later, Washington is still unable to di- Brasilia is completely opposed to the US gest the idea that it has lost control over, sanctions/embargo strategy. or even influence in, those two regional So Iran may be “isolated” from the Unit- powers over which it once exercised un- ed States and Western Europe, but from the mitigated imperial hegemony. BRICS to NAM (the 120 member countries Add to this the wall of mistrust that has of the Non-Aligned Movement), it has the only solidified since the 1979 Islamic revo- majority of the global South on its side. And lution in Iran. Mix in a new, mostly sover- then, of course, there are those staunch eign Latin America pushing for integration Washington allies, and South Ko- not only via leftwing governments in Ven- rea, now pleading for exemptions from the ezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador but through coming boycott/embargo of Iran’s Central regional powers Brazil and Argentina. Stir Bank. No wonder, because these unilateral and you get photo ops like Ahmadinejad US sanctions are also aimed at Asia. After and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez all, China, India, Japan, and South Korea, saluting Nicaraguan President Daniel Or- together, buy no less than 62% of Iran’s oil tega. exports. Washington continues to push a vi- With trademark Asian politesse, Japan’s sion of a world from which Iran has been Finance Minister Jun Azumi let Treasury radically disconnected. State Department Secretary Timothy Geithner know just spokesperson Victoria Nuland is typical in what a problem Washington is creating for saying recently, “Iran can remain in inter- Tokyo, which relies on Iran for 10% of its national isolation.” As it happens, though, oil needs. It is pledging to at least modestly she needs to get her facts straight. “reduce” that share “as soon as possible” “Isolated” Iran has $4 billion in joint in order to get a Washington exemption projects with Venezuela including, crucial- from those sanctions, but don’t hold your ly, a bank (as with Ecuador, it has dozens breath. South Korea has already announced of planned projects from building power that it will buy 10% of its oil needs from plants to, once again, banking). That has Iran in 2012. led the Israel-first crowd in Washington to vociferously demand that sanctions be silk road redux slapped on Venezuela. Only problem: how would the US pay for its crucial Venezuelan Most important of all, “isolated” Iran hap-

54 ColdType | February 2012 PoWEr ShIFT / 2 pens to be a supreme matter of national se- through the Washington-approved pack- curity for China, which has already rejected age that targets Iran’s Central Bank. In china may be the the latest Washington sanctions without a fact, it favors a rollback of the existing U.N. true winner from blink. Westerners seem to forget that the sanctions and has also been at work on an Washington’s Middle Kingdom and Persia have been do- alternative plan that could, at least theo- new sanctions, ing business for almost two millennia. (Does retically, lead to a face-saving nuclear deal because it is “Silk Road” ring a bell?) for everyone. likely to get its The Chinese have already clinched a On the nuclear front, Tehran has ex- oil and gas at a juicy deal for the development of Iran’s pressed a willingness to compromise with lower price as the largest oil field, Yadavaran. There’s also Washington along the lines of the plan Bra- iranians grow ever the matter of the delivery of Caspian Sea zil and Turkey suggested and Washington more dependent oil from Iran through a pipeline stretching deep-sixed in 2010. Since it is now so much on the china from to Western China. In fact, clearer that, for Washington – certainly for market Iran already supplies no less than 15% of Congress – the nuclear issue is secondary China’s oil and natural gas. It is now more to regime change, any new negotiations crucial to China, energy-wise, than the are bound to prove excruciatingly painful. House of Saud is to the US, which imports This is especially true now that the lead- 11% of its oil from Saudi Arabia. ers of the European Union have managed In fact, China may be the true winner to remove themselves from a future ne- from Washington’s new sanctions, because gotiating table by shooting themselves in it is likely to get its oil and gas at a lower their Ferragamo-clad feet. In typical fash- price as the Iranians grow ever more de- ion, they have meekly followed Washing- pendent on the China market. At this mo- ton’s lead in implementing an Iranian oil ment, in fact, the two countries are in the embargo. As a senior EU official told Na- middle of a complex negotiation on the tional Iranian American Council President pricing of Iranian oil, and the Chinese have Trita Parsi, and as EU diplomats have as- actually been ratcheting up the pressure by sured me in no uncertain terms, they fear slightly cutting back on energy purchases. this might prove to be the last step short of But all this should be concluded by March, outright war. at least two months before the latest round Meanwhile, a team of International of US sanctions go into effect, according to Atomic Energy Agency inspectors has just experts in Beijing. In the end, the Chinese visited Iran. The IAEA is supervising all will certainly buy much more Iranian gas things nuclear in Iran, including its new than oil, but Iran will still remain its third uranium-enrichment plant at Fordow, near biggest oil supplier, right after Saudi Ara- the holy city of Qom, with full production bia and Angola. starting in June. The IAEA is positive: no As for other effects of the new sanctions bomb-making is involved. Nonetheless, on China, don’t count on them. Chinese Washington (and the Israelis) continue to businesses in Iran are building cars, fiber act as though it’s only a matter of time – optics networks, and expanding the Teh- and not much of it at that. ran subway. Two-way trade is at $30 billion now and expected to hit $50 billion in 2015. follow the Money Chinese businesses will find a way around the banking problems the new sanctions That Iranian isolation theme only gets impose. weaker when one learns that the country is Russia is, of course, another key sup- dumping the dollar in its trade with Russia porter of “isolated” Iran. It has opposed for rials and rubles – a similar move to ones stronger sanctions either via the U.N. or already made in its trade with China and Ja-

February 2012 | ColdType 55 PoWEr ShIFT / 2

pan. As for India, an economic powerhouse ployed against economic power. imagine the real in the neighborhood, its leaders also refuse In this context, it’s worth remembering world – mostly to stop buying Iranian oil, a trade that, in that in September 2000 Saddam Hussein the global south the long run, is similarly unlikely to be con- abandoned the petrodollar as the currency – doing the ducted in dollars. India is already using the of payment for Iraq’s oil, and moved to the necessary math yuan with China, as Russia and China have euro. In March 2003, Iraq was invaded and and, little by little, been trading in rubles and yuan for more the inevitable regime change occurred. beginning to do than a year, as Japan and China are promot- Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi proposed a business in their ing direct trading in yen and yuan. As for gold dinar both as Africa’s common cur- own currencies Iran and China, all new trade and joint in- rency and as the currency of payment for and investing ever vestments will be settled in yuan and rial. his country’s energy resources. Another less of any surplus Translation, if any was needed: in the intervention and another regime change in us treasury near future, with the Europeans out of followed. bonds the mix, virtually none of Iran’s oil will be Washington/NATO/Tel Aviv, however, traded in dollars. offers a different narrative. Iran’s “threats” Moreover, three BRICS members (Rus- are at the heart of the present crisis, even sia, India, and China) allied with Iran are if these are, in fact, that country’s reaction major holders (and producers) of gold. to non-stop US/Israeli covert war and now, Their complex trade ties won’t be affected of course, economic war as well. It’s those by the whims of a US Congress. In fact, “threats,” so the story goes, that are lead- when the developing world looks at the ing to rising oil prices and so fueling the profound crisis in the Atlanticist West, current recession, rather than Wall Street’s what they see is massive US debt, the Fed casino capitalism or massive US and Euro- printing money as if there’s no tomorrow, pean debts. The cream of the 1% has noth- lots of “quantitative easing,” and of course ing against high oil prices, not as long as the Eurozone shaking to its very founda- Iran’s around to be the fall guy for popular tions. anger. As energy expert Michael Klare pointed follow the money. out recently, we are now in a new geo- energy era certain to be extremely turbu- Leave aside, for the moment, the new sanc- lent in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. But tions on Iran’s Central Bank that will go consider 2012 the start-up year as well for a into effect months from now, ignore Ira- possibly massive defection from the dollar nian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz as the global currency of choice. As per- (especially unlikely given that it’s the main ception is indeed reality, imagine the real way Iran gets its own oil to market), and world – mostly the global South – doing perhaps one key reason the crisis in the Per- the necessary math and, little by little, be- sian Gulf is mounting involves this move to ginning to do business in their own cur- torpedo the petrodollar as the all-purpose rencies and investing ever less of any sur- currency of exchange. plus in US Treasury bonds. It’s been spearheaded by Iran and it’s Of course, the US can always count on bound to translate into an anxious Wash- the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Sau- ington, facing down not only a regional di Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait power, but its major strategic competitors and the United Arab Emirates – which I China and Russia. No wonder all those car- prefer to call the Gulf Counterrevolution riers are heading for the Persian Gulf right Club (just look at their performances dur- now, though it’s the strangest of show- ing the Arab Spring). For all practical geo- downs – a case of military power being de- political purposes, the Gulf monarchies

56 ColdType | February 2012 PoWEr ShIFT / 2 are a US satrapy. Their decades-old prom- US ships. Later, it became clear that one of ise to use only the petrodollar translates the attacks had never even happened and iran would be into them being an appendage of Pentagon the president had lied about it. but one cog in an power projection across the Middle East. It’s not at all far-fetched to imagine infernal machine Centcom, after all, is based in Qatar; the US hardcore Full-Spectrum-Dominance prac- slowly shredding Fifth Fleet is stationed in Bahrain. In fact, titioners inside the Pentagon riding a false- the dollar as the in the immensely energy-wealthy lands flag incident in the Persian Gulf to an at- world’s reserve that we could label Greater Pipelineistan – tack on Iran (or simply using it to pressure currency and that the Pentagon used to call “the arc Tehran into a fatal miscalculation). Con- of instability” – extending through Iran all sider as well the new US military strategy the way to Central Asia, the GCC remains just unveiled by President Obama in which key to a dwindling sense of US hegemony. the focus of Washington’s attention is to If this were an economic rewrite of move from two failed ground wars in the Edgar Allen Poe’s story, “The Pit and the Greater Middle East to the Pacific (and so Pendulum,” Iran would be but one cog in to China). Iran happens to be right in the an infernal machine slowly shredding the middle, in Southwest Asia, with all that oil dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Still, heading toward an energy-hungry modern it’s the cog that Washington is now focused Middle Kingdom over waters guarded by on. They have regime change on the brain. the US Navy. All that’s needed is a spark to start the fire So yes, this larger-than-life psychodrama (in – one hastens to add – all sorts of direc- we call “Iran” may turn out to be as much tions that are bound to catch Washington about China and the US dollar as it is about off guard). the politics of the Persian Gulf or Iran’s Remember Operation Northwoods, that nonexistent bomb. The question is: What 1962 plan drafted by the Joint Chiefs of rough beast, its hour come round at last, Staff to stage terror operations in the US slouches towards Beijing to be born? cT and blame them on Fidel Castro’s Cuba. (President Kennedy shot the idea down.) Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent Or recall the Gulf of Tonkin incident in for Asia Times, a TomDispatch regular, and 1964, used by President Lyndon Johnson a political analyst for al-Jazeera and RT. as a justification for widening the Vietnam His latest book is Obama Does Globalistan War. The US accused North Vietnamese (Nimble Books, 2009). This essay first torpedo boats of unprovoked attacks on appeared at www.TomDispatch.com

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58 ColdType | February 2012 WhodUNNIT? Who’s killing Iran’s scientists? Alan Maas has some thoughts about terrorism – especially ours

nother scientist has been mur- cording to National Public Radio – at sites in the two dered in Iran as part of a terrorist allegedly associated with the nuclear pro- years between campaign targeting the country’s gram have claimed even more lives. In the the killings of Anuclear program. most recent, seven people were killed in a Mohammadi and US officials deny it, but the killings have blast in December at a steel mill in the city roshan, two other the fingerprints of Washington and - espe of Yazd. iranian scientists cially its devoted ally Israel all over them. The murders have been indiscriminate have been “Does anyone doubt that some combina- in other ways, too. Mohammadi, for ex- assassinated and tion of the two nations completely ob- ample, was known to be a supporter of another injured sessed with Iran’s nuclear program – Israel Mir Hussein Moussavi , the reformist po- and the US – are responsible?” Salon.com’s litical leader who ran for president in 2009 Glenn Greenwald asked rhetorically. against the representative of Iran’s ruling The 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan conservative elite, Mahmoud Ahmadine- was killed by a car bomb on January 11, jad. along with his driver. According to wit- nesses, two men on a motorcycle pulled up us denial alongside Roshan’s car and apparently at- tached a magnetic bomb to it – the device For the record, US officials deny that their detonated seconds later. According to one forces have anything to do with the killings report, Roshan, the deputy director of the in Iran. But the Israeli government has all country’s uranium enrichment facility, was but admitted its part. on his way to a ceremony to commemo- At the end of July, when he was asked if rate the second anniversary of the killing his country was involved in the assassina- of another nuclear physicist, Massoud Ali tions, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak Mohammadi. answered “Israel is not responding” – but In the two years between the killings of reporters noted the “smile on his face” as Mohammadi and Roshan, two other Ira- he said it. The German news magazine Der nian scientists have been assassinated and Spiegel later quoted an anonymous Israeli another injured in what the Israeli news- intelligence official attributing the mur- paper Haaretz snidely referred to as “mys- ders to the spy agency Mossad. terious deaths and blasts linked to Iran’s Less than 24 hours before Roshan’s mur- nuclear program.” der, Benny Gantz, chief of staff of the Israel Untargeted explosions – 18 last year, ac- Defense Forces, told a committee of Israel’s

February 2012 | ColdType 59 WhodUNNIT?

Knesset that Iran would face “continuing sage that if you are a scientist from Russia, some us political and growing pressure from the interna- North Korea, or from Iran, and you are go- leaders think tional community and things which take ing to work on a nuclear program to de- Washington should place in an unnatural manner.” velop a bomb for Iran, you are not safe.” be proud to claim If anyone is tempted to believe that Is- Actually, Santorum is refreshingly hon- involvement in the rael acted alone, against the wishes of the est about what it taking place in Iran – a killings US, they should remember that the CIA is campaign of murder designed to terrorize known to have targeted Iranian scientists anyone connected with the country’s nu- in the past to recruit them as spies. Ac- clear program, in whatever capacity. cording to one, Shahram Amiri, US agents But terrorism is one word you won’t find kidnapped him in an attempt get him to go in the mainstream media’s description of along with their plans. the assassinations. The latest murder comes as tensions By contrast, when the US Department have ramped up between Iran and the of Justice announced indictments in a fan- West. tastical plot – allegedly masterminded by The US and its allies claim an Inter- Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and organized national Atomic Energy Administration by a failed Texas used-car salesman, with report issued in December contains evi- help from a Mexican drug cartel – to mur- dence that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed der Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US, at building a nuclear weapon. The report Attorney General Eric Holder claimed the doesn’t say this at all – but this served as Feds had foiled “an act of international ter- an excuse for the US and Europe to push rorism.” new economic sanctions. Iran responded The corporate media repeated both his at the end of December with a military dis- characterization and ludicrous allegations play of force and threats that it could close as established facts. the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance point to The double standards are glaring – and the Persian Gulf. sickening. As Glenn Greenwald wrote: “Does anyone have any doubt whatso- crossing the line ever that if Iran were sending hit squads to kill Israeli scientists in Tel Aviv, or was US officials say Iran would be crossing a murdering a series of American scientists “red line” if, in the future, it attempts to at Los Alamos (while wounding several close the shipping lanes. But there hasn’t of their wives, including, in one instance, been anywhere near the same frenzy about shooting them in front of their child’s kin- an assassination campaign that is under- dergarten), that those acts would be uni- way right now in Iran – and has been for versally denounced as terrorism, and the several years. only debate would be whether the retalia- On the contrary, some US political lead- tion should be nuclear, carpet-bombing or ers think Washington should be proud invasion?” to claim involvement in the killings. Last As always, terrorism is the most mean- October, Rick Santorum – now the lead- ingless – and thus most manipulated – ing contender among the Republican right term of propaganda; it’s always what They for the GOP presidential nomination – de- do and never what We do. clared: cT “On occasion, scientists working on the nuclear program in Iran turn up dead. I Alan Maas is the editor of Socialist Worker, think that’s a wonderful thing, candidly...I at whose website - www.socialistworker.org think we should send a very clear mes- - this was first published.

60 ColdType | February 2012 SATIrE Another day in socialist Europe Philip Kraske gives North America the lowdown on the joys of life in Utopia

s Republican candidates for presi- long. After a few minutes, a break is called, dent often note, here in socialist and we all head for our second coffee and Women grouse Europe, the government does ev- croissant of the day, there to discuss – in the about how easily Aerything for us. Normally, these sa- case of Madrid – the successes or failures the supermodel vants mention only our health system, our of the Real Madrid soccer team. The soccer problem could be free universities (free, that is, till you have world fascinates us because it is the only solved: by getting to pay for books and cafeteria lunches and real capitalist business in Europe. The play- the government ever-heftier registration fees), huge sever- ers have contracts worthy of NBA players, to declare all ance pays, long vacations, and generous re- and – this being socialist Europe – the con- european women tirement benefits (which only become truly tracts generally include benefits like a dash- ravishing and to generous when you’ve paid off your mort- ing supermodel, since it wouldn’t do for our offer free plastic gage and sold your car). boys to show up at a benefit or an awards surgery to any Actually, they don’t know the half of it. ceremony with old hags on their arms. woman treated The truth is that here does every- with callous thing for us. the supermodel clause inequality by men Here where I live, in Madrid, a typical Eu- ropean day goes like this. But Europe is not without its discontents, It’s true that nearly everyone has to turn and these now come out. We men grouse off their own alarm clock, but after that, so- about how the supermodel clause vio- cial workers with truly hospìtal-like efficien- lates our sense of European equality. Why cy run our baths, scrub our backs, make our doesn’t a marketing manager get a super- breakfasts and get us to work on our won- model? The women, in return, grouse about derful European transportation systems. how chauvinist the men are and how easily Once at work, we are sat on chairs fit for the supermodel problem could be solved: The Sun King, our computers blink on in by getting the government to declare all Eu- front of us, and we perform what is officially ropean women ravishing and to offer free called an Act of Work. Our trials are eased, plastic surgery to any woman treated with however, by a tiny meter that runs on the callous inequality by men. bottom of the screen showing us how much We return to work, but again, not for our labors are being taxed and poured into long. For now a cloud has appeared in our that ever-swelling pouch of plenty, The workaday socialist sky. The boss has told us Public Good. that he needs last month’s accounting fin- But the stresses of work don’t go on for ished and on his desk by five. Dismayed by

February 2012 | ColdType 61 SATIrE

such blatant bossliness, we call the union After tedious negotiations, in which man- the boss, duly representative to defend us. (We don’t re- agement is made to prostrate itself at the humbled, murmurs ally call; there’s a button, mandated by the feet of the unions and say ten Hail Marxes, that he merely Interior Ministry, under our desks, which an agreement is struck, a government min- suggested the presses easily under the thumb, its spring ister (or the king, if it’s a monarchy like five-o’clock well-worn.) Spain) comes to shake everyone’s hand and deadline. the sky Within minutes, sped on his way by our grin for the cameras, and we workers file won’t fall if he has excellent bullet trains, the union guy is at back into the office. Soon, however, this try- the results by, say, our side, listening to our complaint and ing day is over, and we flow effortlessly into tomorrow at five? nodding sadly. He goes and jerks the boss subways and trains, and are whisked home out of his tele-meeting with the London by the Forces of Public Transport. head office, and reads him the Riot Act. There we find our spouses similarly in- The boss, duly humbled, murmurs that he vigorated by interesting workdays, our chil- merely suggested the five-o’clock deadline. dren enlightened by lessons in dialectical The sky won’t fall if he has the results by, materialism, and dinner our only task and say, tomorrow at five? fascination. Soon the news, brought to us by the gov- attack on our dignity ernment channel, assures us of the excel- lence of our socialist system. It shows us the But tomorrow as well is deemed an out- latest earthquakes and floods that capitalist rage, an attack on the dignity of the work- governments are incapable of handling, the ing man, and the latest example of crass hopeless government debts that capitalist capitalism responsible for stress fracture, governments are capable of running up, the breakup of marriages, and migraines. A and puzzling footage of Republican fus- strike is called. tian to the effect that Europe is the pit of Out we all march into the street, waving political iniquity, its people enslaved. Over signs furnished to us by – you guessed it – evening cognac, we page through Rousseau the Labor Ministry. Within minutes we are and assure ourselves that this opinion is joined by the workers of neighboring firms. poorly informed. Even many members of management come Just another day in socialist Europe. cT down and add to the chanting, just for the nostalgia of it all, for it reminds everyone of Philip Kraske’s latest book, Flight in May ‘68. February, is now available from Amazon

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62 ColdType | February 2012 obAMASPEAK Killing Iraqis makes us safer, and other lies David Swanson dissects President Obama’s State of the Union Address

n the news around the world and even The myth is that he’s ending wars. Nev- in the United States on Tuesday was er mind that he was compelled to end the obama had called the anger among Iraqis at the failure of Iraq War, in so far as it has ended, by the the war on iraq Ithe United States to hold anyone seri- treaty that Bush and Maliki created, and a dumb war. now ously accountable for the 2005 massacre in which Obama sought every possible way to he says it made Haditha. The story was a useful reminder violate. us safer. if it was of how the operations of the US military Never mind that Iraqi hostility toward dumb, was he over the past decade have fueled hostility US criminals being granted immunity from dumber? toward our nation. prosecution was the primary reason that President Obama began his State of the the Iraqi government insisted on the Bush- Union speech on January 24 by absurdly Maliki withdrawal date. A myth is a myth, claiming the exact opposite, asserting that and who will question it and still keep their the war on Iraq has made us safer and – I job on US television? kid you not – “more respected around the world.” He later equated the war on Iraq to We’re number one. really? World War II, a surefire way to put anything beyond criticism in the United States, pro- Because the United States dumps record vided you can get people to fall for it. funding into its military – over half of fed- Remember, this is the guy who won the eral discretionary spending – the United Democratic Primary in 2008 by the simple States is falling behind other nations in ed- fact of having not yet been in the Senate ucation, energy, infrastructure, health, life in 2003 and thus having avoided voting for expectancy, infant mortality, poverty, retire- the war that he funded to the hilt as a sena- ment security, and happiness. Obama’s next tor beginning in 2005. He had called it a breath serves to simply assert the opposite. dumb war. Now he says it made us safer. If We’re number one. Who will dare to ques- it was dumb, was he dumber? What is he tion that? trying to say? To fudge the claim, Obama actually In the next breath, Obama says “some says that being number one is right within troops in Afghanistan have begun to come our grasp if only we would all act more like home.” Never mind that there are three the military. (Late in the speech he men- times as many US troops in Afghanistan tions cutting a half a trillion dollars from now as when Obama moved into the White the military, without mentioning that he House. means “over 10 years” or $50 billion per

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year from a budget of over a trillion per Obama then claims employment is on nobody to blame year.) the rise and, in the same breath, and ex- for job losses. UPDATE: Contrary to my initial impres- actly as if it mattered to us in the same way Just a bit of bad sion, Obama probably was speaking here of as employment: “Together, we’ve agreed luck we’ve had, his “cuts” to dream budgets that amount to to cut the deficit by more than $2 trillion.” and if we all act increases. The layers of lies get thick. Of course, that’s more than the entire dis- more like the And what a glowing future he describes! cretionary budget and what Obama would military we’ll clear Gee, if only we’d had someone who thought have said, if he hadn’t been so rushed in it right up that way serving as, say, president, the past slapping together this speech without any few years. help whatsoever, was that such cuts would Now he wants to “fight obstruction with be spread over many years, amounting to action.” Just forget about that initial two- much less in each year, but still enough to year-long pretense that the Senate couldn’t do a great deal of damage. get around any filibuster attempts. That Then Obama claimed to have put in would be . place rules that will prevent any new crisis Obama said that he wants an economy on Wall Street. I’ve never seen anyone take where “everyone plays by the same set of that claim seriously. rules.” Really? Where’s my bailout? Where’s He says the auto bailout involved work- my get-out-of-jail-free card? Will we now ers and bosses “settling their differences.” see prosecutions of financial fraud, busting Have any workers described it that way? of trusts, taxation of corporations and bil- “Right now, companies get tax breaks lionaires? What brought about this rever- for moving jobs and profits overseas. sal? People are crediting the Occupy move- Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay ment, of course, but the Occupy movement in America get hit with one of the highest has demanded – yes, demanded – actions, tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, not words. and everyone knows it.” Obama says the United States lost jobs That has got to be the slimiest argu- because technology made them obsolete. ment for yet more corporate tax cuts I’ve That’s his whole explanation of the decline ever seen dressed up as patriotic common of the past 40 years and of the financial sense. collapse of 2008. Nothing about union busting. Not a backsliding on trade word about military spending. No mention of regressive taxation. Barely a nod to the Next Obama bragged about corporate trade shredding of financial regulation. Not even agreements with Panama, Colombia, and room for a bit of blame directed toward a Korea, just the kind of agreements he cam- culture of greed. Nope. Technology. That’s paigned against last time. what it was. Then Obama proposed that, instead of Nobody to blame. Just a bit of bad luck developing a great educational system, we we’ve had, and if we all act more like the just have corporations fund their training military we’ll clear it right up. for specific jobs. The President then spoke Or not quite. There’s also the problem of the importance of a real educational sys- of irresponsible home owners: “Mortgages tem and admitted that, had been sold to people who couldn’t af- “At a time when other countries are ford or understand them.” Only after that doubling down on education, tight bud- slanderous dig (which he repeats later as gets have forced states to lay off thousands well) did our President mention a deficien- of teachers.” cy in regulation. The solution to this is stunningly bril-

64 ColdType | February 2012 obAMASPEAK liant, or something. Wait for it: Department of [So-Called] Defense, the “So tonight, I call on every state to re- world’s largest consumer of energy, will obama also quire that all students stay in high school make one of the largest commitments to wants a major until they graduate or turn eighteen.” clean energy in history – with the Navy expansion in That ought to do it. purchasing enough capacity to power a drilling for natural Obama then proposed that Congress not quarter of a million homes a year.” gas and promises double the interest rates on student loans, The United States military is not just the to require that and extend the tuition tax credit. And he biggest consumer of energy. It is the big- companies added this innovative strategy that, again, gest spreader of depleted uranium, white disclose the is simply brilliant, or something: phosphorous, and cluster bombs. The chemicals they “So let me put colleges and universities United States military has rendered entire use in doing on notice: If you can’t stop tuition from go- landscapes uninhabitable for our species, so. because ing up, the funding you get from taxpayers unless we last as long as the dinosaurs, and chemicals can’t will go down.” this kind of speech doesn’t give me the im- kill you if you’re Ha! Affordable education, here we pression we’ll be around anything like that told about them. come! long. transparent Obama then asked for a bill that would fracking! it’s the allow immigrants “to earn their citizen- repaying the debt new clean coal! ship.” A hint at how they might do that is found in his list of noble things such im- The best bit of rhetoric comes deep in the migrants might want to participate in, one speech: “Take the money we’re no longer of which is “defend this country.” I assume spending at war, use half of it to pay down you don’t need me to translate. our debt, and use the rest to do some nation- Moving on, Obama is proud to say, building right here at home.” That would be “Over the last three years, we’ve opened a terrific proposal if we had stopped spend- up millions of new acres for oil and gas ing money on wars or, even better, if we were exploration, and tonight, I’m directing my to stop spending vastly greater amounts on Administration to open more than 75 per- the military’s permanent existence apart cent of our potential offshore oil and gas from its wars. resources.” Drill, baby, drill! Obama doesn’t mention any numbers or Obama also wants a major expansion proposals, because he’s talking utter non- in drilling for natural gas and promises to sense. require that companies disclose the chemi- Obama moves on to claiming he’ll han- cals they use in doing so. Because chemi- dle oil spills, this the same week that we cals can’t kill you if you’re told about them. received documentation of the pressure Transparent fracking! It’s the new Clean he exerted to deceive the public about the coal! last big one. He announces a new “Finan- Wind energy is a little footnote, and cial Crimes Unit,” not that he hasn’t an- solar and other clean energies don’t get a nounced the same thing before, but this mention in the State of the Union, except time it’s while he works toward an immu- a request for “clean energy tax credits.” Or nity-granting “settlement” with the big so it seems, until the military comes to the banks guilty of mortgage fraud. rescue again: Obama wants the payroll tax cut, no “I’m directing my Administration to al- matter what it does to Social Security. In low the development of clean energy on fact, he’s “prepared to make more reforms enough public land to power three mil- that rein in the long term costs of Medi- lion homes. And I’m proud [watch where care and Medicaid, and strengthen Social the pride comes in] to announce that the Security, so long as those programs re-

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main a guarantee of security for seniors.” Obama closes, in fact, with a real doozie. no end to Of course, “strengthen” here is code for He claims that wars are ending and threat- corporate “cut.” ens war on Iran. You can’t make this stuff personhood, no Obama makes these “concessions” on up. The Project for the New American Cen- end to money as condition that tax cuts for millionaires are tury can. You can’t: speech, no ban allowed to expire. Of course, he put the “As the tide of war recedes. . . . America or limitation on same condition on earlier concessions and is determined to prevent Iran from getting election spending, then abandoned it, but we really must stop a nuclear weapon, and I will take no op- no public financing, looking backward. Obama proposes follow- tions off the table to achieve that goal. But no free air time ing the “Buffet rule” but does not specify a peaceful resolution of this issue is still for candidates, not how he would have that done. possible . . . if Iran changes course.” even the usual call “We don’t begrudge financial success in Got that? Unless Iran, which the Secre- for “disclosure” this country,” he lies. “We admire it.” In- tary of Defense says is not developing a nu- of who is bribing creasingly, this is just not so. We admire clear weapon, ceases developing a nuclear whom truly worthy accomplishments, whether weapon, we’re going to war. But we regret or not financially successful, and we con- it very much and it will hurt us more than demn the stratification of our society into it hurts you. one in which few travel far up or down “America remains the one indispensible the income distribution. We resent the ex- nation in world affairs.” That makes the penses imposed on the poor and the unfair rest of the world – you guessed it – dis- advantages bestowed upon the already ex- pensable. cessively wealthy. We condemn the hoard- Killing Osama bin Laden is President ing of billions of dollars while others go Obama’s proudest claim, and he uses it in hungry and homeless. The president is not the final words of the State of the Union unaware of this, but he is not speaking to to bash “politics.” Some of the killers may us, is not one of us, and could not possibly have been Republicans and others Demo- care less. crats, he tells us, but they were united in murder. Yet, if the money were cleaned out public disgust of politics, if we had a decent communica- tions system, if good candidates could get The President acknowledges public disgust on ballots and into debates, if votes were with elected officials who are bought and publicly counted on paper at each polling paid for. “Let’s take some steps to fix that,” place, if – in other words – politics were he says. And then he gets cute. No end to what we imagine it aspiring to be, then corporate personhood, no end to money why would we elect people who bash it? as speech, no ban or limitation on election And if we wanted someone who intended spending, no public financing, no free air to unite with Republicans, why wouldn’t time for candidates, not even the usual call we elect a Republican? for “disclosure” of who is bribing whom. And if we weren’t paralyzed by fear and Nope. President Obama wants a bill to ban lies, why wouldn’t we want alleged crimi- insider trading by congress members. That nals brought to our country and put on certainly couldn’t hurt, if they would do it, trial? After all, we’ve got a lot of courts and but the idea that it centrally addresses the we aren’t using them for our own leading problem of money in politics is absurd. criminals. cT Yet, in the context of this speech, to qualify as a truly absurd proposal takes David Swanson’s latest book is When The more than most rhetorical nonsense can World Outlawed War. This essay originally offer. appeared at www.warisacrime.org

66 ColdType | February 2012 booK ExCErPT The industry that couldn’t learn An excerpt from Nukespeak, by Richard C. Bell & Rory O’Connor

This is an excerpt (Pages 265 to 270) from the Second Edition of the book, Nukespeak: lovins argued The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the that we should Manhattan Project to Fukushima, by Stephen adopt a strategy Hilgartner, Richard C. Bell & Rory O’Connor combining energy efficiency with ccording to the nuclear industry, solar power to the United States and the rest of make a transition the world have no choice but to off nuclear and Abuild more nuclear plants to meet coal over the the world’s growing energy needs without next twenty-five increasing greenhouse gases and global to fifty years warm ing. But from the 1970s onward, a growing number of outside analysts have argued that a two-pronged energy strategy could deliver the energy services people want (lighting, electronics, industrial mo- nukespeak tors, etc.) at a lower price than nuclear, The Selling of Nuclear Technology while simultaneously reducing the produc- from the Manhattan Project to tion of greenhouse gases. The two compo- Fukushima nents are increases in the efficient use of stephen hilgartner, electricity, thereby reducing demand, and richard c. bell & rory o’connor increasing electricity generation from an Published by Sierra Club books, 2011, array of technologies based on using solar Second Edition (ebook only) energy, either directly, in the form of photo- $9.99 via amazon voltaics, or indirectly, primarily in the form of wind energy. The godfather of this alternative ap- egy combining energy efficiency with solar proach is Amory Lovins, who stunned the power to make a transition off nuclear and world of energy analysts as a young physi- coal over the next twenty-five to fifty years. cist in 1976 with the Foreign Affairs article Lovins called his approach the “soft energy “Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken.” path,” in con trast to the “hard energy” of Lovins argued that we should adopt a strat- nuclear and fossil fuels. The article catapult-

February 2012 | ColdType 67 booK ExCErPT

nuclear power is ed Lovins to the forefront of the debate over renewables in new capacity additions sky- one of the worst energy policy. rocketed from 2 percent in 2004 to 55 per- investments we Lovins has been an implacable critic of cent in 2009, with no new nuclear capacity can make if our the economics of nuclear power, arguing in added. goal is to reduce paper after paper that a soft-energy-path l In 2010, for the first time, worldwide greenhouse gases strategy will always be cheaper than pro- cumulative installed capacity from wind as cheaply and viding the equivalent energy services with turbines, biomass, waste-to-energy, and quickly as possible nuclear-generated electricity. As for global solar power surpassed installed nuclear warming, he argues that nuclear power is capacity. Meanwhile, total investment in re- one of the worst investments we can make newable energy technologies was estimated if our goal is to reduce greenhouse gases as at $243 billion in 2010. cheaply and quickly as possible. in an arti- l As of April 1, 2011, there were 437 nu- cle in in October 2010, clear reactors operating in the world, seven Lovins explained why and how nuclear fewer than in 2002. In 2008, for the first power was falling farther and farther be- time since the beginning of the nuclear hind the alternatives: age, no new unit was started up. Seven “Since 2000, as nuclear power’s cost pro- new reactors were added in 2009 and 2010, jections have more than tripled, its share of while 11 were shut down during this period. global electricity generation has fallen from l In 2009, nuclear power plants generat- 17 percent to 13 per cent. That of cogenera- ed 2,558 Terawatt-hours of electricity, about tion (making electricity together with useful 2 percent less than the previous year. The heat in factories or buildings) and renew- industry’s lobby organization headlined ables (excluding big hydropower projects) “another drop in nuclear generation” – the rose from 13 percent to 18 percent. fourth year in a row. [emphasis in the origi- “These bite-sized, modular, quickly built nal] projects – with financial risks, costs, and subsidies generally below nuclear’s and an ocean of subsidies declining – now dominate global power investments. last year, renewables (wind, If nuclear power in the United States is so water, solar, geothermal), excluding large uneconomic, what keeps the domestic in- hydroelectric dams, attracted $131 billion of dustry afloat? Critics have long argued that private capital and added 52 billion watts. the industry benefits from a wide array of Global nuclear output fell for the past three subsidies. in February 2010, the Union of years, capacity for two. Concerned Scientists (UCS) released Nucle- “This market shift helps protect the cli- ar Power: Still Not Viable without Subsidies, mate. Renewables, cogeneration, and effi- an authoritative review of the history of nu- ciency can displace 2 to 20 times more car- clear subsidies in the United States, written bon per dollar, 20 to 40 times faster, than by Doug Koplow. (UCS was created in the new nuclear power – saving trillions of dol- 1970s by scientists concerned about the safe- lars over decades and avoiding vast finan- ty of nuclear reactors.) Koplow showed that cial risks.” the nuclear industry has always enjoyed “a In a report on the nuclear industry re- vast array of preferential government subsi- leased in January 2011, the World-watch in- dies.” Koplow reached the stunning conclu- stitute reached similar conclusions: sion that these have been so great that they l Annual renewable capacity additions have often exceeded the actual value of the have been outpacing nuclear start-ups for power produced: “This means that buy- 15 years. in the United States, the share of ing power on the open market and giving

68 ColdType | February 2012 booK ExCErPT it away for free would have been less costly clear fuel rods than subsidizing the construction and oper- l the capital costs of building the plants the list of goodies ation of nuclear power plants.” and buying all of the equipment in the grew, as the Koplow also notes that the most impor- plants the use of water to cool the plants nuclear players tant subsidies over the years are also the l workers’ education and health protec- discovered new most difficult to quantify: tion opportunities for “The most important subsidies to the l property tax abatements squeezing money industry do not involve cash pay ments. from unsuspecting Rather, they shift construction-cost and Koplow acknowledges that some subsi- taxpayers and operating risks from investors to taxpayers dies are difficult to quantify: utility rate-payers and ratepayers, burdening taxpayers with l Federal law has capped the liability of an array of risks ranging from cost overruns nuclear reactor owners for accidents since and defaults to accidents and nuclear waste the passage of the first Price-Anderson Act management. This approach, which has in 1957. Because the size of the risk was un- remained remarkably consistent through- known, private insurers were unwilling to out the industry’s history, distorts market offer such insurance. Under the terms of choices that would otherwise favor less this act, the utilities are responsible up to a risky investments. Although it may not in- certain amount, after which the fed eral gov- volve direct cash payments, such favored ernment assumes control. treatment is nevertheless a subsidy, with a l Another hidden cost grows out of the profound effect on the bottom line for the link between nuclear power and nuclear industry and taxpayers alike.” weapons proliferation. The combined sub- Koplow’s study can be read as a tribute sidies for nuclear power have the effect of to the ingenuity and persistence of nuclear accelerating the spread of nuclear power, energy lobbyists. No single group ever sat simultaneously worsening the problems of down to produce the list of giveaways that nuclear weapons prolifera tion. But there is Koplow has unearthed. Nevertheless, the currently no charge on nuclear power gen- list of goodies grew, as the players discov- erators to deal with this challenge. ered new opportunities for squeezing mon- lThe federal government agreed to be re- ey from unsuspecting taxpayers and utility sponsible for the final dis posal of the radio- rate-payers. active fuel rods from nuclear power plants, Since the 1950s, the nuclear industry has taking this potential cost off the hands of claimed it would only require subsidies for the utilities. But the federal government a short time. Koplow quotes from a General has never come up with a storage site, leav- Electric ad that ran in the National Geo- ing the utilities with the expense of storing graphic in 1954: these highly dangerous materials next to “We already know the kinds of plants the reactors in buildings far less secure than which will be feasible, how they will oper- the reactors themselves. ate, and we can estimate what their expens- es will be. in five years – certainly within nuclear socialism 10 – a number of them will be operating at about the same cost as those using coal. In effect, the United States and many other They will be privately financed, built with- countries have created nuclear socialism. in out gov ernment subsidy.” the United States, federal subsidies social- ize the risk of build ing nuclear plants, a Koplow describes subsidies for risk that private investors have refused to l the mining and milling of uranium ore assume. Overseas, almost all the countries l the enrichment of the uranium for nu- building reactors own the utilities outright.

February 2012 | ColdType 69 booK ExCErPT

In a March 17, 2011, article for PBS, Lovins subsidies; subtract them. Take markets seri- “take markets makes the same point: ously. Not just for nuclear and fossil fuels seriously. not “In contrast, of the 66 nuclear units but for all so-called “clean” technologies, just for nuclear worldwide officially listed as “under con- head toward zero energy subsidies, free and fossil fuels struction” at the end of 2010, 12 had been enterprise, risk-based credit pricing, com- but for all so- so listed for over 20 years, 45 had no offi- petition on merit, cheaper energy services, called “clean” cial startup date, half were late, all 66 were greater energy security, and dwindling defi- technologies, in centrally planned power systems – 50 cits.” head toward zero of those in just four (China, india, Russia, Who wouldn’t like that? Why don’t we energy subsidies, South korea) – and zero were free-market find out? free enterprise, purchases.” By proposing to eliminate all subsidies, risk-based In his 2010 Weekly Standard article, Lovins avoids a trap that nuclear opponents credit pricing, Lovins notes that the U.S. industry’s lust often fall into, of calling for subsidies for competition on for subsidies is getting worse, and that even some other source of energy, such as solar merit, cheaper some old-line conservative groups have be- or geothermal. The U.S. nuclear industry energy services, gun to oppose gigantic federal handouts: could never accept Lovins’s tongue-in- greater energy “As nuclear subsidies spiral toward fiscal cheek proposal. Without the federal sup- security, and ruin, brave voices protest from a handful of port of nuclear socialism, the U.S. nuclear dwindling deficits” think tanks: the Heritage Foundation, the power industry would die off. cT Cato institute, the George C. Marshall insti- tute, the American Enterprise institute, the Richard C. Bell is an author, editor, and Competitive Enterprise institute, the Na- political consultant who pioneered the use tional Taxpayers Union, Taxpayers for Com- of online communications and social media mon Sense. Yet most congressional budget in national electoral politics. He lives in hawks – supposedly sages of circumspec- Washington, D.C. tion and defenders of free markets – urge more nuclear socialism.” Rory O’Connor is the author of “Shock Lovins proposes that we solve the prob- Jocks: Hate Speech & Talk Radio” and the lem by taking markets seriously and remov- forthcoming “Friends, Followers and the ing subsidies for all industries: Future: How Social Media is Changing “Here’s a principled alternative: Reverse Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing the energy subsidy arms-race. Don’t add Traditional Media.”

“A well-written and disquieting book, richly detailed and fully documented, a gold mine of example and anecdote.” — New York Times Book Review NUKESPEAK The Selling of Nuclear Technology from the Manhattan Project to Fukushima Stephen Hilgartner, Richard C. Bell & Rory O’Connor

Published by Sierra Club Books, 2011, Second Edition (ebook only) $9.99 via Amazon www.nukespeak.org

70 ColdType | February 2012 FIghTINg bACK What happened to Canada? Chris Hedges tells how corporations have no use for borders in their bid for control of the world and its resources

hat happened to Canada? It used that you might be too. I want to tell you that to be the country we would flee this is something we need to prepare for. I want the voices of to if life in the United States be- to tell you that the risk of incarceration alone dissent sound Wcame unpalatable. No nuclear should not determine our organizing.” like our own. weapons. No huge military-industrial complex. “My skills and experience – as a facilita- and the forms of Universal health care. Funding for the arts. A tor, as a trainer, as a legal professional and as persecution are good record on the environment. someone linking different communities and familiar. this is not But that was the old Canada. I was in Mon- movements – were all targeted in this case, an accident. We are treal on Friday and Saturday and saw the fa- with the state trying to depict me as a ‘brain- fighting the same miliar and disturbing tentacles of the security washer’ and as a mastermind of mayhem, vio- corporate leviathan and surveillance state. Canada has withdrawn lence and destruction,” she went on. “During from the Kyoto Accords so it can dig up the the week of the G8 & G20 summits, the police Alberta tar sands in an orgy of environmental targeted legal observers, street medics and in- degradation. It carried out the largest mass ar- dependent media. It is clear that the skills that rests of demonstrators in Canadian history at make us strong, the alternatives that reduce 2010’s G-8 and G-20 meetings, rounding up our reliance on their systems and prefigure a more than 1,000 people. It sends undercover new world, are the very things that they are police into indigenous communities and activ- most afraid of.” ist groups and is handing out stiff prison terms The decay of Canada illustrates two things. to dissenters. And Canada’s Prime Minister Ste- Corporate power is global, and resistance to it phen Harper is a diminished version of George cannot be restricted by national boundaries. W. Bush. He champions the rabid right wing in Corporations have no regard for nation-states. Israel, bows to the whims of global financiers They assert their power to exploit the land and and is a Christian fundamentalist. the people everywhere. They play worker off The voices of dissent sound like our own. of worker and nation off of nation. They con- And the forms of persecution are familiar. This trol the political elites in Ottawa as they do in is not an accident. We are fighting the same London, Paris and Washington. This, I suspect, corporate leviathan. is why the tactics to crush the Occupy move- “I want to tell you that I was arrested because ment around the globe have an eerie similar- I am seen as a threat,” Canadian activist Leah ity – infiltrations, surveillance, the denial of Henderson wrote to fellow dissidents before be- public assembly, physical attempts to eradicate ing sent to Vanier prison in Milton, Ontario, to encampments, the use of propaganda and the serve a 10-month sentence. “I want to tell you press to demonize the movement, new draco-

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nian laws stripping citizens of basic rights, and “My country right or wrong,” G.K. Chester- our most increasingly harsh terms of incarceration. ton once wrote, is on the same level as “My dangerous Our solidarity should be with activists who mother, drunk or sober.” opponents, in march on Tahrir Square in Cairo or set up en- Our most dangerous opponents, in fact, fact, look and campamentos in Madrid. These are our true look and speak like us. They hijack familiar speak like us. they compatriots. The more we shed ourselves of and comforting iconography and slogans to hijack familiar national identity in this fight, the more we paint themselves as true patriots. They claim and comforting grasp that our true allies may not speak our to love Jesus. But they cynically serve the func- iconography and language or embrace our religious and cultural tion a native bureaucracy serves for any for- slogans to paint traditions, the more powerful we will become. eign colonizer. The British and the French, and themselves as true Those who seek to discredit this movement earlier the Romans, were masters of this game. patriots employ the language of nationalism and at- They recruited local quislings to carry out poli- tempt to make us fearful of the other. Wave the cies and repression that were determined in flag. Sing the national anthem. Swell with na- London or Paris or Rome. Popular anger was tional hubris. Be vigilant of the hidden terror- vented against these personages, and native ist. Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources Joe group vied with native group in battles for Oliver, responding to the growing opposition scraps of influence. And when one native ruler to the Keystone XL and the Northern Gateway was overthrown or, more rarely, voted out of pipelines, wrote in an open letter that “environ- power, these imperial machines recruited a mental and other radical groups” were trying to new face. The actual centers of power did not “hijack our regulatory system to achieve their change. The pillage continued. Global finan- radical ideological agenda.” He accused pipeline ciers are the new colonizers. They make the opponents of receiving funding from foreign rules. They pull the strings. They offer the il- special interest groups and said that “if all other lusion of choice in our carnivals of political avenues have failed, they will take a quintes- theater. But corporate power remains constant sential American approach: sue everyone and and unimpeded. Barack Obama serves the anyone to delay the project even further.” same role Herod did in imperial Rome. No matter that in both Canada and the Unit- This is why the Occupy Wall Street move- ed States suing the government to seek redress ment is important. It targets the center of is the right of every citizen. No matter that the power – global financial institutions. It de- opposition to the Keystone XL and Northern flects attention from the empty posturing in Gateway pipelines has its roots in Canada. No the legislative and executive offices in Wash- matter that the effort by citizens in the U.S. ington or London or Paris. The Occupy move- Chris Hedges and in Canada to fight climate change is about ment reminds us that until the corporate su- has worked for self-preservation. The minister, in the pocket perstructure is dismantled it does not matter The Christian of the fossil fuel industry like the energy czars which member of the native elite is elected or Science Monitor, in most of the other industrialized nations, anointed to rule. The Canadian prime minis- National Public seeks to pit “loyal” Canadians against “disloy- ter is as much a servant of corporate power as Radio, The Dallas al” Canadians. Those with whom we will build the American president. And replacing either Morning News this movement of resistance will not in some will not alter corporate domination. As the and The New York cases be our own. They may speak , pray corporate mechanisms of control become ap- Times, for which five times a day toward Mecca and be holding parent to wider segments of the population, he was a foreign off the police thugs in the center of Cairo. Or discontent will grow further. So will the force correspondent they may be generously pierced and tattooed employed by our corporate overlords. It will be for 15 years. and speak Danish or they may be Mandarin- a long road for us. But we are not alone. There This essay originally speaking workers battling China’s totalitarian are struggles and brush fires everywhere. Leah appeared at capitalism. These are differences that make no Henderson is not only right. She is my compa- www.truthdig.org difference. triot. cT

72 ColdType | February 2012 LAST WordS Making a farce of austerity Michael Meacher notes that Britain’s poor are being squeezed by cuts while the rich are laughing all the way to the bank

Land Registry inventory of title in a secret deal. Vodaphone was allowed to deeds, just published, is yet anoth- walk away with a £6bn tax let-off – why did the bankers crash er piece of evidence revealing the it require UKUncut to draw this to the na- the economy, Ahypocrisy of British Chancellor of tion’s attention? but keep their the Exchequer George Osborne’s “we’re all bonuses, and in it together” in austerity. fewer inspectors the rest of the What it shows is that in just two central population picks London boroughs the ownership of prop- The number of tax inspectors has been up the tab erty worth £88.5bn has been transferred off- reduced, after lobbying from Big Business, shore to escape payment of stamp duty and by 26% from 99,200 in 2005 to just 73,700 in inheritance tax. 2010, and tax collected has correspondingly It is estimated that this costs the Ex- dropped in the last 3 years from £462bn in chequer about £1.7bn a year in tax evaded. 2008 to £436bn in 2010. Whilst this is concentrated in the rich- This is a case, as everything else with this est areas of London, this tax dodge is now government (and New Labour as well), of spreading to other cities like Manchester, the rich socialising the losses and privatis- Derby and Leeds. ing the gains. We are told that money is so tight that The bankers crash the economy, but keep the cap on housing benefit and the cutback their bonuses, and the rest of the popula- for families of disabled children must be tion picks up the tab. maintained whilst the super-rich are laugh- The super-rich make stratospheric gains ing all the way to their offshore bank. in both wealth and income and then don’t It’s not as though the government didn’t pay their taxes, and the rest of the popula- know about these wheezes and have been tion have to pay more tax. surprised by these latest revelations. How long is this country going to go on The truth is they’ve consistently followed tamely accepting austerity when, if the su- a policy of ignoring tax-dodging by rich in- per-rich were made to pay their due taxes, dividuals and big corporations, always pre- there need be no austerity at all? cT ferring to look the other way or, like Nelson, put the telescope to their blind eye. Michael Meacher is the Labour Party Dave Hartnett, the head of HMRC, was Member of Parliament for Oldham West and rumbled letting off – the gi- royton. This commentary was first published ant vampire squid itself – a huge tax levy at his web site MichaelMeacher.info

February 2012 | ColdType 73 wriTing worTh reading

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