HAPPY GENOCIDE !
This time around Amnesty International has got the spirit right by calling for the arrest of George Bush during his tour of Africa. Alas, Ethiopia, Zambia and Tanzania do not have independent and truly African regimes and the man accused of violating the international convention against torture (and possibly against mutilating English grammar) will be feted and honored and not arrested. Bush will surely say “they misunderstimated me”. And Meles Zenawi, whose police and security forces torture and brutalize all prisoners, would give him a hug.
The so called International Criminal Court and the head prosecutor Ocampo are part of Western instruments against the so called Third World. If genocide be the issue, then the first people to be arrested and tried would be the American and Western criminals who have supervised genocides all over the world. Talk of Indochina and Chili and you get Kissinger. Mention Kenya and the horrible crimes of British colonialism come to the fore and France is guilty of the barbaric murders in Algeria. In recent times, the crimes of America in Iraq and Afghanistan are worthy of mention and Amnesty is right in calling for the arrest of George Bush. Tony Blair should also be detained without delay and charged. But, let us be real and realize that the powers in place are beyond the law and the ICC farce of Ocampo. The pathetic puppet is only focused on arresting Yugoslavs and Africans who have displeased the Western capitals. If genocide is really the issue, the recently celebrated Thanksgiving Day is but an example of the celebration of the wanton murder of Native Americans by savage settlers from Europe who were neither pilgrims nor invited guests. Manipulated and revised History has to be reconsidered—the day is a day of mourning for the real Americans who were there before even Columbus “discovered “the place. Happy genocide is in order for those celebrating the day and it is sad to note that Africans including Ethiopians celebrating the day. But this is not the issue here.
The miscarriage of justice is best exemplified by Ocampo and his ICC. A so called embargo killed half a million Iraqi children in an event that was dismissed by Madeline Albright as just collateral damage. Bush has been identified with water boarding and a country that often boasts of being civilized has shown its naked face—wanton murder and brutal torture. From Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo it is all injustice riding high. Gbagbo is whisked, actually bundled by the French to The Hague but the perpetrators of genocide like Mels Zenawi are feted and cuddled by the West—they are theirs. A Congolese alleged war lord is taken to The Hague while the master criminal Kabila is still in power. If Beshir of the Sudan is sought by the ICC why are not Bush, Nguema, Blair and the NATO bombers not accused? The same old nauseating double standard rears its head. There are genocides and there are genocides—no news here, just the dog biting the man. If you stick with the West you can murder and torture to your heart’s content and maybe face one or two lame “stop it” s through the years. One can live with that especially if one is a sadistic butcher and dictator.
There is no doubt that Gbagbo will be railroaded though his rival and the French army can both be accused of the crimes against civilians. Yes, the ICC seems to have an appetite for black faces only. To mention racism would be just belaboring the obvious. It is still this the kind of world we live in. No one has yet paid a cent let alone serve a prison term for the genocide of Africans and the infamous slave trade. Five million Congolese have died victims of the greedy pursuit of the mining conglomerates—no arrest warrant has been issued for them. The outcry for Darfur is not at all matched by a serious concern for the Congolese victims of the mineral robbers. The perpetrators and supporters of Apartheid are still around with no credible mea culpa coming out of them. The list is long. The rape of India, of South America, of Africa and Indochina involved genocides of all sorts and few of the criminals have been made to pay. That one genocide is till being celebrated as Thanksgiving Day is enough commentary. Here is one report on that Day: “1621, year of the supposed ‘first Thanksgiving.’ There is not much documentation of that event, but surviving Indians do not trust the myth. Natives were already dying like flies thanks to European-borne diseases. The Pequot tribe reportedly numbered 8,000 when the Pilgrims arrived, but disease had reduced their population to 1,500 by 1637, when the first, officially proclaimed, all-Pilgrim "Thanksgiving" took place. At that feast, the whites of New England celebrated their massacre of the Pequot. "This day forth shall be a day of celebration and thanksgiving for subduing the Pequot," read Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop's proclamation. Few Pequot survived.” Many other massacres did follow. In 1623 at the Pamunkey Peace Talks the English poisoned the wine at a "peace conference" with Powhatan leaders, killing about 200; they physically attacked and killed another 50. British perfidy is very old. The accusation that blankets contaminated by small pox were given to the native Indians is not to be brushed aside lightly. Syphilis was spread also and this is without even mentioning the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.
Evidently, Bush will not be arrested by the African puppets. In fact, he was given a prize by Meles Zenawi—as we say in Ethiopia stinking fellows walk close and hand in hand. ‘Gim legim abreh azgim’. One is out of power and the other wobbles still. The American backed regime in Ethiopia has committed genocide and massacres, and tortures dissidents brutally and as a matter of routine. That Bush took this long to come and say bravo to his puppet is actually what is surprising for he does belong in Addis Abeba alongside Meles. Time for Bush and Meles to say Happy Genocide, to one another up close, together, with their stink.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
OF LIES AND DESPOTS
OF LIES AND DESPOTS
““They made us many promises, more than I can remember. They only kept but one. They promised they would take our land, and they took it.” ----Red Cloud
Who was it who wailed “If only I had the luxury of lying?” I do understand the burden of French president Sarkozy who had to complain in private to Obama about Netanyahu “the liar”. Here is how the press report put it:
“French President Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar" in a private conversation with US President Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists during last week's G20 summit in Cannes.
"I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation.
"You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied, according to the French interpreter. Obama is lying too as he has cuddled up to and tolerated many shamelessly lying despots. They are “his” liars. As we Ethiopians say, you love your baby snot and all. Politics and lies seem to cohabit comfortably, alas. Impostors who can delude the crowds make effective despots. They fear not the lie in other words. Every year at the general meeting of the African Union or the UN a carnival of liars is held. Coup makers and murderers pay lip service to democracy and the will of the people. Those who easily and readily promise the sky to gullible millions will steal the land from all of them. Easy, invade Bahrain and then weep for the people of Syria. Invade for your own limited political objectives and then swear concern for the welfare of the people (France in Ivory Coast and Libya, America in many other places). The lie is important. If Netanyahu lies as Sarkozy alleges then most French people know that Sarkozy himself plays loose with facts actual or historical.
The existence of the WMD was one of the worst lies America and Britain played on the world with Colin Powell in the role of the pathetic messenger. We all saw the carnage that was justified by that huge lie. Africans were promised paradise and deprived of their land and freedom. Ethiopians have been promised three meals per day and millions are still starving and eating once a day has become a luxury. The lies are so effective that there are still many naïve souls who believe that Western troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan to bring democracy to the peoples there. Lying has become the pillar of the State in many countries and most despots rely on lies as much as arms to perpetuate their rule. A link has conveniently been made between Al Qaida in the Horn, in North Africa and the Boko Harem in Nigeria. The Africom operations are destined to carve out a New Africa, dominated by the West and serving the interests of the West. More drone bases would appear on African soil (the latest one is in Arba Minch/Gamo Gofa/, Ethiopia) and American troops would fight along African ones (Ethiopia, Uganda, etc) to crush any resistance to western domination. A good example of the big lie is the fraud that the war against Libya exposed. Kaddafi was said to have thousands of African mercenaries (many black refugees and workers were killed as a result by the so called rebels), that he was going to bomb Benghazi and killed some six thousand Libyans (the NATO war killed many more actually) and that jets bombed civilians. The whole accusation was presented by the Libyan For Human Rights many of whose members were to become members of the Transitional Council to win power.
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, a Sociologist and Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) has put it as follows:
“The claims of the Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR) were coordinated with the formation of the Transitional Council. This becomes clear when the close and cagey relationship of the LLHR and the Transitional Council becomes apparent. Logically, the Obama Administration and NATO had to also be a part of this.
Whatever the Transitional Council is and whatever the intent of some of its supporters, it is clear that it is being used as a tool by the U.S. and others. Moreover, five members of the LLHR were or would become members of the Transitional Council almost immediately after the claims against the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya were disseminated. According to Bouchuguir individuals with ties to the LLHR or who hold membership include Mahmoud Jibril and Ali Tarhouni.
Dr. Mahmoud Jibril is a Libyan regime figure brought into Libyan government circles by Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi. He would undemocratically be given the position of Transitional Council prime minister. His involvement with the LLHR raises some real questions about the organization.
The economist Ali Tarhouni on the other hand would become the minister for oil and finance for the Transitional Council. Tarhouni is Washington’s man in Libya. He was groomed in the United States and was present at all the major meetings about plans for regime change in Libya. As Minister of Oil and Finance the first acts he did were privatize and virtually handover Libya’s energy resources and economy to the foreign corporations and governments of the NATO-led coalition against Libya.
The General-Secretary of the LLHR, Sliman Bouchuiguir, has even privately admitted that many influential members of the Transitional Council are his friends. A real question of interests arises. Yet, the secret relationship between the LLHR and the Transitional Council is far more than a question of conflict of interest. It is a question of justice and manipulation.
Sliman Bouchuguir is an unheard of figure for most, but he has authored a doctoral thesis that has been widely quoted and used in strategic circles in the United States. This thesis was published in 1979 as a book, The Use of Oil as a Political Weapon: A Case Study of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. The thesis is about the use of oil as an economic weapon by Arabs, but can easily be applied to the Russians, the Iranians, the Venezuelans, and others. It examines economic development and economic warfare and can also be applied to vast regions, including all of Africa.
Bouchuguir’s analytical thesis reflects an important line of thinking in Washington as well as London and Tel Aviv. It is both the embodiment of a pre-existing mentality, which includes U.S. National Security Advisor George F. Kennan’s arguments for maintaining a position of disparity through a constant multi-faced war between the U.S. and its allies on one hand and the rest of the world on the other hand. The thesis can be drawn on for preventing the Arabs, or others, from becoming economic powers or threats. In strategic terms, rival economies are pinned as threats and as “weapons.” This has serious connotations.
Moreover, Bouchuiguir did his thesis at George Washington University under Bernard Reich. Reich is a political scientist and professor of international relations. He has worked and held positions at places like the U.S. Defense Intelligence College, the United States Air Force Special Operations School, the Marine Corps War College, and the Shiloah Center at Tel Aviv University. He has consulted on the Middle East for the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. State Department and received grants such as the Defense Academic Research Support Program Research Grant and the German Marshal Fund Grant. Reich also was or is presently on the editorial boards of journals such as Israel Affairs (1994-present), Terrorism: An International Journal (1987-1994), and The New Middle East (1971-1973).
It is also clear that Reich is tied to Israeli interests. He has even written a book about the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel. He has also been an advocate for a “New Middle East” which would be favorable to Israel. This includes careful consideration over North Africa. His work has also focused on the important strategic interface between the Soviet Union and the Middle East and also on Israeli policy in the continent of Africa.
It is clear why Bouchuiguir had his thesis supervised under Reich. On October 23, 1973, Reich gave a testimony at the U.S. Congress. The testimony has been named “The Impact of the October Middle East War” and is clearly tied to the 1973 oil embargo and Washington’s aim of pre-empting or managing any similar events in the future. It has to be asked, how much did Reich influence Bouchuiguir and if Bouchuiguir espouses the same strategic views as Reich?”
The reality is complicated and like the proverbial Truth needs a contingent of lies to protect it. The West lies to pursue its objectives which are anathema to the interest of Africans primarily. AFRICOM is the new instrument of neo colonial domination and plunder and war against terror is the new name for the scramble of the new Century. The lying despots are the cogs for the wheel of the West and its predatory campaign against Africa. Human rights organizations are being used as a cover for the wars the West is waging against African and other continents. At the end of the day, it is war for valuable resources. The US imports more oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia. The resistance to the plunder of Africa’s oil and resources comes from the people of Africa and it is this resistance that is conveniently being presented as “terrorism”. The African despots are thus part of the big lie and working against the continent and its peoples. The lie is huge. The stakes are high as Africa’s future is on balance. Meles Zenawi sells bonds to gullible people promising that they will get their money back once the huge dam get finished on the Nile. Ivory Coast is said to be fine with Ouattara and Kabila is said to be a panacea for the Congo while Tsvangirai is expected to be an improvement on Mugabe, and so on and on. All lies. In politics “relative improvement” often hides a lie, the continuation of the same under a new name, a new despot. Lies are the weapons of despots. Gullible citizens trust the lies and become victims of tyrants. The wake up call is still unheard. Many Africans still imagine their salvation will come from the West. Waiting for Godot is the reality we observe with sadness.
How long are we to be fooled?
““They made us many promises, more than I can remember. They only kept but one. They promised they would take our land, and they took it.” ----Red Cloud
Who was it who wailed “If only I had the luxury of lying?” I do understand the burden of French president Sarkozy who had to complain in private to Obama about Netanyahu “the liar”. Here is how the press report put it:
“French President Nicolas Sarkozy branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a liar" in a private conversation with US President Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists during last week's G20 summit in Cannes.
"I cannot bear Netanyahu, he's a liar," Sarkozy told Obama, unaware that the microphones in their meeting room had been switched on, enabling reporters in a separate location to listen in to a simultaneous translation.
"You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him even more often than you," Obama replied, according to the French interpreter. Obama is lying too as he has cuddled up to and tolerated many shamelessly lying despots. They are “his” liars. As we Ethiopians say, you love your baby snot and all. Politics and lies seem to cohabit comfortably, alas. Impostors who can delude the crowds make effective despots. They fear not the lie in other words. Every year at the general meeting of the African Union or the UN a carnival of liars is held. Coup makers and murderers pay lip service to democracy and the will of the people. Those who easily and readily promise the sky to gullible millions will steal the land from all of them. Easy, invade Bahrain and then weep for the people of Syria. Invade for your own limited political objectives and then swear concern for the welfare of the people (France in Ivory Coast and Libya, America in many other places). The lie is important. If Netanyahu lies as Sarkozy alleges then most French people know that Sarkozy himself plays loose with facts actual or historical.
The existence of the WMD was one of the worst lies America and Britain played on the world with Colin Powell in the role of the pathetic messenger. We all saw the carnage that was justified by that huge lie. Africans were promised paradise and deprived of their land and freedom. Ethiopians have been promised three meals per day and millions are still starving and eating once a day has become a luxury. The lies are so effective that there are still many naïve souls who believe that Western troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan to bring democracy to the peoples there. Lying has become the pillar of the State in many countries and most despots rely on lies as much as arms to perpetuate their rule. A link has conveniently been made between Al Qaida in the Horn, in North Africa and the Boko Harem in Nigeria. The Africom operations are destined to carve out a New Africa, dominated by the West and serving the interests of the West. More drone bases would appear on African soil (the latest one is in Arba Minch/Gamo Gofa/, Ethiopia) and American troops would fight along African ones (Ethiopia, Uganda, etc) to crush any resistance to western domination. A good example of the big lie is the fraud that the war against Libya exposed. Kaddafi was said to have thousands of African mercenaries (many black refugees and workers were killed as a result by the so called rebels), that he was going to bomb Benghazi and killed some six thousand Libyans (the NATO war killed many more actually) and that jets bombed civilians. The whole accusation was presented by the Libyan For Human Rights many of whose members were to become members of the Transitional Council to win power.
Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, a Sociologist and Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG) has put it as follows:
“The claims of the Libyan League for Human Rights (LLHR) were coordinated with the formation of the Transitional Council. This becomes clear when the close and cagey relationship of the LLHR and the Transitional Council becomes apparent. Logically, the Obama Administration and NATO had to also be a part of this.
Whatever the Transitional Council is and whatever the intent of some of its supporters, it is clear that it is being used as a tool by the U.S. and others. Moreover, five members of the LLHR were or would become members of the Transitional Council almost immediately after the claims against the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya were disseminated. According to Bouchuguir individuals with ties to the LLHR or who hold membership include Mahmoud Jibril and Ali Tarhouni.
Dr. Mahmoud Jibril is a Libyan regime figure brought into Libyan government circles by Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi. He would undemocratically be given the position of Transitional Council prime minister. His involvement with the LLHR raises some real questions about the organization.
The economist Ali Tarhouni on the other hand would become the minister for oil and finance for the Transitional Council. Tarhouni is Washington’s man in Libya. He was groomed in the United States and was present at all the major meetings about plans for regime change in Libya. As Minister of Oil and Finance the first acts he did were privatize and virtually handover Libya’s energy resources and economy to the foreign corporations and governments of the NATO-led coalition against Libya.
The General-Secretary of the LLHR, Sliman Bouchuiguir, has even privately admitted that many influential members of the Transitional Council are his friends. A real question of interests arises. Yet, the secret relationship between the LLHR and the Transitional Council is far more than a question of conflict of interest. It is a question of justice and manipulation.
Sliman Bouchuguir is an unheard of figure for most, but he has authored a doctoral thesis that has been widely quoted and used in strategic circles in the United States. This thesis was published in 1979 as a book, The Use of Oil as a Political Weapon: A Case Study of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. The thesis is about the use of oil as an economic weapon by Arabs, but can easily be applied to the Russians, the Iranians, the Venezuelans, and others. It examines economic development and economic warfare and can also be applied to vast regions, including all of Africa.
Bouchuguir’s analytical thesis reflects an important line of thinking in Washington as well as London and Tel Aviv. It is both the embodiment of a pre-existing mentality, which includes U.S. National Security Advisor George F. Kennan’s arguments for maintaining a position of disparity through a constant multi-faced war between the U.S. and its allies on one hand and the rest of the world on the other hand. The thesis can be drawn on for preventing the Arabs, or others, from becoming economic powers or threats. In strategic terms, rival economies are pinned as threats and as “weapons.” This has serious connotations.
Moreover, Bouchuiguir did his thesis at George Washington University under Bernard Reich. Reich is a political scientist and professor of international relations. He has worked and held positions at places like the U.S. Defense Intelligence College, the United States Air Force Special Operations School, the Marine Corps War College, and the Shiloah Center at Tel Aviv University. He has consulted on the Middle East for the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. State Department and received grants such as the Defense Academic Research Support Program Research Grant and the German Marshal Fund Grant. Reich also was or is presently on the editorial boards of journals such as Israel Affairs (1994-present), Terrorism: An International Journal (1987-1994), and The New Middle East (1971-1973).
It is also clear that Reich is tied to Israeli interests. He has even written a book about the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel. He has also been an advocate for a “New Middle East” which would be favorable to Israel. This includes careful consideration over North Africa. His work has also focused on the important strategic interface between the Soviet Union and the Middle East and also on Israeli policy in the continent of Africa.
It is clear why Bouchuiguir had his thesis supervised under Reich. On October 23, 1973, Reich gave a testimony at the U.S. Congress. The testimony has been named “The Impact of the October Middle East War” and is clearly tied to the 1973 oil embargo and Washington’s aim of pre-empting or managing any similar events in the future. It has to be asked, how much did Reich influence Bouchuiguir and if Bouchuiguir espouses the same strategic views as Reich?”
The reality is complicated and like the proverbial Truth needs a contingent of lies to protect it. The West lies to pursue its objectives which are anathema to the interest of Africans primarily. AFRICOM is the new instrument of neo colonial domination and plunder and war against terror is the new name for the scramble of the new Century. The lying despots are the cogs for the wheel of the West and its predatory campaign against Africa. Human rights organizations are being used as a cover for the wars the West is waging against African and other continents. At the end of the day, it is war for valuable resources. The US imports more oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia. The resistance to the plunder of Africa’s oil and resources comes from the people of Africa and it is this resistance that is conveniently being presented as “terrorism”. The African despots are thus part of the big lie and working against the continent and its peoples. The lie is huge. The stakes are high as Africa’s future is on balance. Meles Zenawi sells bonds to gullible people promising that they will get their money back once the huge dam get finished on the Nile. Ivory Coast is said to be fine with Ouattara and Kabila is said to be a panacea for the Congo while Tsvangirai is expected to be an improvement on Mugabe, and so on and on. All lies. In politics “relative improvement” often hides a lie, the continuation of the same under a new name, a new despot. Lies are the weapons of despots. Gullible citizens trust the lies and become victims of tyrants. The wake up call is still unheard. Many Africans still imagine their salvation will come from the West. Waiting for Godot is the reality we observe with sadness.
How long are we to be fooled?
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