8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

1/64

Th ReadeRCold TypeW R I T I N G W O R T H R E A D I N G l I S S U E 4 8 l j U l y 2 0 1 0

A tAle of A billion dollArs, 20,000 police And 400 AnArchists

P H

OT

O: R I

cH A R D

G OT T A R D

O

welcometo toronto

inside: Bloody Sunday: the truth l World cup domination l WitneSSing againSt torture

l BrotherS-in-armS l BpS dumB inveStorS

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

2/64

2 | July 2010

Th ReadeRCold Type

E :Ton Sutton(editor@ o dt pe.net)

To subs ribe,send an emai to:

oo s@ o dt pe.net(Write subs ribe in thesub e t ine)

Opinions expressed in Theco dT pe Reader are notne essari those o theeditor or pub isher

cover Photo b Ri hardGottardo

Th ReadeRCold TypeW R I T I N G W O R T H R E A D I N G l I S S U E 4 8 l j U l y 2 0 1 0

A tAle of A billion dollArs,20,000 police And400AnArchists

P H

OT

O: R I cH A R D

G OT T A R D

O

welcometo toronto

inside: Bloody Sunday: the truth l World cupdomination l WitneSSing againSt torture

l BrotherS-in-armS l BpS dumB inveStorS ssue 48 July 2010

3. BrothErs-in-arms

6. thE othEr World cup WinnErs S z

9. G20 comEs to toronto g & S

14. policE and BankErs ExEmpt from austErity Q

15. hurWitts EyE h

16. Bps dumB invEstors dEmand dividEnds .

19 EchoinG thE pEntaGon papErs & p23. somE thouGhts on patriotism B

27. BoGus, misdirEctEd and EffEctivE g

29. projEct for pitilEss cEnturiEs F

33. hold thE front paGE!

35. EGG on thEir facEs aGain g

39. BEndiBs World K B

40. Bloody sunday: noW thEy havE thE truth h

44. lEttinG thE Guilty off thE hook 46. thE collapsinG WEstErn Way of lifE J K z

50. thE casE for human Extinction F

52. lookinG for chanGE, findinG dEspEration g

54. undEr siEGE, But unBEatEn S

57. WitnEssinG aGainst torturE K K

60. mission accomplishEd g

Cover story, page 9

mailto:editor@coldtype.netmailto:jools@coldtype.netmailto:jools@coldtype.netmailto:editor@coldtype.net

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

3/64

July 2010 | 3

Economic Propaganda

i e , e

eb e

e e

b e e

an essential role o corporate

journalism is to shore up publiccon dence in an unjust, crisis-riven nancial and economic

system. Although plenty o gloom and doomis permitted, especially in the ace o obviouscrisis, the legitimacy o the system is rarelyquestioned.

For example, a recent Sunday Times ar-ticle cited approvingly the views o JimONeill, chie economist at Goldman Sachs.In a note to clients, titled Why the World isBetter Than You Think, ONeill tried to allay

ears that the collapse o nancial marketshad made the world seem a scary place. Itis not so bad; indeed, global recovery wasunderway.

The Sunday Times piece then quoted ahedge und manager proclaiming massivelygood pro ts in the US, and beaming thatemerging markets [in Brazil, India and else-

where] are still booming. The article con-ceded it could be a very nervous summer.But or whom? The journalists werent ocus-ing on the concerns o the general popula-tion jobs, pensions, student loans. Instead,the principal worry was nancial uncer-tainty spooking the markets. But despitethe modicum o caution, the articles mes-sage boiled down to positive undamentals

or the global economy. (David Smith, KateWalsh and Michael Woodhead, Merkels stabin the dark, Sunday Times, May 23, 2010)

In the Financial Times, chie political com-mentator Philip Stephens was candid enoughto warn o austerity and even a erocious

scal squeeze that will bear down moreheavily on those lower down the incomescale. (Philip Stephens, Say goodbye tothe politics o golly-gosh, Financial Times ,May 24 2010). But he took at ace value po-litical claims o moves towards repairing thepublic nances, a key propaganda messagethroughout the corporate media.

In reality, politicians have misappropri-ated public money to prop up a corrupt andinherently unstable nancial system. AsGeorge Monbiot reported in the Guardian last September, the most recent gures avail-able rom the O ce or National Statisticsshowed that the governments interventionsin the nancial markets had already added141 billion to public sector net debt. (GeorgeMonbiot, One nancial meltdown is, itseems, just not enough or Gordon Brown,Guardian.co.uk, Sept 7, 2009).

Stephens then made the absurd claimthat Mr Cameron has turned his partys

ailure to win the election to the nations ad- vantage. The coalition government looksas sensible and stable as most people couldhave hoped. Cameron, we were told, washeroically wrenching the Tories on to thecentre ground. The centre ground, presum-ably, is the very same level playing eldpromoted by the previous New Labour ad-

Broth r -i -armd c we

j

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

4/64

4 | July 2010

t e e e ,

g ee e

g ee e

e , e ee

w be b e ;w w ee

e ebe g ebe e

ministration that saw corporate interestsand nancial elites prosper at the expenseo almost everyone else; along with infictingirreparable damage on ecosystems, species

and climate stability. Policies enacted on thiscentre ground are supposedly to the na-tions advantage.

Meanwhile, the amously impartial BBCis relaying news that the O ce or BudgetResponsibility, the new UK scal watchdog,predicts a lower growth rate or the economyin 2011 than had been estimated in Labourslast Budget:

The lower gure will likely increase theimpetus o the coalition government to cutpublic spending, as lower growth means ew-

er tax revenues. (BBC news online, Fiscal watchdog downgrades UK growth orecast,14 June 2010)

The warning was delivered ahead o Chan-cellor George Osbornes emergency budgetin which he pledged to cut public spendingto reduce the de cit. In her Stephanomicsblog, the BBCs economics editor StephanieFlanders stayed on-message, ponti cating

with gravitas on percentage points, centralorecasts, structural borrowing, trend growth

and spare capacity. (BBC News blogs, OBRUK growth orecast downgraded, 14 June,2011). The approach is technocratic, andseemingly blind to the very real su eringimposed by a crushing system o economicsthat rewards a small minority.

These are but samples o media coverageon the economic crisis. The dominant themeis that, although markets are uncertain andthus tough economic decisions lie ahead,the system itsel can and will be stabilised;always with the presumption o such mea-sures being or the bene t o all. By contrast,those analysts who point to the systemic in-stability o capitalism, and the undamentalinequalities o corporate globalisation, con-stantly struggle to get their views across tothe public.Be c e p gIn his latest excellent book, Beyond the Pro -its System , the British economist Harry Shuttobserves that one o the most striking ea-

tures o the nancial crisis has been: the uni ormly super cial nature o

the analysis o its causes presented by main-stream observers, whether government o -

cials, academics or business representatives.Thus it is commonly stated that the crisis was caused by a combination o imprudentinvestment by bankers and others [] andunduly lax o cial regulation and supervisiono markets. Yet the obvious question beggedby such explanations o how or why such adys unctional climate came to be created isnever addressed in any serious ashion.

Shutt continues:The inescapable conclusion [] is that

the crisis was the product o a conscious pro-

cess o acilitating ever greater risk o mas-sive systemic ailure. (Harry Shutt, Beyondthe Profts System: Possibilities or a Post-Capi-talist Era , Zed Books, London, 2010, p.6)

In several books and articles, David Har- vey, a social theorist at the City Universityo New York, has cogently written o howcapitalism has shaped western society, risk-ing and even destroying nations, popula-tions and ecosystems. Not only are periodicepisodes o meltdown inevitable, but theyare crucial to capitalisms very survival. Theessence o capitalism is sel -interest; and anytalk o re orming it through regulation or byimposing morality a kinder, gentler capital-ism is both irrational and deceit ul.

The bankruptcy o investment bank Leh-man Brothers in September 2008 triggeredthe latest crisis o capitalism. Drastic action

was required to save the system. And so,observes Harvey, a ew US Treasury o cialsand bankers including the Treasury Secretaryhimsel , a past president o Goldman Sachsand the present Chie Executive o Goldman,emerged rom a con erence room with athree-page document demanding a $700billion bail-out o the banking system whilethreatening Armageddon in the markets.

Harvey continues:It seemed like Wall Street had launched

a nancial coup against the government andthe people o the United States. A ew weekslater, with caveats here and there and a lot o

Economic Propaganda

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

5/64

July 2010 | 5

Economic Propaganda

W e e

e bw e e

e ee e ewe ; e e

e e e e

e e e

rhetoric, Congress and then President GeorgeBush caved in and the money was sent food-ing o , without any controls whatsoever, toall those nancial institutions deemed too

big to ail. (David Harvey, The Enigma o Capital: And the Crises o Capitalism , Pro leBooks, London, 2010, p. 5)

Shutt translates too big to ail, thatover-used de ence employed by capitalistsand their cheerleaders, as meaning that atiny super-wealthy clique recognised thatthey risked losing vast ortunes i the mar-kets were allowed to take their course ree o intervention rom the state. Wholesale na-tionalisation o insolvent banks would haveposed an existential threat to elite power; or

even led to the collapse o the capitalist pro -its system in its entirety. Rather than acceptsuch a ate, rich investors tried to ensure thattheir toxic assets be largely trans erred tothe state, thereby adding unimaginable sums o cially estimated at $18 trillion world-

wide to already excessive public debt.(Shutt, op. cit., p. 36)

As ever, the public were made to pay theprice or private greed. In simple terms: itssocialism or the rich, and capitalism or therest o us.

We e n s e a eI wrote to David Smith, economics editoro the Sunday Times , and lead author o thegung-ho-capitalist article highlighted at thebeginning o this article:

Thanks or your articles in the SundayTimes ; but your perspective is too limited,too skewed. For instance, why give suchprominence to the views o Jim ONeill, chie economist at Goldman Sachs a major ar-chitect o the recent nancial collapse? Howabout taking on board some o the argu-ments made by, or example, David Harveyin The Enigma o Capital ?

1. The endemic problems o instabilityarising rom nancialisation, leveraging andsurplus liquidity.

2. Repeating systemic cycles o crises.3. Capitalism eeding o wars and con-

fict.

4. Inevitable victims: billions o the worlds population, ecosystems and climatestability.

Food or thought, and newspaper col-

umns aplenty? (Email, David Cromwell toDavid Smith, May 24, 2010)Two days later, Smith wrote back, adroitly

dodging the question:Jim ONeill is a good economist, irrespec-

tive o whether you like the company hekeeps. David Harvey is not alone in seeingperiodic crises or capitalism. So do the Aus-trian School or any number o economistsbrought up in the Keynesian tradition. What

was interesting, to me, was Harveys ratherdespairing conclusion, which appeared to be

a tribute to capitalisms great resilience. He wrote:

Capitalism will never all on its own. It will have to be pushed. The accumulationo capital will never cease. It will have to bestopped. The capitalist class will never will-ingly surrender its power. It will have to bedispossessed. (David Smith, email, May 28,2010)

But David Harvey is surely right. We mighteven recast the observation to make thesame point about journalists in the pro t-ledmedia:

The journalists o capitalism will nevertell the truth on their own. They will have tobe pushed.

And although the Sunday Times journal-ists point about the resilience o capitalismis accurate, it is a red herring. I wrote back:

But youve evaded my central question why do you rarely, i ever, address the issuesI put to you?

His response was a lo ty dismissal:Most o us get these things out o our

system when we are students. (David Smith,email, May 28, 2010)

And so when students graduate, they aresupposedly mature enough to ignore capital-isms victims and to be content with an ap-pallingly unjust system o destruction andexploitation! This is the cold, heartless logicthat seeps out rom the symbiosis o capital-ism and corporate journalism. ct

David Cromwellis co-editor o Medialens www.medialens.org

the British mediawatchdog.His latest book,written withMedialensco-editorDavid Edwardsis Newspeak InThe 21st Century (Pluto Book)

http://www.medialens.org/http://www.medialens.org/

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

6/64

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

7/64

July 2010 | 7

The Great Game

a e , eu.s.

e

e e e e ,b e

e w e e

b g!

ship to power), Argentina (1976, military junta deposes government o Isabel Pern with U.S. knowledge and support), Hondu-ras (besides past interventions in 1905, 1907,

1911, and 1943, in 1983 over 1000 troops andNational Guard members were deployed tohelp the contra ght against Nicaragua, notto mention the U.S. support or last yearscoup), Slovenia and Serbia (1992-6, U.S.Navy joins in a naval blockade o Yugoslaviain Adriatic waters; 1999, U.S. participated inmonths o air bombing and cruise missilestrikes in Kosovo war).

The U.S military is essentially still oc-cupying Germany (52,440 troops in over50 installations), Japan (35,688 troops with

an additional 5,500 American civilians em-ployed by the DoD oh yeah, and Japanpays about $2 billion each year or the USto be there as part o the Omoiyari Yosan,or compassion budget), and South Korea(28,500 U.S. troops). There are 9,660 U.Stroops still stationed in Italy, 9,015 in theUnited Kingdom, over 1,300 in Serbia andover 1,200 in Spain.

Furthermore, Denmark, Greece, theNetherlands, France, Portugal, Slovenia,Slovakia, Switzerland, Australia, New Zea-land, Algeria, Cameroon, Cte dIvoire, Gha-na, Nigeria, South A rica, Argentina, Brazil,Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, andUruguay all su er the presence o at leasta ew American soldiers who are o ciallystationed there (some o these countries are

orced to host 400-800 US troops).

i e eAll told, there are about 78,000 Americanmilitary personnel in Europe, along withapproximately 47,240 in East Asia and thePaci c, 3,360 in North A rica, the Near East,and South Asia (obviously not includingthe 92,000 troops in Iraq and about 100,000in A ghanistan and Pakistan), 1,355 in sub-Saharan A rica, and an additional 1,940 inthe Western Hemisphere outside the UnitedStates itsel .

Literally, the only country in this yearsWorld Cup proceedings without any sort o

token or actual United States military pres-ence is surprise surprise North Korea.And even this might change i Obama getshis way. That would put American troops in

every single one o the 32 countries current-ly competing in South A rica, along withover 140 others.

A press release distributed by U.S. A ricaCommand (US AFRICOM) excitedly reports,Through the cooperation o a host o inter-national television licensees, the AmericanForces Network Broadcast Center (AFN-BC)has been granted permission by the Fdra-tion Internationale de Football Association(FIFA) to distribute the ull complement o matches o the 2010 FIFA World Cup South

A rica.A recent article in Stars and Stripes,

quotes Lt. Col. Steve Berger, an intelligenceplanner with U.S. Army A rica stationed inVicenza, Italy, as saying, Its really great orthe soldiers to see, especially or an emerg-ing sport in the U.S. (And especially sothat they can get a glimpse o the kinds o people theyll be ordered to kill next!) Evenmore exciting is the act that, Because AFNdoesnt pay or programming, it was impor-tant that it receive the rights to the WorldCup or ree, AFN chie o a liate relationsLarry Sichter said.

Apparently, the U.S. military can invade your country and station troops there in-de nitely, but it sure as hell wont pay ortelevision broadcasting! Especially not withthe $531 billion allocated this scal year

or U.S. military spending (a total whichis expected to rise by $18 billion next yearalong with an additional $272 billion or theongoing occupation o Iraq, the escalationin A ghanistan, the illegal predator dronebombings in Pakistan, and rebuilding andupdating a nuclear arsenal in clear violationo the requirements o the NPT). The U.S.armed orces just cant spare a square.

FIFA probably had no choice but to com-ply with the requests o the U.S. military

or ear o having their o ces occupied orblown to pieces. What a relie a deal wasstruck! How global! How peace ul! How

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

8/64

8 | July 2010

t e e b e e w e

be w ge e 64 eg e e

ew e e

u e s e , e we e

The Great Game

imperial! How obvious, unsurprising, andembarrassing.

Having the most-watched sports eventon the planet play out on AFN is a real

eather in our cap, notes Je White, Execu-tive Director o AFN-BC, in the text o themilitary press release led rom Riverdale,CA via Stuttgart, Germany. But more im-portantly, White continues, well be ableto deliver the entire compliment o matchesto the side that means the most our bravemen and women in uni orm serving theircountry overseas and in harms way. Itdoesnt get any better than this.

v ew

That, out o the planetary pride, representa-tion, and uni cation that the World Cup issupposed to be all about, the U.S. military

would be the side that means the most isin itsel upsetting but hey, its a militarypress release and the guys name is Whitea ter all.

But White is wholly wrong about itnot getting any better than this. There is

a very simple way or things to be much,much better. I the U.S. reduced its domi-nating and destructive presence and ag-gressive involvement around the world and

dismantled the hundreds o oreign installa-tions that keep the rest o the world in sub-missive subjugation and under Americanoccupation, these brave men and women inuni orm could and should be watch-ing these 64 soccer games rom the com orto their own homes in the United States, onthe couch with their amilies.

For the sake o the entire world, it truly wouldnt get any better than that. ct

Nima Shirazi is a writer and musician.

He is a contributing columnist or ForeignPolicy Journal and Palestine Think Tank. Hisanalysis o United States policy and MiddleEast issues, particularly with re erence tocurrent events in Palestine and Iran, can be

ound in numerous other online and print publications. He currently lives in Brooklyn,NY, with his wi e and books.Visit his websiteat: www.wideasleepinamerica.com.

THE NEW PRESS

osing o r coostan cox

The frst book to examine theenvironmenta onsequen eso air- onditioning

www.thenewpress. omAvai ab e whereverbooks are so d

http://www.wideasleepinamerica.com/http://www.thenewpress.com/http://www.thenewpress.com/http://www.wideasleepinamerica.com/

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

9/64

Header

July 2010 | 9

G2 0

p h o t o s : r i c h A r d g o t t A r d o . w o r d s : t o n s t t o n

c o m e s t o t o r o n t o

o r o nt

o s

g

2 0 / 1

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

10/64

10 | July 2010

o r o nt

o s

g 2 0 / 1

thethe

They were dressed in black. They were ready

or a ght. And they created mayhem indowntown Toronto on the weekend o June26 and 27.

On one side were thousands o black-clad riot police,sweltering beneath bullet-proo vests, weighed downby guns, walkie talkies, Plexiglass shields, batonsand heavy boots. On the other were several hundredfeet- ooted Black Bloc anarchists decked out in black

sweatsuits and trainers, aces anonymous behindbandanas, armed with sticks and stones.

At the edge o the action were the media, TV crews,hairsprayed anchors and on-air reporters, short onanalysis, long on wind, desperately lling time as they

Welcometo Toronto

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

11/64

July 2010 | 11

o r o nt

o s

g 2 0 / 1

waited or the antagonists to produce the violence thatwould drag viewers eyes rom the other big weekendsporting event, live World Cup soccer action.

Mingling with the men (and women) in black and theirmedia courtiers were thrill-hunting sightseers toting

cameras to record the action or personal posterity,and 10,000 banner-waving protesters who were quicklymarginalised as the media ocus shi ted rom theirlegitimate, non-violent (and there ore unsexy) anti-G20march to wallow in the thrill o broken windows and

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

12/64

12 | July 2010

savour the tear-smoke dri ting through the air urtherdown the road.

The security cost o the G20 charade including asmaller G8 event a ew miles up the road a day earlier, added up to $1.2 billion and involved erecting mileso high steel encing around the G20 con erence site,mobilising 20,000 police and the virtual lockdown odowntown Toronto or the weekend. Cops dont work ornothing, you know.

Duly protected rom the restless proles, the leaderso the ree world and their entourage enjoyed sel -congratulatory speeches and gourmet meals insidetheir gilded cage. Meanwhile, more than a thousandprotesters and dazed and con used passers-by spenttheir evening, night and much o the ollowing dayunder arrest, locked inside less-spacious metal cageshastily brought into an abandoned lm actory.

And what happened to journalists caught up orhours by a police kettling operation during a torrentialthunderstorm on the second day o the protest?Depends who they were. Hacks rom the mainstreammedia were released immediately, immunity rom arrestguaranteed by their o cial badges. Their comrades

rom the alternative press, denied the all-importantget-out-o -custody passes, were arrested, cu ed anddispatched, along with dozens o Sunday strollers, tospend the night in police custody

At the end of it all, US president Barrack Obamaunconsciously highlighted the desperate chasmbetween rulers and ruled, when he cheerfully de-clared before leaving the shell-shocked city thatthe success of the summits was a tribute toCanadian leadership.

Oh Canada! CT

o r o nt

o s

g 2 0 / 1

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

13/64

July 2010 | 13

r G is aToronto photographerwho u embra es the

reative potentia the digitarevo ution has had onphotograph . His distin tmodern st e is attainedthrough the mergingo mu tip e opies o asing e image to produ e api ture whi h has a greatin reased tona range.

More o his work andonta t in ormation

ma be ound atwww.Ri hardGottardo. om

t s is editor oThe Reader.

o r o nt

o s

g

2 0

http://www.richardgottardo.com/http://www.richardgottardo.com/

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

14/64

14 | July 2010

orontos g20 / 2

t e p em e e

e e e e e

, w eeg eeg g

The violence o the mob was con-siderable, with hooligans smash-ing windows, looting stores andsetting police cars ablaze.

Im re erring, o course, to the hockeyriots in Montreal in April 2008, a ter theMontreal Canadiens playo victory overthe Boston Bruins.

I you dont remember this thuggery orsimilar Montreal riots a month ago ollow-ing another hockey victory its probablybecause that violence wasnt used as an ex-cuse to justi y a massive police clampdownon a city.

What went on in Toronto on the last weekend o June as this usually vibrantcity was put under virtual police lockdown went ar beyond any necessary measuresto preserve public order and protect worldleaders at the G20 summit.

Could this massive display o orce be anexample o Stephen Harpers intense desireto control things, rom the PMO right downto street protestors?

Certainly, when it comes to those whoopenly protest his policies, the Prime Minis-ter appears determined to smother dissentat any cost, with little regard or protesterslegal or civil rights.

B u b , H y u ,

$930 19,000 G20 ( G8 u

Hu , O ).T u y u

b G20 uB $28.6 5,000

G20 L A 2009, US y $12.2

4,000 P bu G20 u S b . Y

u u L P bu .W T by b y

, H - y.

O S u y , u b b - b

u b u u - u T -

. D y , u b

u bu TV

y u y u .

P u y, u u y

b u y u , O

Canada b

.A Toronto Star , -

4 . . by u H P b ,

Po ic a d ba k rx mpt rom a t rity

W g20 ? , - z , l m Q g

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

15/64

July 2010 | 15

Dozens of peoplewho werenteven protesting including some

whose apparentcrime was waitingfor a bus weredetained on thestreet for fourhours, much of itduring a torrentialdownpour

orontos g20 / 2

y z .A Su y , z

-u

bu S QuS u u , u u

u .M ,

b u y , H

u u y fu G20. T b u

b - u , u f y u b by 2008

W S . T G20 ,

ju b b b u W

S f u .W 25 u - b $25.3 b

y , W S b - u f y b j u z u ju

u . ct

Linda McQuaig is a columnist or theToronot Star, where this article frstappeared. her latest book is Holding The

Bullys Coat: Canada And The US Empire

HuRWiTTs eye m h w

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

16/64

16 | July 2010

ntitlement entality

Bp e ee ze e

e e e e

e . t ee e e e e

e be ee w e

Theres mounting anger in Britain,

where pundits and politicos arecharging President Barack Obama

with xenophobia and anti-Britishprejudice. The smoking gun behind thischarge is an incident in which Obama re-

erred to BP as British Petroleum.For the record, BP stands or British

Petroleum, a name Britains largest corpo-ration adopted in 1954. In 2000, they had aKFC moment and ormally changed theirname rom British Petroleum to simply BP,

which apparently were now supposed tobelieve stands or nothing. Shortly a ter thename change, BP launched a greenwashingcampaign using the catchphrase BeyondPetroleum, though their investments in pe-troleum alternatives are relatively miniscule.

So no, its not xenophobic to re er to thecompany as British Petroleum. The crimi-nal enterprise ormally known as British Pe-troleum but now known simply as BP whichdoes not stand or British Petroleum justdoesnt roll easily o the tongue.

This whole issue is just a smokescreen.Many in Britain are simply outraged thatObama suggested that BP may not have themoney to pay out dividends to shareholdersthis quarter. Not being able to pay out divi-dends, as in not making a pro t, is a grossunderstatement. A month ago I wrote thatBP, as a corporation, is nancially upsidedown, with liabilities ar exceeding its gross

worth. Put simply, their nancial liability orending li e as we knew it in and around theGul o Mexico, idling and potentially de-stroying a quarter o the US shing industry,decimating tourism and real estate valuesalong nearly 2,000 miles o coastline, caus-ing the extinctions o multiple species andinitiating what could be a global domino e -

ect o aquatic die-o s might, perhaps, meanthat those olks who own this companymight not expect a pro t dividend anytimesoon or ever. Pointing this out is not xeno-phobic. Its reality.

BPs shareholders epitomize the concepto entitlement mentality. They expect toreceive dividends because they always have.They believe that the current model volun-teers combing the sands o Pensacola Beach

or tar balls and investors simultaneouslyreceiving their dividends must be pre-served. And like most corporate investors,they probably dont want to know how theyearned this money. They just have a right toit. Lets call it class privilege, a capitalist en-titlement mentality.

The corporation is a sociopathologicalconstruction existing or one purpose to ac-cumulate wealth, unconstrained by personalliability, social conscience, respect or li e, orany moral barometer. BP personi es this so-ciopathic pro le. Its a serial elon that kills

without remorse. I it were human, it wouldbe locked away orever, in amous as Ted

BP d mb i v tord ma d th ir divid dBp

g , m e i. n

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

17/64

July 2010 | 17

ntitlement entality

a ge ,

e ew ee w

e e e e ew

e

g e e e

e ee

g e G me

Bundy, who wed probably still know as TedBundy even i he change his name to TBand advertised himsel as Tony Bennett.

I orced to pay compensation or even

a raction o the damage it has caused, BP will likely go bankrupt. However, BPs share-holders, investors who bene ted rom yearso dividends nanced by the same criminalrecklessness that sunk the Deepwater Hori-zon, wont be personally responsible or anyo this liability, beyond the loss o their divi-dends and stock value. Thats the magic o the corporation. Its like investing in a real-li e Tony Soprano, sharing in his booty, butremaining respectable and legally untouch-able should his criminal enterprise come

tumbling down.I Im not being clear enough here, let

me put it this way: BPs investors, the same wankers whining about their dividends,share a collective sociopathology. As indi-

viduals and und managers, they knew theirmoney was invested in a criminal enterprise

with a notorious history o elony convic-tions or doing the very stu that caused thecurrent catastrophe thats ruining the Gul o Mexico. But ew o them divested. All thatmattered was that this ma a reliably paid itsquarterly dividends.

Any such dividend payment now, how-ever, amounts to a the t rom the people o the Gul Coast whose livelihoods have beendestroyed by BPs actions. Paying dividendsnow constitutes a mechanism to siphon

unds out o the corporation prior to itsbankruptcy and accountability. The US Jus-tice Department should demand that all o BPs global assets immediately be rozen inorder to prevent BPs owners rom pocketing

unds that should be going toward payingBPs debt in the Gul .

Lets look more closely at BPs depravedindi erence to li e. Most noticeable is the actthat they had no plan or dealing with thesort o predictable catastrophe they causedin the Gul . To understand what were deal-ing with here, imaging a ve-gallon bucket

lled with water. Its heavy. Some might say very heavy. Now imaging li ting it atop your

head. Thats about 24 inches o water above you. Now imagine that bucket extendingupward or a mile. Thats the type o waterpressure at the leaking Deepwater Horizon

well head. Now imagine the sea, and anothermile o seabed, pressing down on the oil-eld, which shoots up through the wellhead.

Thats the kind o pressure pushing the oilout and up into the Gul . How to work in thisenvironment, a mile under the sea, and howto cap this sort o pressure in so hostile anenvironment, the last two months o cata-strophic leakage has shown us, is anyonesguess. There was no plan.

This is Drill, baby, drill. Pump the oil outo the sea, li e be damned. Its another Bush

administration legacy to render regulatingagencies impotent and to allow the oil indus-try to regulate itsel . Were a year and a hal into the Obama presidency, and I guess heshould have shut down the deep-water drill-ing plat orms upon inauguration, at least un-til his government could establish an honest,diligent regulating regimen to oversee thisincredibly dangerous industry. But lets berealistic. I Obama tried this, hed probablyno longer be president. And recent SupremeCourt decisions pave the way or BP to buy acandidate to run against him, should he sur-

vive until reelection time.Ironically, the Gul region Republican po-

litical establishment, the olks now blamingObama or responding to the spill too slowly,

was only recently giddily chanting the Mc-Cain-Palin mantra o Drill, baby, drill. Thehypocrisy is grotesque.

And with the exception o Florida, theGul region electorate overwhelmingly voted

or the Drill, baby, drill ticket in the 2008election. Obamas uck em response wasto give them what they wanted, opening upred states or reckless o shore drilling, whilekeeping bans in place in blue states that vot-ed or the president. Un ortunately, however,politics is o ten simpler than reality. We all, itturns out, live on the same planet un ortu-nately. While Ive never in my li e voted or aRepublican, Ive walked the shoreline in ev-ery Gul state, and like a Republican-voting

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

18/64

18 | July 2010

ntitlement entality

p g e ee e e be ,

e e w ,w b e

e e w e , w

Bp e

Mississippi sherman, I too love the Gul o Mexico and mourn the unspeakable deaththat has be allen it. Fuck em ucks us all.

So back to BPs idea o an emergency plan.

Their boilerplate ling or what to do in thecase o an emergency cites, or example, thethreat to walruses should the Deepwater Ho-rizon spill oil into the Gul o Mexico. Well, Iguess the plan worked, as no walruses werekilled. Thats because the spill hasnt reachedthe New Orleans Zoo. Walruses are an Arc-tic species. Its good to see that governmentregulators were on their toes.

BP is not in business to cap leaking wells.Theyre in business to take risks. Pokingholes deep into the seabed, one mile down,

with absolutely no plan in place to deal withan accident, is what BP does. I the govern-ment, which exists to protect the commons

rom such plunder and desecration, allowsoil companies to take such risks, than its thegovernment, in whatever country that allowssuch risks, that has to be ready to step up tothe plate and deal with the consequences o their decisions.

By comparison, buildings burn, hencegovernments maintain re departments. O -shore wells spill 175 times or so in the last10 years but instead o having the equiva-lent o a re department, we practice a lais-sez- aire response. Picture property ownersin, say, New York City, deciding they didnt

want to pay taxes to support a re depart-ment. Thats the case here. Theres no rescueequipment on hand adequate to deal withthe problem. Thats because oil companiesdidnt want to pay a tax to support one. In es-sence, theres no government, a la Ron Paul.The corporations can regulate themselves,policed by risk actors in the magic ree mar-ket. Only, in this case, BP got a bit giddy withtheir hand, and cant cover their bet. This iscasino capitalism, on a rare day when thehouse loses and burns down, with no re-

ghters or other big-government inter ererson hand to quell the fames.

The entitlement wankers are crying thatBP, the worlds ourth-largest publically heldcorporation, is just too big to die. The eco-

nomic allout rom sociopaths not gettingtheir dividends would be too much. But theGul o Mexico ecosystem is also too big todie, and I dare say, a hell o a lot more impor-

tant to the world than BP. But its dying inront o us. And the ree-market model wevebeen using says BP is going to pay.

Be ore going o on an anti-British tirade,however, we need to critically examine theneo-colonial relationship were accusing theBrits o practicing here. Sure, a London-basedcorporation is recklessly extracting resourcesin the US, despoiling our environment, andselling us back our own oil. It sure smells likecolonialism. And the stench o colonialismisnt dampened by British Member o Parlia-

ment Richard Ottaway, who recently told theBBC, We do have to ask ourselves: Is it orthe US president to inter ere in the opera-tions o an international overseas company?The act that these are our ormer colonialmasters just adds salt to the wound.

But the situation is no di erent than thato American multi-national energy giant,Chevron, and their murderous history o ecocide in Nigeria and Ecuador. Its a simi-lar story with similar arrogance, involvingcommunities poisoned and destroyed by acorporation operating with a depraved indi -

erence to li e. Chevron, like BP, cant go to jail. And as with BP, its investors want theirdividends and dont care where they come

rom.But unlike the case in the Gul , the injured

populations in Ecuador and Nigeria donthave the same voice as that o a rst-worldpopulation, and hence, the Chevron horrorstory goes on and on, under the global me-dia radar. It seems American shareholders,like their British counterparts, have an en-titlement mentality as well. It makes sense.Americans own almost o much BP stock asthe British. There are wankers on both sideso the ocean. As the criminal enterprises theyinvest in destroy more and more ecosystems,theyll soon be orced to come to terms withthe real bankruptcy brought on by an out o control corporate system. You just cant eat

your dividends. ct

Micha I. Niman is a pro essor o

journalism andmedia studies atBu alo State College,New York

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

19/64

July 2010 | 19

Whos The Hero?

t g e e e e

be wee e m g

e E be g 1971,

e e e e e e e

us ew e ,w e

g bE be g e e

b w be g e

e w ecia rm G e

e w ge e

cm

almost our decades a ter De enseDepartment insider Daniel Ells-berg leaked the Pentagon Papers thus exposing the lies that led

the United States into the Vietnam War another courageous national security lea-ker has stepped orward and now is acingretaliation similar to what the US govern-ment tried to infict on Ellsberg.

Army Intelligence Specialist BradleyManning is alleged to have turned over alarge volume o classi ed material aboutthe Iraq and A ghanistan wars to Wikileaks.org, including the recently posted US mili-tary video showing American helicoptersgunning down two Reuters journalists andabout 10 other Iraqi men in 2007. Two chil-dren were also injured.

The 22-year-old Manning was turnedin by a convicted computer hacker namedAdrian Lamo, who be riended Manningover the Internet and then betrayed him,supposedly out o concern that disclosureo the classi ed material might put US mili-tary personnel in danger. Manning is nowin US military custody in Kuwait awaitingcharges.

Though there are historic parallels be-tween the actions o Manning today andthose o Ellsberg in 1971, a major di er-ence is the attitude o the mainstream USnews media, which then ought to publishEllsbergs secret history but now is behav-

ing more like what ormer CIA analyst RayMcGovern calls the awning corporate me-dia or FCM.

In the Ellsberg case, the rst PentagonPapers article was published by the NewYork Times and when President RichardNixon blocked the Times rom printing oth-er stories the Washington Post and 17 othernewspapers picked up the torch and keptpublishing articles based on Ellsbergs ma-terial until Nixons obstruction was mademeaningless, and ultimately was repudiatedby the US Supreme Court.

Today, the major response o the Times ,Post and other tribunes o the FCM has beento write articles disparaging Manning, whiletreating Lamo as something o a patriotichero.

The Washington Post depicted Manningas a troubled soldier, slight o build, a los-er who had just gone through a breakup,

who had been demoted a rank in the Armya ter striking a ellow soldier, and who elthe had no uture.

The Post even trivialized Mannings mo-tive or leaking the material, suggesting thathe was driven by his despair, thinking thatby sharing classi ed in ormation about hisgovernments oreign policy, he might actu-ally change something.

Lamo also was quoted, speculating on what prompted Mannings actions. I thinkit was a confuence o things - being a thin,

echoi g thP tago Pap r

x .

, c ee r w e r be p

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

20/64

20 | July 2010

Whos The Hero?

t e us g e

e ee B g

e e g a e

e gi q a g

e ee be e e e

e f g

g use g e e

ge

nerdy, geeky type in an Army culture o ma-chismo, o seeing injustice, Lamo told thePost.

Meanwhile, the New York Times put La-

mos motives in the most avorable light.Mr. Lamo said he had contacted theArmy about Specialist Mannings instantmessages because he was worried thatdisclosure o the in ormation would putpeoples lives in danger, the Times report-ed. He said that Army investigators wereparticularly concerned about one sensitivepiece o in ormation that Specialist Man-ning possessed that Mr. Lamo would notdiscuss in more detail.

The Times quoted Lamo as saying: I

thought to mysel , What i somebody diesbecause this in ormation is leaked?

According to the Times , Lamo elaboratedon his moral dilemma in a Twitter message.I outed Brad Manning as an alleged leak-er out o duty, Lamo said. I would never(and have never) outed an Ordinary DecentCriminal. Theres a di erence.

In other words, the Times and the Post two heroes o the Ellsberg case seemedmore interested in making the case againstManning (and sticking up or his betrayer)than in taking the side o a whistleblower

who had put his uture and his reedomon the line to in orm the American peoplehow the Iraq (and A ghan) wars are being

ought.There has been little suggestion by ei-

ther the Post or the Times that Manninghad done a patriotic service by helping toexpose wartime wrongdoing.

The FCM also has shown little interestin the US governments apparent attemptsto hunt down Julian Assange, the Austra-lian-born ounder o Wikileaks.org whichdecrypted the video o the Iraq helicopterattack and posted it on the Internet underthe title, Collateral Murder.

The Pentagon (undoubtedly with thehelp o the CIA and the National SecurityAgency) is reportedly conducting a man-hunt or Assange, who is known to travelaround the globe staying at the homes o

riends and doing what he can to evade gov-ernment notice.

The US military has argued that videoslike the Baghdad helicopter attack and pho-

tographs o American troops mistreatingIraqi and A ghan detainees must be keptsecret to avoid enfaming local populationsand putting US soldiers in greater danger.President Barack Obama adopted that ar-gument last year in overturning a court-ordered release o a new batch o photosshowing US soldiers committing abuses.

However, there is nothing classicallyclassi able about the helicopter videos orthe other photographic evidence that hasleaked out, such as the sordid pictures o

naked Iraqi men being humiliated at AbuGhraib prison. Under US law, the govern-ments classi cation powers are not to beused to conceal evidence o crimes.

m d ge m Yet, except or the changed role o the bignewspapers, history does appear to be re-peating itsel , with the emergence o anoth-er Most Dangerous Man, the appellationthat Nixons aide Henry Kissinger gave toEllsberg during the Pentagon Papers case.

I you havent, you need to quickly watchthe Academy Award-nominated documen-tary, The Most Dangerous Man in America:Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers , tobrush up on your history. Youll quickly un-derstand how Mannings recent arrest andthe Pentagons hunt to neutralize Assange

jibe with the story o the copying and pub-lishing o the Pentagon Papers during theVietnam War.

It should also be kept in mind that Ells-berg wasnt the only dangerous man

who helped undo the culture o secrecysurrounding the Nixon presidency. WhenNixon responded to the Ellsberg case by or-ganizing a special plumbers unit, whichthen spied on the Democrats at their Wa-tergate headquarters, other whistleblowers,like Deep Throat (FBI o cial Mark Felt),helped journalists expose the wrongdoing.

Poor Nixon, in his vain attempt to keep

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

21/64

July 2010 | 21

Whos The Hero?

t e eg e

us ee e

b e g E be g-e e

e e e e ge

eb .

control and power, he just had to keep ex-panding his enemy list.

A very similar crisis o conscience ex-ists now. Power politics, and especially the

politics o war, corrupt policymakers whodeal with intelligence and security issues and that leads to secrecy expanding expo-nentially to cover up bloody mistakes andshocking crimes.

For eight years, George W. Bush and DickCheney ran a highly politicized administra-tion that took these inherent problems tonew heights. And Obama, or many reasons,has thus ar chosen to look orward, notbackward, and has thus allen way short o his singular campaign promise o CHANGE.

Despite his assurances o greater govern-ment openness, Obama has surely not giv-en support to government whistleblowers.Quite the opposite, Obama has expandedon Bushs methods, such as claims o thestate secrets de ense to block court chal-lenges to government actions.

The Obama Administration has eveninstituted criminal prosecution o govern-ment employees who blew the whistle onprior unlaw ul actions o the Bush regimeby daring to reveal, or instance, that BushsNSA was warrantlessly monitoring Ameri-can citizens.

The nal step in the US governmentscontinuing oray to the dark side hasbeen Obamas signing o on the proposedtargeted assassination o an American citi-zen who had been linked to support orIslamic terrorism without any judicial dueprocess.

i e p e eAnother major similarity between the Ells-berg era and today is that the United Statesis again witnessing the accrual o excessiveWar Presidency powers by the ExecutiveBranch to the detriment and weakening o the legislative and judicial branches, notto mention signi cant damage to the le-gitimate unction o the Fourth Estate, thepress.

Crude attempts to avoid accountability

(as well as the constitutional checks andbalances) by shredding documents andother evidence to prevent judicial account-ability even seem to have succeeded. For in-

stance, CIA o cials learned the lessons o the Abu Ghraib photographic evidence bybrazenly destroying 92 videotapes o terror-ism suspects being interrogated with water-boarding and other brutal methods.

While no legal action has as yet been tak-en against the CIA o cials involved, govern-ment whistleblowers and even journalists

who helped expose Bush-era wrongdoingmay not be so lucky. The Obama Adminis-tration is said to be threatening to not onlyprosecute government whistleblowers but

to jail a New York Times reporter or not giv-ing up his sources or stories that revealedBushs illegal warrantless monitoring.

No wonder many news executives pri- vately admit that in the current environ-ment, they would never have the guts topublish something like the Pentagon Pa-pers even though the Supreme Court up-held their prior brave actions in a landmarkdecision bolstering reedom o the press.

The current crippling o the US domes-tic press makes it impossible or a singularEllsberg-type insider to rely on the press asa last resort to get important in ormationto the public. (Ellsberg had rst taken hisdocuments to members o Congress respon-sible or Executive Branch oversight, butthey didnt act.)

Given the racturing and weakening o the US press its trans ormation into theFCM a government whistleblower ismore o ten like a tree alling in the orest

with no one to hear it. (Witness the BP di-saster in the Gul and the prior unheeded

warnings o whistleblowers who warned o sa ety problems and potential spills.)

Having been one o the very ew govern-ment o cials publicly identi ed in a posi-tive way or whistleblowing, Coleen Row-ley has o ten been asked i theres a right

way to do it and also what should and cana loyal and patriotic government employee

who has sworn to uphold the Constitution

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

22/64

22 | July 2010

Whos The Hero?

i e epe g p e

g g, e e

m g e zeW e . g

be g e

e ee e gE be g

e ew e e e e

ee

do a ter witnessing such raud, waste, abuse,illegality, or a serious public sa ety issue?

The hard truth is that there are no goodanswers. There is no e ective whistleblower

protection in attempting to disclose withinthe chain o command and/or to warn onesInspector General. (Even some o the IGs

who stood up and tried to investigate havebeen retaliated against or stifed.)

There is no protection or whistleblowersas well rom the O ce o Special Counsel.(Indeed Bushs ormer Director o the O ceo Special Counsel himsel has aced accusa-tions o ethical breaches.)

In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled thatthere is no protection under the First

Amendment or government employeesmaking disclosures even i they are privyto and blow the whistle on outright illegalactivity. The government insider who wit-nesses raud, waste, abuse, illegality or arisk o serious public sa ety aces certain re-taliation or ring i he attempts to discloseinternally. Moreover, his/her warnings willundoubtedly be swept under the rug.

Its easy there ore to argue that less-compromised international press outletsand Web sites, like Wikileaks.org, may o era better hope or getting out the truth. AsWikileaks.orgs ounder Julian Assange hassaid about the possibility o more news sitesreleasing sensitive in ormation: Courage iscontagious.

I the story o the Pentagon Papers is againplaying out, the attempt to punish Manningand neutralize Wikileaks.org could be o similar magnitude to the e ort employedagainst Ellsberg and the newspapers thatreceived his photocopied documents. (Thecriminal case against Ellsberg ultimatelycollapsed a ter the disclosure o Nixons ille-gal spying operations, including a break-inat the o ce o Ellsbergs psychiatrist.)

There is one possible answer, however.Every decent reporter and journalist as wellas every honest government employee andcitizen who cares about democracy and

reedom o the press could unite to do thePaul Revere thing and sound the alarm.

The little bit o integrity and consciencele t in the mainstream media needs to beimmediately reminded o the Nixon-Wa-tergate-Pentagon Papers history and awak-

ened to the dangerous consequences thatotherwise fow rom war empoweredPresidents, rom their well-oiled militarymachine and covert intelligence apparatus.

The Fourth Estate needs to go back to work battling the undue secrecy and covertperception management which will ulti-mately be used against them all and the UScitizenry. (Those who would have you be-lieve that what you dont know cant hurt

you must like the BP oil executives down-playing their oil spill.)

Its quite possible that the uture o ac-countable government is teetering on thebrink with the arrest o the 22-year-oldArmy intelligence specialist and the ugitivemanhunt or the WikiLeaks ounder. His-tory does repeat itsel , but not necessarily

with the same positive ending. This time,it could go either way. The choice now is

whether to move toward more militarism(and the secrecy that protects it) or towardmore openness and honesty and possiblya more democratic uture. ct

Coleen Rowley is a ormer FBI Agent.She holds a law degree, and served inMinneapolis as Chie Division Counsel, a

position which included oversight o Freedomo In ormation, as well as providing regularlegal and ethics training to FBI Agents. In2002, Coleen brought some o the pre 9/11lapses to light and testifed to the Senate

Judiciary Committee about some o theendemic problems acing the FBI and theintelligence community. Todayshe is active incivil liberties, and peace and justice issues.

Robert Parry broke many o the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s or the AssociatedPress and Newsweek. His latest book,Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency o George W. Bush, was written with two o hissons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered atneckdeepbook.com

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

23/64

July 2010 | 23

s e e eeq e w eg e

e g e e

e b ee e

e , w e e g

e e

e -e

Anti-Empire Report

Most important thought: Im sickand tired o this thing calledpatriotism.

The Japanese pilots whobombed Pearl Harbor were being patriotic.The German people who supported Hitlerand his conquests were being patriotic, ght-ing or the Fatherland. All the Latin Ameri-can military dictators who overthrew demo-cratically-elected governments and routinelytortured people were being patriotic savingtheir beloved country rom communism.

General Augusto Pinochet o Chile, massmurderer and torturer: I would like to beremembered as a man who served his coun-try.

P.W. Botha, ormer president o apartheidSouth A rica: I am not going to repent. I amnot going to ask or avours. What I did, I did

or my country.Pol Pot, mass murderer o Cambodia: I

want you to know that everything I did, I didor my country.

Tony Blair, ormer British prime minister,de ending his role in the murder o hundredso thousands o Iraqis: I did what I thought

was right or our country.At the end o World War II, the United

States gave moral lectures to their Germanprisoners and to the German people on theinadmissibility o pleading that their par-ticipation in the holocaust was in obedienceto their legitimate government. To prove

to them how legally and morally inadmiss-able this de ense was, the World War II allieshanged the leading examples o such patri-otic loyalty.

I was once asked a ter a talk: Do you loveAmerica? I answered: No. A ter pausing

or a ew seconds to let that sink in amidstseveral nervous giggles in the audience,I continued with: I dont love any coun-try. Im a citizen o the world. I love certainprinciples, like human rights, civil liberties,democracy, an economy which puts peoplebe ore pro ts.

I dont make much o a distinction be-tween patriotism and nationalism. Somepeople equate patriotism with allegiance toones country and government or the nobleprinciples they supposedly stand or, whilede ning nationalism as sentiments o ethno-national superiority. However de ned, inpractice the psychological and behavioralmani estations o nationalism and patrio-tism are not easily distinguishable, indeed

eeding upon each other.Howard Zinn called nationalism a set o

belie s taught to each generation in whichthe Motherland or the Fatherland is an ob-

ject o veneration and becomes a burningcause or which one becomes willing to killthe children o other Motherlands or Father-lands. ... Patriotism is used to create the illu-sion o a common interest that everybody inthe country has.

som tho ghto patrioti mW B

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

24/64

24 | July 2010

Anti-Empire Report

h e zeGe jew

c e

e ,

e g e

b w eeg e e

e

Strong eelings o patriotism lie near thesur ace in the great majority o Americans.Theyre buried deeper in the more liberaland sophisticated, but are almost always

reachable, and ignitable.Alexis de Tocqueville, the mid-19th cen-tury French historian, commented about hislong stay in the United States: It is impossi-ble to conceive a more troublesome or moregarrulous patriotism; it wearies even those

who are disposed to respect it.George Bush Sr., pardoning ormer De-

ense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and veothers in connection with the Iran-Contraarms- or-hostages scandal, said: First, thecommon denominator o their motivation

whether their actions were right or wrong was patriotism.

What a primitive underbelly there is tothis rational society. The US is the most pa-triotic, as well as the most religious, countryo the so-called developed world. The entireAmerican patriotism thing may be best un-derstood as the biggest case o mass hyste-ria in history, whereby the crowd adores itsown power as troopers o the worlds onlysuperpower, a substitute or the lack o pow-er in the rest o their lives. Patriotism, likereligion, meets peoples need or somethinggreater to which their individual lives can beanchored.

So this July 4, my dear ellow Americans,some o you will raise your sts and yell: U!S! A! ... U! S! A!. And youll parade with yourfags and your images o the Statue o Liberty.But do you know that the sculptor copied hismothers ace or the statue, a domineeringand intolerant woman who had orbiddenanother child to marry a Jew?

Patriotism, Dr. Samuel Johnson amous-ly said, is the last re uge o a scoundrel.American writer Ambrose Bierce begged todi er It is, he said, the rst.

Patriotism is the conviction that thiscountry is superior to all other countries be-cause you were born in it. George BernardShaw

Actions are held to be good or bad, not ontheir own merits but according to who does

them, and there is almost no kind o outrage torture, the use o hostages, orced labour,mass deportations, imprisonment withouttrial, orgery, assassination, the bombing o

civilians which does not change its moralcolour when it is committed by our side. ...The nationalist not only does not disapproveo atrocities committed by his own side, buthe has a remarkable capacity or not evenhearing about them. George Orwell

Pledges o allegiance are marks o totali-tarian states, not democracies, says DavidKertzer, a Brown University anthropologist

who specializes in political rituals. I cantthink o a single democracy except the Unit-ed States that has a pledge o allegiance.

Or, he might have added, that insists that itspoliticians display their patriotism by wear-ing a fag pin. Hitler criticized German Jewsand Communists or their internationalismand lack o national patriotism, demandingthat true patriots publicly vow and displaytheir allegiance to the atherland. In reactionto this, postwar Germany has made a con-scious and strong e ort to minimize publicdisplays o patriotism.

Oddly enough, the American Pledge o Allegiance was written by Francis Bellamy,a ounding member, in 1889, o the Societyo Christian Socialists, a group o Protestantministers who asserted that the teachingso Jesus Christ lead directly to some orm or

orms o socialism. Tell that to the next Tea-party ignoramus who angrily accuses Presi-dent Obama o being a socialist.

Following the Soviet invasion o A ghani-stan in 1979, we could read that theres nowa high degree o patriotism in the SovietUnion because Moscow acted with impunityin A ghanistan and thus underscored whothe real power in that part o the world is.

Throughout the nineteenth century, andparticularly throughout its latter hal , therehad been a great working up o this national-ism in the world. ... Nationalism was taughtin schools, emphasized by newspapers,preached and mocked and sung into men. Itbecame a monstrous cant which darkenedall human a airs. Men were brought to eel

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

25/64

July 2010 | 25

Anti-Empire Report

e b e?

W e e e e b a e e

e e?ce c c b

that they were as improper without a nation-ality as without their clothes in a crowdedassembly. Oriental peoples, who had neverheard o nationality be ore, took to it as they

took to the cigarettes and bowler hats o theWest. H.G. Wells, British writerThe very existence o the state demands

that there be some privileged class vitally in-terested in maintaining that existence. Andit is precisely the group interests o that classthat are called patriotism. Mikhail Ba-kunin, Russian anarchist

To me, it seems a dread ul indignityto have a soul controlled by geography. George Santayana, American educator andphilosopher

a e g a e e be j 4

The US Department o Health and HumanServices (HHS) has a new eature on their

website called Find Insurance Options. You just provide certain in ormation about your

amily size, your age, your employment situ-ation, your nancial situation, whether youhave certain disabilities or diseases, whether

you now have Medicare or some other healthinsurance, or how long you have not hadhealth insurance, whether you have been de-nied insurance, whether you are someonesdependent, a veteran? an American Indian?an Alaskan Native? etc., etc., etc. ... and thesite gives you suggestions as to where andhow you might nd health insurance thatmight suit your particular needs. The heado HHS, Kathleen Sebelius, tells us This isan incredibly impressive consumer tool,adding that the site is capable o providingtailored responses to about 3 billion [sic]individual scenarios. This in ormation cangive olks choices that they just didnt haveany idea they had available to them.

Isnt that remarkable? Where else but inAmerica could one have such choice? Cer-tainly not in Communist Cuba. There its onlyone scenario, one size ts all youre sick,

you go to a doctor or to a hospital, and youget taken care o to the best o their abilities;no charge; doesnt matter what your medical

problem is, doesnt matter what your nan-cial situation is, doesnt matter what youremployment situation is, theres no charge.No one has health insurance. No one needs

health insurance. Isnt that boring? Commu-nist regimentation!

se e?On May 19, in a congressional hearing, Rep.

Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) asked BP America Pres-ident Lamar McKay: Is there any technol-ogy that exists that you know o that couldhave prevented this rom happening?

I dont know o a piece o technology thatcould have prevented it, replied McKay.

Given the extremely grave consequences

o a deepwater oil-drilling accident thats apretty good argument that such operationsare too risky and dangerous to be permitted,is it not?

Moreover, i it could have been preventedi BP had not been so negligent and reck-less to save money, can we count on all oilcompanies in the uture to never put pro tsbe ore sa ety? I think not. And i an accidenthappens can we count on the company be-ing able to recti y the damage quickly ande ciently? Apparently not.

So, will those who serve corporate Amer-ica learn a lesson rom the BP Gul o Mex-ico disaster? Well, consider the ollowing:Oil companies even as you read this arebusy making plans or urther Gul drilling;in June the Mineral Management Service o the US Interior Department was continuingto issue waivers to these companies whichexempt them rom submitting a detailedanalysis o the environmental impact o their plans, not at the moment or drillingnew wells but to modi y their existing proj-ects in the Gul ; one waiver was to a Britishcompany called BP. ... Heres the DistrictManager or Louisiana o the Mineral Man-agement Service: Obviously, were all oilindustry. Almost all o our inspectors have

worked or oil companies and on these same[oil drilling] plat orms. ... A nancial analystat the preeminent bank J.P. Morgan Chaseannounced some good news or us the US

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

26/64

26 | July 2010

Anti-Empire Report

a e e ,i w e

e ee e

b g eu e s e. t e

g , ge

e ,

w be e

e

Gross Domestic Product could gain slightlyrom all the expenditures or cleaning up the

mess, adding that the magnitude o thesesetbacks looks dwar ed by the scale o the US

macroeconomy. ... And three leading con-gressional Republicans recently re erred tothe spill as a natural disaster.

I I were the president I would in act pro-hibit all underwater drilling or oil, perma-nently. President Obama announced a six-month prohibition and has run into a brick

wall o oil companies, politicians, and thecourts. Hell cave in, as usual, but I wouldnt.How would I make up or the loss o this oil?Not by importing more oil, but sharply re-ducing our usage. Here are two suggestions

to begin with:The US Department o De ense is not only

the leading consumer o oil in the UnitedStates, it is the leading oil consumer in theentire world. A 2007 report by a de ense con-tractor posits that the Pentagon in its oreign

wars and worldwide military support opera-tions (such as maintaining thousands o bas-es at home and abroad) might consume asmuch as 340,000 barrels (14 million gallons)every day, a quantity greater than the totalnational consumption o Sweden or Swit-zerland. 19 This is taken rom an article withthe title: How Wars o the Future May BeFought Just to Run the Machines That FightThem. I the American de ense industry isadded in, the military-industrial complex

would be 12th in the world in oil consump-tion, more than India.

Accordingly, as president, I would takethe admittedly controversial step o abol-ishing the United States military. The totalsavings, including the mammoth reductionin oil consumption, would be more than atrillion dollars a year.

Class assignment:Try and think o the things that

would improve the quality o li e inAmerican society, things that mon-ey could bring about, that wouldnot be covered by a trillion dollars.I you believe that having no military would

open the United States to oreign invasion, who would invade; why they would do so;how many soldiers they would need to occu-py a nation o more than 300 million people.

List the dozen wars the United States hasbeen involved in since the 1980s and speci-y which o them you are glad and proud o .

On October 28, 2002, ve men were mur-dered by a mob in India because they hadkilled a (sacred) cow. 20 On the very sameday the United States was actively engagedin preparing to invade Iraq and kill thou-sands o people or control o their oil.Discuss which society was more insane.

Second suggestion to reduce oil usage:Public transportation would be nationalized

so as to reduce prices to levels very easily a -ordable or virtually the entire population,

resulting in a huge reduction o private au-tomobile and gasoline usage. This publictransportation system would not be requiredto show a pro t. Like the military now.

c g wThe media have been rather preoccupiedby the replacement o General StanleyMcChrystal by General David Petraeus inA ghanistan; its been like gossip-columnmaterial, or a sporting event, or the Oscars;Petraeus or president some clamor, lotso letters to the editor, all over the Internet.Some journalists have discussed which gen-eral would be better or the war e ort. Tome, this is tantamount to asking WhichDoctor Strangelove do you pre er to be incharge o our international psychotic massmurdering? Hmm ... lets see ... hmm ... ah,heres the answer: Who gives a uck? ct

William Blum is the author o :Killing Hope: US Military and CIA InterventionsSince World War 2 Rogue State: A Guideto the Worlds Only Superpower West-BlocDissident: A Cold War Memoir Freeing theWorld to Death: Essays on the AmericanEmpire. Portions o the books can be read,and signed copies purchased, at www.killinghope.org

http://www.killinghope.org/http://www.killinghope.org/http://www.killinghope.org/http://www.killinghope.org/

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

27/64

July 2010 | 27

Lost Leaders

te p e bew

e gge w

w b e b

e g be , e g ge e

e be e e e

in the Netherlands a movement basedon paranoia and the feecing o thepoor looks set to join the government.In the USA one o the biggest exercises

in alse consciousness the world has ever seen people gathering in their millions to lobbyunwittingly or a smaller share o the nations

wealth has become the playmaker in Repub-lican primaries. The radical right is seizing itschance. But where is the radical le t?

Both the Freedom Party in the Netherlandsand the Tea Party in the US base their politi-cal programmes on misin ormation and de-nial. But as political orces they are devastat-ingly e ective. The contrast to recent le twingmeetings Ive attended couldnt be starker.They are cerebral, cogent, realistic and littleo substance has emerged rom them.

The rightwing movements thrive on theircontradictions, the le twing movementsdrown in them. Tea Party members who pro-claim their rugged individualism will ollowa bucket on a broomstick i it has the rightlabel, and engage in the herd behaviour theyclaim to deplore. The le t, by contrast, talkso collective action but indulges instead inpossessive individualism. Instead o comingtogether to ght common causes, le twingmeetings today consist o dozens o peoplepromoting their own ideas, and proposingthat everyone else should adopt them.

It would be wrong to characterise theTea Party movement as being mostly work-

ing class. The polls suggest that its ollowershave an income and college education rateslightly above the national mean. But it isthe only rising political movement in the US

which enjoys major working class support. It voices the resentments o those who sensethat they have been shut out o Americanli e. Yet it campaigns or policies that threatento exclude them urther. The Contract romAmerica or which Tea Party members voteddemands that the US adopt a single-rate taxsystem, repeal Obamas health care legisla-tion and sustain George W Bushs reductionsin income tax, capital gains tax and inheri-tance tax. The bene ciaries o these policiesare corporations and the ultra-wealthy. Those

who will be hurt by them are angrily converg-ing on state capitals to demand that they areimplemented.

The Tea Party protests began a ter business journalist Rick Santelli broadcast an attack

rom the foor o the Chicago Mercantile Ex-change on government plan to help impover-ished people whose mortgages had allen intoarrears. To cheers rom traders at the exchange,he proposed that they should hold a tea partyto dump derivative securities in Lake Michiganin protest at Obamas intention in Santillis

words to subsidise the losers. (I urge youto watch the broadcast it is the most alarm-ing example o cheap demagoguery you arelikely to have seen. It continues to be promot-ed by Santellis employer, CNBC).

Bog , mi dir ct da d ctiv

p .B , Ge ge m b

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

28/64

28 | July 2010

Lost Leaders

i eb e w

e e e e e

w e : ee cem e a e e ,w e

e e

b e ez e

The protests which claim to de end theinterests o the working class began, in other

words, with a call or a bankers revolt againstthe undeserving poor. They have been pro-

moted by Fox News, owned by that championo the underdog Rupert Murdoch, and lavish-ly unded by other billionaires. Its corporatebackers wrap themselves in the complaints o the downtrodden: they are 21st Century Ma-rie-Antoinettes, who dress up as dairymaidsand propose that the poor subsist on a diet o laissez- aire.

Be ore this movement had a name, its con-tradictions were explored in Thomas Franksseminal book Whats the Matter with Kansas? The genius o the new conservatism, Frank

argues, is its systematic erasure o the eco-nomic. It blames the troubles o the poornot on economic orces corporate and classpower, wage cuts, tax cuts, outsourcing buton cultural orces. The backlashers could be-lieve that George W Bush was a man o thepeople by ignoring his amilys wealth. Theycan believe that the media is a liberal conspir-acy only by orgetting about the corporations(CNBC, Fox etc) and the conservative billion-aires who run it. T

he movement depends on people nevermaking the connection between, or exam-ple, mass culture, most o which conserva-tives hate, and laissez- aire capitalism, whichthey adore or the small towns they pro essto love and the market orces that are slowlygrinding those small towns back into the red-state dust.

The anger o the excluded is aimed insteadat gay marriage, abortion, swearing on televi-sion and latte-drinking, French-speaking lib-erals. The working class American right votes

or candidates who rail against cultural degra-dation, but what it gets when they take poweris a trans er o wealth rom the poor to therich. In the Netherlands, Geert Wilderss Free-dom Party per orms a similar conjuring trick,persuading working and middle class votersthat their real enemies are Muslims, whiledemanding tax cuts, abolition o the mini-mum wage and reductions in child bene ts.It is only because o the general political dozi-

ness o the British electorate that such move-ments despite the UK Independence Partysbest e orts have not yet taken o here. Givethem time.

Though most o what they claim is alse,one o the accusations levelled by both theFreedom Party and the Tea Party rings true:the le t is e ete. This highlights another con-tradiction in their philosophy: liberals are

weak and spineless; liberals are ruthless andall-power ul. But never mind that: the le ton both sides o the Atlantic has proved tobe tongue-tied, embarrassed, unable to statesimple economic truths, unable to name andcon ront the powers that oppress the workingclass. It has le t the eld wide open to right-

wing demagogues.The great progressive cringe is only part o

the problem; we have also abandoned move-ment building in avour o Facebook politics.We dont want to pursue a common purposeany more, instead we want our own ideas andidentity to be applauded. Where are the massmobilisations in this country against the cuts,against the banks, against BP, unemploy-ment, the lack o social housing, the endless

war in A ghanistan? In the US the radicalright is swi tly acquiring ownership o the Re-publican party. In the UK the le t is scarcelyattempting a reclamation o the Labour Party,even as opportunity knocks.

Bogus and misdirected as the Tea Partymovement is, in one respect it has an authen-ticity that the le t lacks: it is angry and itsprepared to translate that anger into action. Itis marching, recruiting, unseating, replacing.We talk, they act. It strikes me that in the USthe greater opportunities lie not in con ront-ing the Tea Party movement but in turningit. As its mixed responses to Sarah Palin andRon Paul show, it remains fuid and volatile.Theres an opening here or trades unioniststo move in and agree that an elite is indeeddepriving working people o their rights, butit is not an intellectual elite or a cultural eliteor a liberal elite: it is an economic elite. Theradical right has something to teach us on thisside o the Atlantic as well: the world is run bythose who turn up. ct

George Monbiotslatest book is

Bring On The Apocalypse

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

29/64

July 2010 | 29

Sanctions

t e ,e e e

we e

e g e e

w e, ee e

u e n ,- w e

b e us, be e

e e

I listen to the blackbird. A song or those whodied. Now it is still all le t to do. So as not tolose sight o the goal, which is to li t the brutalblockade o Gaza. That will happen. Beyondthat goal, others are waiting. Demolishing asystem o apartheid takes time. But not aneternity.

Swedish Author, Henning Menkel,Mavi Marmara survivor, diary entry,

June 2 2010

in 1990, in arguably some o the mostchilling lines written in recent history,Gary Clyde Hu bauer, et al., wrote,regarding embargoes, in an advisory

document or the George H.W. Bush Ad-ministration: we present our short list o dos and donts or the architects o a sanc-tions policy designed to change the politicso the target country: Do pick on the weakand helpless; Do impose the maximum coston your target. On Hiroshima Day 1990,the most comprehensive embargo ever im-posed by the UN., was imposed on Iraq.

This silent, comprehensive weapon o mass destruction is increasingly used as amethod o war are, o ten under a supineUnited Nations, arm-twisted by the US, oron behal o the riends it has le t. The men,

women and children who are victims o thisunique deprivation, denying, or debilitat-ing all li es norms, are thus targeted by aUnited Nations established to:

rea rm human rights, in the dig-nity and worth o the human person, in theequal rights o men and women and o na-tions large and small

to promote social progress and betterstandards o li e in larger reedom thepromotion o the economic and social ad-

vancement o all peoples As Hu bauer pointed out, 170 cases o

economic sanctions have been imposedsince World War 1. Fi ty o these cases werelaunched in the 1990s.

Since might is, as ever, right, only tar-get countries are required to scrupulouslyobserve international legalities. In reality,

what is demanded o them is a bewilderingarray o moving goalposts. One demand iscomplied with, only or another, ormerlyunmentioned, to hove in to view. The ma-rauding power ul, however, ride roughshodover all.

Geneva Protocol 1, Article 54, is unequiv-ocal as to the illegitimacy o laying siege topopulations:

1. Starvation as a method o war are isprohibited.

2. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, re-move or render useless objects indispens-able to the civilian population oodstu s,crops, livestock, drinking water installationsand supplies and irrigation works, or thespeci c purposeo denying them or theirsustenance value to the civilian population.

Proj ct orpiti c t rie a b

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

30/64

30 | July 2010

Sanctions

c g eb e G z ,b i e , w

i q, e

e g

Iraqis, as the relentless, embargoed yearsground on, blamed Israel. Israel is behindthis was the repeated re rain. Since Is-rael is blamed or near all the Middle Easts

woes, it was a claim I, as other correspon-dents and visitors, dismissed repeatedly, asa conspiracy too ar, to be met with a pityinglook, which translated: Theres stupid andtheres really stupid.

Less than our years a ter imposition o the Iraq embargo, in Kuala Lumper, in May1994, The Malaysian Con erence againstEconomic Sanctions on Iraq, issued a reso-lution which noted that the severest eco-nomic sanctions ever witnessed in (UN)history had been imposed on Iraq.

The resolution continued: these murderous economic sanc-

tions against Iraq already claimed at least400,000 lives, many o them children and

women, while hundreds o thousands o others su er rom malnutrition, diseaseand hunger, brought about by inadequatemedical acilities and rapidly deteriorat-ing health conditions. Hu bauers weakand helpless were paying the maximumcost, at the rate o over 100,000 a year, inthe name o , We the people o the UnitedNations.

The Kuala Lumper Con erence also re-corded, that Iraq (as Palestine now) wasdeprived o scienti c, medical, education-al and cultural materials. Further, despiteIraqs compliance with all relevant SecurityCouncil Resolutions (sanctions continued)under the infuence o the United Statesand its ally Great Britain and that thereal aim o the embargo was: to controlthe immense oil wealth o Iraq and the Gul region (and to bring about) a power struc-ture in the region which avours the UnitedStates, the West and Israel

Exactly two years later, in May 1996, Mad-eleine Albright, then US., Ambassador tothe the UN., was asked (on 60 Minutes`)by Lesley Stahl: We have heard that morethan hal a million children have died more children than died in Hiroshima and you know, is the price worth it?

In unhesitating, pitiless, words, Albright,hersel a grandmother, un orgettably re-plied, I think this is a very hard choice, butthe price, we think the price is worth it.

Comparing the blockade o Gaza, by Is-rael, with that o Iraq, similarities are chill-ingly stark. Iraq, 70 percent reliant on im-ports rom ertilizer to pharmaceuticals,building materials, to medical maintenance,

was bombed back to a pre-industrial agein 1991. All wherewithal, not only or re-building was denied, but oods, so t drinks,paper, books, newspapers, toiletries, pens,pencils, blackboards, toys, musical instru-ments, sheet music, trade and pro essionalliterature (including the New England Jour-

nal o Medicine and the Lancet ) ping pongballs. Items hardly dual use to morph into weapons o mass destruction or evenplay-yard destruction.

The schools or blind and dea childrenclosed specially adapted items or theirneeds, such as as braille books were also

vetoed.Requests or ambulances, bombed in

1991, or collapsed or want o spare parts, were also re used. When, a ter a decade,a ew were allowed in, the usual built-inmeans o communication were denied incase they were diverted or military use.The weakest and most helpless were indeedtargeted, at the maximum cost. Mr Hu bau-ers words were ollowed to and beyond the letter.

In Gaza, largely destroyed in December- January 2008/9 by Israeli bombardment,goods blocked by Israel include all rebuild-ing materials (cement, iron, wood, tar,plaster) tea, co ee, sage, cardamom, cum-in, coriander, ginger, jam, halva, vinegar,nutmeg, sweets, chocolate, ruit preserves,seeds, sage, cardamom, cumin, coriander,ginger, jam, halva, vinegar, nutmeg, choco-late, ruit preserves, seeds and nuts, biscuitsand sweets, potato chips, gas or so t drinks,dried ruit, resh meat, plaster, tar, wood

or construction, cement, iron, glucose, in-dustrial salt, plastic/glass/metal containers,industrial margarine, tarpaulin sheets or

8/8/2019 0710.Reader48

31/64

July 2010 | 31

Sanctions

W ee e e e e

w eb e e

e e e .m ee

huts, abric or clothing, light bulb s, shoes,sheets, toys, crayons, mattresses, b lankets,shampoo, conditioner. All, in act, it ems or-merly vetoed or Iraq.

As with Iraq, musical inst rumentsand strings or them are also ban ned. AreBrahms and Beethoven, the haun ting, or

joyous sound o the piano, violin, f ute, luteand its Middle East musical relat ive, theoud, now a terrorist act?

Hearing aids and batteries or t he chil-dren at the school or the dea are denied.As with Iraq, water remains a b iological

weapon through lack o puri ying ch emicalsand parts to repair. Schools, hospit als, sew-age plants, mosques and homes con tinue to

lie in ruins or want o construction materi-als.

The Israeli Human Rights o rganiza-tion, Btselem in a 45 page report releasedrecently, notes: 95% o actories ar e closedand 93% o water is polluted. Arti cle 54 o the Geneva Convention, like the UN Con-

vention on the Rights o the Child , lies onhistorys bon re.

The majority o Iraqs livesto ck waskilled in the bombing, with all com mercialchicken production targeted and de stroyed.Importation o livestock was vetoed . In Pal-estine, denied importation are: hors es, don-keys, goats, cattle, chickens and heaters

or commercial chicken productio n. Along with planters or saplings. I sher men arenot shot by Israeli patrol boats, t hey areanyway denied shing nets and sh ing rods as was Iraq.

In Iraq, US and British planes, (i llegally)patrolling the arcically named (b y them)sa e havens o the north and sout h (1992-2003) routinely dropped fares on harvest-ed wheat and barley, incinerating the pre-cious crops. In Palestine, women ha rvesting

wheat have been attacked by Israe li orces,using live ammunition. Destructio n o Pal-estinian arms, olive and citrus grov es, com-mercial fower elds, vegetables and apricotgroves, are repeatedly recorded.

Surgeon David Halpin, ounde r o UKCharity, Dove and Dolphin ( www.dovean-

ddolphin.org.uk) e xplains the conditiongoods arrive in rom the port o Ashdod,

when nall y delivered to Gaza. One Doveand Dolphi n consignment, taken by ship

via Cyprus, i ncluded numerous boxes o do-nated cloth es, care ully laundered, ironedby his wi e and packed by them both overmany week s medical catheters, comput-ers, sewing a nd knitting machines, basis orthe genesis o a ew home businesses.

They sat on the docks at Ashdod romAugust unti l December. When nally deliv-ered the pla stic catheters had perished, andnone o the computers, sewing and knittingmachines w orked. The several dozen boxescontaining t he lovingly laundered, olded,

clothes, had been opened by the Israeli au-thorities wit h box cutters, shredding manyo them bey ond repair.

Wheelcha irs are nally delivered with-out the batt eries to operate them. Machia-

vellian men dacity.Since the 31st May attack on the Mavi

Marmara, Is rael announced an easing o the Gaza bl ockade. Were Gazas plight nota gaping wo und on the ace o humanity,this patheti c attempt at international pub-lic relations would be comical. The territory,in need o i ntensive care, can now importsuch luxurie s as shaving cream, jam andpotato chip s. Rebuilding materials to be-gin repair o last years blitz, still blocked,as they mig ht be used .. to build bunkers.Whether tru e or not, the sane would thinkthey may w ell need them. Ironically, as Da-

vid Halpin p oints out, Palestinians with an(Israel grant ed) permit by to live in Jerusa-lem, are req uired by law, to build a bunkerin their hom es, at a sum o around $20,000 a regional ortune.

The catc h-all phrase, that building ma-terials mig ht be used or military purpos-es, is also s traight out o the siege o Iraqhandbook, a s is Israels blockade o Gaza,includes a c omplex and ever changing listo goods

The worl d, arguably, is regressing. Geo Simons, wri tes that the most celebratedearly (block ade) example was the Me-

http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://www.dovean-ddolphin.org.uk/http://