Chris Hedges: 'US Wars to Continue Until its Economy Busts'

Guardian: Afghanistan war logs: Massive leak of secret files exposes truth of occupation

Nick Davies and David Leigh 
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 July 2010 22.03 BST

The war logs reveal civilian killings by coalition forces, secret efforts to eliminate Taliban and al-Qaida leaders, and discuss the involvement of Iran and Pakistan in supporting insurgents. Photograph: Max Whittaker/Corbis

A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.

The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Times and the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and more than 1,000 US troops.

Their publication comes amid mounting concern that Barack Obama's "surge" strategy is failing and as coalition troops hunt for two US naval personnel captured by the Taliban south of Kabul on Friday.

The war logs also detail:

• How a secret "black" unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial.

• How the US covered up evidence that the Taliban have acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles.

• How the coalition is increasingly using deadly Reaper drones to hunt and kill Taliban targets by remote control from a base in Nevada.

• How the Taliban have caused growing carnage with a massive escalation of their roadside bombing campaign, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians to date.

Nobel Peace Prize winner backs convicted kidnappers

by Grant Morgan An Italian court yesterday convicted 23 US CIA and military personnel of the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Milan and sending him to Egypt to be imprisoned, tortured and, years later, released without charge. You can read a BBC report on the trial at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8343123.stm (or see previous post) This is the first time any court in the world has convicted US state agents for their illegal kidnappings, detentions and torture under the “war on terror” begun by George Bush. And what was the reaction of the latest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama? A spokesperson for the Obama administration declared, “We are disappointed by the verdicts,” saying an appeal is likely. If the mass media were at all even-handed in their reporting, here’s how they would headline the Obama administration’s reaction:

Obama ‘disappointed’ at kidnappers being brought to justice

Of course, expecting fairness in the media is about as realistic as expecting any other reaction from Obama than the one we got. The US imperial war machine obeys its own laws, which require it to break the ordinary laws against kidnapping, torture and worse which govern mere mortals like us. And Obama obeys the US imperial war machine. But we all knew that, didn’t we?

CIA agents guilty of Italy kidnap

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8343123.stm BBC News 4 November 2009 An Italian judge has convicted 23 Americans – all but one of them CIA agents – and two Italian secret agents for the 2003 kidnap of a Muslim cleric. The agents were accused of abducting Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, from Milan and sending him to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured. The trial, which began in June 2007, is the first involving the CIA’s so-called “extraordinary rendition” programme. The Obama administration has expressed its disappointment at the convictions. “We are disappointed by the verdicts,” state department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington. He declined to comment further pending a written opinion from the judge, but said an appeal was likely. Three Americans and five Italians were acquitted by the court in Milan. Symbolic ruling The Americans were all tried in their absence as they have not been extradited from the US to Italy. The CIA’s Milan station chief at the time, Robert Lady, was given an eight-year term, while the other 22 Americans convicted - one of them a US air force colonel – were sentenced to five years in prison. Lawyers for the 23 Americans said they would appeal against their convictions. The two Italian agents, who were convicted as accomplices to kidnapping, were given three-year prison terms. The court also ruled that those convicted must pay 1m euros ($1.5m) in damages to Abu Omar and 500,000 euros to his wife. CIA spokesman George Little in Washington declined to comment on the convictions, telling the Associated Press news agency: “The CIA has not commented on any of the allegations surrounding Abu Omar.” Secrecy laws Italian prosecutors said Abu Omar was taken as part of a series of extraordinary renditions carried out by the CIA – when terror suspects were moved between countries without any public legal process. They told the court he had been kidnapped in daylight on a Milan street in February 2003 and flown to Germany, and then Cairo, where he was held for years until being released without charge. Judge Oscar Magi acquitted the CIA chief for Rome, Jeffrey Castelli, saying he was protected by state secrecy rules, as were the former head of Italy’s military intelligence agency, Nicolo Pollari, and his deputy, Marco Mancini. Mr Pollari, who resigned over the affair, told the court earlier this year that documents showing he had no involvement in the kidnapping were classified under secrecy laws. Prosecutor Armando Spataro rejected the argument that legal provisions could shield those accused from prosecution, saying any agreement to carry out a kidnapping was “absolutely against Italian law”. He had sought a 13-year jail term for Mr Castelli and Mr Pollari and 12 years for Robert Lady. Activist group Human Rights Watch welcomed the verdict, saying it sent “a strong signal of the crimes committed by the CIA in Europe”. Spokeswoman Joanne Mariner said: “For us, this first case puts the war on terror on trial.”

Remember Sabra and Shatila (16-18 September 1982)

Hat tip Socialist Unity

Keep SAS out of Afghanistan

SAS combat troops “look set to return to Afghanistan” according to an NZPA article, that reports on Prime Minister John Key’s response to a request for more troops for the war from the US. The PM says he is “somewhat sympathetic” to the request.
 The mistaken belief that the people from Afghanistan had something to do with the September 11 attacks, or that the aim of the war was to capture Osama Bin Laden, has meant the war in Afghanistan has always had more support in this country, and more importantly in the US, than the war in Iraq. The previous Labour Government was able to exploit this, using troop commitments in Afghanistan to cosy up to the US. National will no doubt continue this policy. 
As the NZPA the article reminds us, there are already “About 140 army, navy and air force personnel are involved in New Zealand’s provincial reconstruction team (PRT) operating in Bamiyan province. The team has been there since 2003 and is committed until September 2010 so far.” And as Peace Movement Aotearoa (who forwarded the the NZPA report) points out:

SAS troops previously deployed to Afghanistan have been integrated with other Special Forces in the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force under US military command. Along with US Special Forces, “six foreign nations including New Zealand and Australia, also assigned some of their best ‘hunters and killers’ to the group” which is headquartered near Bagram air base. Clearly not deployments that could be regarded as peacekeeping by any stretch of the imagination ...


It will be even easier for National to continue New Zealand’s involvement, now that Obama is working to promote Afghanistan as the “good war” in contrast to the mess in Iraq. But the truth is the occupation of Afghanistan has no more justification and is no more successful than the occupation of Iraq. In both cases the US and it’s allies, including NZ, are slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent people, while strengthening the “extremeists” they claim to be trying to stop. As Malalai Joya, a women’s rights actavist elected to the Afghan parliament in 2005, recently stated:

Almost eight years after the Taliban regime was toppled, our hopes for a truly democratic and independent Afghanistan have been betrayed by the continued domination of fundamentalists and by a brutal occupation that ultimately serves only American strategic interests in the region.

It is long past time for New Zealand to end it’s support for the war crime that is the occupation of Afghanistan by withdrawing all troops. As Joya argued in another recent interview, with Australia’s Green Left Weekly (GLW):

“But what’s going on today is like civil war. People are squashed today between two enemies: an internal and an external enemy ... “That’s why its better if the foreign troops leave as soon as possible. People are saying: we don’t expect anything good from you, just stop your wrongdoing. “Bombs falling from the sky are killing our people. On the ground, the Northern Alliance and Taliban are killing our people. From both sides our people are the victims — especially women and children.” She cited a May 4 US air-strike in her native Farah province. “The mainstream media wants to throw dust in the eyes of the world. Over 150 people were killed. I spoke to a young woman who lost 20 members of her own family. “This was a massacre. I was banned from giving a press conference. But the US government and media said only 20 were killed. “Our people hate warlords, don’t support Karzai and his puppet government of war criminals and drug lords who now want to negotiate with the Taliban. Our people hate the Taliban. “If the troops withdraw, then it is easier fight with one enemy. Now we are fighting with two enemies: occupation forces and these criminals.

A village elder from Granai, Afghanistan, points to the grave where his sister and her children are buried. Over 150 people were killed when the village was bombed by the US Air Force on May 4. Photo by Guy Smallman.

For more details about the massacre on the May 4 bombing of Granai village in Farah province, see the interview with Photojournalist Guy Smallman “the only Western reporter to visit the village” in Britain’s Socialist Worker newspaper. For an overview of what’s happening in Afghanistan today, take a look at ‘The Afghan war — unjust and unwinnable’ in the latest Green Left Weekly. Also of interest Reactions to US President Barak Obama’s recent speech “to the Muslim World”, from Noam Chomsky and Robert Fisk.

'We need shock and awe policies to halt depression'

by Peter de Waal The key thing I got from Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's article We need shock and awe policies to halt depression is that industrial production has collapsed at a rate 2-10 times faster than in 1929-1932! The credit bubble was largely based on worldwide property prices being pushed up with financial tricks over a 30-year period. In my opinion Capital has two ways out of this: 1) Allow house prices to collapse to the value at which ordinary working people can afford to buy them again i.e. 1-4 times the average yearly wage. This would of course bankrupt many insurance companies, pension funds and banks, ruining the rich. This would happen if the governments of the world stopped promising to bail out failed banks. The banks would then have to "mark-to-market" their loan portfolios, rather than hanging on to the notion that the book value of 18 months ago can be realised. Because of the bail-outs US Banks have been refusing reasonable offers for properties and their loan books, and have actually increased their exposure to toxic credit derivative products safe in the knowledge that they are "too big to be allowed to fail." 2) Print money like crazy and hope inflation catches up with those still wildly-inflated house prices. Option (2) is very dangerous, as it would capsize US efforts to get the world to buy it's debt in order to finance the bail-out of it's destitute banking system. Why would you buy a T-Bond when the value of the US$ is plummeting? Printing money or allowing inflation to rip would deal quite effectively to the US debt problem. There is always option (3) War. World War II began as a trade war, became a shooting war and ended as a nuclear war. We need option (4) make the bosses pay and end capitalism.

India's Leaders Need To Look Closer To Home

by Tariq Ali from Counterpunch 28 November 2008 The terrorist assault on Mumbai’s five-star hotels was well planned, but did not require a great deal of logistic intelligence: all the targets were soft. The aim was to create mayhem by shining the spotlight on India and its problems and in that the terrorists were successful. The identity of the black-hooded group remains a mystery.

Continue

For a different analysis see India's 9/11. Who was Behind the Mumbai Attacks? Washington is Fostering Political Divisions between India and Pakistan by Michel Chossudovsky (30 Nov 2008).

A newer world order

by Lee Sustar

from US Socialist Worker

21 August 2008

The Russia-Georgia war has revealed a new balance of power in the world – and exposed the hypocrisy of U.S. politicians and the media who decry the imperialism emanating from Moscow, but embrace it when it's made in the USA.

Continue

See also:

• Paul G. Buchanan A Word From Afar: Much ado about Russians

NBR, Robert Fisk, the media and Tuhoe

by Auckland union activist The National Business Review (NBR) attempt to belittle international prize winning journalist Robert Fisk for meeting with Tuhoe activists at a Glen Innes Marae, indirectly labeling him a traitor by calling him "Beirut Bob", a clear reference to such names as, Hanoi Hanna, or Tokyo Rose. However the NBR seems to target most of its bile at the rest of the New Zealand media for daring to stray from the anti-terror script and accuses them of "rapturous media sycophancy". Coming from one of the Washington's biggest war on terror sycophants in this country, it is, excuse the pun, a bit rich even for the NBR. Realising they may have lost this particular media battle,"Pity the nation" is the NBR's final bitter comment. Obviously the NBR are uncomfortable with any journalistic spotlight being shown on this particular scab on New Zealand's recent history, and would be far happier if their pro-war right wing journalism was the only voice allowed. The NBR berates the rest of the media here for not obeying the unwritten rules of self censorship that the 'International War on Terror' demands. See NBR's article Fisky business (15 August 2008)

John Minto on Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice and her policies are not welcome here

from Christchurch Press 21 July 2008

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a picture/postcard representative for Bush’s America. She is intelligent, articulate, attractive, well groomed and fashionably dressed. She seems cool, calm, even queenly. She is the ideal person to represent the US and drive American interests because she provides the soft public face for a host of aggressive, immoral policies to expand the empire.

Continue

See also:

• New threats of war against Iran
• Israel’s threat to Iran pressures US
• George Galloway: I'm Off To Iran Before Israel Bombs It
• NZ troops in Afghanistan are supporting an imperialist takeover of the country
• Bush meets NZ troops in Afghanistan

New threats of war against Iran

from Stop War on Iran, a US anti-war coalition

July 2008

Recent news makes it clear why it is more important than ever that we take to the streets on August 2. According to press reports, President Bush has given the Israeli military the go-ahead to prepare for an imminent attack on Iran. Israel is also using U.S. bases in Iraq to prepare for the attack.

Continue

George Galloway: I'm Off To Iran Before Israel Bombs It

by George Galloway

30 June 2008

from DailyRecord.co.uk

By the time you read this, I will be in Iran. I've never been there before, never met an Iranian leader - I don't even like the present Iranian leadership - so remember all that, because it might become important.

Continue

NZ government must apologise to the people of Vietnam

Peace Movement Aotearoa (PMA) has written a letter to the Vietnamese Ambassador which expresses regret at New Zealand’s participation in the Vietnam War and calls for the government to apologise to the people of Vietnam. The text of the letter is included below. The Vietnam War was an unjust and unjustifiable war. More than 2 million Vietnamese civilians died, many more were maimed, and the physical environment was destroyed by massive bombing raids and poisoned by chemical weapons - the lethal legacy of unexploded munitions and toxic chemicals continues today. The NZ government has never apologised to the people of Vietnam, although it has apologised to Vietnam war veterans and their families for the failure to care for them during and after the war. Letter to Vietnamese Ambassador in New Zealand, on the occasion of the Tribute 08 in Wellington, 30 May 2008: It is thirty three years since the war in Viet Nam ended, yet we know that Viet Nam is still feeling its effects. We citizens of Aotearoa New Zealand wish to express our sincere regret for New Zealand's participation in the war and for the suffering inflicted on the people of Viet Nam. We look forward to the New Zealand Government formally apologising to the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam in the near future - an apology is long overdue." Socialist Worker-New Zealand is a signatory to the letter. For more information visit the PMA website http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/tribute08.htm

Israeli press reports US pledge of war on Iran—is Bush preparing an October Surprise?

by Bill Van Auken from World Socialist Web Site 21 May 2008 An Israeli press report that US President George W. Bush intends to launch a military attack on Iran before he leaves office at the beginning of next year prompted a heated denial from the White House Tuesday. The article, which appeared in Tuesday’s Jerusalem Post, cited a report on Israeli Army Radio, quoting Israeli officials who had met with Bush and his delegation during their visit to Israel last week. “A senior member of the president’s entourage said during a closed meeting that Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were of the opinion that military action was called for,” the article quoted an Israel official as saying. The report cited the US official as stating that “the hesitancy of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice” had delayed a decision on military action against Iran. The recent crisis in Lebanon and the evident ease with which the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement seized control of Beirut, according to the report, had placed a US attack on the Islamic Republic back on the front burner.

Continue

Joint Chiefs Chairman Says U.S. Preparing Military Options Against Iran

by ANN SCOTT TYSON Washington Post Staff Writer 25 April 2008 The nation's top military officer said today that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be "extremely stressing" but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing specifically to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force. "It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said at a Pentagon news conference. Still, Mullen made clear that he prefers a diplomatic solution to the tensions with Iran and does not foresee any imminent military action. "I have no expectations that we're going to get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate future," he said. Mullen's statements and others by Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently signal a new rhetorical onslaught by the Bush administration against Iran, amid what officials say is increased Iranian provision of weapons, training, and financing to Iraqi groups that are attacking and killing Americans. In a speech Monday at West Point, Gates said that Iran "is hell-bent on acquiring nuclear weapons." He said a war with Iran would be "disastrous on a number of levels. But the military option must be kept on the table given the destabilizing policies of the regime and the risks inherent in a future Iranian nuclear threat." Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, who was nominated this week to head all U.S. forces in the Middle East, is preparing a briefing soon to lay out detailed evidence of increased Iranian involvement in Iraq, Mullen said. The briefing will detail, for example, the discovery in Iraq of weapons that were very recently manufactured in Iran, he said. "The Iranian government pledged to halt such activities some months ago. It's plainly obvious they have not. Indeed, they seem to have gone the other way," Mullen said. He said recent unrest in the southern Iraqi city of Basra had highlighted a "level of involvement" by Iran that had not been understood by the U.S. military previously. "It became very, very visible in ways that we hadn't seen before," he said. But while Mullen and Gates have recently stated that the Tehran government certainly must know of Iranian actions in Iraq, which they say are led by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, or Quds Force, Mullen said he has "no smoking gun which could prove that the highest leadership [of Iran] is involved in this."

The Coming War with Iran: It's the oil, stupid!

By Joe Lauria
14 April 2008
Huffington Post

World civilization is based on oil. The world is running out of oil. The oil companies and governments are not telling the truth about how close we are to the end.

Dick Cheney knew about peak oil back in 1999 when he spoke to the London Petroleum Institute as Halliburton CEO. He predicted it would come in 2010. After that it's just a matter of years before it runs out. Whoever controls the remaining oil determines who lives and who dies.

Sixty percent of this oil is under a triangular area of the Middle East the size of Kansas. In that speech Cheney said: "The Middle East with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies."

This small Middle East triangle encompasses the northeast of Saudi Arabia, all of Iraq and the southwestern part of Iran, along with Kuwait, Qatar and the Emirates. The US controls Iraq. It has friendly governments in the other states.

Iran is the exception. The US now surrounds Iran.

Controlling an area the size of Kansas shouldn't be a problem for the U.S. military, except that it is heavily populated and many people in the triangle don't want the Americans there and are willing to fight.

It's been known for at least thirty years that America needs alternative energy sources. But instead of an alternative energy plan we got the invasion of Iraq by oilmen wedded to a dying business, willing to kill hundreds of thousands to cling to the last drop.

The US is never leaving the region or withdrawing from Iraq. McCain is right about staying, but 100 years is too long. The oil won't last that long.

Iran is next. Lieberman set up Petraeus to testify last week that Iranian-backed groups are murdering hundreds of American servicemen in Iraq. On Friday Gates called Iran's influence in Iraq "malign" and Bush said if Iran keeps meddling in Iraq "then we'll deal with them."

They are building their case for war with resolutions in the Senate and at the UN. It's only western Iran, from the Iraq border to 150 miles inside the country that the U.S. will have to occupy. That's where Iran's oil is.

But the U.S. will have a nasty battle on their hands in Iran even if they restore a Shah-like puppet in Tehran 30 years after the revolution.

The Saudis would not mind seeing the Iranian regime go. But the Saudis may also be on the list. The US may have to destabilize and control Saudi Arabia some day too.

The Wall Street Journal a few years ago revealed that in the 1970s under Nixon, Kissinger had plans drawn up for the US invasion and occupation of the Saudi oil fields. Those plans can be dusted off.

The American oil wars are being launched out of weakness, not strength. The American economy is teetering and without control of the remaining oil it will collapse. There will be massive chaos in any case, when only enough oil remains for the American elite and whomever they choose to share it with.

That will leave an oil-starved China and India, both with nuclear weapons, with no alternative but to bow to America or go to war.

It's not about greed any more. It's about survival. Because the leadership of America was initially too greedy to switch from oil to solar, wind, geothermal and other renewable alternatives, it may now be too late.

Had the hundreds of billions of dollars poured into the invasion and occupation of Iraq been put into alternative energy, the world might have had a fighting chance. Now that is far from certain.
What is certain is that these wars are not about democracy. They are not about WMD. The coming one will not even be about Iran's nuclear weapons project. It's about the oil, stupid.

India's Leaders Need To Look Closer To Home

by Tariq Ali from Counterpunch 28 November 2008 The terrorist assault on Mumbai’s five-star hotels was well planned, but did not require a great deal of logistic intelligence: all the targets were soft. The aim was to create mayhem by shining the spotlight on India and its problems and in that the terrorists were successful. The identity of the black-hooded group remains a mystery. The Deccan Mujahedeen, which claimed the outrage in an e-mail press release, is certainly a new name probably chosen for this single act. But speculation is rife. A senior Indian naval officer has claimed that the attackers (who arrived in a ship, the M V Alpha) were linked to Somali pirates, implying that this was a revenge attack for the Indian Navy’s successful if bloody action against pirates in the Arabian Gulf that led to heavy casualties some weeks ago. The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, has insisted that the terrorists were based outside the country. The Indian media has echoed this line of argument with Pakistan (via the Lashkar-e-Taiba) and al-Qaeda listed as the usual suspects. But this is a meditated edifice of official India’s political imagination. Its function is to deny that the terrorists could be a homegrown variety, a product of the radicalization of young Indian Muslims who have finally given up on the indigenous political system. To accept this view would imply that the country’s political physicians need to heal themselves. Al Qaeda, as the CIA recently made clear, is a group on the decline. It has never come close to repeating anything vaguely resembling the hits of 9/11. Its principal leader Osama bin Laden may well be dead (he certainly did not make his trademark video intervention in this year’s Presidential election in the United States) and his deputy has fallen back on threats and bravado. What of Pakistan? The country’s military is heavily involved in actions on its Northwest frontier where the spillage from the Afghan war has destabilized the region. The politicians currently in power are making repeated overtures to India. The Lashkar-e-Taiba, not usually shy of claiming its hits, has strongly denied any involvement with the Mumbai attacks. Why should it be such a surprise if the perpetrators are themselves Indian Muslims? Its hardly a secret that there has been much anger within the poorest sections of the Muslim community against the systematic discrimination and acts of violence carried out against them of which the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in shining Gujarat was only the most blatant and the most investigated episode, supported by the Chief Minister of the State and the local state apparatuses. Add to this the continuing sore of Kashmir which has for decades been treated as a colony by Indian troops with random arrests, torture and rape of Kashmiris an everyday occurrence. Conditions have been much worse than in Tibet, but have aroused little sympathy in the West where the defense of human rights is heavily instrumentalised. Indian intelligence outfits are well aware of all this and they should not encourage the fantasies of their political leaders. Its best to come out and accept that there are severe problems inside the country. A billion Indians: 80 percent Hindus and 14 percent Muslims. A very large minority that cannot be ethnically cleansed without provoking a wider conflict. None of this justifies terrorism, but it should, at the very least, force India’s rulers to direct their gaze on their own country and the conditions that prevail. Economic disparities are profound. The absurd notion that the trickle-down effects of global capitalism would solve most problems can now be seen for what it always was: a fig leaf to conceal new modes of exploitation. For a different analysis see India's 9/11. Who was Behind the Mumbai Attacks? Washington is Fostering Political Divisions between India and Pakistan by Michel Chossudovsky (30 Nov 2008).

George Galloway: I'm Off To Iran Before Israel Bombs It

by George Galloway 30 June 2008 from DailyRecord.co.uk By the time you read this, I will be in Iran. I've never been there before, never met an Iranian leader - I don't even like the present Iranian leadership - so remember all that, because it might become important. I'm determined to do my bit for the anti-war effort. We need another war like Gordon Brown needs another by-election. But the Sunday papers were again full of Israeli war games and threats as speculation mounts of a massive bombardment of yet another Muslim country. I'm going for the first anniversary of Press TV, on which I present two programmes - Comment at 10.30pm on Thursdays and The Real Deal at 10.30pm on Sundays. This week I hope to meet Ali Larijani, formerly Iran's nuclear negotiator, now speaker of the Iranian parliament and, I hope, the next president. Larijani proved beyond even the CIA's attempt at contradiction that Iran is acting entirely within her legal rights to develop nuclear power. As a signatory to the treaty governing the development of nuclear weapons, Iran has done nothing wrong under it either, at least according to the watchdog maintained by the international community, the IAEA. Israel, on the other hand, refuses to sign the nuclear weapons treaty and thus, with a chutzpah which takes the breath away, claims it's not in breach of it. Yet last week, it acknowledged the truth first revealed by the Israeli hero Mordechai Vannunu, who spent nearly 20 years in solitary for telling us that they possess nuclear weapons in abundance. Their brazenness about this reached its apogee when they publicly thanked France, in the diminutive form of Nicolas Sarkozy, for the decisive help they had given them (we ourselves gave them the heavy water technology) to enable to build their nuclear arsenal. So let me run that past you. Israel, which has hundreds of nuclear weapons, seems to be planning to attack a country with none with the support of France, Britain and the US and all in the name of, er, checking the spread of nuclear weapons in that region. You couldn't make it up, but alas you don't have to. The Dr Strangeloves who've taken over the bunker have already done so. Next week's column, should I survive, will no doubt tell you about the great civilisation that is Persia, which hasn't attacked another country for more than 300 years, not a boast we can make ourselves. Iran is no broken-backed land enfeebled by decades of war and sanctions. If attacked, she most certainly will defend herself and by all means necessary. Fasten your seatbelts.

John Minto on Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice and her policies are not welcome here

from Christchurch Press

21 July 2008

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a picture/postcard representative for Bush’s America. She is intelligent, articulate, attractive, well groomed and fashionably dressed. She seems cool, calm, even queenly. She is the ideal person to represent the US and drive American interests because she provides the soft public face for a host of aggressive, immoral policies to expand the empire. Condoleezza Rice was National Security Advisor to George Bush in his first term as President and graduated to US Secretary of State in his second term. She helped lead the charge to invade Afghanistan in the wake of the World Trade Centre attacks despite there being no good intelligence as to who the culprits were. Most of those responsible turned out to be nationals of US ally Saudi Arabia but invading Afghanistan was the more important strategic option. The New Zealand government supported this charade sending troops to invade and occupy. Seven years on we are still there and still shamefully complicit in the enormous human suffering which marks this disastrous intervention. Condoleezza Rice also helped drive the invasion of Iraq claiming Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. Instilling fear in the US public and creating a compliant populace to be bent to the will of a small political elite was her role. As we all now know it was a strategy based on lies, damned lies and deceit. She can also take a good deal of credit for the belief, held by a majority of US citizens, that Saddam Hussein was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Centre. Now that was a great propaganda job – well done Condoleezza. If innocent Iraqi civilian lives were valued then Rice would be charged with war crimes a million times over. Everywhere she has directed her attention on behalf of the US the objective has been to expand American interests irrespective of democratic voices. Attacks on the democratically elected Hamas government in Palestine; support for Israel’s apartheid policies against its Arab population; condemnation of popularly elected Latin American governments and of Iran’s nuclear programme are examples where she sees democratic principles as impediments to US interests. As we would expect she was appointed to her senior US government role because she is well versed in US business interests. She has sat on the boards of some of the most powerful US corporations including Chevron, Hewlett Packard, the Rand Corporation and the Carnegie Corporation. In the US she is seen as a person of contradictions. For example she grew up black in Alabama during the civil rights struggle but has always lived a privileged life. Even so, one might have thought she would retain some sympathy for oppressed peoples such as the most abused group of human citizens in the world today – the Palestinians. But no, she is wedded more closely to a privileged lifestyle than to any empathy for the struggles of others. Many in the black community of the US describe her as a black woman who doesn’t know how to talk to black people. Social class always trumps race. This representative of the empire will be here later this week for a visit and meetings with Prime Minister Helen Clark, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and National Party leader John Key. The visit will be the highlight of Winston Peters term as New Zealand Foreign Minister. He says the visit shows the relationship with the US is strong and will stress that New Zealand and the US have worked closely together on issues including Afghanistan and North Korea's nuclear programme. Winston Peters will talk to her importantly about his visit to North Korea and how New Zealand can be a loyal ally and how much the government would like a free trade agreement with the US. Peters will positively preen beside the most powerful woman in international politics. It will be an embarrassing, nauseating sight. Keep a paper bag handy. She will meet also with John Key and this private meeting will be his opportunity to tell her that under a National government New Zealand would have sent troops to support the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Perhaps he’ll tell her that under his leadership we’d have joined up by lunchtime. She will reassure us we are good friends of the US. She will thank us for the close friendship from which the greatest US benefit is the intelligence we gather, on America’s behalf, at the Waihopai spybase outside Blenheim. For many New Zealanders and people the world over Condoleezza Rice embodies the worst aspects of US foreign policy and there will be protests against her visit. Neither she nor the murderous policies she represents are welcome here.