Gyanendra’s time is up
C Raja Mohan
The Indian Express , April 14, 2006
"New Delhi seems paralysed in taking the next steps on dealing with the Nepal crisis...
If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi have criticised the communist parties
for “communalising” India’s foreign policy on Iran, they should be giving no quarter to the Hindutva crowd on Nepal.
In India, the BJP is only part of the problem. The Palace in Nepal retains enduring political links to
India’s own princes and thakurs, some of whom have considerable clout in the Congress Party.
Above all, the Ministry of Defence and the Army have been among the
strongest opponents to any policy that antagonises King Gyanendra".
By his reckless actions, the king has made himself the main problem in Nepal. That he has managed to get Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury, former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and US President George W. Bush on the same side of the debate on Nepal reveals all you need to know about King Gyanendra’s ham-handed power play in the Himalayan kingdom.
Since a shocking regicide put him in charge of Nepal’s destiny in June 2001, Gyanendra’s burning desire to restore royal absolutism has consistently outpaced his judgment on the prospects for his own survival or the collective interests of his country.
Most authoritarian rulers extend their rule either by mobilising valuable external support or by dividing their domestic opposition. However, the ambitious but inept Gyanendra has few friends left in the world or at home.
Much like President Musharraf in Pakistan, Gyanendra was betting that the Bush administration might separate itself from New Delhi and back him in the presumed fight between Palace and Maoists. The Bush administration, however, is also for promoting democracy. Unlike Musharraf, Gyanendra is not in a position to tilt the scales in Washington in favour of the status quo by citing the great war on terror. Further, the Bush administration appears to have taken a political decision to follow the Indian lead in Nepal.
Gyanendra has also sought to play the China card. Beijing, which initially played along in the hope of expanding long-term strategic influence in Nepal, now seem to be having second thoughts. When Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan was in Nepal in March, he found time to interact with opposition political leaders. This in spite of Tang visiting the kingdom as a state guest.
Meanwhile, domestic backing for Gyanendra has long evaporated. As he sought to dominate Nepal, Gyanendra was faced with two opponents — the political parties who wanted restoration of constitutional rule and Maoists who demanded abolition of the monarchy. By trying to divide the political parties and playing the fool with the Maoists, Gyanendra achieved the impossible of getting both opponents together on one platform.
Even the most elementary survival strategy on the part of the Palace demanded peace with one of the opponents. As he shunned repeated advice from India that he make up with the political parties and strengthen his hands vis a vis the Maoists, Delhi played a part in bringing the other two elements in Nepal’s power struggle together.
Gyanendra’s crackdown is yet another reminder that India should not labour under any illusions about Gyanendra’s ability to follow either his own enlightened self-interest or that of Nepal as a whole. Yet, New Delhi seems paralysed in taking the next steps on dealing with the Nepal crisis. Forget for a moment the talk of big bully India intervening in Nepal’s internal affairs. It is Gyanendra who is mobilising different groups within India to keep Delhi’s decision-making on Nepal off balance. Despite Brajesh Mishra’s warning that Gyanendra is digging the grave of the monarchy in Nepal, the RSS and VHP continue to fawn upon the only Hindu king in the world.
If Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi have criticised the communist parties for “communalising” India’s foreign policy on Iran, they should be giving no quarter to the Hindutva crowd on Nepal. In India, the BJP is only part of the problem. The Palace in Nepal retains enduring political links to India’s own princes and thakurs, some of whom have considerable clout in the Congress Party. Above all, the Ministry of Defence and the Army have been among the strongest opponents to any policy that antagonises King Gyanendra. Both cite concerns about the need to keep the Royal Nepal Army in good humour and keep in mind the reality of Nepali Gorkhas serving in the Indian Army. There are others who point to the Maoist threat to India.
None of these reasons justify India’s masterly inactivity on Nepal. While questions remain about the sincerity of the Maoists in joining the national mainstream, for the moment the target of India’s policy energy must be the king.
By his reckless actions, he has made himself the main problem in Nepal. An Indian failure to put Gyanendra immediately on notice would have a number of dangerous consequences. In the last few years, much of the world, including the United States and the European Union have waited for India to take the lead on Nepal and agreed to coordinate their policies with those of New Delhi. If India holds back, other powers would soon begin to act on their own.
If India does not act immediately, the ground situation — worsening by the day — would compel India to consider more drastic remedies in the future. That could include military intervention to prevent state failure in Nepal. New Delhi continues to hope that Gyanendra would come up with a new political initiative, which could come as soon as Friday. If the king, however, makes a half-cocked move, the temptation to postpone hard decisions would be irresistible. Resisting that temptation, India should make its bottomline clear. Restoration of parliament, formation of a national government, peace talks with the Maoists, and a schedule for elections to a new Constituent Assembly that would write a new political future for Nepal.
If Gyanendra falls short of that framework, India should be prepared to impose new sanctions against the king. India rightly recognises that any such sanctions should not hurt the ordinary people in Nepal. But it is entirely possible for India to move quickly towards a comprehensive arms embargo and a set of “smart sanctions” targetting the key functionaries of the regime — especially their assets abroad and their right to travel. If Gyanendra comes to terms with reality, a purely ceremonial monarchy might yet have a place in Nepal’s future. If he can’t, India must be prepared for a republican Nepal.
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
Principles of Red partisan warfare
While reading the praiseworthy book of Edger Snow, Red Star Over China (1936), I made some notes on the interview of the author with P’eng Teh-huai, Commander of the First Front of the Red Army. At the time of interview, the First Front Army was known for its unique tactics, bravery, consistence, and uninterrupted record of success. It was believed at that time that the news of a combat with the First Front would be enough to dishearten the troops of the enemy.
Composition of Red Army:
38% Agrarian Working Class
58% Peasantry
4% Petty-bourgeoisie
50% of the troops were members of the Communist Party or Communist Youth League.
Literacy: 60-70%
One-third of Army was composed of former Kuomintang soldiers.
“Tactics are important, but we could not exist if the majority of people did not support us. We are nothing but first of the people beating their oppressors” – P’eng
Principles of Red partisan warfare:
1. Must not fight any losing battles.
2. Surprise is the main offensive tactic. Avoid static warfare.
3. Work out the plan of attack and especially the plan of retreat.
4. Greatest attention to min-t’uan, the first, last and most determined line of resistance of the enemy. If possible, min-t’uan must be won over politically.
5. In regular engagements partisan must exceed enemy in number.
6. Partisan line must have the greatest elasticity, even in combat.
7. Master tactics of distraction, decoy, diversion, ambush, feint, and irritation.
8. Concentrate on the weakest link, or the most vital one, of the enemy. Avoid engagements with the main army.
9. Precaution must be taken to prevent the enemy from locking the partisan’s main army.
10. Encourage help of peasants to secure intelligence.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Fight the Net
As a follow-up to my last post, I am presenting another article that unveils the US plans to wage a war against the progressive elements on the cyber space.
US Plans to 'Fight the Net' Revealed
by Adam Brookes
January 29, 2006
BBC
A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US
military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological
operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.
Bloggers beware.
As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the
military opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies
and the modern media offer.
From influencing public opinion through new media to
designing "computer network attack" weapons, the US military is
learning to fight an electronic war.
The declassified document is called "Information Operations Roadmap".
It was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington
University using the Freedom of Information Act.
Read the rest of the article here.
US Plans to 'Fight the Net' Revealed
by Adam Brookes
January 29, 2006
BBC
A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US
military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological
operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.
Bloggers beware.
As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the
military opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies
and the modern media offer.
From influencing public opinion through new media to
designing "computer network attack" weapons, the US military is
learning to fight an electronic war.
The declassified document is called "Information Operations Roadmap".
It was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington
University using the Freedom of Information Act.
Read the rest of the article here.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Thought Control
Attached to this post is an article by Ghali Hassan about the disinformation campaign in the present US-backed 'War on Terror'. I would recommend those who are interested in this subject to read about 'propaganda model' presented by Naom Chomskey. I might write a post about that soon.
Recently, the British government allowed access to the 'Hayward's Report' that contained an inquiry conducted in regard with the treatment of prisoners at Bad Nenndorf during the WW II. The detailed report is present at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmkp_pk/message/4761
"The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the minf of the oppressed" - Stephen Biko
Thought Control
By Ghali Hassan
03 April, 2006Countercurrents.org
Like all imperialist forces, the US is heavily relaying on misinformation propaganda campaign to promote and enhance its imperialist ideology. Violence and war crimes against defenceless civilians are depicted as “fighting the enemy”. The mass murder of Iraqi civilians by US forces is normalised and welcomed with deafening silence. The purpose is thought control, or as it is called “perception management” designed to enhance US images. The campaign is part of a wider Western strategy to mislead the public, remove historical memory and justify more wars.
According to George Orwell, newspeak is a form of propaganda to cover up criminal actions, especially killing people unjustly and deliberately, with a veneer of justification and reason. In Iraq, the occupying forces are increasingly covering the truth with lies and deception, blame the Iraqi people for the violence they have inflicted on them, and to remove the Occupation as the generator of violence.
The three-year US Occupation of Iraq is becoming increasingly violent and the occupying forces are killing Iraqi civilians with impunity while encouraging Iraqis to fight each other. The atrocity is aided by massive Western propaganda campaign to demonise Iraqis and portray not only Iraqis but also Muslims in general as fanatic and violent. This includes: 1) the Occupation is a benign “peace mission” and necessary “to prevent” civil war; 2) Iraq is a “breeding ground for terrorists”– as if the illegal invasion and Occupation of Iraq are not the greatest acts of terrorism; and 3) Iraqis are responsible for what is happening to them. Each of the three is a falsehood Western elites (Left and Right) have adopted these falsehoods to justify their attacks on the Iraqi people and to jump on the misinformation propaganda of Occupation bandwagon.
A recent secret Pentagon ‘roadmap’ on war propaganda, personally approved by Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld in October 2003, calls for the total control of information before they become available to the American public. The aim is to pacify and remove the public influence on foreign policies. Furthermore, the US continues the practice of paying journalists, including Iraqis, to plant stories in the Iraqi news media in favour of the brutal Occupation. The purpose is thought control, or as it is called “perception management”, designed to enhance US images, including military image.
On the morning of 19 November 2005, US troops deliberately massacred 15 Iraqi civilians, including seven women, three children and four students in the town of Haditha, northwest of Baghdad. The US army alleged that the dead civilians were “insurgents”. However, eyewitness testimonies and news reports from the area contradict the US allegations. Credible reports supported by local witnesses show that the US Marines were acting in revenge after they were attacked by the Iraqi Resistance. Indeed, the Marines executed Iraqi civilians while they were sleeping, as Aparisim Ghosh of the Time magazine reported. Victims in the town told the Time that “the Marines came in and they killed everybody inside”. An eyewitness Khaled Ahmed Rsayef whose brother was among the dead told the Time: “It was a [premeditated] massacre in every sense of the word”. The other eyewitness is 9-year-old Eman Walid. She told the Time: “First, they went into my father’s room, where he was reading the Koran, and we heard shots. Then, the soldiers came back into the living room. I couldn’t see their faces very well--only their guns sticking into the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny”. The Time also reported that there were no signs of Iraqi Resistance fighters around the scene of the massacre in which four houses were destroyed. The massacre was videotaped by a Haditha journalism student and handed to Hammurabi Human Rights group. The cowardice attack destroyed four families and left a girl and her young brother terrorised and traumatised forever.
On March 15 2006, US forces raided a house in Isahaqi, near the town of Balad about 60 miles north of Baghdad. According to Iraqi Police, and eyewitnesses on the ground, US troops gathered 11 people into a single room and executed them, before destroying the house as they left the area. The initial Iraqi Police report said: “American forces used helicopters to drop troops on the house of Faiz Harat Khalaf situated in the Abu Sifa village of the Isahaqi district. The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including five children, four women and two men, [and] then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals”. According to Mathew Schofield of Knight Ridder news; “The Iraqi police identified the dead as ranging in age from 6 months to 75 [years old]. Iraqi police said that the five children, four women and two men were found together in the wreckage of the house” all with gunshot to the head. The bodies were found handcuffed and lined up under the rubble.
The Army Times reported on 15 March 2006 that Riyadh Majid, the nephew of the killed head of the family — Faez Khalaf — told AP at the hospital that U.S. forces landed in helicopters and raided the home early Wednesday. Khalaf’s brother, Ahmed, said nine of the victims were family members who lived at the house and two were visitors”. The killed family was not part of the Resistance, they were women and children,” Ahmed Khalaf said. “The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death”, he added.
On Sunday night 26 March 2006, US forces and their Iraqi collaborators attacked Al-Mustapha Mosque in the Ur neighbourhood in east Baghdad and deliberately killed 37 unarmed worshipers including the 80-years old Imam in charge of the Mosque. Eyewitnesses on the scene observed US soldiers entering the Mosque unprovoked and started shooting at random. A video-tape showed several civilians bodies and spent 5.56 mm shell casings ammunition, the type used by the US soldiers. “It’s an organized crime with serious political and security implications. It aims to incite a civil war ... To kill such a great number of the faithful of the family of the Prophet after handcuffing and torturing them is indefensible. It's an attack on the dignity of Iraqis that strips away any credibility from the slogans of freedom, democracy and pluralism flaunted by the American administration”, reported the French daily, Le Figaro quoting an Iraqi communiqué. “They went in, tied up the people and shot them all. They did not leave any wounded. [The victims] were unarmed”, added the Guardian of London on 28 March 2006. Indeed, the puppet government justifiably accusing US forces of committing the massacre, and the Baghdad “provincial governor” has suspended all cooperation with US forces.
Consistent with the US policy of dehumanising and identifying all Iraqis as the “enemy”, US forces aided by the BBC – the mother of all deceptions – and US mass media have falsely and deliberately portrayed the victims of being “insurgents” and “terrorists”, and gave contradictory accounts of the massacre. But careful examination of these acts suggests deliberate acts of state terrorism to promote US interests.
As it has always been, the US fabricated “terrorism” – disguised as “liberty” and “democracy” – to keep the public engulfed with fear and justify a violent imperialist ideology. The atrocities are purposely masked with lies and distortion in order to put the blame on the so-called “Iraqi forces” and clear the Occupation from any wrongdoing. These criminal acts are part of the Bush-Blair larger messianic mission of ultra-violence and conquest propagated as Western common values.
Leading the misinformation propaganda campaign is President George W. Bush. In his news conference at the White House on 21 March 2006, Bush said: “It's -- confidence amongst the Iraqis is what is going to be a vital part of achieving a victory”, he said, “which will then enable the American people to understand that victory is possible. In other words, the American people will -- their opinions, I suspect, will be affected by what they see on their TV screens”.
On the invited list – for the first time in three years – was veteran correspondent Helen Thomas. It was a pre-arranged propaganda coup to justify the illegal and war against the Iraqi people. The question and the answers were well-prepared and designed to manipulate public opinion. Bush was fluent, and Helen Thomas had very little to say except ask the one question. It was what Bush wants to say after three years of a criminal occupation proceeded by an illegal act of aggression. Bush mentioned Tel Afar as a “model” of America’s “success” in Iraq. Like Fallujah, Tel Afar is a destroyed city. The majority of its population are ethnically cleansed refugees and the rest is imprisoned in a concentration camp patrolled by US forces and their ‘Occupation dogs’. Tel Afar is another model of US criminal atrocity. The aim is – like always – to feed a rosy picture of the Occupation to the American public and the rest of the world.
The Bush’s line of distortion was repeated in Australia by Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Blair. John Howard used no other media outlet than the ABC to tell Australians that; in Iraq, “I don't think things can be said to be getting worse. I think they can be said to be getting better”. Tony Blair used the Australian Parliament House to promote a relic colonial ideology of changing peoples’ culture and assimilate them into the Anglo-American culture through arms conquest and ultra-violence. “The last time we heard talk like this was from a former army corporal in Germany speaking about the values of the Aryan race”, writes author Jeff Archer of MalcomLagauche.com. Three years ago Tony Blair told the biggest lie of the century that Iraq could launch an attack on Britain using chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes.
We know now that the Iraqi people had no chemical or biological weapons and Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack, as clearly stated by George W. Bush. The entire nation of once prosperous Iraq has been destroyed. City after city have been indiscriminately attacked with real WMDs, including napalm, phosphorus and ‘Depleted Uranium in a deliberate act of aggression designed to inflict as much harm as possible on the Iraqi civilian population.
All the destruction and bloodshed is the result of a decision agreed upon by the three Anglo-American demagogues, and aided by an offensive misinformation propaganda campaign promoted by the mass media to justify war crimes on massive scale. Blair’s “battle for modernity” is a pretext for attacking Islam, which is identified in the West today as “Islamism”. For the three Anglo-American demagogues, “Islamism” writes, Professor Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University in New York; “is a US-sponsored propaganda gadget manufactured to generate and sustain an illusory enemy to justify warmongering and global domination”. In other words, a diet of distortion, fear and racism is feed to the public in order to provide justification for violent ideology.
The war which the three demagogues continue to promote is responsible for the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. It is responsible for the illegal mass arrest, imprisonment, torture, abuse and murder of thousands of innocents Iraqi men, women and children. The “democracy” and “freedom” that the three demagogues claim to be spreading around the world is the mask of war and ultra-violence. The three demagogues have one thing in common; to continue the current violence against the Iraqi people.
In todayÂ’s Iraq, a large percentage of Iraqis live in abject poverty. Iraqi families now get less food than before the invasion and during the 13-years long genocidal sanctions. And as a result of this murderous Occupation, essential items have gone missing from the food ration card which was the brainchild of Saddam regime. Prices of staples like rice, sugar, flour and vegetable ghee are soaring. Unemployment is as high as 70 per cent. Iraqis without income find it extremely hard to make ends meet. Electricity and drinking-water supplies are at their lowest levels. The healthcare services are in state of near collapse, and more than 400,000 children are malnourished. Acute malnutrition among Iraqi children between the ages of six months and 5 years has increased from 4 percent before the invasion to 7.7 per cent since the US invasion. Basic human rights for Iraqi women have disappeared as a result of an Imperialist and backward US-crafted constitution. Life in US-occupied Iraq is far worse than at any time in the past. Every day since the invasion, Iraqi lives have gotten progressively worse, not better, as the Australian demagogue alleged.
The situation is accurately put by an Iraqi recently. He writes: “Three years have passed and Iraq has been destroyed as a state and as a nation. Its natural resources have been plundered [with billions of dollars that could otherwise have been spent on rebuilding Iraq have been looted], its civilisation and cultural heritage looted, its religious heritage desecrated, its people raped, tortured, drilled, murdered and even melted. Cynicism nowadays refuses the call for an immediate and complete withdrawal of occupation forces for fear of “civil war”, which has been the aim of the US Administration to justify ongoing Occupation.
Furthermore, as Iraqis are increasingly demanding the end to the Occupation, US warmongers are now openly and unashamedly advocating “civil war” in Iraq. While all the fabricated pretexts to occupy Iraq have expired, the US continues to divide Iraqis and promote civil war in order to destroy of what left in Iraq. One of George W. Bush closest advisors, the Islamophobic Zionist Daniel Pipes said recently: “I don’t think from the point of view of the coalition it is necessarily that bad for our interests... In the first place, there would be fewer attacks on our forces in Iraq as they fight each other … More broadly outside Iraq, there would be fewer attacks on us as the Shiites and the Sunnis attack each other”. In other words, civil war is good for West and should be encouraged. Only the Nazis were known to have promoted such criminal ideology in the past.
Without the current divisions, it would have been impossible for the US and its vassals to occupy Iraq for three years. The US created, trained, armed and financed the sectarian and ethnic-based militia groups and death squads proved to be useful imperialist tool. It is part of the “unconventional warfare” waged by the Bush Administration against the Iraqi population. The aims are: 1) to foment civil strife and encourage fratricidal killings among Iraqis; 2) terrorise the Iraqi population and subjugate them to US diktats; 3) shield the occupying forces from any attack; and 4) divert public attention from the crimes of the occupying forces. Having failed to ignite an all-out civil war in Iraq, the US is no turning one militia group against another. The militia have been very useful tools. Indeed, US crimes become so obvious that the puppet government demanded that the occupying US forces withdraw from the cities and hand overall security to the Iraqis.
One should not be mislead by the Bush rhetoric of Iraq is a “model for democracy”. As Iraqis are demanding that the puppet government form a government and shows some independence, the Bush Administration interfered. The Bush Administration is opposed to the nomination of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as “prime minister” for a second term despite that al-Jaafari’s Iraqi United Alliance (IUA) won the majority of seats. The US is using al-Jaafari – an imported stooge – as a scapegoat to break the Alliance, and prevent the emergence of majority government. By blocking national unity among Iraqis, the US is playing one faction against another. Muqtada al-Sadr – who the US has sought to assassinate – was clever enough not to buy into the US agenda and continue to work with all Iraqis to create a national unity government.
US colonial proconsul in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad is on record warning Iraqis that; “you can’t be in the government if you are against the Occupation”. His target is Muqtada al-Sadr who is demanding unity and an end to the Occupation. The Bush Administration aim is a divided and sectarian government under its control; a US-appointed subordinate government with Allawi doing photo opportunities for the Occupation. The hypocrisy is so flagrant that most Iraqis now associate Western “democracy” with violence and corruption. Of course, all this meddling and interference in Iraqi affairs is part of Bush-Blair agenda. The reality is that the US is promoting divisions, ongoing bloodshed, torture chambers and colonial dictatorship to serve its imperialist interests. The unjust rejection by the US and its allies of recent HAMAS’ success in the Palestinian elections is another example of the West promotion of fraudulent democracy.
The US did not invade and destroyed Iraq for the sake of “democracy” and “freedom”. The illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq is part of the US imperialist-Zionist ideology. The current US campaign is to divide Iraqis and prevent an Iraqi government of unity at all coast. As it is the case, there has been no government in Iraq since the invasion and the promotion of “civil war” has increased markedly.
The US-groomed puppet government is a propaganda tool. It is a façade designed to legitimise ongoing Occupation and cover up its associated crimes. It has no power and is unable to provide Iraqis with the minimum services required, let alone security. There is no national sovereignty under foreign occupation. Hence, the Iraqi people are struggling to free themselves from the Anglo-American-orchestrated Occupation and oppression.
Three years of violent Occupation and Bush’s “political process” of fraudulent elections, were designed as a veneer to cover-up deliberately instigated crimes and unjustified violence. Propagating an Anglo-American version of “democracy” and “freedom” to justify war crimes is like planting Anglo-American version of “good news” in the media about a murderous Occupation. It won’t affect the Iraqi Resistance and determination of the Iraqi people to liberate their country from foreign Occupation. Resistance to Western terrorism is not terrorism; it is legitimate Resistance. Iraqi is not in “civil war”; the Occupation is the cause of the violence.
The vast majority of Iraqis (87-92 per cent, the Brookings Institute) is opposed to the presence of foreign forces and demanding the end of the Occupation of their country. In addition, 72 per cent of US troops want to end the Occupation and more than half (60 per cent) of US citizens – despite and efficient and self-imposed brain-washing – supports the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
As someone who has followed this war closely, I see nothing can justify the ultra-violent Occupation of Iraq. The Anglo-American has no right to be in Iraq. The invasion of Iraq is a war crimes and crimes against humanity. The only civilised actions are the immediate end to the Occupation, and the full withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq.
Ghali Hassan lives in Perth, Western Australia.
Recently, the British government allowed access to the 'Hayward's Report' that contained an inquiry conducted in regard with the treatment of prisoners at Bad Nenndorf during the WW II. The detailed report is present at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmkp_pk/message/4761
"The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the minf of the oppressed" - Stephen Biko
Thought Control
By Ghali Hassan
03 April, 2006Countercurrents.org
Like all imperialist forces, the US is heavily relaying on misinformation propaganda campaign to promote and enhance its imperialist ideology. Violence and war crimes against defenceless civilians are depicted as “fighting the enemy”. The mass murder of Iraqi civilians by US forces is normalised and welcomed with deafening silence. The purpose is thought control, or as it is called “perception management” designed to enhance US images. The campaign is part of a wider Western strategy to mislead the public, remove historical memory and justify more wars.
According to George Orwell, newspeak is a form of propaganda to cover up criminal actions, especially killing people unjustly and deliberately, with a veneer of justification and reason. In Iraq, the occupying forces are increasingly covering the truth with lies and deception, blame the Iraqi people for the violence they have inflicted on them, and to remove the Occupation as the generator of violence.
The three-year US Occupation of Iraq is becoming increasingly violent and the occupying forces are killing Iraqi civilians with impunity while encouraging Iraqis to fight each other. The atrocity is aided by massive Western propaganda campaign to demonise Iraqis and portray not only Iraqis but also Muslims in general as fanatic and violent. This includes: 1) the Occupation is a benign “peace mission” and necessary “to prevent” civil war; 2) Iraq is a “breeding ground for terrorists”– as if the illegal invasion and Occupation of Iraq are not the greatest acts of terrorism; and 3) Iraqis are responsible for what is happening to them. Each of the three is a falsehood Western elites (Left and Right) have adopted these falsehoods to justify their attacks on the Iraqi people and to jump on the misinformation propaganda of Occupation bandwagon.
A recent secret Pentagon ‘roadmap’ on war propaganda, personally approved by Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld in October 2003, calls for the total control of information before they become available to the American public. The aim is to pacify and remove the public influence on foreign policies. Furthermore, the US continues the practice of paying journalists, including Iraqis, to plant stories in the Iraqi news media in favour of the brutal Occupation. The purpose is thought control, or as it is called “perception management”, designed to enhance US images, including military image.
On the morning of 19 November 2005, US troops deliberately massacred 15 Iraqi civilians, including seven women, three children and four students in the town of Haditha, northwest of Baghdad. The US army alleged that the dead civilians were “insurgents”. However, eyewitness testimonies and news reports from the area contradict the US allegations. Credible reports supported by local witnesses show that the US Marines were acting in revenge after they were attacked by the Iraqi Resistance. Indeed, the Marines executed Iraqi civilians while they were sleeping, as Aparisim Ghosh of the Time magazine reported. Victims in the town told the Time that “the Marines came in and they killed everybody inside”. An eyewitness Khaled Ahmed Rsayef whose brother was among the dead told the Time: “It was a [premeditated] massacre in every sense of the word”. The other eyewitness is 9-year-old Eman Walid. She told the Time: “First, they went into my father’s room, where he was reading the Koran, and we heard shots. Then, the soldiers came back into the living room. I couldn’t see their faces very well--only their guns sticking into the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather, first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny”. The Time also reported that there were no signs of Iraqi Resistance fighters around the scene of the massacre in which four houses were destroyed. The massacre was videotaped by a Haditha journalism student and handed to Hammurabi Human Rights group. The cowardice attack destroyed four families and left a girl and her young brother terrorised and traumatised forever.
On March 15 2006, US forces raided a house in Isahaqi, near the town of Balad about 60 miles north of Baghdad. According to Iraqi Police, and eyewitnesses on the ground, US troops gathered 11 people into a single room and executed them, before destroying the house as they left the area. The initial Iraqi Police report said: “American forces used helicopters to drop troops on the house of Faiz Harat Khalaf situated in the Abu Sifa village of the Isahaqi district. The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including five children, four women and two men, [and] then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals”. According to Mathew Schofield of Knight Ridder news; “The Iraqi police identified the dead as ranging in age from 6 months to 75 [years old]. Iraqi police said that the five children, four women and two men were found together in the wreckage of the house” all with gunshot to the head. The bodies were found handcuffed and lined up under the rubble.
The Army Times reported on 15 March 2006 that Riyadh Majid, the nephew of the killed head of the family — Faez Khalaf — told AP at the hospital that U.S. forces landed in helicopters and raided the home early Wednesday. Khalaf’s brother, Ahmed, said nine of the victims were family members who lived at the house and two were visitors”. The killed family was not part of the Resistance, they were women and children,” Ahmed Khalaf said. “The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death”, he added.
On Sunday night 26 March 2006, US forces and their Iraqi collaborators attacked Al-Mustapha Mosque in the Ur neighbourhood in east Baghdad and deliberately killed 37 unarmed worshipers including the 80-years old Imam in charge of the Mosque. Eyewitnesses on the scene observed US soldiers entering the Mosque unprovoked and started shooting at random. A video-tape showed several civilians bodies and spent 5.56 mm shell casings ammunition, the type used by the US soldiers. “It’s an organized crime with serious political and security implications. It aims to incite a civil war ... To kill such a great number of the faithful of the family of the Prophet after handcuffing and torturing them is indefensible. It's an attack on the dignity of Iraqis that strips away any credibility from the slogans of freedom, democracy and pluralism flaunted by the American administration”, reported the French daily, Le Figaro quoting an Iraqi communiqué. “They went in, tied up the people and shot them all. They did not leave any wounded. [The victims] were unarmed”, added the Guardian of London on 28 March 2006. Indeed, the puppet government justifiably accusing US forces of committing the massacre, and the Baghdad “provincial governor” has suspended all cooperation with US forces.
Consistent with the US policy of dehumanising and identifying all Iraqis as the “enemy”, US forces aided by the BBC – the mother of all deceptions – and US mass media have falsely and deliberately portrayed the victims of being “insurgents” and “terrorists”, and gave contradictory accounts of the massacre. But careful examination of these acts suggests deliberate acts of state terrorism to promote US interests.
As it has always been, the US fabricated “terrorism” – disguised as “liberty” and “democracy” – to keep the public engulfed with fear and justify a violent imperialist ideology. The atrocities are purposely masked with lies and distortion in order to put the blame on the so-called “Iraqi forces” and clear the Occupation from any wrongdoing. These criminal acts are part of the Bush-Blair larger messianic mission of ultra-violence and conquest propagated as Western common values.
Leading the misinformation propaganda campaign is President George W. Bush. In his news conference at the White House on 21 March 2006, Bush said: “It's -- confidence amongst the Iraqis is what is going to be a vital part of achieving a victory”, he said, “which will then enable the American people to understand that victory is possible. In other words, the American people will -- their opinions, I suspect, will be affected by what they see on their TV screens”.
On the invited list – for the first time in three years – was veteran correspondent Helen Thomas. It was a pre-arranged propaganda coup to justify the illegal and war against the Iraqi people. The question and the answers were well-prepared and designed to manipulate public opinion. Bush was fluent, and Helen Thomas had very little to say except ask the one question. It was what Bush wants to say after three years of a criminal occupation proceeded by an illegal act of aggression. Bush mentioned Tel Afar as a “model” of America’s “success” in Iraq. Like Fallujah, Tel Afar is a destroyed city. The majority of its population are ethnically cleansed refugees and the rest is imprisoned in a concentration camp patrolled by US forces and their ‘Occupation dogs’. Tel Afar is another model of US criminal atrocity. The aim is – like always – to feed a rosy picture of the Occupation to the American public and the rest of the world.
The Bush’s line of distortion was repeated in Australia by Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Blair. John Howard used no other media outlet than the ABC to tell Australians that; in Iraq, “I don't think things can be said to be getting worse. I think they can be said to be getting better”. Tony Blair used the Australian Parliament House to promote a relic colonial ideology of changing peoples’ culture and assimilate them into the Anglo-American culture through arms conquest and ultra-violence. “The last time we heard talk like this was from a former army corporal in Germany speaking about the values of the Aryan race”, writes author Jeff Archer of MalcomLagauche.com. Three years ago Tony Blair told the biggest lie of the century that Iraq could launch an attack on Britain using chemical and biological weapons within 45 minutes.
We know now that the Iraqi people had no chemical or biological weapons and Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack, as clearly stated by George W. Bush. The entire nation of once prosperous Iraq has been destroyed. City after city have been indiscriminately attacked with real WMDs, including napalm, phosphorus and ‘Depleted Uranium in a deliberate act of aggression designed to inflict as much harm as possible on the Iraqi civilian population.
All the destruction and bloodshed is the result of a decision agreed upon by the three Anglo-American demagogues, and aided by an offensive misinformation propaganda campaign promoted by the mass media to justify war crimes on massive scale. Blair’s “battle for modernity” is a pretext for attacking Islam, which is identified in the West today as “Islamism”. For the three Anglo-American demagogues, “Islamism” writes, Professor Hamid Dabashi of Columbia University in New York; “is a US-sponsored propaganda gadget manufactured to generate and sustain an illusory enemy to justify warmongering and global domination”. In other words, a diet of distortion, fear and racism is feed to the public in order to provide justification for violent ideology.
The war which the three demagogues continue to promote is responsible for the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. It is responsible for the illegal mass arrest, imprisonment, torture, abuse and murder of thousands of innocents Iraqi men, women and children. The “democracy” and “freedom” that the three demagogues claim to be spreading around the world is the mask of war and ultra-violence. The three demagogues have one thing in common; to continue the current violence against the Iraqi people.
In todayÂ’s Iraq, a large percentage of Iraqis live in abject poverty. Iraqi families now get less food than before the invasion and during the 13-years long genocidal sanctions. And as a result of this murderous Occupation, essential items have gone missing from the food ration card which was the brainchild of Saddam regime. Prices of staples like rice, sugar, flour and vegetable ghee are soaring. Unemployment is as high as 70 per cent. Iraqis without income find it extremely hard to make ends meet. Electricity and drinking-water supplies are at their lowest levels. The healthcare services are in state of near collapse, and more than 400,000 children are malnourished. Acute malnutrition among Iraqi children between the ages of six months and 5 years has increased from 4 percent before the invasion to 7.7 per cent since the US invasion. Basic human rights for Iraqi women have disappeared as a result of an Imperialist and backward US-crafted constitution. Life in US-occupied Iraq is far worse than at any time in the past. Every day since the invasion, Iraqi lives have gotten progressively worse, not better, as the Australian demagogue alleged.
The situation is accurately put by an Iraqi recently. He writes: “Three years have passed and Iraq has been destroyed as a state and as a nation. Its natural resources have been plundered [with billions of dollars that could otherwise have been spent on rebuilding Iraq have been looted], its civilisation and cultural heritage looted, its religious heritage desecrated, its people raped, tortured, drilled, murdered and even melted. Cynicism nowadays refuses the call for an immediate and complete withdrawal of occupation forces for fear of “civil war”, which has been the aim of the US Administration to justify ongoing Occupation.
Furthermore, as Iraqis are increasingly demanding the end to the Occupation, US warmongers are now openly and unashamedly advocating “civil war” in Iraq. While all the fabricated pretexts to occupy Iraq have expired, the US continues to divide Iraqis and promote civil war in order to destroy of what left in Iraq. One of George W. Bush closest advisors, the Islamophobic Zionist Daniel Pipes said recently: “I don’t think from the point of view of the coalition it is necessarily that bad for our interests... In the first place, there would be fewer attacks on our forces in Iraq as they fight each other … More broadly outside Iraq, there would be fewer attacks on us as the Shiites and the Sunnis attack each other”. In other words, civil war is good for West and should be encouraged. Only the Nazis were known to have promoted such criminal ideology in the past.
Without the current divisions, it would have been impossible for the US and its vassals to occupy Iraq for three years. The US created, trained, armed and financed the sectarian and ethnic-based militia groups and death squads proved to be useful imperialist tool. It is part of the “unconventional warfare” waged by the Bush Administration against the Iraqi population. The aims are: 1) to foment civil strife and encourage fratricidal killings among Iraqis; 2) terrorise the Iraqi population and subjugate them to US diktats; 3) shield the occupying forces from any attack; and 4) divert public attention from the crimes of the occupying forces. Having failed to ignite an all-out civil war in Iraq, the US is no turning one militia group against another. The militia have been very useful tools. Indeed, US crimes become so obvious that the puppet government demanded that the occupying US forces withdraw from the cities and hand overall security to the Iraqis.
One should not be mislead by the Bush rhetoric of Iraq is a “model for democracy”. As Iraqis are demanding that the puppet government form a government and shows some independence, the Bush Administration interfered. The Bush Administration is opposed to the nomination of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as “prime minister” for a second term despite that al-Jaafari’s Iraqi United Alliance (IUA) won the majority of seats. The US is using al-Jaafari – an imported stooge – as a scapegoat to break the Alliance, and prevent the emergence of majority government. By blocking national unity among Iraqis, the US is playing one faction against another. Muqtada al-Sadr – who the US has sought to assassinate – was clever enough not to buy into the US agenda and continue to work with all Iraqis to create a national unity government.
US colonial proconsul in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad is on record warning Iraqis that; “you can’t be in the government if you are against the Occupation”. His target is Muqtada al-Sadr who is demanding unity and an end to the Occupation. The Bush Administration aim is a divided and sectarian government under its control; a US-appointed subordinate government with Allawi doing photo opportunities for the Occupation. The hypocrisy is so flagrant that most Iraqis now associate Western “democracy” with violence and corruption. Of course, all this meddling and interference in Iraqi affairs is part of Bush-Blair agenda. The reality is that the US is promoting divisions, ongoing bloodshed, torture chambers and colonial dictatorship to serve its imperialist interests. The unjust rejection by the US and its allies of recent HAMAS’ success in the Palestinian elections is another example of the West promotion of fraudulent democracy.
The US did not invade and destroyed Iraq for the sake of “democracy” and “freedom”. The illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq is part of the US imperialist-Zionist ideology. The current US campaign is to divide Iraqis and prevent an Iraqi government of unity at all coast. As it is the case, there has been no government in Iraq since the invasion and the promotion of “civil war” has increased markedly.
The US-groomed puppet government is a propaganda tool. It is a façade designed to legitimise ongoing Occupation and cover up its associated crimes. It has no power and is unable to provide Iraqis with the minimum services required, let alone security. There is no national sovereignty under foreign occupation. Hence, the Iraqi people are struggling to free themselves from the Anglo-American-orchestrated Occupation and oppression.
Three years of violent Occupation and Bush’s “political process” of fraudulent elections, were designed as a veneer to cover-up deliberately instigated crimes and unjustified violence. Propagating an Anglo-American version of “democracy” and “freedom” to justify war crimes is like planting Anglo-American version of “good news” in the media about a murderous Occupation. It won’t affect the Iraqi Resistance and determination of the Iraqi people to liberate their country from foreign Occupation. Resistance to Western terrorism is not terrorism; it is legitimate Resistance. Iraqi is not in “civil war”; the Occupation is the cause of the violence.
The vast majority of Iraqis (87-92 per cent, the Brookings Institute) is opposed to the presence of foreign forces and demanding the end of the Occupation of their country. In addition, 72 per cent of US troops want to end the Occupation and more than half (60 per cent) of US citizens – despite and efficient and self-imposed brain-washing – supports the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
As someone who has followed this war closely, I see nothing can justify the ultra-violent Occupation of Iraq. The Anglo-American has no right to be in Iraq. The invasion of Iraq is a war crimes and crimes against humanity. The only civilised actions are the immediate end to the Occupation, and the full withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq.
Ghali Hassan lives in Perth, Western Australia.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Blogspot banned in Pakistan
As you all know that the Pakistani govt. banned all blogs hosted on
blogspot through its internet gateway. An action group was formed by the
Pakistani bloggers to voice their concerns to the media regarding this
issue (http://groups.google.com/group/AGABBIP). As of 27th Feb, all web
logs having an address with .http://name.blogspot.com went offline in
Pakistan.An alternative to the current blogspot ban is to access you blogs
by http://www.pkblogs.com/
Dr. Awab Alvi (a blogger from Karachi) started a campaign "Dont Block the
Blog" which offers website banners to protest the ban.
(http://help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/)
Additionally, many bloggers have also gathered at various fronts to
protest the ban by sending group petitions to the government and raising
the issue with the media.
Support the petition
blogspot through its internet gateway. An action group was formed by the
Pakistani bloggers to voice their concerns to the media regarding this
issue (http://groups.google.com/group/AGABBIP). As of 27th Feb, all web
logs having an address with .http://name.blogspot.com went offline in
Pakistan.An alternative to the current blogspot ban is to access you blogs
by http://www.pkblogs.com/
Dr. Awab Alvi (a blogger from Karachi) started a campaign "Dont Block the
Blog" which offers website banners to protest the ban.
(http://help-pakistan.com/main/dont-block-the-blog/)
Additionally, many bloggers have also gathered at various fronts to
protest the ban by sending group petitions to the government and raising
the issue with the media.
Support the petition
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Bhagat Singh
March 23rd, 2006 marked the 75th Death anniversary of one of the greatest revolutionaries of the Indian sub-continent - Comrade Bhagat Singh. Bhagat Singh was martyred by the British colonial government, along with Comrade Sukhdev and Comrade Rajguru, in 1931. Bhagat Singh was only 23 at that time.
When the jail official came to take Bhagat to the gallows, he was reading a book by Lenin. Bhagat asked the jail official to wait as 'one revolutionary was talking with another revolutionary'. One of the revolutionary poets of Punjab paid tribute to Bhagat Singh by saying, "indian youth have to read the next page of Lenin's book, left unread by Bhagat Singh at his death".
Please follow the following links to read more about this shining star of the communist movement of India:
Bhagat Singh Remains Our Symbol of Revolution - Harkishan Singh Surjeet
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmkp_pk/message/4637
Remembering Bhagat Singh on the 75th Anniversary of His Martyrdom - Chaman Lal
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmkp_pk/message/4633
The original Photographs and documents of Shahid Bhagat Singh and his Copatriots
http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/
Long Live Bhagat Singh!
Long Live Rajguru!
Long Live Sukhdev!
Long Live Revolution!
When the jail official came to take Bhagat to the gallows, he was reading a book by Lenin. Bhagat asked the jail official to wait as 'one revolutionary was talking with another revolutionary'. One of the revolutionary poets of Punjab paid tribute to Bhagat Singh by saying, "indian youth have to read the next page of Lenin's book, left unread by Bhagat Singh at his death".
Please follow the following links to read more about this shining star of the communist movement of India:
Bhagat Singh Remains Our Symbol of Revolution - Harkishan Singh Surjeet
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmkp_pk/message/4637
Remembering Bhagat Singh on the 75th Anniversary of His Martyrdom - Chaman Lal
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cmkp_pk/message/4633
The original Photographs and documents of Shahid Bhagat Singh and his Copatriots
http://www.shahidbhagatsingh.org/
Long Live Bhagat Singh!
Long Live Rajguru!
Long Live Sukhdev!
Long Live Revolution!
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Cuba offers 1,000 scholarships for medical students
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C02%5C08%5Cstory_8-2-2006_pg7_35
ISLAMABAD: Cuba has offered 1,000 scholarships to Pakistan for medical studies.
This offer was made by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque during a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday.
The Cuban foreign minister said that his country would be ready to receive 1,000 Pakistani students by the end of the year.
The Cuban foreign minister also called on President Pervez Musharraf at Army House. Musharraf told him that Pakistan is committed to the principles of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). “Pakistan is committed to working with other NAM members to make it a dynamic movement capable of facing the challenges of the 21st century,” Musharraf said.
The Cuban foreign minister delivered an official invitation from President Fidel Castro to Musharraf to participate in the NAM summit in Cuba in September. He underlined the desire for the expansion of bilateral relations between the two countries. The Cuban foreign minister told Aziz that his country would soon open its embassy in Islamabad. He said that the Cuban medical mission working in the quake-hit areas will train Pakistani personnel to take up the job in the earthquake-hit areas following its departure. Cuba will also donate equipment to Pakistan, he said.
He also met Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri. Both agreed that a just and equitable economic order, democratic reforms of the United Nations and “south-south cooperation” were the key issues for the forthcoming NAM summit.
They also agreed that the NAM countries should work closely at international forums to promote common positions on various issues.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C02%5C08%5Cstory_8-2-2006_pg7_35
ISLAMABAD: Cuba has offered 1,000 scholarships to Pakistan for medical studies.
This offer was made by Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque during a meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Tuesday.
The Cuban foreign minister said that his country would be ready to receive 1,000 Pakistani students by the end of the year.
The Cuban foreign minister also called on President Pervez Musharraf at Army House. Musharraf told him that Pakistan is committed to the principles of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). “Pakistan is committed to working with other NAM members to make it a dynamic movement capable of facing the challenges of the 21st century,” Musharraf said.
The Cuban foreign minister delivered an official invitation from President Fidel Castro to Musharraf to participate in the NAM summit in Cuba in September. He underlined the desire for the expansion of bilateral relations between the two countries. The Cuban foreign minister told Aziz that his country would soon open its embassy in Islamabad. He said that the Cuban medical mission working in the quake-hit areas will train Pakistani personnel to take up the job in the earthquake-hit areas following its departure. Cuba will also donate equipment to Pakistan, he said.
He also met Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri. Both agreed that a just and equitable economic order, democratic reforms of the United Nations and “south-south cooperation” were the key issues for the forthcoming NAM summit.
They also agreed that the NAM countries should work closely at international forums to promote common positions on various issues.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
CHARGESHEET AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH
We the People of India and the World -
Drawing upon all the great traditions of justice, fairness and plain
decency evolved in the course of human history;
Upholding the right to life and its perpetuation in all its forms
everywhere;
Resisting with all our might the ongoing assault on human rights,
values and liberties by the forces of capital, racism and authoritarianism;
and
Affirming the overwhelming need for a global uprising against the
relentless march of US militarism across Planet Earth;
Hereby charge George W. Bush, the US Government he represents and all
its allies around the world with the following (among countless others)
crimes against humanity -:
- Attempting to restore the era of Western colonial rule over the world
through devastating violence and systematic looting of resources of
weaker nations;
- Violating and indeed summarily rejecting all known international laws
governing relations between countries of the world;
- Planning, preparing, and waging the supreme crime of a war of
aggression in contravention of the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg
Principles.
- Murdering in cold blood over 200,000 citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan
in the first phase of this project of global recolonisation;
- Targeting civilian populations through indiscriminate use of
violence, systematic destruction of infrastructure and collective punishment of
cities and towns;
- Using illegal weapons including napalm, depleted uranium, cluster and
white phosphorus bombs against both civilian and combatants in
violation of the Geneva Conventions;
- Using deadly violence against peaceful protestors in the occupied
countries;
- Subjecting Iraqi and Afghani soldiers and civilians to torture and
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment;
- Obstructing the right to information, in particular through
assassination of journalists and deliberate military targeting of media
facilities;
- Willfully devastating the environment, including through use of
radioactive material with potential to harm all life forms for centuries to
come;
- Planning the use of nuclear weapons against adversaries such as Iran
in the near future;
- Bribing or bullying developing country governments, such as in India,
to become partners in its global crimes;
- Emerging as the greatest threat to global peace, security and human
well being since the advent of the Nazism under Adolf Hitler.
We solemnly pledge that we will not forget, forgive or rest till we
bring the perpetrators of these enormous crimes to justice no matter how
long it takes or what efforts it calls for.
Drawing upon all the great traditions of justice, fairness and plain
decency evolved in the course of human history;
Upholding the right to life and its perpetuation in all its forms
everywhere;
Resisting with all our might the ongoing assault on human rights,
values and liberties by the forces of capital, racism and authoritarianism;
and
Affirming the overwhelming need for a global uprising against the
relentless march of US militarism across Planet Earth;
Hereby charge George W. Bush, the US Government he represents and all
its allies around the world with the following (among countless others)
crimes against humanity -:
- Attempting to restore the era of Western colonial rule over the world
through devastating violence and systematic looting of resources of
weaker nations;
- Violating and indeed summarily rejecting all known international laws
governing relations between countries of the world;
- Planning, preparing, and waging the supreme crime of a war of
aggression in contravention of the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg
Principles.
- Murdering in cold blood over 200,000 citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan
in the first phase of this project of global recolonisation;
- Targeting civilian populations through indiscriminate use of
violence, systematic destruction of infrastructure and collective punishment of
cities and towns;
- Using illegal weapons including napalm, depleted uranium, cluster and
white phosphorus bombs against both civilian and combatants in
violation of the Geneva Conventions;
- Using deadly violence against peaceful protestors in the occupied
countries;
- Subjecting Iraqi and Afghani soldiers and civilians to torture and
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment;
- Obstructing the right to information, in particular through
assassination of journalists and deliberate military targeting of media
facilities;
- Willfully devastating the environment, including through use of
radioactive material with potential to harm all life forms for centuries to
come;
- Planning the use of nuclear weapons against adversaries such as Iran
in the near future;
- Bribing or bullying developing country governments, such as in India,
to become partners in its global crimes;
- Emerging as the greatest threat to global peace, security and human
well being since the advent of the Nazism under Adolf Hitler.
We solemnly pledge that we will not forget, forgive or rest till we
bring the perpetrators of these enormous crimes to justice no matter how
long it takes or what efforts it calls for.
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Wikipedia: gagging the encyclopedia?
Juventud Rebelde
February 16, 2006
Wikipedia: gagging the encyclopedia?
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs390.html
It came about as an open-content project for worldwide netsurfers,
this website's content is being targeted now by those trying to
'dress up' the image of US politicians or hush-up differing opinions.
In a partially-undercover operation worthy of the terrible
disinformation campaigns waged by Nazi Germany's Minister of
Instruction and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, the U.S. Congress visited
the Internet and modified the public biographies of a dozen senators
that were published in the Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia
(www.wikipedia.org).
A free multilingual encyclopedia based on the wiki system, the site
is written and rewritten collaboratively by volunteers from all over
the world, and its articles can be changed and replaced with new
content by anyone who so wishes.
The project began on January 15, 2001 as a complement to the
expert-written Nupedia and presently has more than 3,210,000
articles, including more than 945 000 in the English-language
version, and as of January 2006 it reached a number of 857,000
registered users.
This is the first time, however, that the U.S. government has been
found to be intentionally modifying the site's content to 'embellish'
its senators' biographies by trimming any 'dark angles' or
controversial elements from their past.
Wikipedia reported that Capitol Building-based computers deleted
facts from articles about senators, while other entries were
'vandalized'.
In fact, the scandal spread after some senators admitted to have
'polished' their own biographies, such as Massachusetts Democrat
Marty Meehan, whose confession gave rise to an investigation that has
brought to light similar actions by other American politicians.
ANY CONTENT
Wikipedia is a user-designed Internet site in which visitors can make
entries and edit any page. As a result, it has become a kind of
online reference website where readers can find almost any
information.
Furthermore, users can also edit words within the same article both
to add to their meaning and enrich each entry with new knowledge, so
its information at times exceeds that of other traditional
encyclopedias, either digital or in paper.
On the other hand, since it can be reviewed and enhanced free of
charge, many use it as a daily consultation tool mainly preferred by
students, who gain new knowledge and contribute with whatever
addition they deem useful to others.
For instance, the British journal Nature recently reported to have
examined a wide range of scientific information and concluded that
articles in Wikipedia are comparable in accuracy to those in the
Encyclopedia Britannica, after finding few differences between both
reference works.
Nevertheless, Wikipedia has been repeatedly criticized for a
perceived lack of reliability regarding its information, since by the
nature of its openness some people have introduced inaccuracies or
distorted its contents.
Consequently, Wikipedia was recently forced to request users to
register their generals before they proceed to modify anything so
that readers can be able to know who provided any new text.
'INACCURACIES' AND VANDALISM Owing to the scandal caused by the U.S.
senators who tampered with the online encyclopedia, site-manager
Wikimedia Foundation decided to take a look at previous edition works
made to Wikipedia, and to that end its investigators got the Senate's
computer protocol numbers and thus found out some changes made to
pages online.
According to the website, a dozen biographies of outstanding figures
were modified from Senate-based computers, including that of
Minnesota senator Norm Coleman.
Coleman's own office has already confirmed that its staff has made
some changes to their Internet files. Where it had been described as
a 'liberal' university student, it now says 'activist". Also deleted
was data saying that Coleman had voted for Bush 98% of the time in
2003, when a year before he had campaigned as a 'moderate'.
Coleman's chief of staff Erich Mische said such editing was made to
correct some inaccuracies and delete facts that failed to correctly
portray the politician.
But Wikipedia claims this is just a part of the problem, for there
have been cases of true information 'vandalism', namely in the case
of president George W. Bush's biography, now impossible to be edited
after being altered countless times by supporters and critics alike
as well as acceded to from the U.S. Congress.
ELIMINATING DISSENTING THOUGHTS
Much deeper interests than those of the Empire's makeup artists lie
behind the controversy surrounding these changes to Wikipedia
articles, as proven by pressures exerted on this website to prevent
its content from being modified by netsurfers.
The ultimate goal is to eliminate any thoughts dissenting from
hegemonic ideas disseminated by 'official' encyclopedias, because
Wikipedia has become a bulwark of all kinds of viewpoints, if leftist
ones for the most part.
In addition to how questionable some of the online encyclopedia's
content may be, the truth is no one doubts it has become an essential
reference tool, to the extreme that many prefer it over Encarta or
the abovementioned Encyclopedia Britannica, notwithstanding their
share of mistakes, some accidental. others not.
http://www.jrebelde.cu/secciones/informatica/html/wikipedia.HTML
February 16, 2006
Wikipedia: gagging the encyclopedia?
A CubaNews translation.
Edited by Walter Lippmann.
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs390.html
It came about as an open-content project for worldwide netsurfers,
this website's content is being targeted now by those trying to
'dress up' the image of US politicians or hush-up differing opinions.
In a partially-undercover operation worthy of the terrible
disinformation campaigns waged by Nazi Germany's Minister of
Instruction and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, the U.S. Congress visited
the Internet and modified the public biographies of a dozen senators
that were published in the Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia
(www.wikipedia.org).
A free multilingual encyclopedia based on the wiki system, the site
is written and rewritten collaboratively by volunteers from all over
the world, and its articles can be changed and replaced with new
content by anyone who so wishes.
The project began on January 15, 2001 as a complement to the
expert-written Nupedia and presently has more than 3,210,000
articles, including more than 945 000 in the English-language
version, and as of January 2006 it reached a number of 857,000
registered users.
This is the first time, however, that the U.S. government has been
found to be intentionally modifying the site's content to 'embellish'
its senators' biographies by trimming any 'dark angles' or
controversial elements from their past.
Wikipedia reported that Capitol Building-based computers deleted
facts from articles about senators, while other entries were
'vandalized'.
In fact, the scandal spread after some senators admitted to have
'polished' their own biographies, such as Massachusetts Democrat
Marty Meehan, whose confession gave rise to an investigation that has
brought to light similar actions by other American politicians.
ANY CONTENT
Wikipedia is a user-designed Internet site in which visitors can make
entries and edit any page. As a result, it has become a kind of
online reference website where readers can find almost any
information.
Furthermore, users can also edit words within the same article both
to add to their meaning and enrich each entry with new knowledge, so
its information at times exceeds that of other traditional
encyclopedias, either digital or in paper.
On the other hand, since it can be reviewed and enhanced free of
charge, many use it as a daily consultation tool mainly preferred by
students, who gain new knowledge and contribute with whatever
addition they deem useful to others.
For instance, the British journal Nature recently reported to have
examined a wide range of scientific information and concluded that
articles in Wikipedia are comparable in accuracy to those in the
Encyclopedia Britannica, after finding few differences between both
reference works.
Nevertheless, Wikipedia has been repeatedly criticized for a
perceived lack of reliability regarding its information, since by the
nature of its openness some people have introduced inaccuracies or
distorted its contents.
Consequently, Wikipedia was recently forced to request users to
register their generals before they proceed to modify anything so
that readers can be able to know who provided any new text.
'INACCURACIES' AND VANDALISM Owing to the scandal caused by the U.S.
senators who tampered with the online encyclopedia, site-manager
Wikimedia Foundation decided to take a look at previous edition works
made to Wikipedia, and to that end its investigators got the Senate's
computer protocol numbers and thus found out some changes made to
pages online.
According to the website, a dozen biographies of outstanding figures
were modified from Senate-based computers, including that of
Minnesota senator Norm Coleman.
Coleman's own office has already confirmed that its staff has made
some changes to their Internet files. Where it had been described as
a 'liberal' university student, it now says 'activist". Also deleted
was data saying that Coleman had voted for Bush 98% of the time in
2003, when a year before he had campaigned as a 'moderate'.
Coleman's chief of staff Erich Mische said such editing was made to
correct some inaccuracies and delete facts that failed to correctly
portray the politician.
But Wikipedia claims this is just a part of the problem, for there
have been cases of true information 'vandalism', namely in the case
of president George W. Bush's biography, now impossible to be edited
after being altered countless times by supporters and critics alike
as well as acceded to from the U.S. Congress.
ELIMINATING DISSENTING THOUGHTS
Much deeper interests than those of the Empire's makeup artists lie
behind the controversy surrounding these changes to Wikipedia
articles, as proven by pressures exerted on this website to prevent
its content from being modified by netsurfers.
The ultimate goal is to eliminate any thoughts dissenting from
hegemonic ideas disseminated by 'official' encyclopedias, because
Wikipedia has become a bulwark of all kinds of viewpoints, if leftist
ones for the most part.
In addition to how questionable some of the online encyclopedia's
content may be, the truth is no one doubts it has become an essential
reference tool, to the extreme that many prefer it over Encarta or
the abovementioned Encyclopedia Britannica, notwithstanding their
share of mistakes, some accidental. others not.
http://www.jrebelde.cu/secciones/informatica/html/wikipedia.HTML
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
The Forgery of the 'Lenin Testament'
V.A. Sakharov
Candidate of Historical Sciences
Below we publish an analysis of documents which are said to have been written or dictated by V.I. Lenin before he died and which were critical of J.V. Stalin. The following article was first published in the newspaper 'Molniya', organ of the Trudovaya Rossiya mass movement, translated by Michael Lucas and published in the collection of articles 'The Lie of the 'Lenin Testament' (Toronto, 1997). The article is prefaced by extracts from 'Letter to the Congress', which has been stated to have been dictated by Lenin. V.A. Sakharov raises the question of the authorship of this and related documents.
Read the complete article.
Candidate of Historical Sciences
Below we publish an analysis of documents which are said to have been written or dictated by V.I. Lenin before he died and which were critical of J.V. Stalin. The following article was first published in the newspaper 'Molniya', organ of the Trudovaya Rossiya mass movement, translated by Michael Lucas and published in the collection of articles 'The Lie of the 'Lenin Testament' (Toronto, 1997). The article is prefaced by extracts from 'Letter to the Congress', which has been stated to have been dictated by Lenin. V.A. Sakharov raises the question of the authorship of this and related documents.
Read the complete article.
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