ColdType Reader 8 2006

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W R I T I N G W O R T H R E A D I N G � I S S U E 8 � O C T O B E R 2 0 0 6

BALLS

INSIDE: IRAQ AT THE GATES OF HELL � SHOPPINGWITH BIG BROTHER � EUROPE’S NEW DUMPINGGROUND � BLAIR’S BRILLIANT SPEECH � &MORE

A LOAD OF

POSITIVELYTHE BEST

(AND POSSIBLYTHE LAST)

STORY YOU’LLREAD ON THE2006 SOCCERWORLD CUP

BY JOHNLANCHESTER

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A PROJECT OF

3. A LOAD OF BALLS: MY WORLD CUP DIARYBy John Lanchester

12. BUSH’S IRAQ AT THE GATES OF HELLBy Tom Engelhardt

19. GOING SHOPPING WITH BIG BROTHERBy Kathleen Albrecht & Liz McIntyre

25. TONY BLAIR’S BRILLIANT SPEECHBy David Edwards

29. EUROPE’S NEW DUMPING GROUNDBy Fred Bridgland

33. FOLLOWING IN STALIN’S FOOTSTEPSBy Danny Schechter

36. MY DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCEBy William A. Cook

42. THE FLIGHT PATH TO GLOBAL MELTDOWNBy George Monbiot

46. TERROR, MADMEN AND THE TRUTHBy William Blum

53. THE PRESIDENT GOES TO NEW YORKBy Hugo Chavez

59. THE SMILING REAPERBy Gavin Searle

Editor:Tony [email protected]

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W R I T I N G W O R T H R E A D I N G � I S S U E 8 � O C T O B E R 2 0 0 6

BALLS

INSIDE: IRAQ AT THE GATES OF HELL � SHOPPINGWITH BIG BROTHER � EUROPE’S NEW DUMPINGGROUND � BLAIR’S BRILLIANT SPEECH � &MORE

A LOAD OF

POSITIVELYTHE BEST

(AND POSSIBLYTHE LAST)

STORY YOU’LLREAD ON THE2006 SOCCERWORLD CUP

BY JOHNLANCHESTER

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2 TheREADER

ISSUE 8 | OCTOBER 2006

8 JUNE. Time for predictions. The en-trails say that history seems to be thebest guide to performance in WorldCups. In the last six Cups,going back to1982, 11 out of 12 slots in the final havebeen contested by just four teams:Brazil,Argentina,Germany and Italy. Infact, there has never been a final with-out one of these four teams.Why? It is interesting and odd that

history should be such a powerful pre-dictor. It’s been a better predictor thanthings like form, which you’d havethought would be much more useful.So, anyway, the entrails say that it willbe one of the Big Four that wins –mostlikely Brazil, the only team to have wonoutside their own hemisphere, andwhose players are much more used toEuropean football than was once thecase. Also, Brazilians I know say this isthe best team since 1970.If you leave out the host countries,

and make an exception for the greatDutch side of the 1970s, the last surpris-ing team to make the final were theCzechoslovaks in Chile in 1962.Accord-ing to a simulation run of Fifa’s officialgame, as played on an Xbox 360, the

Czechs will get their revenge this timeby winning the tournament. The simu-lation has Italy and Portugal knockedout in the group stages, and Englandknocked out by Germany in the roundof 16. It has nothing to say about Roo-ney’s metatarsal, and nor do the en-trails.

9 June. On the subject of predictions,one of the safer ones concerns today’sopening game. This traditionally fea-tures the winners and, equally tradi-tionally, they struggle. People remem-ber France losing to Senegal last time,and Argentina losing to Cameroon in1990; but Brazil had a hard time beatingScotland 2-1 in 1998, Germany onlysqueaked 1-0 past Bolivia in 1994, Italydrewwith Bulgaria in 1986 and Argenti-na (again) lost to Belgium in 1982. Sothat would have been a safe non-en-trail-based prediction for today, thatBrazil would have a hard time in theopening game.Except they aren’t play-ing in the opening game. Instead it’s thehost country,Germany.Why? Well, there’s a widely held

view that Fifa are useless tinkering

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It is interestingand odd thathistory shouldbe sucha powerfulpredictor.It’s been abetter predictorthan thingslike form,which you’dhave thoughtwould be muchmore useful

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A LOAD OF BALLS:MY WORLD CUP DIARY

English author and football – soccer to our North American readers –fan John Lanchester kept a diary while watching the 2006 World CupTM

finals in Germany, during which he pondered many things, includingthe new balls introduced for the event and a goalkeeper with one testicle

dimwits who can be relied on to cockeverything up, including wanting peo-ple to refer to this tournament as theFifa World Cup Germany™. (Even theOlympics, which are about as debasedby commercialism as it would be possi-ble to imagine,don’t call themselves theOlympics™.) So that would explainwhy they were tinkering with this tra-dition: just because they could. Thiswould also explain why Fifa havebrought in a new ball, just in time forthe Fifa World Cup Germany™. Eng-land goalkeeper Paul Robinson shelledout £420 on new balls just before thetournament to get some early practicein, and reports that it swerves morethan the familiar ball and will be hard-er for goalkeepers. That doesn’t meanit’s easier for outfield players, and espe-cially for dead-ball experts. Newertends to mean lighter, and lighter oftenmeans harder to control. (About theonly spectacular free kick in the lastWorld Cup, which also featured a newball,was the one Ronaldinho stuck pastSeaman to knock England out in thequarter-final.) So the players spendhundreds of hours practising with theold ball – and then suddenly find them-selves playing with a new one, on thebiggest occasion of their lives, to thedetriment of pretty much anybody whotakes any interest.

Why? For money, obviously – sothey can sell shitloads of the new ball.They could still sell shitloads if theybrought it in a few months before, ofcourse, but that would take away thelast minute pointless tinkering aspect.So, again, why? I have looked into thequestion and it turns out that if Fifa be-

gins a World Cup™ without makingthese apparently pointless changes itwill cause a rupture in the fundamentalspace-time continuum which will causeSatan to assume control of the universeand preside over a dominion of pureevil for 1,000,000,000 millennia.

10 June. One never likes to join in achorus, but there’s something truly oddabout the effect Eriksson’s half-timetalks seem to have on England. Notevery time, but more often than not,and especially in crucial games whenthey have a half-time lead, they go infired up and come out seeming drained,enervated,and with less of a clue abouthow they should be playing than theyhad ten minutes before. It’s as if they gointo the changing room whistling ‘TheDambusters March’ and come outhumming whale music. I know it’s pos-sible for a coach to pump a team up toomuch – but this is going too far the oth-er way. You have to wonder what goeson in there. Yoga? Aromatherapy? Tib-etan chanting?

Notwithstanding all that, today’swas about the best possible result, es-pecially when combined with Sweden’sdraw with Trinidad and Tobago. Thepoints we needed,plus a bit of a kick upthe bum and reality check.

11 June. Ever since I heard about it Ihaven’t been able to get out of my headthe fact that the Côte d’Ivoire goalkeep-er, Tizié, lost a testicle after an on-pitchcollision a year ago. At the time he wasplaying for his club Espérance; a namethat must at moments have had anironic edge to it. Tizié was in intensive

4 TheREADER

Ever sinceI heard about itI haven’t beenable to get outof my headthe fact thatthe Côte d’Ivoiregoalkeeper,Tizié, lost atesticle afteran on-pitchcollisiona year ago

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I’m awarethat it’spossibleto makebad-tastejokes aboutgoalies andgoolies,but for meit’s a reminderof how muchphysicalcourage theplayers have,repeatedlygoing intocollisionsany oneof whichcould havea determiningeffecton the restof their lives

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care for two days and they didn’t thinkhe would live, but he was back playingfor the national team a few months lat-er. I’m aware that it’s possible to makebad-taste jokes about goalies andgoolies, but for me it’s a reminder ofhow much physical courage the playershave, repeatedly going into collisionsany one of which could have a deter-mining effect on the rest of their lives.

Let’s take a moment, though, toimagine what it would have been like if,instead of breaking his metatarsal,Rooney had (God forbid) lost a testicleand an anxious nation was waiting tosee if he would recover in time for theWorld Cup.The papers,hard enough totake during the World Cup under nor-mal circumstances, would have gonebeyond the darkest reveries of KarlKraus. Imagine the editorials. Imaginethe diagrams. The Sun would have hada daily feature called ‘Nadwatch’.

12 June. I was slightly surprised to learnthat Australia is richer than Japan, interms of GDP per capita. The reason Iwas looking it up was because some-thing’s been on my mind. As of thismorning, eight games had been played.That means the World Cup was one-eighth over (boo! waah!). Guess howoften a poorer country had beaten aricher one. Answer: once. Poland 0Ecuador 2. And after the ninth gamethe trend has continued, since, as I say,Australia is richer than Japan.

Why would a country’s being richconfer an advantage for the nationalfootball team? Perhaps because therichest countries will tend to attract thebest players to its leagues, and that will

in turn raise the standards for indige-nous players in the leagues, and there-fore the national side. Or something.Do I look like Steven Levitt?

Now, it’s obvious that the richestcountry doesn’t always win. Brazil, forinstance, is 22nd out of the 32 competi-tors in terms of GDP. But Brazil is themost populous country in the WorldCup. (I’m leaving out the USA fromthese calculations, on the grounds thatit is too big and rich and indifferent tofootball to count.) So we could proposethe following hypothesis: the richestteam will win, except when the mostpopulous country wins. It’ll be interest-ing to see how many exceptions thereare to this: how many times a poorer,smaller country will win. Not too manyis my guess.

13 June. I sat down to watch South Ko-rea v. Togo wanting Togo to win – andthat rather selflessly, too, since it wouldhave disproved yesterday’s Footy-nomics hypothesis. As I was watchingthe less-than-gripping first half, withTogo a goal ahead, I picked up TheThinking Fan’s Guide to theWorld Cup (Ihave a copy because I have an essay init), began reading Binyavanga Wain-aina’s piece about Togo, and found my-self changing my mind.[*] I have to ad-mit I knew absolutely fuck-all aboutTogo and didn’t know that the formerdictator’s son Faure Gnassingbé ran thecountry and his brother Rock ran thefootball association.There were democ-racy protests in Togo last year. But Fau-re ‘had good fortune on his side: amidall the unrest his younger brother deliv-ered the best gift his family has ever re-

ceived: qualification for the World Cup’.Musing on this, I found that I wasn’t

wanting Togo to win any more. Just aswell, too, since Jean-Paul Abalo gaveaway a free kick from which the Kore-ans scored, and was sent off in theprocess. Togo went on to lose 2-1. So ifit’s bad news for the Gnassingbé fami-ly that’s a good thing, right? Leaving 5.4million Togolese, citizens of one of thepoorest countries in the World Cup, theonly one of the 32 currently gettingpoorer every year, even more depressedthan they were when they woke up thismorning. Football has questionablelinks with nationalisms and govern-ments everywhere on earth, so surelyit’s a type of cant to think that the To-golese aren’t quite miserable enough todeserve a cheering World Cup run. Andyet anything that’s good news for theGnassingbés . . .

Hmmph. Better to keep it simple. Ithink I’ll stick to a clear-cut view of whoI want to win for the rest of the tourna-ment.

14 June. By and large, fans feel a certainaffection for fat players. There’s some-thing humanising about the extrapoundage; it makes a player look morelike one of us, perhaps because it hintsat what we would look like if we wereout there on the pitch, our team’s shirtproudly stretched over our stomachs.Steve McMahon and Jan Molby weretwo noticeably porky players whosepodginess helped win a place in fans’hearts. I remember Molby used to begreeted by affectionate chants of ‘Sumo’– at least, until he was done for drunkdriving, when the chant was replaced

by the song ‘He’s fat, he’s round, his caris in the pound, Jan Molby, Jan Molby.’

The drink/fatness link was no coin-cidence. Back when I used to writematch reports, if a player looked – touse a favourite euphemism of the mi-lieu – ‘chunky’, your working hypothe-sis was that they were hitting the bot-tle. That was on the Occam’s razorprinciple that booze was the likeliestplace for them to be getting the extracalories. The point being that for a pro-fessional athlete in training for an aero-bically intensive sport, it takes a phe-nomenal calorie intake to put onweight. Either they’re eating cake aftertraining all day every day, or they’re onthe sauce.

Nobody says that Ronaldo is on thesauce. In fact, he cheekily said that thepresident of Brazil was on the sauce,when Lula had the temerity to ask thenational team’s coach: ‘Is Ronaldo fat?’(‘It’s as much a lie that I am fat as itmust be that he drinks a lot,’ wasRonaldo’s not totally unambiguous re-sponse.) Ronaldo says that his ownchunkiness is down to the fact that hehas been off training with an injury fora couple of months.This may be so; butthe truth is he if anything looks a bitthinner than he has done playing forReal Madrid in the last couple of sea-sons. I think he’s a bit porky for no oth-er reason than that he likes his pies. Ialso think there is something nobleabout a professional athlete’s managingto put on weight like that, and that weshould celebrate Ronaldo’s heroic,prin-cipled, against-all-odds fatness.

The trouble is that he looks so glum.His head appears to be elsewhere. It’s

6 TheREADER

Nobody saysthat Ronaldois on thesauce. In fact,he cheekilysaid thatthe presidentof Brazil wason the sauce,when Lula hadthe temerityto ask thenationalteam’s coach:‘Is Ronaldo fat?’

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that, I think, which Brazilians mind,much more than the weight issue. Wefans love a fattie. A distracted, de-pressed, half-hearted fattie, not somuch.

15 June. So the Germans are the firstteam to go through. I’m glad, for sever-al reasons involving general Ger-manophilia and the fact that some ofthe interest leaches out of the WorldCup if the host team are knocked outtoo early.

Also, I’m pleased for Jürgen Klins-mann. At least I think I am.He is a like-able man but there is something oddabout his affect; hard to put your fingeron but it’s there. I remember a couple ofthings. He was something of a hate fig-ure to England fans when he arrived atTottenham in 1994, owing to his egre-gious diving in the 1990 World Cup, sowhen he scored his first goal he cele-brated by doing an elaborate swan-dive. Lots of people thought thatshowed he was a good sport. It mademe think, though, of that category ofperson who is so eager to show they getthe joke that it makes you wonder if,deep down, they ever actually get anyjokes at all. And then when he gave apress conference to announce he wasleaving Tottenham, he held it at theComedy Club. Geddit? Because Ger-mans don’t have a sense of humour, sohe holds a press conference at the Com-edy Club, yok yok . . . Even hacks, keen-er than anyone to show they’ve got thejoke too, felt that was a bit odd.

Still, you have to give him credit forliving in California. How about that forworking from home? When national

stereotypes are contradicted, nobodyknows what to say. If he were French orfrom a Latin country the papers wouldbe full of stuff about his being de-tached, laid-back, shruggy. As it is, theyreach for the received-opinion file –which doesn’t have anything in it aboutthe not at all rare phenomenon of theNew Age German – and draw a blank.

But the long-distance thing is a hoot.I think this trend should be encour-aged. After the World Cup, when SteveMcClaren takes over the England man-ager’s job, it is essential that he movesto Antarctica.Deal with that,paparazziscum!

20 June. For Europeans, the last WorldCup was a little weird from the time-zone point of view. We’re used towatching games from the Americas inour evening, but it felt peculiar to bewatching games from Korea and Japanbefore, during, or instead of breakfast.The more demanding nail-biters couldend up utterly drained and knackeredfor the rest of the day – and for most ofus, it feels odd to have had your mostintense experience of the 24 hours overby nine in the morning. By contrast Ithought this World Cup, with games at3, 5 and 8 p.m., was going to be perfect.Especially the 8 p.m. game. What’s notto like?

But there is a worm in the bud, andit’s to do with supper.The issue is whento eat. Last night I tried eating beforethe game. That worked OK (thanks tothe microwave). Except as I draggedmyself to bed at about 11.30 I suddenlyrealised that, because I’d had dinner anhour and a half before I usually do, I

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It made methink, though,of thatcategoryof personwho is so eagerto show theygetthe jokethat it makesyou wonderif, deep down,they everactuallyget anyjokes at all

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had a bad case of the munchies. Fridgeinspection. Yoghurt? No. Pizza? Don’tbe stupid. Keen’s cheddar? Perfect.Then I went upstairs and read Em-manuel Carrère’s biography of Philip K.Dick for half an hour or so.[†] Then Itried to sleep.

There are quite a large number ofbooks about how to get a good night’ssleep,and good ‘sleep hygiene’ in gener-al, and not a single one of them recom-mends a combination of late-nightcheese-eating and reading about PhilipK. Dick. Carrère’s book is emphaticabout Dick’s belief, which throughouthis life was intermittent but overpow-ering, that the world as we see it is anillusion. He had visions of ultimate evillurking just behind the surface ofthings, and most of his books play withthe idea of being trapped in an illusionor simulation.

So anyway, as I was lying theresweating out cheese and half-awake, Isuddenly thought: Dick would havesaid that the England team have beenreplaced by robots. That’s why they’replaying so badly. They’re not in fact theEngland team at all, but physicallyidentical cyborg replicas, who’ve beenprogrammed to adopt a style of playbased on the long-ball game prevalentin the English leagues about ten yearsago. That’s why great players like Lam-pard and Gerrard suddenly look likethey’ve been drafted in from HowardWilkinson’s Sheffield Wednesday. Andthe accompanying thought: where arethe real England team? Who’s keepingthem hostage? Will they escape? Willthey turn up in time?

That’s definitely the last time I eat

cheese at bedtime.

27 June. They did brilliantly well. Thelast African team had got to the 85thminute of their last game before it hap-pened. Ghana were 2-0 down againstBrazil. They’d fought hard againsttemptation . . . and then suddenly itwas all too much. I felt for them, I real-ly did. To have come so very, very close.But perhaps it was too much to expect.In any case, it was not to be. The ironywas that it wasn’t Brazil’s third goalthat caused it to happen,but the replay.The Ghana defenders pushed up, theBrazilian midfield advanced, the passwas slipped through to Ze Roberto. Ashe prepared to slip the ball past thegoalie,Richard Kingson, the excitementbecame too much to handle, and thecommentator, cracking under thestrain, came right out with the n-word.He just said it.With just five lousy min-utes to go . . . It’s so easy to dream ofwhat might have been. But there’s nopoint. He just had to use the bad word.The Ghanaians were – I can hardlybear to write it – ‘naive’. Specifically,they were guilty of ‘naive defending’.

I can’t have been the only person lis-tening who let out a low moan ofNoooooooo.When Eurosport (I think itwas) broadcast the African Cup of Na-tions they had, instead of a swear box,a ‘naive’ box, in which everybody whoused the n-word had to drop a fiver. Ifmemory serves they had a naive-freetournament. The message seemed tohave caught on, and Tunisia, Côted’Ivoire,Togo and Ghana had played alltheir matches thus far without then-word being flourished once. I caught

8 TheREADER

Theexcitementbecametoo muchto handle,and thecommentator,crackingunderthe strain,came rightout withthe n-word.He just said it.With justfive lousyminutesto go . . .It’s so easyto dream ofwhat mighthave been.But there’sno point.He just hadto use thebad word

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one use of ‘silky’ – another word which,in a football context, means ‘black’ –but no ‘naive’, until last night. We cameso close.

30 June. There was something particu-larly disappointing about the brawl atthe end of the Germany v. Argentinagame. I’m not talking about the girlyflailing that passed for a fight – a clas-sic example of the ‘handbags at tenpaces’ style of on-pitch confrontation.No, the problem was the way the TVplayed it down so unforgivably. Wherewere the slow-motion replays, the we-name-the-guilty-men close-ups andfreeze-frames? When a fight breaks outin a rugby match they show it about adozen times; it’s tacitly accepted thatthough these things are regrettable,they do happen, and if they’re going tohappen, we might as well enjoy themwhen they do. (Basically, it’s the argu-ment advanced by Thomas DeQuinceyin ‘On Murder Considered as One ofthe Fine Arts’.) Football used to take asimilar approach.When Frank Rijkaardspat at Rudi Völler in 1990, we wereshowed the flying lump of gob in slowmotion from about ten different angles.But this time, we get a lot of shoutingand pushing and at least one mandown, and the whole thing is brisklyglossed over and wrapped up as if itwere the murder of Lavrenti Beria.

I smell Fifa at work. The idiots thinkthis kind of thing is bad for the brand.They think what people want to see isevery single player coming on the pitchhand in hand with a five-year-old. Wefans can just about stomach that, butwe’re much happier with a mass brawl

that we can all cluck and shake ourheads over.

1 July. I can’t remember exactly whereit is but there’s a great moment some-where in Beckett where someonelaunches their boot ‘among’ someoneelse’s testicles. Christopher Ricks usedto cite this as an example of Beckett’sbrilliant use of dead-seeming language.Wayne Rooney probably isn’t much ofa Beckettian (or a Ricksian, come tothat) but he certainly knows how toput his boot among an opponent’sgoolies.

Footynomics: Portugal v. Englandwas only the second example of asmaller, poorer country beating a rich-er, more populous one. But it was onpenalties, so I’m arguing that it doesn’tcount.

Note that in one sense England’spenalties were better than Portugal’s.Two out of four of theirs missed thegoal altogether; all four of England’swere on target.Normally that would beenough to win you a shoot-out. ButRicardo guessed the right way to moveevery time, even on the penalty Harg-reaves scored and (if memory serves) onthe one Carragher put in and then hadto retake. So perhaps ‘guessed’ is thewrong verb. I don’t think I’ve ever seena keeper move the right way on fiveconsecutive penalties.

3 July. If you spend some time out ofthe country, or reading other countries’sports pages, what you notice whenyou come back to reading ours is thatEnglish sports writing is compulsivelymoralistic.Everything is seen as a moral

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I smell Fifaat work.The idiotsthink this kindof thing is badfor the brand.They think whatpeople wantto see is everysingle playercoming onthe pitch handin hand witha five-year-old.We fans canjust aboutstomach that,but we’re muchhappier witha mass brawl

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issue. Victory is a triumph of characterand will; defeat is a failing of characterand will. This theme is always presentin the way people talk about sport, butno one stresses it as remorselessly as wedo. Look at the New York Times orL’Equipe and you will occasionally en-counter the idea that one team beat an-other because they were, you know,better. The main reason one footballteam beats another is because they arebetter at football.

At least, that’s what I usually think.But the England team’s performance inthis World Cup has been a severe testof my view. It’s hard not to see their fail-ure as in some sense a failure of charac-ter. Richard Williams is very firm-spo-ken on this point in today’s Guardian.He says that the reason Hargreaves –who was born in Canada and moved toGermany at 16 – was England’s bestplayer is because he’s never lived inEngland.

I find the idea that they’re a bit spoilthard to dismiss. They look and actspoilt. But they don’t look as if they’renot trying, and there was nothing fakeabout how upset they seemed to be ongoing out.

I know – let’s blame the Swede!

5 July. The function of a World Cup isto produce a masterpiece. Without it, atournament can have drama and ex-citement and passion and all those oth-er good things, but it lacks the ingredi-ent which keeps it in the memory foryears afterwards. It needs a Brazil v.Italy in 1982, a Brazil v. France in 1986, aWest Germany v. Netherlands in 1988(actually that was European Champi-

onship; same point, though).Last night we got our masterpiece

and . . . I missed it. I’d gone out for din-ner and taped the game. I still haven’twatched it yet.

On the other hand, I did once standbeside Alessandro del Piero, whoscored Italy’s second goal last night, ata hotel check-in. This was ten yearsago. I’d gone to Turin, invited by theSlow Food foundation. The flight got inat night and we went straight to thehotel. It seemed oddly lively – therewas a crowd outside, the lobby was fullof men in suits hanging about, it tookan age to get registered at the frontdesk, the bloke getting the attention ofboth receptionists looked oddly famil-iar, a bit like Alessandro del . . . the pen-ny dropped. Juventus were staying atthe same hotel, on the night before ahome game.

There were a remarkable number ofhangers-on attached to Juventus –agents, journalists, advisers, middle-men of one sort or another. They allseemed to spend all their time in thelobby, waiting for whoever or whateverit was they were waiting for. The areawhere they did this was directly oppo-site the lifts, so every time you wentdown in the lift, as the doors opened,you would see a little surge of expecta-tion as the doors opened, followed bybrutal disappointment, mirrored onevery face, as they realised it was onlysome civilian. It was a lesson in justhow much disappointment it’s possibleto cause simply by not being someoneelse.

6 July. So it’s to be France v. Italy. They

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It was alesson in justhow muchdisappointmentit’s possibleto cause simplyby not beingsomeone else

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say that the most important compo-nents of drama are conflict and subtext.This should have plenty of both.Caught up with both sets of semi-fi-

nals. They helped me to crystallise myfeeling about this World Cup, which isthat it’s been great from most points ofview; except in relation to everything todo with England, all of which has beenbig pants. So it’s been a roaring successand a massive downer at the sametime.Take the way Italy played in extratime, for example. I’ve never seen anItalian team so committed to attack.Why? Because they obviously didn’tfancy a penalty shoot-out.Fabulissimo.But why couldn’t England do some-thing similar against Portugal?Oh well. I’ve been saying for some

time that football was taking on toomuch importance in England and thatsomething needed to happen to get thegame back in perspective. Perhaps this

will be it. I had thought the likeliestthing would be Chelsea winning somany titles so easily that it would puteveryone off. I remember making thesearguments to a friend and saying that Iwas a Chelsea supporter now, onMaoist grounds.He said: ‘I think that’smore Pol Pot-ist.’

Footnotes

* Abacus, 416 pp., £9.99,May, 0 34911986 4.† Bloomsbury, 336 pp., £8.99,May,0 7475 7971 7.

John Lanchester is the author of threenovels: The Debt to Pleasure, Mr Phillipsand Fragrant Harbour. His memoirFamily Romance is due from Faber inthe spring. Heis a contributing editor atthe London Review of Books(www.lrb.co.uk), in which this diaryoriginally appeared. CT

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Ah well.I’ve beensaying forsome timethat footballwas takingon too muchimportancein Englandand thatsomethingneededto happento get thegame back inperspective.Perhaps thiswill be it

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Recently, in one of manyspeeches melding his GlobalWar on Terror and his war inIraq, George W. Bush said,

“Victory in Iraq will be difficult and itwill require more sacrifice.The fightingthere can be as fierce as it was at Om-aha Beach or Guadalcanal. And victo-ry is as important as it was in thoseearlier battles. Victory in Iraq will re-sult in a democracy that is a friend ofAmerica and an ally in the war on ter-ror. Victory in Iraq will be a crushingdefeat for our enemies, who havestaked so much on the battle there.Victory in Iraq will honor the sacrificeof the brave Americans who have giv-en their lives. And victory in Iraqwould be a powerful triumph in theideological struggle of the 21st century.”

Over three years after the 2003 inva-sion, it’s not unreasonable to speak ofGeorge Bush’s Iraq. The Presidenthimself likes to refer to that country asthe “central front [or theater] in ourfight against terrorism” and a Nation-al Intelligence Estimate (NIE), part ofwhich was recently leaked to the pressand part then released by the Presi-

dent, confirms that Iraq is now indeedjust that – a literal motor for the cre-ation of terrorism. As the documentputs it, “The Iraq conflict has becomethe ‘cause célèbre’ for jihadists, breed-ing a deep resentment of US involve-ment in the Muslim world, and culti-vating supporters for the global ji-hadist movement.” A study by aBritish Ministry of Defense think tankseconds this point, describing Iraq as“a recruiting sergeant for extremistsacross the Muslim world”

So what exactly does “victory” inGeorge Bush’s Iraq look like 1,288 daysafter the invasion of that country be-gan with a “shock-and-awe” attack ondowntown Baghdad? A surprisingamount of information related to thishas appeared in the press in recentweeks, but in purely scattershot form.Here, it’s all brought together in 21questions (and answers) that add upto a grim but realistic snapshot ofBush’s Iraq.The attempt to reclaim thecapital, dipped in a sea of blood in re-cent months – or the “battle of Bagh-dad,” as the administration likes toterm it – is now the center of adminis-

So whatexactly does“victory”in GeorgeBush’s Iraqlook like 1,288days afterthe invasionof that countrybegan witha “shock-and-awe” attackon downtownBaghdad?

Q U E S T I O N I N G W A R

BUSH’S IRAQ ATTHE GATES OF HELL

President George W. Bush has spent much time recently telling anyone whocares to listen of the progress being made in his war against terror in Iraq.Tom Engelhardt looks at the latest information, then asks and finds answersto 21 questions that help determine the truth behind the presidential rhetoric

TheREADER 13

tration military strategy and opera-tions. So let’s start with this question:

How many freelance militias arethere in Baghdad?

The answer is “23” according to a “se-nior [U.S.] military official” in Baghdad– so write Richard A. Oppel, Jr. andHosham Hussein in the New YorkTimes; but,according to National Pub-lic Radio, the answer is “at least 23.”Antonio Castaneda of the AssociatedPress says there are 23 “known” mili-tias. However you figure it, that’s astaggering number of militias, mainlyShiite but some Sunni, for one largecity.

How many civilians are dying inthe Iraqi capital, due to thosemilitias, numerous (oftengovernment-linked) deathsquads, the Sunni insurgency,and al-Qaeda-in-Mesopotamia-style terrorism?

5,106 people in July and August, ac-cording to a recently released UnitedNations report.The previous, still stag-gering but significantly lower figure of3,391 offered for those months relied onbody counts only from the citymorgue. The UN report also includesdeaths at the city’s overtaxed hospi-tals. With the Bush administrationbringing thousands of extra U.S. andIraqi soldiers into the capital in Au-gust, death tolls went down somewhatfor a few weeks,but began rising againtowards month’s end. August figureson civilian wounded – 4,309 – rose 14%over July’s figures and, by late Septem-ber, suicide bombings were at their

highest level since the invasion.

How many Iraqis are beingtortured in Baghdad at present?

Precise numbers are obviously in shortsupply on this one, but large numbersof bodies are found in and around thecapital every single day, a result of theroiling civil war already underwaythere. These bodies, as Oppel of theTimes describes them, commonly dis-play a variety of signs of torture includ-ing: “gouged-out eyeballs… wounds… in the head and genitals, brokenbones of legs and hands, electric andcigarette burns… acid-induced in-juries and burns caused by chemicalsubstances, missing skin… missingteeth and wounds caused by powerdrills or nails.” The UN’s chief anti-tor-ture expert, Manfred Nowak, believesthat torture in Iraq is now not only“totally out of hand,” but “worse”than under Saddam Hussein.

How many Iraqi civilians arebeing killed countrywide?

The UN Report offers figures on this:1,493 dead, over and above the dead ofBaghdad. However, these figures aresurely undercounts. Oppel points out,for instance, that officials in al-AnbarProvince, the heartland of the Sunniinsurgency “and one of the deadliestregions in Iraq, reported no deaths inJuly.” Meanwhile, in Diyala Province,northeast of Baghdad, deaths not onlyseem to be on the rise, but higher thanpreviously estimated. The intrepidBritish journalist Patrick Cockburn re-cently visited the province. It’s not aplace, he comments parenthetically,

The UN’schiefanti-tortureexpert,ManfredNowak,believesthat torturein Iraq isnow not only“totallyout of hand,”but “worse”than underSaddamHussein


14 TheREADER

“to make a mistake in map reading.”(Enter the wrong area or neighbor-hood and you’re dead.) Diyala, he re-ports, is now largely under the controlof Sunni insurgents who are “close toestablishing a ‘Taliban republic’ in theregion.” On casualties, he writes: “Go-ing by the accounts of police and gov-ernment officials in the province, thedeath toll outside Baghdad may be farhigher than previously reported.” Thehead of Diyala’s Provincial Council(who has so far escaped two assassina-tion attempts) told Cockburn that hebelieved “on average, 100 people arebeing killed in Diyala every week.”(“Many of those who die disappearforever, thrown into the Diyala Riveror buried in date palm groves and fruitorchards.”) Even at the death counts inthe UN report, we’re talking aboutclose to 40,000 Iraqi deaths a year. Wehave no way of knowing how muchhigher the real figure is.

How many American and Iraqitroops and police are now tryingto regain control of the capitaland suppress the raging violencethere?

15,000 U.S. troops,9,000 Iraqi army sol-diers, 12,000 Iraqi national police and22,000 local police, according to thecommander of U.S. forces in Baghdad,Maj. Gen. James Thurman – and yetthe mayhem in that city has barelybeen checked at all.

How many Iraqi soldiers aremissing from the Americancampaign in Baghdad?

Six Iraqi battalions or 3,000 troops,

again according to General Thurman,who requested them from the Iraqigovernment. These turn out to be Shi-ite troops from other provinces whohave refused orders to be transferredfrom their home areas to Baghdad. Inthe capital itself, American troops arereported to be deeply dissatisfied withtheir Iraqi allies. (“Some U.S. soldierssay the Iraqis serving alongside themare among the worst they’ve ever seen– seeming more loyal to militias thanthe government.”)

How many Sunni Arabs supportthe insurgency?

75% of them, according to a Pentagonsurvey. In 2003, when the Pentagonfirst began surveying Iraqi public opin-ion, 14% of Sunnis supported the in-surgency (then just beginning) againstAmerican occupation.

How many Iraqis want the UnitedStates to withdraw its forcesfrom their country?

Except in the Kurdish areas of north-ern Iraq, strong majorities of Iraqisacross the country, Shiite and Sunni,want an immediate U.S. withdrawal,according to a U.S. State Departmentsurvey “based on 1,870 face-to-face in-terviews conducted from late June toearly July.” In Baghdad, nearly 75% ofresidents polled claimed that theywould “feel safer” after a U.S. with-drawal, and 65% favored an immediatewithdrawal of U.S. and other foreignforces. A recent Program on Interna-tional Policy Attitudes or PIPA pollfound 71% of all Iraqis favor the with-drawal of all foreign troops on a year’s

Even at thedeath countsin the UNreport, we’retalking aboutclose to40,000 Iraqideaths a year.We have noway ofknowing howmuch higherthe realfigure is


TheREADER 15

timetable. (Polling for Americans is adangerous business in Iraq. As oneanonymous pollster put it to theWashington Post, “If someone outthere believes the client is the U.S.gov-ernment, the persons doing the pollingcould get killed.”)

How many Iraqis think the Bushadministration will withdraw atsome point?

According to the PIPA poll, 77% ofIraqis are convinced that the UnitedStates is intent on keeping permanentbases in their country. As if confirmingsuch fears, Jalal Talabani, the Kurdishpresident of the U.S.-backed Iraqi gov-ernment ensconced in the capital’swell-fortified Green Zone, called forIraqis to keep two such permanentbases, possibly in the Kurdish areas ofthe country. He was roundly criticizedby other politicians for this.

How many terrorists are beingkilled in Iraq (and elsewhere) inthe President’s Global War onTerror?

Less than are being generated by thewar in Iraq, according to the justleaked National Intelligence Estimate.As Karen De Young of the WashingtonPost has written: “The war in Iraq hasbecome a primary recruitment vehiclefor violent Islamic extremists,motivat-ing a new generation of potential ter-rorists around the world whose num-bers may be increasing faster than theUnited States and its allies can reducethe threat, U.S. intelligence analystshave concluded.” It’s worth remember-ing, as retired Lt. Gen. William Odom,

former director of the National Securi-ty Agency, told a group of House De-mocrats this week, that Al Qaeda re-cruiting efforts actually declined in2002, only spiking after the invasion ofIraq. Carl Conetta of the Project forDefense Alternatives sums the situa-tion up this way: “The rate of terrorismfatalities for the 59 month period fol-lowing 11 September 2001 is 250% thatof the 44.5 month period precedingand including the 9/11 attacks.”

How many Islamic extremistwebsites have sprung up on theInternet to aid such acts ofterror?

5,000, according to the same NIE.

How many Iraqis are estimated tohave fled their homes this year,due to the low-level civil war andthe ethnic cleansing ofneighborhoods?

300,000, according to journalist PatrickCockburn.

How much of Bush’s Iraq can nowbe covered by Westernjournalists?

Approximately 2%, according to NewYork Times journalist Dexter Filkins,now back from Baghdad on a NiemanFellowship at Harvard University.Filkins claims that “98 percent of Iraq,and even most of Baghdad, has nowbecome ‘off-limits’ for Western journal-ists.” There are, he says, many situa-tions in Iraq “even too dangerous forIraqi reporters to report on.” (Suchjournalists, working for Western newsoutlets, “live in constant fear of their

As ifconfirmingsuch fears,JalalTalabani,the Kurdishpresidentof theU.S.-backedIraqigovernmentensconcedin thecapital’swell-fortifiedGreen Zone,called forIraqis to keeptwo suchpermanentbases,possiblyin theKurdishareas ofthe country


16 TheREADER

association with the newspaper beingexposed, which could cost them theirlives. ‘Most of the Iraqis who work forus don’t even tell their families thatthey work for us,’ said Filkins.”)

How many journalists and “mediasupport workers” have died inIraq this year?

20 journalists and 6 media supportworkers. The first to die in 2006 wasMahmoud Za’al, a thirty-five year oldcorrespondent for Baghdad TV, cover-ing an assault by Sunni insurgents ontwo U.S.-held buildings in Ramadi,capital of al-Anbar Province on Janu-ary 25. He was reportedly first wound-ed in both legs and then, according toeyewitnesses, killed in a U.S. air strike.(The U.S. denied launching an airstrike in Ramadi that day.) The mostrecent death was Ahmed Riyadh al-Karbouli, also of Baghdad TV, also inRamadi, who was assassinated by in-surgents on September 18. The latestdeath of a “media support worker” oc-curred on August 27: “A guard em-ployed by the state-run daily newspa-per Al-Sabah was killed when an ex-plosive-packed car detonated in thebuilding’s garage.” In all 80, journalistsand 28 media support workers havedied since the invasion of 2003. Com-pare these figures to journalistic deathsin other American wars: World War II(68), Korea (17), Vietnam (71).

How many U.S. troops are in Iraq?

Approximately 147,000, according toGeneral John Abizaid, head of U.S.Central Command, significantly morethan were in-country just after Bagh-

dad was taken in April 2003 when theoccupation began. Abizaid does notexpect these figures to fall before “nextspring” (which is the equivalent of“forever” in Bush administration parl-ance). He does not rule out sending ineven more troops. “If it’s necessary todo that because the military situationon the ground requires that, we’ll doit.” Finding those troops is anothermatter entirely.

How is the Pentagon keepingtroop strength up in Iraq?

4,000 troops from the 1st Brigade of the1st Armored Division, operating nearRamadi and nearing the end of theiryear-long tours of duty, have just beeninformed that they will be held in Iraqat least six more weeks. This is not anisolated incident, according to RobertBurns of the Associated Press. Unitsare also being sent to Iraq ahead ofschedule. Army policy has been to givesoldiers two years at home betweencombat tours.This year alone, the timebetween tours has shrunk from 18 to 14months. “In the case of the 3rd In-fantry,” writes Burns, “it appears atleast one brigade will get only about 12months because it is heading for Iraqto replace the extended brigade of the1st Armored.” And this may increas-ingly prove the norm. According toSenior Rand Corporation analyst LynnDavis, main author of “StretchedThin,” a report on Army deployments,“soldiers in today’s armored, mecha-nized and Stryker brigades, which aremost in demand, can expect to beaway from home for ‘a little over 45percent of their career.’“

In all 80,journalistsand 28 mediasupportworkers havedied sincethe invasionof 2003.Comparethese figuresto journalisticdeaths inother Americanwars: WorldWar II (68),Korea (17),Vietnam (71)


The Army has also maintained itsstrength in through a heavy relianceon the Army Reserves and the Nation-al Guard as well as on involuntary de-ployments of the Individual Ready Re-serve. Thom Shanker and Michael R.Gordon of the New York Times recent-ly reported that the Pentagon wasonce again considering activating sub-stantial numbers of Reserves and theNational Guard for duty in Iraq. This,despite, as reporter Jim Lobe has writ-ten, “previous Bush administrationpledges to limit overseas deploymentsfor the Guard.” (Such an unpopulardecision will surely not be announcedbefore the mid-term elections.)

As of now, write Shanker and Gor-don, “so many [U.S. troops] are de-ployed or only recently returned fromcombat duty that only two or threecombat brigades – perhaps 7,000 to10,000 troops – are fully ready to re-spond in case of unexpected crises, ac-cording to a senior Army general.”

How many active duty Armytroops have been deployed inIraq?

Approximately 400,000 troops out ofan active-duty force of 504,000 have al-ready served one tour of duty in Iraq,according to Peter Spiegel of the LosAngeles Times.More than one-third ofthem have been deployed twice.

How is Iraq affecting the Army’sequipment?

By the spring of 2005, the Army had al-ready “rotated 40% of its equipmentthrough Iraq and Afghanistan.” Ma-rine Corps mid-2005 estimates were

that 40% percent of its ground equip-ment and 20% of its air assets were be-ing used to support current opera-tions,” according to analyst CarlConetta in “Fighting on BorrowedTime.” In the harsh climate of Iraq, thewear and tear on equipment has beenenormous. Conetta estimates thatwhenever the Iraq and Afghan warsend, the post-war repair bill for Armyand Marine equipment will be in therange of $25-40 billion.

How many extra dollars does adesperately overstretched Armyclaim to need in the comingDefense budget, mainly becauseof wear and tear in Iraq?

$25 billion above budget limits set bySecretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeldthis year; over $40 billion above lastyear’s budget. The amount the Armyclaims it now needs simply to treadwater represents a 41% increase overits current share of the Pentagonbudget. As a “protest,” Army Chief ofStaff Gen.Peter Schoomaker chose noteven to submit a required budget toRumsfeld in August. The general, ac-cording to the LA Times’ Spiegel, “hastold congressional appropriators thathe will need $17.1 billion next year forrepairs, nearly double this year’s ap-propriation – and more than quadru-ple the cost two years ago.” This isvivid evidence of the literal wear-and-tear the ongoing war (and civil war) inIraq is causing.

How is Iraqi reconstructiongoing?

Over three years after the invasion, the

TheREADER 17

The amountthe Armyclaims it nowneeds simplyto treadwaterrepresentsa 41%increaseover itscurrentshare of thePentagonbudget


national electricity grid can only deliv-er electricity to the capital, on average,one out of every four hours (and that’sevidently on a good day).At the begin-ning of September, Iraq’s oil ministerspoke hopefully of raising the country’soil output to 3 million barrels a day byyear’s end. That optimistic goal wouldjust bring oil production back to whereit was more or less at the moment theBush administration, planning to payfor the occupation of Iraq with thatcountry’s “sea” of oil, invaded. Accord-ing to a Pentagon study, “Measuringsecurity and stability in Iraq,” releasedin August, inflation in that countrynow stands at 52.5%. (Damien Cave ofthe New York Times suggests that it’scloser to 70%, with fuel and electricityup 270% from the previous year); thesame Pentagon study estimates that“about 25.9% of Iraqi children exam-ined were stunted in their physicalgrowth” due to chronic malnutritionwhich is on the rise across Iraq.

How many speeches has GeorgeW. Bush made in the last monthextolling his War on Terror and itsIraqi “central front”?

Six so far, not including press confer-ences, comments made while greetingforeign leaders, and the like: to theAmerican Legion National Conventionon August 31, in a radio address to theAmerican people on September 2, in aspeech on his Global War on Terror tothe Military Officers Association onSeptember 5, in a speech on “progress”in the Global War on Terror before theGeorgia Public Policy Foundation onSeptember 7, in a TV address to the

nation memorializing September 11,and in a speech to the UN on Septem-ber 19.

The count of American war dead inIraq has passed 2,700. The Iraqi deadare literally uncountable. Iraq is thetragedy of our times, an event that hasbrought out,and will continue to bringout, the worst in us all. It is carnage in-carnate. Every time the Presidentmentions “victory”, the word “loss”should come to our minds.A few morevictories like this one and the worldwill be an unimaginable place.

Back in 2004, the head of the ArabLeague, Amr Mussa, warned, “Thegates of hell are open in Iraq.” Then itwas just an image. Remarkablyenough, it has taken barely two moreyears for us to arrive at those gates onwhich, it is said, is inscribed thephrase, “Abandon all hope, ye who en-ter here.” CT

[Note to readers: Among the many sitesI found helpful in compiling this piece, Iparticularly want to recommend (as I sooften do) Juan Cole’s Informed Com-ment, Antiwar.com, and theWar in Con-text. All three do invaluable work. ]

Tom Engelhardt, who runs the NationInstitute’s Tomdispatch.com (“a regularantidote to the mainstream media”), isthe co-founder of the American EmpireProject and the author of The End ofVictory Culture, a history of Americantriumphalism in the Cold War, The LastDays of Publishing, a novel, and in thefall, Mission Unaccomplished (NationBooks), the first collection of Tomdis-patch interviews.

18 TheREADER

At thebeginningof September,Iraq’s oilministerspokehopefullyof raisingthe country’soil outputto 3 millionbarrelsa day byyear’s end


TheREADER 19

Once youreverypossessionis recordedin a databaseand canbe tracked,you can alsobe trackedand onitoredremotelythroughthe thingsyou wear,carry andinteractwithevery day

Imagine a world of no more pri-vacy. Where your every purchaseis monitored and recorded in adatabase, and your every be-

longing is numbered. Where someonemany states away or perhaps in an-other country has a record of every-thing you have everbought, of everythingyou have ever owned, ofevery item of clothing inyour closet – every pairof shoes. What’s more,these items can even betracked remotely.

Once your every pos-session is recorded in adatabase and can betracked, you can also betracked and monitoredremotely through thethings you wear, carryand interact with everyday.

We may be standingon the brink of that ter-rifying world if globalcorporations and gov-ernment agencies have

their way. It’s the world that Wal-Mart, Target, Gillette, Procter & Gam-ble, Kraft, IBM, and even the UnitedStates Postal Service want to usher inwithin the next ten years.

It’s the world of radio frequencyidentification.

Radio frequency iden-tification, RFID forshort, is a technologythat uses tiny computerchips – some smallerthan a grain of sand – totrack items at distance. Ifthe master planners havetheir way, every object –from shoes to cars – willcarry one of these tinycomputer chips that canbe used to spy on youwithout your knowledgeor consent. We’ve nick-named these tiny devices“spychips” because oftheir surveillance poten-tial.

If you’ve been stayingin touch with the newsabout RFID, you may al-

B O O K E X C E R P T

GOING SHOPPINGWITH BIG BROTHER

Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre delve into the near-future whereRadio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips may be attached to clothing,commercial goods, prescription medication and ID cards without our knowledge,allowing corporations and government snoopers to track our every move

SPYCHIPS:How Major

Corporations andGovernment Plan toTrack Your Every

Purchase and WatchYour Every Move

Katherine Albrecht & LizMcIntyre

Plume, paperback

$15

20 TheREADER

In a futureworld lacedwith RFIDspychips,cards inyour walletcould“squeal”on you asyou entermalls, retailoutlets,and grocerystores,announcingyour presenceand value tobusinesses

ready know who we are and some-thing of the public battles we havefought to try to keep this technologyoff consumer products and out of ourhomes. In case you don’t know whowe are and why we can make suchclaims with conviction, an introduc-tion is in order.

We are Katherine Albrecht, foun-der and director of CASPIAN (Con-sumers Against Supermarket PrivacyInvasion and Numbering), and LizMcIntyre, the organization’s commu-nications director. CASPIAN is agrass-roots organization that hasbeen tackling consumer privacy issuessince 1999.

In this book, we’ll give you a ring-side seat to some of the battles we’vefought with companies like Benetton,Gillette, and retail giant Tesco. You’llsee why Advertising Age says ourpresence has been felt from Berlin toBentonville (corporate home of Wal-Mart), and you’ll also learn how weuncovered plans by companies totrack consumers around stores, useRFID to spam consumers with per-sonalized advertising, and even mon-itor what people do in their ownhomes.

We’re also suburban moms who’vetaken on some of the largest corpora-tions in the world because we careabout the future our children will in-herit if this dangerous technology isunopposed. We believe consumersshould know what’s in store so wecan work together to protect our pri-vacy and civil liberties before it’s toolate.

We know that a Big Brother vision

of the future sounds farfetched. Wedidn’t believe it ourselves until wesaw with our own eyes and heardwith our own ears companies detail-ing their mind-boggling plans. We as-sure you that this seemingly impossi-ble future is on the drawing board,and we promise that by the time youfinish this book, you will be con-vinced, too.

For nearly three years, we have de-voted ourselves fulltime to combingevery article, reading every white pa-per, pursuing every insider tip, andscanning through thousands ofpatent documents to piece together apicture of this planned RFID future.We’ve attended trade shows, sat in ontop level meetings, and had long talkswith the people implementing theseplans.

What we learned will shock you.In a future world laced with RFID

spychips, cards in your wallet could“squeal” on you as you enter malls,retail outlets, and grocery stores, an-nouncing your presence and value tobusinesses. Reader devices hidden inthe doors, walls, displays, and floorscould frisk the RFID chips in yourclothes and other items on your per-son to determine your age, sex, andpreferences. Since spychip informa-tion travels through clothing, theycould even get a peek at the color andsize of your underwear.

We’re not joking. A major world-wide clothing manufacturer namedBenetton has already tried to embedRFID chips into women’s undergar-ments. And they would have gottenaway with it, too, had it not been for


TheREADER 21

RFID chipsembeddedin passbooksand ATMcards willidentifyand profilecustomersas they enterbank lobbies,beaming bankbalances toemployees

an international outcry when we ex-posed their plan. Details of the “I’dRather Go Naked” campaign comelater in the book.

While consumers might be able toavoid spychipped clothing brands fornow, they could be forced to wearRFID-enabled work clothes to earn aliving. Already uniform companieslike AmeriPride and Cintas are em-bedding RFID tracking tags into theirclothes that can withstand high tem-perature commercial washings.

Don’t have to wear a chipped uni-form to work? Your RFID-enabledemployee badge could do the spyinginstead. One day, these devices couldtell management who you’re chattingwith at the water cooler and how longyou’ve spent in the restroom – evenwhether or not you’ve washed yourhands. There’s already a productcalled iHygiene that can monitor thehandwashing habits of RFID-taggedemployees during bathroom visits.

Our next generation of workerscould be conditioned to obedientlyaccept this degrading surveillancethrough forced early exposure. Someschools are already requiring studentsto wear spychipped identificationbadges around their necks to keepcloser tabs on their daily activities. IfJohnny is one-minute late for mathclass, the system knows. It’s alwayswatching.

Retailers are thrilled at the idea ofbeing able to price products accordingto your purchase history and value tothe store. RFID will allow them to as-sess your worth as you pick up prod-ucts and flash you a corresponding

customer-specific price. Prime cus-tomers might pay three dollars for astaple like peanut butter while “bar-gain shoppers” or the economicallychallenged could be charged twice asmuch. The goal is to encourage theloyalty of shoppers who contribute tothe profit margins while discouragingthose who don’t. After all, stores jus-tify, why have unprofitable customerscluttering the store and breathingtheir air?

RFID chips embedded in pass-books and ATM cards will identifyand profile customers as they enterbank lobbies, beaming bank balancesto employees who will snicker at thecustomer with a mere thirty-sevendollars in the bank while offeringwhite glove treatment to the high-rollers.

RFID could also be used to infringeupon civil liberties. The technologycould give government officials theability to electronically frisk citizenswithout their knowledge and set upinvisible checkpoints on roads and inpedestrian zones to monitor theirmovements.

While RFID proponents claim theywould never use RFID to track peo-ple, we will prove they are not onlyconsidering it, they’ve done it. TheUnited States government has al-ready controlled people with RFID-laced bracelets – and not just crimi-nals. And now they’re planning toembed spychips in U.S. passports socitizens can be tracked as they moveabout airport terminals and cross in-ternational borders.

Hitting the open road will no


22 TheREADER

RFID spychipsin your shoesand car tireswill makeit possiblefor strangersto track youas you walkand drivethroughpublicand privatespaces,betrayingyour habitsand thedeepestsecrets evenyour ownmotherhas no rightknowing

longer be the “get away from it all”experience many of us crave. You mayalready be under surveillance, cour-tesy of your RFID-enabled highwaytoll transponder. Some highways, likethose in the Houston area, have setup readers that probe the tag’s infor-mation every few miles. But that’schild’s play compared to what they’vegot planned. The Federal HighwayAdministration is joining with statesand vehicle manufacturers to pro-mote “intelligent vehicles” that can bemonitored and tracked through built-in RFID devices (Minority Report-style).

RFID spychips in your shoes andcar tires will make it possible forstrangers to track you as you walkand drive through public and privatespaces, betraying your habits and thedeepest secrets even your own moth-er has no right knowing. Pair RFIDdevices with global positioning (GPS)technology, and you could literally bepinpointed on the globe in real time,creating a borderless tracking systemthat already has law enforcement,governments, stalkers, and voyeurssalivating.

There will be no more secret loveletters in the RFID world, either – notif the U.S. Postal Service has its way.They would like to embed everypostage stamp with an RFID chipthat would enable point-to-pointtracking. Even more disturbingly,RFID could remove the anonymity ofcash. Already, the European Unionhas discussed chipping Euro bank-notes, and the Bank of Japan is con-templating a similar program for

high-value currency. Your every pur-chase could be under the microscope.

So could your trash. In the RFIDworld, garbage will become a snoop’sand criminal’s best friend. Today, it’s adirty job sifting through diapers andtable scraps to get at tell-tale signs ofa household’s market value, habits,and purchases. In the RFID world,scanning trash could be a simple asdriving down the street with a car-mounted reader on trash day.

How about the “smart” house? Re-searchers have developed prototype“homes of the future” to showcaseRFID-enabled household gadgets likerefrigerators that know what’s inthem (and can tattletale to mar-keters), medicine cabinets that talk(to your doctor, government, andHMO), and floors that keep track ofwhere you are at each moment. Thepotential is staggering. Your insurancecompany could remotely monitoryour food consumption and set ratesaccordingly, health officials couldtrack the prescription drugs you’retaking, and attorneys could subpoenayour home activity records for useagainst you in court.

Home RFID networks will allowfamily members to remotely track youduring your “golden years,” or timesof incompetence, real or otherwise.Doors can remain bolted to keep youfrom wandering, toilets can monitoryour bowel habits and transmit datato distant physicians, and databasescan sense your state of mind. It’s allunder development and headed yourway.

But chipping inanimate objects is


TheREADER 23

Gillette wasalso caughttaggingpackages ofMach3 razorblades withsome of the500 million(that’s halfa billion!)RFID chipsit put on orderin early 2003

just the start. The endpoint is a formof RFID that can be injected intoflesh. Pets and livestock are alreadybeing chipped, and there are thosewho believe humans should be next.Incredibly, bars have begun implanti-ng their patrons with glass-encapsu-lated RFID tags that can be used topay for drinks. This application star-tles many Christians who havelikened payment applications of RFIDto biblical predictions about the Markof the Beast, a number the book ofRevelation says will be needed to buyor sell in the “end times.”

While some of these applicationsare slated for our future, others are al-ready here, right now – and they’respreading. Wal-Mart has mandatedthat its top one hundred suppliers af-fix RFID tags to crates and pallets be-ing shipped to selected warehouses.Analysts estimate this one initiativealone has already driven close to $250million worth of investment in thetechnology.

Other retailers such as Albertsons,Target, and Best Buy have followedsuit with mandates of their own. Ac-cording to one industry analyst, thereare now sixty thousand companiesoperating under RFID mandates andscrambling to get with the spychipprogram as quickly as possible.

Adding fuel to the fire, the Depart-ment of Defense is also requiring sup-pliers to use RFID. In fact, govern-ment cheerleaders can’t fall overthemselves fast enough to supportthe technology. The Department ofHomeland Security is testing the useof RFID in visas, and the Social Secu-

rity Administration is using spychipsto track citizen files. Not to be out-done, the Food and Drug Administra-tion wants RFID on all prescriptiondrugs, and the makers of Oxycontinand Viagra have already begun tocomply. The FDA has also approvedthe use of subcutaneous RFID im-plants for managing patient medicalrecords – the same implants beingused to track bar patrons.

You may have already brought aspychip home with you. If you own atoll transponder or a Mobil Speed-pass, you’re interacting with RFIDevery time you use it. And if youbought Procter & Gamble’s Lipfinitylipstick at a Wal-Mart in Broken Ar-row, Oklahoma, between March andJune of 2003, you could have broughthome a live RFID chip in the productpackaging – and unknowingly starredin a video, too!

P&G is not the only company that’stested spychips on unwitting con-sumers. Gillette was also caught tag-ging packages of Mach3 razor bladeswith some of the 500 million (that’shalf a billion!) RFID chips it put on or-der in early 2003. There’s also evidenceto suggest that other everyday prod-ucts like Pantene Shampoo, PurinaDog Chow, and Huggies baby wipesmay have been tagged with RFIDchips and sold to unsuspecting con-sumers.

Why would anyone want to keepsuch close track on everyday objects?The answer is simple. Businesseswant the technology to give themcomplete visibility of their products atall times. Having this real-time


24 TheREADER

The seamydetails we’vediscoveredmake thespychippedfuture lookmore like theending sceneof a gut-wrenchingOuter Limitsepisode

knowledge would allow them to keepproducts on store shelves and knowprecisely what’s in their warehouses.They also believe it could help themfight theft and counterfeiting. Theo-retically, it could even eliminate thecheckstand, since doorways couldscan your purchases automaticallywhen you leave the store and chargethem to an RFID-based account.

While some of these goals maysound appealing, the problem is whathappens when spychipped productsleave the store with us – and findtheir way into other areas of our lives.

We’ve read every pro-RFID argu-ment the industry can make, and we’llbe the first to admit the technologycould make things more convenient.RFID-enabled refrigerators reallycould keep track of containers of food,warn about expired milk, and gener-ate weekly shopping lists. High-tech

washing machines really could auto-matically choose appropriate watertemperatures based on instructionsencoded in RFID-enabled clothing la-bels. RFID really could help familiesrecover lost pets – and stolen posses-sions, too.

But when we look at that future,we don’t see a twenty-first centuryMayberry minus a few entry-levelcashiering jobs. The seamy detailswe’ve discovered make the spy-chipped future look more like theending scene of a gut-wrenching Out-er Limits episode. The RFID visionthat technology companies are sellinglooks too good to be true – and it is.

Buckle up, readers. We’re going totake you on a high-speed, high-techtour of the past, present, and future ofRFID, with plenty of stops along theway at the dirty little secrets theydon’t want you to know. CT


READ JOHN PILGERDownload all of his political essaysand columns, all in pdf format, at

www.coldtype.net/columns.html

http://www.coldtype.net/columns.html

Odd things happen whencorporate journalists, se-lected for obedience andconformity, are exposed to

powerful leaders speaking at grandmeetings.Consider this October 3, 2002Guardian editorial:“In an intimate, almost conversa-

tional tone, speaking only from notes,Bill Clinton delivered the speech of atrue political master... If one were re-viewing it, five stars would not beenough... What a speech.What a pro.And what a loss to the leadership ofAmerica and the world.” (Leader,‘What a pro – Clinton shows what aloss he is to the US,’ The Guardian,Oc-tober 3, 2002)Intriguingly,media responses of this

kind appear to have little to do withthe actual content of the leader’sspeech but everything to do with theemotional impact of the performanceon the authoritarian character struc-ture of journalists who,as psychologistErich Fromm noted, often possess “adeep-seated respect and longing for es-tablished authority”. (Fromm, ‘Charac-ter and The Social Process,’ An Appen-

dix to Fear of Freedom, Routledge,1942)On ITN’s September 26 late news,

political editor Tom Bradby repeatedlydeclared the “brilliance” of Blair’s lastspeech to the Labour party conference:“It is hard to argue that in this setting,upon this stage,Tony Blair is a politicalsuperstar”. (Bradby, ITN, 22:30 News)The title of Bradby’s earlier report on

the 18:30 news had been ‘What HaveWeDone?’ suggesting that Labour par-ty members were surely now regrettingBlair’s departure. To read what Blairsaid is to understand that Bradby can-not have been referring to the sub-stance of the speech,which was most-ly banal and dishonest. (See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/ uk_news /sto-ry/ 0,,1881512,00.html)Instead,he was responding to Blair’s

‘charisma’, his stagecraft and show-manship.

I wrote to Bradby on September 26:Dear TomYour laser-like focus on Blair’s talents

as a “performer” on this evening’s 6:30news was outrageous. You managed to

TheREADER 25

T H E S E R V I L E M E D I A

Intriguingly,mediaresponsesof this kindappear tohave littleto do withthe actualcontent ofthe leader’sspeech buteverythingto do with theemotionalimpact of theperformanceon theauthoritariancharacterstructure ofjournalists

TONY BLAIR’SBRILLIANT SPEECH

Britain’s prime minister Tony Blair recently addressed his final Labour PartyConference, receiving glowing ovations from the country’s mainstream media.David Edwards, co-editor of London’s Medialens, looks at the contrast betweenthe deferential treatment of Blair and the reality of his record as prime minister

mention the word ‘Iraq’ once – half asmany times as Blair himself. I wonderwhat the relatives of the 200,000-300,000 Iraqis killed as a result of Blair’swar crimes would make of your report-ing. Doesn’t their suffering, and the liesand crimes that lead to it, merit even amention? Is it enough to refer obliquelyto “the trust issue”?

Best wishesDavid Edwards

Bradby replied the same day:David,I think Blair made a huge mistake

over Iraq,which has effectively finishedhim in office and will be endlessly dis-cussed when he finally leaves.

We have talked about that hundredsof times before and will no doubt do somany times again.

There are many days when that willbe the subject of our laser-like focus. Infact, I mentioned at the end in my livethat,brilliant performer though he maybe, he has lost the trust of the Britishpeople.

However, by any standards – even ifyou hate the man and disagree witheverything he says – his performancetoday was brilliant. And that’s what Ireflected.

Best wishes,Tom

I responded on the same day:Thanks, Tom.Something doesn’t add up: “Blair

made a huge mistake over Iraq, whichhas effectively finished him in office,”and as a result “he has lost the trust ofthe British people”.

But Blair did not lose trust on thisscale simply because he made “a mis-take”. He lost it because he lied and ma-nipulated, and is complicit in thesupreme war crime – the launching of awar of aggression. And yet you call it “amistake”.

How can Blair’s performance be con-sidered “brilliant” when he made just acouple of passing, mendacious referencesto the utter catastrophe in Iraq? He said,for example, of al Qaeda:

“It killed nearly 3,000 people includ-ing over 60 British on the streets of NewYork before war in Afghanistan or Iraqwas even thought of.”

But not before the devastating 1991war on Iraq and subsequent genocidalsanctions were thought of. Was this“brilliant”?

When hundreds of thousands of peo-ple lie dead, surely truthfulness andmorality are more important than stylis-tic panache in judging the merits of apolitical speech.

Best wishesDavid

Channel 4’s Jon Snow was similarlyswept up in the euphoria of Blair’s per-formance:

“He reserved a small portion of hiswords to attack David Cameron andthe Tories who he seems to regard asperfectly defeatable and a much small-er portion for the Liberal Democrats.

“It was very carefully stage managedbut it did the trick, he was a leader forhis time, in a time when Britain need-ed exactly such leadership.” (Snow-mail, September 26, 1999)

Recall that this was ‘professional’

26 TheREADER

But Blairdid not losetrust on thisscale simplybecausehe made“a mistake”.He lost itbecausehe lied andmanipulated,and iscomplicitin thesupremewar crime –the launchingof a war ofaggression


and ‘objective’ news reporting – jour-nalists like Snow endlessly claim not toreveal their subjective opinions.

BBC Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxmanwas also overcome with emotion:

“Blair’s speech was, for my money,the most impressive conference speechin years. In a performance brimmingwith confidence, flashes of humour andunderlain by a clear political analysis(whether you agreed with it or not) hesaid goodbye to Labour delegates herein Manchester.” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/5382748.stm)

Again, one might wonder how aspeech that failed to address the stag-gering catastrophes of Iraq andAfghanistan with even a scintilla ofhonesty could be deemed “impres-sive”, as opposed to mendacious, cyn-ical and absurd.

On the Newsnight programme, theNew Statesman’s political editor, Mar-tin Bright, described how Blair’s analy-sis of “radical Islam” had been “veryhard,very tough,and very convincing”.

And yet this is the core of what Blairhad to say on the matter:

“This terrorism isn’t our fault. Wedidn’t cause it.

It’s not the consequence of foreignpolicy.

It’s an attack on our way of life.It’s global.It has an ideology.It killed nearly 3,000 people includ-

ing over 60 British on the streets ofNew York before war in Afghanistan orIraq was even thought of.”

On the same day as Blair’s speech, aleaked US intelligence report reflecting

a consensus of 16 intelligence agenciesfound:

“The Iraq jihad is shaping a newgeneration of terrorist leaders and op-eratives; perceived jihadist success [inIraq] would inspire more fighters tocontinue the struggle elsewhere. TheIraq conflict has become the ‘causecelebre’ for jihadists, breeding a deepresentment of US involvement in theMuslim world. If this trend continues,threats to US interests at home andabroad will become more diverse, lead-ing to increasing attacks worldwide.”(Suzanne Goldenberg, ‘Intelligence re-port blow to Bush’s war on terror,’ TheGuardian, September 27, 2006)

Blair’s observation that the Septem-ber 11 attacks preceded wars in Afghan-istan and Iraq employed the standardmisdirection. As Blair well knows, alQaeda has cited the 1991 war on Iraqand subsequent genocidal sanctions,which both preceded September 11,2001, as a key, motivating grievance.

I wrote to the BBC’s political editorNick Robinson on September 27:

Dear NickYou write of Blair:“He could have made his forced exit a

painful one – he could have attacked hiscritics – snubbed Gordon Brown – an-grily defended his wife – lectured hisparty on the way forward. That he didnone of those things will be a source ofhuge relief to many in this party.”(http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nick-robinson/2006/09/26/index.html)

And you write of New Labour:“This morning was New Labour’s

‘Diana moment’. For years the media

TheREADER 27

As Blairwell knows,al Qaedahas citedthe 1991 waron Iraq andsubsequentgenocidalsanctions,which bothprecededSeptember 11,2001, as akey,motivatinggrievance


have reported stories of splits and ran-cour in New Labour’s household just asthey once did in the Royal household(for Tony and Gordon read Charles andDiana).”

What is the point of this kind of triv-ial commentary? You write as if youwere reviewing the characters perform-ing in some kind of soap opera. The leadauthor of the Lancet report estimatedearlier this year that some 200,000-300,000 civilians lie dead in Iraq be-cause Blair committed the supreme warcrime – the launching of a war of ag-gression. He had a couple of mundane,mendacious comments to make about itin his speech. Wasn’t that worthy ofyour focus?

Why are you allowing yourself to beconsumed whole by this charade of po-litical journalism where everything thatis said is trivial, and where everythingthat matters is ignored as irrelevant?

Best wishesDavid Edwards

Nick Robinson replied on the sameday:

Read the blog to see why I thinkthat Blair/Brown matters. Who is PMis not trivial.

Furthermore, there’s no choice be-tween that and Iraq – we cover both.My blog is not the sum of what I reportfor the BBC. It’s a diary style additionto all the other reporting we do.(Robinson, email to Media Lens)

I also replied on the same day:Thanks, Nick. I didn’t suggest for a

moment that Blair/Brown, or who isPM, doesn’t matter. On the contrary, I

made it clear that I consider it a matterof great importance that Blair, a majorwar criminal, is PM. My question washow you can justify focusing on suchtrivial aspects of such an important in-dividual who is responsible for such vastcrimes. Would it have been acceptablefor an Iraqi journalist in the 1980s totalk of Saddam’s ‘Diana moment’?Moral equivalence isn’t the issue – theissue is the scale of crimes for which thesubjects of journalistic analysis are re-sponsible. Saddam is responsible formajor atrocities, but so is Blair. Yourjournalism acts to “normalise the un-thinkable”. One can only wonder whatBlair would have to do before journal-ists stopped treating him as just anotherpolitician.

Best wishesDavid

I also wrote to BBC world affairs editorJohn Simpson on September 26:

Dear JohnHope you’re well. In reviewing his

foreign policy on tonight’s news at tenyou said that Blair “perhaps oversold”the war on Iraq. Do you really believethat the most serious problem withBlair’s actions was that he exaggeratedthe merits of the war? Wasn’t the realproblem that he lied and mislead thepublic? Hasn’t he in fact committed thesupreme war crime – the launching of awar of aggression?”

I have received no reply. CT

David Edwards is co-editor, withDavid Cromwell, of the London-basedmedia watchdog, Medialens.(www.medialens.org)

28 TheREADER

Why are youallowingyourselfto beconsumedwhole bythis charadeof politicaljournalismwhereeverythingthat is saidis trivial,and whereeverythingthat mattersis ignored asirrelevant?


The war-torn African state ofSomalia could hardly haveexpected to be affected by thetsunami that struck off the In-

donesian island of Sumatra on BoxingDay 2004, killing some 290,000 people.

But that tsunami wave powered4,000 miles westwards across the Indi-an Ocean to sweep over Somalia’s pris-tine beaches, and killed nearly 300people.

The tsunami, however, also uncov-ered a hidden and altogether more se-rious problem for Somalis: along morethan 400 miles of shoreline, the turbo-charged wave churned up reinforcedcontainers of hazardous toxic wastethat European companies had beendumping a short distance offshore formore than a decade, taking advantageof the fact that there was not even apretend authority in the African “failedstate”.

The force of the tsunami broke opencontainers holding radioactive nuclearwaste, lead, cadmium, mercury, flameretardants,hospital waste and cocktailsof other deadly residues of Europe’s in-dustrial processes.

As the contaminants spread acrossthe land and in the air, the United Na-tions said that an unknown number ofpeople died from breathing in toxicdust and fumes. Subsequent cancerclusters have also been linked to Eu-rope’s special gift to the country, deliv-ered by that tsunami.

Rumours had long circulated aboutEuropean companies,mainly from Italyand Switzerland, taking advantage ofthe chaos in Somalia to strike immoraldeals with local warlords to dump tox-ic waste. The arrangements, involvingcountless millions of pounds, inevitablyfinanced the Somali war, offering apowerful incentive to ignore environ-mental concerns and carry on dumpingthe waste.

According to the French environ-ment protection group Robin des Bois(“Robin Hood of the Forest”), it costsbetween €300-€500 (US$380-$625) totreat a cubic metre of hazardous wastein Europe, while in Africa it is betweensix and 15 times cheaper because usual-ly there is no real treatment processand no proper storage.

A report by the United Nations En-

TheREADER 29

The forceof the tsunamibroke opensome of thecontainerswhich heldradioactivenuclear waste,lead, cadmium,mercury, flameretardants,hospital wasteand cocktailsof other deadlyresiduesof Europe’sindustrialprocesses

A F R I C A N A G O N Y

EUROPE’S NEWDUMPING GROUND

War, famine, poverty and Aids have played havoc in Africa over the pastdecades. Now another scourge has surfaced – the illegal dumping of toxic wasteby unscrupulous European manufacturers is killing thousands of innocent people.Fred Bridgland tells the story of the Probo Koala, one of the vessels involved

vironment Programme (UNEP) said therelease of the deadly substances, re-sembling the devastation of chemicalwarfare,will cause serious long-term ef-fects on human health – and there is nochance of a successful clean-up becauseof the violence and political instabilitycurrently plaguing Somalia.

The UNEP report said: “The healthproblems include acute respiratory in-fections, dry heavy coughing andmouth bleeding, abdominal haemor-rhages, unusual skin chemical reactionsand sudden death after inhaling toxicmaterials.”

It took a tsunami to reveal one of themany secret dumping sites in Africa ofEuropean industries’ deadly dregs.

But in recent weeks the voyage ofthe rust-streaked Probo Koala, a Kore-an-built, Greek-owned, Panama-flag-ged, Dutch-chartered 50,000-tonnetanker, has thrown yet more light on atrade that goaded one of Africa’s mostdistinguished ecologists, Senegal’sHaidar al-Ali, to observe: “We talk ofglobalisation, of the global village, buthere in Africa we are under the impres-sion of being that village’s septic tank.”

It is not yet clear where the ProboKoala’s voyage began, although theseas off Gibraltar are believed to be agathering place for “garbage cowboys”;where ships with unwanted poisonouscargoes transfer them to other vesselsspecialising in the illegal dispersal ofwaste in Third World states.

The scandal of the Probo Koala cameto light in September, two weeks afterthe tanker unloaded its cargo of blacksludge in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s capital,after being turned away from Amster-

dam and several African ports.The poi-sonous sludge, spread on waste groundand in the sea and fresh water lagoonsthat festoon Abidjan, led to the deathsof at least eight people, including fourchildren,while more than 80,000 otherssought medical treatment for nose-bleeds, diarrhoea, nausea, eye irritationand breathing difficulties.

When news broke of the first casual-ties, thousands of Abidjanis packedtheir belongings onto donkey carts andbuses and moved into the surroundingrainforest.Many have fled that refuge inthe past few months, trying to escapethe violence of the West African coun-try’s ethnic civil war between northern-ers and southerners.

The Ivorian and Somali tragedies areinstructive: they represent what hap-pens to Europeans’ trash more com-monly than environmentally-aware cit-izens might like to think. When ever-stricter European environmental lawsmean increasing costs of clearing upand disposing of our waste, criminalmiddle-men step in and offer low-costsolutions in Africa.

The Dutch authorities refused to ac-cept the ship’s 530 tonnes of a highlytoxic mixture of oil residue and causticsoda – and they failed to stop the shipsailing elsewhere. We also know thatthe Estonian government arrested theship at the end of September after theGreenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise block-aded the Probo Koala in the port ofPaldiski, where the Tallinn governmenthad refused to accept its bilge contents.

In Amsterdam three months ago, theProbo Koala attempted to unload acargo of a sticky black liquid described

30 TheREADER

“We talk ofglobalisation,of the globalvillage, buthere in Africawe are underthe impressionof beingthat village’sseptic tank”


by the tanker’s owners as “waste wa-ter” used to clean its crude oil tanks.But residents living near the Dutchcity’s port complained when a sharpstench, described as being like a crossbetween rotten eggs and blockeddrains, drifted across their suburb.

A waste disposal company took asample from the Probo Koala’s “wastewater” – it proved to be a highly lethalcocktail of petroleum, caustic soda andother agents that had accumulated inthe ship’s lower tank after multiplecleanings.

The port authorities reclassified thetank contents as toxic waste and theninstructed the ship’s captain to take thewaste to a special facility and dispose ofit, at a cost of £150,000. The ProboKoala’s captain angrily refused andsailed for Estonia to pick up petroleumproducts destined for Nigeria.

Meanwhile, an off-the-shelf compa-ny called Tommy was quickly formedbetween two French commoditytraders and executives of a waste dis-posal company in war-torn Ivory Coast.After the Probo Koala’s arrival in Abid-jan on its return trip from Nigeria,trucks hired by Tommy dumped theship’s lower tank cargo around the cityunder cover of darkness. Fumes givenoff by the waste then led to deaths andwidespread illness.

This story is a common one. Alldown the West African coast, Euro-pean- and North American-hired shipsunload containers filled with old com-puters, noxious slops and used medicalequipment. Scrap merchants, corruptpoliticians and underpaid civil servantstake charge of this rubbish and, for pay-

ment, dump them in landfill sites andoff the coastline.

Back in 1988, some 134 states adopt-ed the Basel Convention, drawn up inthe Swiss city, which set out to controlthe export of most forms of hazardouswaste from industrialised states to de-veloping countries – although the US,Canada and Australia have refused toratify the treaty.

“Now, despite the treaty, there ismore evidence of death and diseasefrom waste trade than ever before,”said Jim Puckett, an expert in haz-ardous waste trade with the Seattle-based Basel Action Network. “Unfortu-nately, if it’s easy to poison the poor forprofit, unscrupulous operators andbusinesses will do it.”

The Probo Koala is believed to haveviolated at least two other post-Baselconventions on hazardous waste, aswell as the Basel Convention itself.

Andreas Bernstoff, a German experton the toxic waste trade and a formerGreenpeace International activist, hasidentified more than 80 sites in Africawhere the rich world’s dangerous trashhas been dumped.

But Bernstoff said the global trade inhazardous chemicals is now less of aproblem than the rapidly growingamounts of electronic waste andwreckage from computers and ships.

Old computers and cellphones areoften not declared as waste, but areshipped abroad as material for repair orrecycling, according to bills of loading.But when they arrive they are simplydumped. Electronic waste is mainly ex-ported to West Africa and Asia. “Some85% of the electronic parts that come

TheREADER 31

After theProbo Koala’sarrival inAbidjan onits return tripfrom Nigeria,trucks hiredby Tommydumpedthe ship’slower tankcargo aroundthe city undercover ofdarkness


out of Western Europe or North Amer-ica land on a garbage dump in Nigeria,where they are burned,” said Bern-storff.

Some 500 containers of electronicjunk arrive each month in the Nigerianport of Lagos. The waste, containingsuch carcinogenic elements as lead,cadmium and mercury,are then burnedby contractors on dumps around thecity. Experts such as Bernstoff say thispractice will create long-term healthtime-bombs, leading to epidemics of“first world” diseases such as cancer inthird world countries.

In “trash for cash” schemes else-where, bales of plastic waste collectedunder Germany’s widely praised GreenDot recycling programme end up in gi-ant pits in the Egyptian desert.

The government of Benin, Nigeria’sneighbour, was paid $2million a year,and given enhanced development aidfrom its former colonial master to ac-cept France’s hazardous waste, includ-ing radioactive materials.

And the German magazine DerSpiegel is investigating the burial of nu-clear waste on the Equatorial Guineaisland of Annobon.

There is almost nothing that Europewill not try to dump beyond it shoresand nowhere where it will refuse to dis-pose of it. The Dutch, for example, hada huge problem with pig manure, poi-soned by the copper products put intofeed to expand the water content, andhence the weight, when packaged andsold to consumers, of bacon and porkchops. When environmentalists object-ed to the noxious dung being dumpedin the country’s marshes, the govern-

ment did a multi-million pound dealwith Saudi Arabia to bury Dutch wastein the desert. However, when the Mus-lim Saudis discovered the waste wasmainly pig droppings, they cancelledthe contract.

However, some progress is beingmade. Two French commodity tradershave been arrested in connection withthe dumping of the Probo Koala cargoafter arriving recently in the Ivory Coaston what they described as “a humani-tarian mission”. Several Ivorian busi-nessmen connected with the new Tom-my company have also been arrested.In Estonia, the Probo Koala and its cap-tain are under arrest on suspicion oftrying to land another toxic cargo in theBaltic state.

In November, the Basel Conventioncountries meet in Kenya, with calls forthe treaty to be more strictly enforcedin the wake of Abidjan.

“It is shocking that toxic waste fromEurope reached the Ivory Coast, caus-ing so much human suffering and dam-age to the environment,” said EuropeanUnion environment commissionerStavros Dimas from Estonia last week.

“The case is a clear violation of Euro-pean and international law with dead-ly results. But I fear that the ProboKoala incident is only the tip of the ice-berg.” CT

Veteran Africa correspondent FredBridgland wears several hats. Amongthem he is the Africa correspondent forScotland's Sunday Herald. He also editsthe Africa Report of the London-basedInstitute for War and Peace Reporting[IWPR]– http://www.iwpr.net

32 TheREADER

Two Frenchcommoditytraders havebeen arrestedin connectionwith thedumpingof the ProboKoala cargoafter arrivingrecentlyin theIvory Coaston what theydescribedas “ahumanitarianmission”


TheREADER 33

They usedpropaganda.We made oursbetter. Theyhad a partyline. We havea party line.Theirs wasblatant; oursis less visible

L E S S O N S L E A R N E D

Think of it this way. You are aformer cold warrior whospent your youth studyingevery aspect of the old Sovi-

et Union. Even though you hatedtheir policies publicly, you began pri-vately, first grudgingly and then,withtime, enthusiastically, to admire andape the way they operated.

They were so organized and adeptat imposing their agenda with top -down control. They were, in wordsused at the time, ‘masters of decep-tion” and pursued secretive strategiesof infiltrating ideologues and mole-like operatives – known as appa-ratchiks – into government agenciesand military organs.

Their KGB danced circles aroundour CIA and when their often-inno-cent “suspects” were interrogated,they were tortured with no restraints.The KGB made sure of that. Now theCIA does our dirty work and the Pres-ident is crusading to lift any and allrestraints from their extreme elec-trode units.

They killed their anti-communist“enemies” outright after convicting

them in kangaroo courts.We just de-tain ours indefinitely while demoniz-ing them as terrorists beyond the pro-tection of the law.

Their Party imposed “message con-trol” and ran media with carrots andsticks.

Our Republican Guard uses per-ception management techniques toachieve the same results.

They marveled at how controlledeverything was. And so they built amachine just like the one they “hat-ed” even as the old order of the CCCPwent down the tubes of history.

They invaded Afghanistan. We in-vaded Afghanistan. They wiretapped.We wiretapped. They had secret po-lice. We have secret police in the formof contractors and companies likeBlackwater.

They used propaganda. We madeours better. They had a party line.Wehave a party line. Theirs was blatant;ours is less visible.

They were said to want to conquerthe world. Now, most of the worldsays that about us. In the old days, to-day’s neo-cons denounced Commu-

FOLLOWING IN JOSEPHSTALIN’S FOOTSTEPS

Danny Schechter, the Media Dissector, draws an uneasy comparison betweenthe tactics of the brutal Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and those of the presentRepublican government of the United States. His conclusion: the neo-Cons whocontrol America have borrowed too many of the vices of their old enemies

34 TheREADER

Which bringsus to ourmodern dayBusheviks,today’sBolshevikwannabeswith a moresophisticatedrap anddeadlyimpact.Some areformerleftiststurnedrightistswho arenow ascomfortablein defendingtorture andabuse asthe agenciesthey usedto denounce


nist plans for world domination. Nowthey have their own.

In the same way that cops oftenmake the best criminals, with manypeople believing that some of thosewho joined the police would have justas comfortably have signed up withthe mafia (and some did both) –many of the professional anti-com-munists were just as authoritarianand dogmatic in their instincts.

Back then, there were studies of“authoritarian personalities.” Amongtheir alleged traits:

1. They travel in tight circles of like-minded people.

2. Their thinking is more likelybased on what authorities have toldthem rather than on their own criticaljudgment, which results in their be-liefs being filled with inconsistencies.

3. They harbor numerous doublestandards and hypocrisies.

4. They see the world as a danger-ous place, with society teetering onthe brink of self-destruction from eviland violence, and when their fearconflates with their self-righteous-ness, they appoint themselves guar-dians of public morality, or God’s Des-ignated Hitters.

5. They think of themselves as farmore moral and upstanding than oth-ers…“

A Description of Stalinists? Per-haps. But Former Nixon lawyer JohnW. Dean uses these very categoriza-tions to describe today’s “conserva-tives” in his book, “ConservativesWithout Conscience’.

Which brings us to our modern dayBusheviks, today’s Bolshevik wan-

nabes with a more sophisticated rapand deadlier impact. Some are formerleftists turned rightists who are nowas comfortable in defending tortureand abuse as the agencies they usedto denounce. What went around isback again under a different name.

Just as the Neo-Nazis are back asnewly elected respectable members ofgovernments in Eastern Germany,abandoning the skinhead look forsuits and ties and softer rhetoric, ourneo-Cons have moved from left tohard right wrapped in burkas made ofthe American flag.

They have borrowed the tech-niques of their old enemies as CherylSeal wrote back in 2001:

“Joseph Stalin was successful inseizing and retaining power primarilybecause he was able to stack thePolitburo with politicians as extremeas himself and to dictate their actionsand their votes on every issue. Partydissenters were harassed mercilesslyby the Politburo members who re-mained blindly loyal to Stalin. With ablock of supporters who did not thinkfor themselves, Stalin was able tocompletely reverse Russia’s policy ona number of key issues, right acrossthe board. For example, in 1936, hecompletely reversed the liberal com-munist doctrines pertaining to fami-ly, divorce, and abortion. He made di-vorce difficult, made abortion illegal,and stressed “family values” [do wesee a ‘dictator pattern’ here?].

Stalin’s propagandists used a three-point strategy to convince the Russianpeople that things in Stalin’s policythat were in fact extremely bad for

TheREADER 35

“Everyone canerr, but Stalinconsideredthat he nevererred, that hewas alwaysright. He neveracknowledgedto anyonethat he madeany mistake,large or small,despite thefact that hemade not afew mistakesin the matterof theoryand in hispracticalactivity”


the country (including the systematicround up and extermination of all“enemies of the state”) were in fact“good.”

Point One: Create arguments thatshow the negative thing is actuallyNOT bad, but is actually good. [Pre-sent day example: convincing peoplethat greenhouse gases will give uslush green plants, not fry the planet].

Point Two: Show how the negativething is actually not true. [Present-day example: Global warming doesnot exist].

Point Three: Show that the nega-tive thing is actually being caused by“enemies of the state” – most likelyliberals. [Present-day example: Wecan’t sign Kyoto because it is really aplot to ruin our economy].”

And so the parallels continue tosurface – never exact but certainlysuggestive – as recently as last monthwhen we learned that unelected pro-fessional “cadre” of the hard right –not merely members of the GOP –enjoyed unique access to the WhiteHouse as AP reports:

“Republican activists Grover Nor-quist and Ralph Reed landed morethan 100 meetings inside the BushWhite House, according to docu-ments released Wednesday that pro-vide the first official accounting of theaccess and influence the two presi-dential allies have enjoyed.”

Finally, ponder the words of Niki-ta Khrushchev who first exposed thecrimes of Stalin back in l956:

“Everyone can err, but Stalin con-sidered that he never erred, that hewas always right. He never acknowl-edged to anyone that he made anymistake, large or small, despite thefact that he made not a few mistakesin the matter of theory and in hispractical activity.”

Who today will take off their shoesto bang on a table at the UN aboutthe crimes of our Busheviks? CT

“News Dissector” Danny Schechterblogs at Mediachannel.org. Info onhis latest film at Indebtwetrust.com.Comments [email protected]

ARE YOU A JOE BAGEANT FAN?Download and read his political andhumorous essays, all in pdf format, at

www.coldtype.net/joe.html

http://www.coldtype.net/joe.html

36 TheREADER

As a citizenof these UnitedStates for70 years,I refuse to beruled by atyrant whoimposesdespotic,autocraticcontrol onthe citizensof these UnitedStates througha series ofclandestineactions thatusurp the rightsof the people

“If there’s any comparison betweenthe compassion and decency of theAmerican people and the terroristtactics of extremists, it’s flawed logic …It’s unacceptable to think that there’sany kind of comparison between thebehavior of the United States ofAmerica and the action of Islamic ex-tremists who kill innocent women andchildren to achieve an objective.”(President George W. Bush, Sept. 15,2006 report by AP’s Terence Hunt)

Citizens of the United Statesof America bear an awesomeresponsibility to maintaincontrol of their government’s

behavior since that government de-rives its powers from the consentgranted it by the citizens. When thegovernment ceases to act in accordwith the dictates of the respectiveconsciences of its citizens as deter-mined by its foundational documents– the Declaration of Independence,the Constitution, and the Bill ofRights – , when it violates the estab-lished principles that give this nationlegitimacy before the nations of the

world through mutually acceptedagreements, charters, and conven-tions, when it abrogates the inalien-able rights granted the citizens by theCreator, when it declares unequivo-cally that the citizens cannot dissentwith an action or actions taken by thegovernment, then it is the right andthe duty of the citizen to “alter orabolish” that government.For the past five years, the present

government of the United States, in-cluding the Executive branch, theCongress and the Senate, has com-mitted a “long train of abuses andusurpations pursuing invariably thesame object (that) evinces a design toreduce them (the citizens) under ab-solute despotism.” As a citizen ofthese United States for 70 years, I re-fuse to be ruled by a tyrant who im-poses despotic, autocratic control onthe citizens of these United Statesthrough a series of clandestine actionsthat usurp the rights of the people.I refuse to accept as my govern-

ment actions by the current adminis-tration and its obsequious servants,the Republican Congress and the Re-

I P R O T E S T

MY DECLARATIONOF INDEPENDENCE

Is there a way for Americans to show their outrage over the ruthless behaviourof the leaders of their government? WWiilllliiaamm AA.. CCooookk believes there is – he’swithdrawing his recognition of the government, and offers some highly visible ways of showing dissent that others who share his view may wish to follow

TheREADER 37

These are notthe actions of a democraticstate; these are the actionsof an autocraticstate, anamoral state,an arrogantstate that rulesby force andacts moreruthlessly thanthe “extremistswho killinnocentwomen and children to achieve an objective”

publican Senate, that include * spying on its citizens without

their knowledge or consent, an actioncontrary to existing law;

* elimination of personal privacythrough the Patriot Act, an actionthat presumes culpability, not inno-cence until proven guilty;

* preemptive invasion of other na-tions determined by the unilateraljudgment of an all powerful executivethat eviscerates the power of the peo-ples’ representatives;

* acts of extrajudicial executionand the abandonment of rule by lawthereby making the President, in ef-fect, judge, jury and executioner;

* acts of torture and the unilateralinfliction of “acceptable” torture tech-niques thus casting America beforethe world as an amoral nation be-holden to no international agreementand placing at risk the soldiers whodefend it;

* imposition of illegal actions ofwar instituted through an orchestrat-ed control of lies communicated tothe citizenry thereby negating theirdemocratic right to know that theymight vote in accord with their con-science;

* levying an incredible tax burdenon the citizens to pay for the conse-quences of these lies that will costthem and their children dearly fordecades to come while corporationsreap a windfall of profit from closedbids and corruption;

* infliction of a forced military oc-cupation on a nation against the de-sires of its people and enabling thatoccupation to use illegal weapons of

war contrary to the Geneva Conven-tions thus implicating its citizens inacts against humanity;

* development of diverse nuclearweaponry in direct violation of theUN Charter even as it decries othernations for attempting to acquiretheir own nuclear weaponry;

* acceptance, indeed, completecomplicity and support of the barbar-ic and genocidal actions of the state ofIsrael against the people of Palestine,and most recently, and most de-plorably, the abandonment of all pre-tense to the behavior of a civilized na-tion through its almost unanimousacceptance of a resolution written bythe American Israeli Political ActionCommittee to endorse the Israelistate’s wanton destruction of the stateof Lebanon.

These are not the actions of a dem-ocratic state; these are the actions ofan autocratic state, an amoral state,an arrogant state that rules by forceand acts more ruthlessly than the“extremists who kill innocent womenand children to achieve an objective,”negating by its actions the unthink-able comparison the President de-cried.

For six years I have tracked the de-ception of this government as it sur-reptitiously acted to acquire more andmore power by instilling in the Amer-ican people the fear necessary to pro-pel the autocrat to absolute power.Fear suppresses individual inquiryeven as it enables control of the peo-ple, ostensibly to provide protectionfor them. Fear creates victims, espe-cially in the minds of those who have

I P R O T E S T

38 TheREADER

Each day thatpasses castsmore gloomover this nationas hundredsmore die andthousands more aremaimed, and all for a lie and all in our name

I P R O T E S T

not been violated. It is the unknown,what might be that metastasizes intothe mental slave, the compliant citi-zen who marches to the drum ofthose who would control a society. Itis the instrument of tyrants and dicta-tors.

This government hobbles its citi-zens by using fear to manipulate theirbelief in end time prophecy, by im-planting fear of imminent threat from“Islamofacist” fanatics, and by im-mersing the people in a false sense of“victimhood” that links them withthe state of Israel as the only “friend”in the mid-east suffering from thesame terrorist scourge. It is time todispel this fear that enslaves. It is timeto declare that this government nolonger serves the people, that, indeed,it surpasses in its behavior “the actionof Islamic extremists who kill inno-cent women and children to achievean objective.” It is not the “compas-sion and decency of the Americanpeople” that is in question; it is theabsence of “compassion and decency”in this administration that is at fault.

It is time to withdraw recognitionof it as the government of these Unit-ed States.

How can a citizen withdraw recog-nition, one might ask? I would answersimply that no person with a con-science could recognize the validity ofthis government that commits the ac-tions listed above, each more heinousthan the last, the worst being its nearuniversal acceptance of the genocideperpetrated by Israel on the Palestini-ans, actions that are inclusive enoughto incorporate almost all the others. If

every person of conscience gave signof their aversion to the behavior ofthis government by wearing a blackarmband or posting a black flag orribbon on the door or window ledgeor by flying our flag upside down, thenumbers who distrust this govern-ment would be manifest for the na-tion and the world to see and wewould not have to wait till electiontime to cast our conscience on thescreen.

I tell you this, each day that passescasts more gloom over this nation ashundreds more die and thousandsmore are maimed, and all for a lie andall in our name. Appealing to our rep-resentatives accomplishes nothing;they are but lackeys to the adminis-tration and to the primary lobbinggroups that determine for themAmerica’s foreign policy, AIPAC andthe lobbies for the military/industrialcomplex. We can no longer wait forthe ballot box to determine our fu-ture; it may not be our consciencethat is voted to office. Should we notact to declare this government unjustand hence unfit to be our govern-ment, then we will be no better thanthose who dictate and inflict theseatrocities on the innocent. I will nothave my conscience held hostage byan elite few who rule without a con-science. The honest citizen carries noweapons against his brothers and sis-ters; the honest citizen marches for-ward in tune with reason and com-mon sense not fear and ignorance.

Think how many Lebanese died,how many were maimed, how manywent homeless, how many die now

after the cease fire because Israel leftits calling card in the form of minia-ture mines for children to play with,how much destruction and wantondevastation this government inflictedin our name while our representativeswaited for AIPAC to pen the resolu-tion that gave license to such slaugh-ter. If any justice came from this inva-sion it was this: the world was wit-ness to the savagery and barbarism ofIsrael that ruthlessly devastated an-other people out of sheer anger tur -ned to vengeance, a behavior that ithas inflicted at will on the Palestini-ans behind locked gates and its Wallof Infamy.

Think now of the holocaust beinginflicted on the people of Gaza, thereign of fire that comes with missileslaunched into crowded civilian neigh-borhoods randomly killing mothersand children, a reign of terror that haslasted over three months as the Is-raelis lock the gates to prevent accessto medical care, food, employment,and business, a reign of terror thatstarves the children, denies the peopleelectricity and water, a reign of terrorthat is calculated, vicious, and inhu-mane. But it is done behind the Wall,out of sight of our conscience, lockedout of public view by the Israeli IOFand its government that has closedaccess to Gaza by air, sea, or road.Americans cannot complain becauseour representatives have capitulatedto an Israeli government gone mad,driven by racism as it surreptitiouslyrampages through schools, refugeecamps, factories and homes killing,demolishing, executing at will a pop-

ulation that is cornered, starved, andnear total death; yet America sup-ports this mayhem justifying it as“self-defense.” How does an illegal oc-cupying force operating on stolen landdefend what they do not own and callit self-defense? What non-senseguides this crippled republic that ourrepresentatives would defend suchdementia?

Where does one turn for guidanceout of this morass? Will our Christianleaders proclaim the teachings of Je-sus from the steeples of their church-es? Will they condemn the govern-ment for its ruthlessness? Will theymarch in the streets to demandchange? Will they echo Tolstoy’s as-tute observation, “to kill is incompat-ible with man’s uprightness…(for) AChristian, whose doctrine enjoinsupon him humility, non-resistance toevil, love to all (even to the most ma-licious), cannot … join a class of menwhose business it is to kill their fel-low-men.” (Writings on Civil-Disobe-dience and Non-Violence). Oh, thereare those who cry in the wilderness,congregations that have divestedthemselves of the atrocities inflictedby Israel and they are to be praisedeven as they are ignored by our repre-sentatives. There are the ChristianArabs in Bethlehem who weep eachday as they see their flock decimatedand their brothers and sisters mur-dered, maimed, and humiliated asthat malicious Wall surrounds thebirth place of their God and our rep-resentatives turn their backs. Andthere are voices for peace, millions ofvoices that decry the wanton brutali-

TheREADER 39

Think now ofthe holocaustbeing inflictedon the people of Gaza, thereign of firethat comeswith missileslaunched into crowdedcivilianneighborhoodsrandomly killing mothersand children

I P R O T E S T

ty of this regime, Christian and Jewand Muslim, men and women whoknow they are drenched in the bloodof the innocent because this despotic“President” has determined how theymust think and how they must be-have and our representatives kneel onbended knee before his throne.

But the horror of America todayrests not just in the dementia of itsleaders but in the distorted madnessof its evangelical fanatics who havecloaked themselves in the armamentof prophecy declaring themselvesGod’s voice on earth as they propeltheir sheep to wage endless waragainst God’s creatures. Men who fol-low not in the footsteps of the hum-ble and peaceful Jesus but in the foot-steps of prior fools and idiots that ranrampant in other days and times in-flicting mayhem and death on the in-nocent. These fanatics do not knowthe teachings of Jesus; they read froma gospel of fear that has metamor-phosed Jesus into a General whowields a bloody and fiery sword,stomping over the hills and valleys ofthe earth wreaking havoc and death,thus does the God of light and peace,of brotherly love, become the new Sa-tan to whom these TV evangelists payhomage.

They are men of war who standbe hind their pulpits in glistening cath -edrals of gold and glass while theysend the children of their congrega-tions to slaughter. These men arecriminals not Christians. They do notunderstand the bells of penitence forsin; the only bells they ring intone theopening of the Stock Market or the

cash register.Pastors like John Hagee, Pat

Robertson, Franklin Graham, BennyHinn, and all the others who crowdthe Cathedral of Television lead theirrespective laity into battle each day,marching at their head, holding alofttheir missiles of fire and brimstone,tearing incendiary passages from theOld Testament and Book of Revela-tion that pour like acid from theirmouths and flame forth against per-ceived disbelievers and infidels. Theirexhortations on behalf of their mali-cious God pits dementia against theteachings of Jesus, pits vengeanceagainst brotherhood, pits fear againstlove, and power against compassion.

Have we transformed a nation re-spectful of all, protective of the rightsof all, assertive of the inherent rightsthat give personal authority to ourconscience, into a nation that deniesthese values in order to inflict our willon all peoples of the mid-east? Hasthis nation granted to its Presidentand Congress absolute authority todetermine what we as a citizenrymust obey if we are to be Americans?Have we returned to the days of Mc-Carthy, days of fear and loathing,forcing on all the demented ideologyof a few?

Have we willingly accepted theirlies that brought forth the invasionagainst the Iraqi people, the sub-terfuge that perpetuates the genocideof the Palestinians, the fear they useto compel loss of individual rights?Have we handed to this administra-tion the one force that gives us pow-er in this nation, our right to dissent?

40 TheREADER

But the horrorof Americatoday rests not just in the dementia of its leadersbut in thedistortedmadness of itsevangelicalfanatics who havecloakedthemselves inthe armamentof prophecydeclaringthemselvesGod’s voice on earth asthey propeltheir sheep to wageendless waragainst God’screatures

I P R O T E S T

Liberty is not liberty if it is defined foryou; freedom is but a word if it doesnot give you peace of mind; and con-science does not exist if you do notexercise it.

I would assert that as long as thecompassion and decency of the Amer-ican people are defined by this ad-ministration, we are a nation withoutcompassion and without decency andas long as this administration directsthe behavior of this nation, any com-parison to Islamic extremists who

“kill innocent women and children”pales in comparison with the hun-dreds and thousands this administra-tion has slaughtered in our name inPalestine and Iraq and Lebanon.There is but one response and that isto deny it my consent. CT

William Cook is a professor of Englishat the University of La Verne in south-ern California and author of TrackingDepception: Bush’s Mideast Policy Hecan be reached at: [email protected]

TheREADER 41

Consciencedoes not exist if you do notexercise it

I P R O T E S T

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W R I T I N G W O R T H R E A D I N G l I S S U E 6 l J U N E 2 0 0 6

ARE YOU SUREYOU’RE FEELING OK?

INSIDE:OPENING THE DEBATE ON ISRAEL l SIXTEENKILOS OF WRITER’S BLOCK l BONO’S INDEPENDENTl MY MISSING YEARS l MEMORIAL DAY? l & MORE

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SUMMER OF HATE

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AMERICA’S

By MICHAEL I. NIMAN

i

42 TheREADER

While it iseasy for usto pour scornon the driversof sportsutilityvehicles,whosepoliticsgenerallydiffer fromours, it isratherharder tocontemplatea world inwhich ourown freedomsare curtailed,especially thefreedoms thatshaped us


THE FLIGHT PATH TOGLOBAL MELTDOWN

There is no technofix to the disastrous impact of air travel on the environment,argues British activist and political commentator George Monbiot inthis excerpt from his new book Heat. The only solution to the problem,he says, is to ground most of the airplanes flying today

Ourmoral dissonance aboutflying reminds me of some-thing a Buddhist once toldme: “It doesn’t matter

what you do, as long as you do it withlove.” I am sure he knew as well as Ido that our state of mind makes nodifference to either exploited people orthe environment.Thinking like ethicalpeople makes not a damn of differenceunless we also behavelike ethical people.Whenit comes to flying, thereseems to be no connec-tion between intentionand action.This is partly because

the people who are mostconcerned about the in-habitants of other coun-tries are often those whohave travelled widely.Much of the global jus-tice movement consistsof people – like me –whose politics wereforged by their experi-ences abroad.While it iseasy for us to pour scorn

on the drivers of sports utility vehicles,whose politics generally differ fromours, it is rather harder to contemplatea world in which our own freedomsare curtailed, especially the freedomsthat shaped us.More painfully, in some cases our

freedoms have become obligations.When you form relationships withpeople from other nations, you accu-

mulate what I call “lovemiles”: the distance youmust travel to visitfriends and partners andrelatives on the otherside of the planet. If yoursister-in-law is gettingmarried in Buenos Aires,it is both immoral totravel there, because ofclimate change, and im-moral not to, because ofthe offence it causes. Inthat decision we find twovalid moral codes in ir-reconcilable antagonism.Who could be surprisedto discover that “ethical”people are in denial

HEAT:How To Stop ThePlanet Burning

George Monbiott

Allen Lane

£17.99

TheREADER 43

As Bangladeshgoes underwater, will thegovernmentdemand thedrowning of acommensuratenumber of airlineexecutives? The idea is strangelyattractive

about the impacts of flying?There are two reasons why flying

dwarfs any other environmental im-pact a single person can exert. The firstis the distance it permits us to cover.According to the Royal Commissionon Environmental Pollution, the car-bon emissions per passenger mile “fora fully loaded cruising airliner arecomparable to a passenger car carry-ing three or four people”.

In other words, they are about halfthose, per person, of a car containingthe average loading of 1.56 people. Butwhile the mean distance travelled bycar in the UK is 9,200 miles per year, ina plane we can beat that in one day.On a return flight from London toNew York, every passenger producesroughly 1.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide:the very quantity we will each be en-titled to emit in a year once the neces-sary cut in emissions has been made.

The second reason is that the cli-mate impact of aeroplanes is not con-fined to the carbon they produce.They release several different kinds ofgases and particles. Some of them coolthe planet, others warm it. In the up-per tropo-sphere, where most largeplanes fly, hot, wet air from the jet en-gine exhaust mixes with cold air. Asthe moisture condenses, it can form“contrails”, which in turn appear togive rise to cirrus clouds – those highwispy formations of ice crystals some-times known as “horsetails”.

While they reflect some of the sun’sheat back into the space, they alsotrap heat in the atmosphere, especial-ly at night; the heat trapping seems tobe the stronger effect. The overall im-

pact, according to the Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change, is awarming effect 2.7 times that of thecarbon dioxide alone.

Aviation has been growing fasterthan any other source of greenhousegases. Between 1990 and 2004, thenumber of people using airports in theUK rose by 120%, and the energy theplanes consumed increased by 79%.Their carbon dioxide emissions almostdoubled in that period – from 20.1 to39.5m tonnes, or 5.5% of all the emis-sions this country produces. Unlesssomething is done to stop this growth,flying will soon overwhelm all the cutswe manage to make elsewhere. Butthe measures the government propos-es are useless.

The transport department suggeststhat the aviation industry should “paythe external costs its activities imposeon society at large”. This is an interest-ing proposal, but unfortunately thedepartment does not explain how itcould be arranged. Should a stewardbe sacrificed every time someone inEthiopia dies of hunger? AsBangladesh goes under water, will thegovernment demand the drowning ofa commensurate number of airline ex-ecutives? The idea is strangely attrac-tive. But the only suggestion it makesis that aviation fuel might be taxed.

Unlike most environmentalists,who have also called for this measure,the government knows perfectly wellthat fuel tax cannot be imposed on in-ternational flights. It is prohibited un-der international law by article 24 ofthe 1944 Chicago Convention, whichhas been set in stone by 4,000 bilater-


44 TheREADER

al treaties – making it almost impossi-ble to unpick. Now the governmentproposes that aviation be incorporat-ed into the European Emissions Trad-ing Scheme. If flights continue to grow,it will break the system.

The one certain means of prevent-ing more flights is the one thing theBritish government refuses to do: lim-it the capacity of our airports. It em-ploys the “predict and provide” ap-proach that has proved so disastrouswhen applied to road transport: asyou increase the provision of space inorder to meet the predicted demand,the demand rises to fill it, ensuringthat you need to create more space inorder to accommodate your new pro-jections. The House of Commons en-vironmental audit committee calcu-lates that the extra capacity the gov-ernment proposes means “the equiv-alent of another Heathrow every fiveyears”.

The Department for Transport,along with the airline industry, claimsthat expanding airport capacity is “so-cially inclusive”, in that it enablespoorer people to fly. But a Mori pollcommissioned by the Freedom to FlyCoalition, a lobby group founded bythe aviation industry, found that 75%of those who use budget airlines are insocial classes A, B and C. The peoplewho are most vulnerable to climatechange are the poorest inhabitants ofthe poorest nations, the great majori-ty of whom will never board an aero-plane.

So what is to be done? There aretwo means by which the growth inflights could be reconciled to the need

to cut carbon emissions. The first is amassive increase in the fuel efficiencyof aircraft; the other is a new fuel.

As far as aircraft engines are con-cerned, major new efficiencies in thenext 20 years or so are a pipedream.The Royal Commission reports that“the basic gas turbine design emergedin 1947. It has been the dominant formof aircraft engine for some 50 yearsand there is no serious suggestion thatthis will change in the foreseeable fu-ture.” It is hard to see how it could bemade much more efficient than it is al-ready.

The choice of low carbon fuels foraeroplanes is similar to the choice oflow carbon fuels for cars. According toa paper by researchers at Imperial Col-lege, London, it is technically possibleto fly planes whose normal fuel(kerosene) is mixed with about 5%biodiesel. But biodiesel, as I haveshown elsewhere, is likely to causemore global warming than it prevents.

Ethanol, the same paper suggests,would be useless: it is insufficientlydense and, in aeroplanes, extremelydangerous. This appears to leave onlyhydrogen. Jets could use hydrogen to-day, if instead of carrying passengersand freight they carried nothing butfuel – it contains four times less ener-gy by volume than kerosene. But ifthis problem could be overcome, theresearchers suggest, the total climateimpacts of planes fuelled by the gas“would be much lower than fromkerosene”.

Unfortunately, when hydrogenburns, it creates water. A hydrogenplane will produce 2.6 times as much


The people who are mostvulnerable to climatechange are the poorestinhabitants of the poorestnations, thegreat majorityof whom willnever board an aeroplane

TheREADER 45

This meansthe end of distantforeignholidays,unless youare preparedto take a longtime gettingthere. Itmeans thatbusinessmeetingsmust takeplace over the internetor by meansof videoconference

water vapour as a plane running onkerosene. This, they admit, would be amajor problem if hydrogen planes flewas high as ordinary craft. But if the air-craft flew below 10,000 metres(33,000ft), where contrails are less like-ly to form, the impact would be negli-gible.

What they have forgotten is thatbecause hydrogen requires a far biggerfuel tank than kerosene, the structure(or “airframe”) of the plane wouldneed to be much larger. This means itwould be subject to more drag.

The Royal Commission points outthat “the combination of larger dragand lower weight would require flightat higher altitudes” than planes fu-elled by kerosene. In fact, hydrogenplanes, if they are ever used, are mostlikely to be deployed as supersonic jetsin the stratosphere. If so, their impacton the climate would be around 13times that of a normal aircraft runningon kerosene.

And that, I’m afraid, is that. As theIntergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange discovered, “There would notappear to be any practical alternativesto kerosene-based fuels for commer-cial jet aircraft for the next severaldecades.” There is, in other words, notechnofix.

The growth in aviation and theneed to address climate change can-not be reconciled. In common with allother sectors, aviation’s contributionto global warming must be reduced inthe UK by some 87% if we are to avoida 2C rise in global temperatures. Giv-en that the likely possible efficienciesare small and tend to counteract each

other, an 87% cut in emissions requiresnot only that growth stops, but thatmost of the aeroplanes flying today begrounded. I realise that this is not apopular message, but it is hard to seehow a different conclusion could beextracted from the available evidence.

This means the end of distant for-eign holidays, unless you are preparedto take a long time getting there. Itmeans that business meetings musttake place over the internet or bymeans of video conferences. It meansthat transcontinental journeys mustbe made by train or coach.

It means that journeys around theworld must be reserved for visiting thepeople you love, and that they will re-quire both slow travel and the savingup of carbon rations. It means the endof shopping trips to New York, partiesin Ibiza, second homes in Tuscanyand, most painfully for me, politicalmeetings in Porto Alegre – unless youbelieve that these activities are worththe sacrifice of the biosphere and thelives of the poor.

But I urge you to remember thatthese privations affect only a tiny pro-portion of the world’s people. The rea-son they seem so harsh is that thistiny proportion almost certainly in-cludes you. CT

This is an edited excerpt from Heat, by George Monbiot, published in Britain by Allen Lane. Monbiot has also launched a new website – turnuptheheat.org – exposing the false environmentalclaims made by corporationsand celebrities.


46 TheREADER

Thanks to theWar on Terror– particularlythe bombing,invasion,occupation,and torture ofAfghanistanand Iraq –numerousnew anti-Americanterroristshave beencreated since thathistoric day

T H E A N T I - E M P I R E R E P O R T

“President Bush said the United Statesis still under the threat of attack andwill continue to be right up until Election Day.” – Jay Leno

Hand-in-hand with histhreat warnings, Bushkeeps telling us how hisWar on Terror has made

us so much safer, bragging that therehasn’t been a terrorist attack in theUnited States in the five years sincethe one of September 11, 2001. Mar-velous. There wasn’t a terrorist attackin the United States in the five yearsbefore that day either.

But thanks to the War on Terror –particularly the bombing, invasion,occupation, and torture of Afghan -istan and Iraq – numerous new anti-American terrorists have been createdsince that historic day. The latest con-firmation of this, if any more wereneeded, is the recently leaked Nation-al Intelligence Estimate conclusionthat “the American invasion and oc-cupation of Iraq has helped spawn anew generation of Islamic radicalismand ... the overall terrorist threat has

grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.”[1]

Since the first strike on Afghanistanin October 2001 there have been liter-ally scores of terrorist attacks againstAmerican institutions and individualsin the Middle East, South Asia andthe Pacific, more than a dozen in Pak-istan alone: military, diplomatic, civil-ian, Christian, and other targets asso-ciated with the United States, includ-ing the October 2002 bombings of twonightclubs in Bali, Indonesia, whichkilled more than 200 people, almostall of them Americans and citizens oftheir Australian and British war allies;the following year brought the heavybombing of the US-managed MarriottHotel in Jakarta, Indonesia, the site ofdiplomatic receptions and 4th of Julycelebrations held by the AmericanEmbassy; and other horrendous at-tacks on US war allies in recent yearsin Madrid, London, and elsewhere.

A US State Department report of2004 on worldwide terrorist attacks –“Patterns of Global Terrorism” –showed that the year 2003 had more“significant terrorist incidents” thanat any time since the department be-

TERROR, MADMENAND THE TRUTH

George W. Bush claims that his War on Terror has made the United States much safer, writes William Blum who points out that the reality is different. He also clears up some Cold War myths about the Berlin Wall and has a few points to make about elections and democracy in Cuba

TheREADER 47

Even inmoderntimes, therewere decadesof awfulabuse,including the USoverthrow ofthe Iraniangovernmentin 1953,multiplebombings of Libya andIraq, sinkingan Iranianship andshootingdown anIranianpassengerplane,habitualsupport of Israelagainst thePalestinianpeople, andmuch more


gan issuing statistics in 1985, eventhough the figures did not include at-tacks on US troops by insurgents inIraq, which the Bush administrationexplicitly labels as “terrorist”.[2] Whentheir report for 2004 showed an evenhigher number of incidents, the StateDepartment announced that it wasgoing to stop publishing the annualstatistics.[3]

It is extremely difficult and threat-ening for US and UK officials to ac-cept the correlation between their for-eign policies and the rise of terrorists.A spokesman for the Blair govern-ment recently declared: “Al-Qaidastarted killing innocent civilians in the90s. It killed Muslim civilians even be-fore 9/11, and the attacks on NewYork and Washington killed over3,000 people before Iraq. To imply al-Qaida is driven by an honest dis-agreement over foreign policy is amistake.”[4] Vice President Dick Ch-eney, on more than one occasion, hasalso pointed out that terrorists wereattacking American targets even be-fore 9-11.

The “reasoning” behind such thin -king is odd; it’s as if these esteemedgentlemen believe that there was noWestern foreign policy in the Mideastbefore September 11, 2001. But ofcourse, even in modern times, therewere decades of awful abuse, includ-ing the US overthrow of the Iraniangovernment in 1953, multiple bomb-ings of Libya and Iraq, sinking anIranian ship and shooting down anIranian passenger plane, habitualsupport of Israel against the Palestin-ian people, and much more.[5]

It can’t be emphasized too often ortoo strongly that terrorism is a politi-cal act, it is making a political state-ment, a statement that can often besummed up in a single word: “retalia-tion”; terrorism is what people withbombs but no air force have to resortto. The Bush and Blair administra-tions cannot admit to the correlationof terrorism with their policies, butthose opposed to their wars shouldnever allow them to avoid the issue.Here are some of the latest examplesof this retaliation phenomenon:

From a New York Times report onthe UK group arrested for allegedlyplanning to blow up multiple planesheaded to the US: “‘As you bomb, youwill be bombed; as you kill, you willbe killed,’ said one of the men on a‘martyrdom’ videotape” ... “One ofthe suspects said on his martyrdomvideo that the ‘war against Muslims’in Iraq and Afghanistan had motivat-ed him to act.” ... “The man said hewas seeking revenge for the foreignpolicy of the United States, and ‘theiraccomplices, the U.K. and the Jews’.”[6]

From a review of the new book,“The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commis-sion” by its chairmen, Thomas Keanand Lee Hamilton: “In looking intothe background of the hijackers, thestaff found that religious orthodoxywas not a common denominator sincesome of the members ‘reportedly evenconsumed alcohol and abused drugs.’Others engaged in casual sex. Instead,hatred of American foreign policy inthe Middle East seemed to be the keyfactor.” ... “I believe they feel a senseof outrage against the United States,”

48 TheREADER

During the1950s,Americancoldwarriorsin WestGermanyinstituted a crudecampaign of sabotageandsubversionagainst East Germanydesigned to throw thatcountry’seconomic andadministrativemachinery outof gear


said Supervisory Special Agent JamesFitzgerald. “They identify with thePalestinian problem, they identifywith people who oppose repressiveregimes and I believe they tend to fo-cus their anger on the United States.”... “Lee [Hamilton] felt that there hadto be an acknowledgment that a set-tlement of the Israeli-Palestinian con-flict was vital to America’s long-termrelationship with the Islamic world,and that the presence of Americanforces in the Middle East was a majormotivating factor in Al Qaeda’s ac-tions.”[7]

But the War on Terrorism paintsterrorists as only irrational madmenor those who loathe freedom, democ-racy and Western culture, or doingwhat they do just for the pure, Amer-ica-hating thrill of it, and so the USand the UK continue to look for mili-tary solutions. Writer David Rees pre-dicted a few years ago: “Rememberwhen the United States had a drugproblem and then we declared a Waron Drugs, and now you can’t buydrugs anymore? The War on Terror-ism will be just like that.”[8]

Cold War myths

It’s become a commonplace for criticsof the wall being built by the UnitedStates along the Mexican border toequate it to the Berlin Wall. The samehighly negative comparison is evokedin speaking about the Israeli wall be-ing built alongside and through Pales-tine. Just as the Holocaust is the stan-dard against which acts of mass mur-der and atrocities are conventionallycompared, the Berlin Wall is the stan-

dard for judging the erection of aphysical barrier which restricts free-dom of travel for large numbers ofpeople. The Wall is also employed byconservatives as a symbol of thewickedness and the failure of commu-nism. But what was the Berlin Wallactually about?

During the 1950s, American cold-warriors in West Germany instituteda crude campaign of sabotage andsubversion against East Germany de-signed to throw that country’s eco-nomic and administrative machineryout of gear. The CIA and other US in-telligence and military services re-cruited, equipped, trained and fi-nanced German activist groups andindividuals, of West and East, to car-ry out actions which ran the spectrumfrom juvenile delinquency to terror-ism; anything to make life difficult forthe East German people and weakentheir support of the government; any-thing to make the commies look bad.It was a remarkable undertaking. TheUnited States and its agents used ex-plosives, arson, short circuiting, andother methods to damage power sta-tions, shipyards, canals, docks, publicbuildings, gas stations, public trans-portation, bridges, etc; they derailedfreight trains, seriously injuring work-ers; burned 12 cars of a freight trainand destroyed air pressure hoses ofothers; used acids to damage vital fac-tory machinery; put sand in the tur-bine of a factory, bringing it to astandstill; set fire to a tile-producingfactory; promoted work slow-downsin factories; killed 7,000 cows of a co-operative dairy through poisoning;

TheREADER 49

“Appeasement”is another ColdWar mythdredged uprecently by the Bushadministrationin its desperateattempt to findan argumentfor the Iraq warthat more than30% of theAmericanpopulation will swallow


added soap to powdered milk des-tined for East German schools; werein possession, when arrested, of alarge quantity of the poison can-tharidin with which it was planned toproduce poisoned cigarettes to killleading East Germans; set off stinkbombs to disrupt political meetings;attempted to disrupt the World YouthFestival in East Berlin by sending outforged invitations, false promises offree bed and board, false notices ofcancellations, etc.; carried out attackson participants with explosives, fire-bombs, and tire-puncturing equip-ment; forged and distributed largequantities of food ration cards tocause confusion, shortages and re-sentment; sent out forged tax noticesand other government directives anddocuments to foster disorganizationand inefficiency within industry andunions ... all this and much more.

Throughout the 1950s, the EastGermans and the Soviet Union re-peatedly lodged complaints with theSoviets’ erstwhile allies in the Westand with the United Nations aboutspecific sabotage and espionage activ-ities and called for the closure of theoffices in West Germany they claimedwere responsible, and for which theyprovided names and addresses. Theircomplaints fell on deaf ears. In-evitably, the East Germans began totighten up entry into the countryfrom the West.

At the same time, the West was be-deviling the East with a vigorouscampaign of recruiting East Germanprofessionals and skilled workers,who had been educated at the ex-

pense of the Communist government.This eventually led to a serious laborand production crisis in the East.[9]

By August of 1961, the East Ger-mans had had enough. They beganthe building of their infamous wall.This was not erected to keep their cit-izens from “truth” or “freedom” – be-fore the wall many Easterners hadcommuted to the West for jobs eachday and then returned to the East inthe evening. But in the Cold War at-mosphere every possible means ofscoring propaganda points was ex-ploited by both sides and thus wasborn the legend of the Evil CommieWall.

“Appeasement” is another ColdWar myth dredged up recently by theBush administration in its desperateattempt to find an argument for theIraq war that more than 30% of theAmerican population will swallow.There’s been more than one occasionof our old friend Rumsfeld labeling as“fascists” anti-American terrorists andthose who resist American occupa-tions, and calling Democrats and oth-ers not in love with the war “ap-peasers”;[10] you know, like Britain al-lowing the Nazis to devour theCzechs in the hope that Hitler wouldleave the West alone. The appease-ment analogy has long been a favoriteof American politicians when it suit-ed their purpose; Eisenhower andJohnson both personally used it, toname but two.

But what happened in 1938 in Mu-nich wasn’t so much “appeasement”as it was “collusion”. One of Adolf ’squalities that appealed so much to

50 TheREADER

Given that so many basicdecisions that affectAmericans’lives are notmade inlegislaturesbut incorporateboardrooms,does he knowfor a fact that Cubanshave any lesssay over suchdecisionsthanAmericansdo?


the West was his fervent anti-com-munism. Britain, the United Statesand other Western governments werecounting on the Nazis to turn east-ward and put an end once and for allto the Bolshevik menace to God, fam-ily and capitalism.[11]

If to Donald Rumsfeld opposingthe war in Iraq is the moral equivalentof appeasing Hitler, to CondoleezzaRice it’s the moral equivalent of toler-ating slavery in 19th century America.Here she is at her desperate best: “I’msure that there are people whothought that it was a mistake to fightthe Civil War to its end and to insistthat the emancipation of slaves wouldhold. I’m sure that there were peoplewho said ... why don’t we get out ofthis now, take a peace with the South,but leave the South with slaves.”[12]

Let freedom and cash registers ring

US Secretary of Commerce Carlos M.Gutierrez has proposed that Cubanshold an internationally monitored ref-erendum to decide whether theywant to be ruled by dictators or live ina democracy.[13}

So what do you think Carlos M.Gutierrez – formerly a corporate CEOand now a man who goes around theworld promoting corporate invest-ment and trade – means by “ademocracy”? Can he imagine a “de-mocratic” society not dominated bycorporations which turn everythinginto a commodity? Is Gutierrez reallyconcerned about the Cuban peoplehaving a say over the decisions thataffect their lives? Given that so many

basic decisions that affect Americans’lives are not made in legislatures butin corporate boardrooms, does heknow for a fact that Cubans have anyless say over such decisions thanAmericans do?

The usual American definition ofdemocracy has to do in major partwith elections. But even if we acceptthis simple, and simplistic, definition,the fact remains that, contrary towhat Gutierrez, and most Americansassume, Cuba holds elections on aregular basis.

The elections, which observe uni-versal suffrage and a secret ballot, arefor seats in the Municipal Assemblies,the Provincial Assemblies, and theNational Assembly. There is directnomination of candidates by the citi-zenry, not by the Communist Party,which does not get involved in anystage of the electoral process. All can-didates have the same public expo-sure, which is the publication andposting of a biography listing theirqualities and history, in very accessi-ble and commonly visited places inthe community. There is one deputyin the Municipal Assembly for each20,000 of population. Candidatesmust receive over 50% of the vote tobe elected, if not in the first roundthen in a run-off. The 609 members ofthe National Assembly elect the 31members of the Council of State. ThePresident of the Council of State is theHead of State and Head of Govern-ment. Fidel Castro is repeatedly cho-sen for this position, purportedly be-cause of his sterling qualities.

I don’t know enough detail about

TheREADER 51

There are manycountries thatprovide healthcare to a muchlargerpercentage oftheir citizensthan the UnitedStates does and at muchcheaper cost,sometimes evenfor free, like inCuba. And it’sthe same withuniversityeducation


the actual workings of the Cubanelectoral system to point out the flawsand shortcomings of the above, whichmost likely exist in practice. But can itbe more deadening to the intellect,the spirit, and one’s idealism than theAmerican electoral system? From thesplashy staged nominating conven-tions to the interminable boring andinsulting campaigns to the increasing-ly questionable voting and countingprocesses, all to select one or the oth-er corporate representative ... are theCubans ready for this?

If they were to institute any kind ofelectoral system in which those can-didates with the most money tospend had an advantage, what wouldkeep the CIA from pouring in money-without-end to get their people intooffice?

This is what we’re up against

I recently heard a California farmerinterviewed on National Public Radioabout the very worrisome e-coli out-break in spinach. At one point he saidthat “The United States has the safestagricultural products in the world.” [14]

Hmmm. I wondered how one mea -sured such a thing and whether theguy had actually made a global studyof this and could cite any statistics orcredible sources. It reminded me ofseveral radio interviews I’ve had inwhich I was being very critical of USforeign policy (no surprise there) lead-ing to someone calling in and askingme if I could name a better country.My standard reply has been: “Betterin what respect?”

“In any respect,” is the standard re-

ply from the caller.“Well,” I say, “what about health

care? There are many countries thatprovide health care to a much largerpercentage of their citizens than theUnited States does and at muchcheaper cost, sometimes even for free,like in Cuba. And it’s the same withuniversity education.”

This is effectively the end of anysuch conversation.

What condition, I wonder, wouldhave to exist in the US for such peo-ple to relinquish their childhood loveaffair with that magical place called“America”? I have on occasion askedpeople who reject virtually any criti-cism of US foreign policy: “Whatwould the United States have to do inits foreign policy to lose your support?What, for you, would be too much?”I’ve yet to get an answer to that ques-tion. I suspect it’s because the personis afraid that whatever they say I’llpoint out that we’ve already done it.

Author Michael Lewis has ob-served: “One of the qualities that dis-tinguish Americans from other peopleis their naive suspicion that any for-eigner with half a brain would ratherbe one of them. ... The most zealousJapanese patriot doesn’t for a minutethink that other peoples actuallywant to be Japanese. Ditto theFrench.”

But don’t despair, gang. As I’vementioned before, my (very) roughguess is that the people I speak abouthere constitute no more than 15 per-cent of the population. I suggest thatwe concentrate on the rest, who arereachable, and in the past three years

52 TheREADER

But don’tdespair, gang.As I’vementionedbefore, my(very) roughguess is thatthe people Ispeak abouthere constituteno more than 15 percentof thepopulation


countless of them have indeed beenreached.

Discovered at last! A differencebetween the Democrats and theRepublicans on foreign policy

This just in! Republican leaders in theHouse have proposed legislation thatwill require that anti-war protestorsbe sterilized. Democrats are refusingto roll over and play dead. House mi-nority leader Nancy Pelosi – who re-cently called Hugo Chavez a “thug”for his UN speech – insists her partywill support the measure only if aright of appeal is included. CT

NOTES

[1] New York Times, September 24,2006, the wording is a Times para-phrase

[2] Washington Post, June 23, 2004and June 28, p.19

[3] “Bush Administration Eliminating19-year-old International TerrorismReport”, Knight Ridder Newspapers,April 15, 2005

[4] The Guardian (London), August12, 2006

[5] For more information see Blum’sessay at: ttp://members.aol.com/superogue/terintro.htm

[6] New York Times, August 28,2006, p.1

[7] Review by James Bamford, NewYork Times, August 20, 2006, p.15

[8] David Rees, “Get Your War On”,(Soft Skull Press), p.2

[9] For further details, see WilliamBlum, “Killing Hope: US Militaryand CIA Interventions Since WorldWar 2”, chapter 8

[10] “Rumsfeld says threat to U.S. isfrom ‘a new type of fascism’“, Asso-ciated Press, August 29, 2006

[11] See, for example, ChristopherHitchens, “Chamberlain: Collusion,not appeasement”, Monthly

Review (January 1995), a review ofClement Leibovitz, “The Chamber-lain-Hitler Deal” (1993)

[12] Interview, Essence magazine,October 2006 issue, p.187

[13] Associated Press, September 15,2006

[14] NPR, Day-to-Day, September 18,2006, 12:10 PM

William Blum is the author of: KillingHope: US Military and CIA Interven-tions Since World War 2; Rogue State:A Guide to the World’s Only Super-power; West-Bloc Dissident: A ColdWar Memoir; Freeing the World toDeath: Essays on the American Empire. His Anti-Empire Reports and excerpts from his books may be read

READ GEORGE MONBIOT

Download all of his columns from London’s Guardian newspaper, all in pdf format, at www.coldtype.net/columns.html

http://www.coldtype.net/columns.html

TheREADER 53

Yesterday,ladies andgentlemen, in this samehall thePresident ofthe UnitedStates, who I call “TheDevil,” camehere talkingas if heowned theworld. Itwould take apsychiatristto analyze the USpresident’sspeech fromyesterday

Translation by Dawn Gable.

Madame President, Excel-lencies, Heads of State,Heads of Governments,and high ranking gov-

ernment representatives from aroundthe world. A very good day to you all.

First of all, with much respect, Iwould like to invite all of those, whohave not had a chance, to read thisbook that we have read: NoamChomsky, one of the most prestigiousintellectuals of America and theworld. One of Chomsky’s most recentworks: “Hegemony or Survival? Am -er ica’s Quest for Global Dominance”.An excellent piece to help us under-stand what happened in the worldduring the 20th century, what is goingon now and the greatest threat loom-ing over our planet: the hegemonicpretension of US Imperialism thatputs at risk the very survival of thehuman species. We continue to warnabout this danger and call on the peo-ple of the US and the world to haltthis threat that is like the sword ofDamocles.

I intended to read a chapter, but forthe sake of time, I will leave it as a rec-ommendation. It’s a fast read. It’s re-ally good, Madame President, surelyyou are familiar with it. It is publishedin English, German, Russian, and Ara-bic (applause). Look, I think ourbrothers and sisters of the UnitedStates should be the first citizens toread this book because the threat is intheir own house. The Devil is in theirhome. The Devil, the Devil himself isin their home.

The Devil came here yesterday(laughter and applause). Yesterdaythe Devil was here, in this very place.This table from where I speak stillsmells like sulfur. Yesterday, ladies andgentlemen, in this same hall the Pres-ident of the United States, who I call“The Devil,” came here talking as if heowned the world. It would take a psy-chiatrist to analyze the US president’sspeech from yesterday.

As the spokesperson for Imperial-ism he came to give us his recipes formaintaining the current scheme ofdomination, exploitation and pillageof the world’s people. It would make

S P E E C H

THE PRESIDENT GOES TO NEW YORK

Noam Chomsky’s book, Hegemony or Survival? soared to the top of the best-sellers’ list after Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez recommended it during a recent speech – in which he called President Bush the devil –to the General Assembly of the United Nations. Here is the speech in full

54 TheREADER

Yes, they call us extremists,we whodemandcompletefreedom in the world,equality amongpeoples andrespect fornationalsovereignty. We are risingup against theEmpire, againstthe model ofdomination

a good Alfred Hitchcock movie. Icould even suggest a title: “The Dev-il’s Recipe.” That is to say, US Imperi-alism, and here Chomsky says it withprofound and crystalline clarity, ismaking desperate efforts to consoli-date its hegemonic system of domina-tion. We cannot allow this to occur,we cannot permit them to install aworld dictatorship, to consolidate aworld dictatorship.

The speech of the tyrannical presi-dent of the world was full of cynicism,full of hypocrisy. It is this imperialhypocrisy with which he attempts tocontrol everything. They want to im-pose upon us the democratic modelthey devised, the false democracy ofelites. And moreover, a very originaldemocratic model imposed with ex-plosions, bombings, invasions, andcannon shot. That’s some democracy!One would have to review the thesisof Aristotle and of the first Greekswho spoke of democracy to see whatkind of model of democracy is im-posed by marines, invasions, aggres-sions and bombs.

The US president said the follow-ing yesterday in this same hall, Iquote: “everywhere you turn, youhear extremists who tell you that youcan escape your misery and regainyour dignity through violence andterror and martyrdom.” Wherever helooks he sees extremists. I am sure hesees you, brother, with your skin col-or, and thinks you are an extremist.With his color, the dignified Presidentof Bolivia Evo Morales, who was hereyesterday, is an extremist. The impe-rialists see extremists all around. No,

its not that we are extremists. What ishappening is that the world is wakingup and people everywhere are risingup. I have the impression, Mr. Impe-rialist dictator, that you will live therest of your days as if in a nightmare,because no matter where you look wewill be rising up against US imperial-ism. Yes, they call us extremists, wewho demand complete freedom inthe world, equality among peoplesand respect for national sovereignty.We are rising up against the Empire,against the model of domination.

Later, the president said, “Today I’dlike to speak directly to the peopleacross the broader Middle East: Mycountry desires peace.” That is cer-tain. If we walk the streets of theBronx, if we walk through the streetsof New York, Washington, San Diego,California, any city, San Antonio, SanFrancisco and we ask the people onthe street: the people of the US wantpeace. The difference is that the gov-ernment of this country, of the US,does not want peace; it wants to im-pose its model of exploitation andplundering and its hegemony upon usunder threat of war. That is the littledifference.

The people want peace and, whatis happening in Iraq? And what hap-pened in Lebanon and Palestine? Andwhat has happened over the last 100years in Latin America and the worldand now the threats against Vene -zuela, new threats against Iran? Hespoke to the people of Lebanon,“Many of you have seen your homesand communities caught in crossfire.”What cynicism! What capacity to bla-

S P E E C H

TheREADER 55

One has towonder, whenlistening tothe USpresidentspeak tothose people:what wouldthose peoplesay to him? If thosepeople couldtalk to him,what wouldthey say?

tantly lie before the world! Thebombs in Beirut launched with mili-metric precision are “crossfire”? Ithink that the president is thinking ofthose western movies where theyshoot from the hip and someone endsup caught in the middle.

Imperialist fire! Fascist fire! Mur-derous fire! Genocidal fire against theinnocent people of Palestine andLebanon by the Empire and Israel.That is the truth. Now they say thatthey are upset to see homes de-stroyed.

In the end, the US president cameto speak to the people, and also tosay, “I brought some documents Mad -ame President.” This morning I waswatching some of the speeches whileupdating mine. He spoke to the peo-ple of Afghanistan, to the people ofLebanon, to the people of Iran. Onehas to wonder, when listening to theUS president speak to those people:what would those people say to him?If those people could talk to him,what would they say?

I think I have an idea because Iknow the souls of the majority ofthose people, the people of the South,the downtrodden peoples would say:Yankee imperialist go home! Thatwould be the shout that would echoaround the world, if these people ofthe world could speak with only onevoice to the US Empire.

Therefore, Madame President, col-leagues, and friends, last year wecame to this same hall, as we have forthe past eight years, and we saidsomething that today is completelyconfirmed. I believe that almost no

one in this room would stand up todefend the system of the United Na-tions. Let’s admit with honesty, theUN system that emerged after WWIIhas collapsed, shattered, it doesn’twork. Well, ok. To come here and givespeeches, and visit with one anotheronce a year, yes, it works for that. Andto make long documents and reflectand listen to good speeches like Evo’syesterday, and Lula’s, yes, for that itworks. And many speeches, like theone we just heard by the president ofSri Lanka and of the president ofChile.

But we have converted this Assem-bly into a mere deliberative organwith no kind of power to impact inthe slightest way the terrible realitythe world is experiencing. Thereforewe again propose here today, Septem-ber 20, [2006] to re-found the UnitedNations. Last year Madame Presi-dent, we made four modest proposalsthat we feel are in urgent need of be-ing adopted by the Heads of State,Heads of Government, ambassadorsand representatives. And we discus -sed these proposals.

First: expansion. Yesterday Lulasaid the same, the Security Council,its permanent as well as its non- per-manent seats, must open up to newmembers from developed, underde-veloped and Third World countries.That’s the first priority.

Second: the application of effectivemethods of addressing and resolvingworld conflicts. Transparent methodsof debate and of making decisions.

Third: the immediate suppression

S P E E C H

56 TheREADER

They areafraid of thetruth. Theempire isafraid of thetruth and ofindependentvoices. Theyaccuse us of beingextremists.They are theextremists

of the anti-democratic veto mecha-nism, the veto power over SecurityCouncil decisions, seems fundamentalto us and is being called for by all.Here is a recent example, the immoralveto by the US government thatfreely allowed Israeli forces to destroyLebanon, in front of us all, by blockinga resolution in the UN Security Coun-cil.

Fourth: as we always say, it is nec-essary to strengthen the role, thepowers of the general secretary of theUnited Nations. Yesterday we heardthe speech of the general secretary,who is nearing the end of his term. Herecalled that in these ten years theworld has become more complicatedand that the serious problems of theworld, the hunger, poverty, violence,and violation of human rights havebeen aggravated, this is a terrible con-sequence of the collapse of the UNsystem and of US imperialist preten-sions.

Madame President, recognizing ourstatus as members, Venezuela decid-ed several years ago to wage this bat-tle within the UN with our voice, ourmodest reflections. We are an inde-pendent voice, representing dignityand the search for peace, the formula-tion of an international system to de-nounce persecution and hegemonicaggression against people worldwide.In this way

Venezuela has presented its name.The homeland of Bolívar has present-ed its name as a candidate for a non-permanent seat on the SecurityCouncil. Of course you all know that

the US government has begun anopen attack, an immoral global attackin an attempt to block Venezuelafrom being freely elected to occupythe open seat on the Security Council.They are afraid of the truth. The em-pire is afraid of the truth and of inde-pendent voices. They accuse us of be-ing extremists. They are the extrem-ists.

I want to thank all countries thathave announced your support forVenezuela, even when the vote is se-cret and it is not necessary for anyoneto reveal their vote. But I think thatthe open aggression of the US Empirehas reinforced the support of manycountries, which in turn morallystrengthened Venezuela, our people,our government.

Our brothers and sisters of MER-COSUR, for example, as a block, haveannounced their support for Ven -ezuela. We are now a full member ofMERCOSUR along with Brazil, Ar-gentina, Uruguay, Paraguay. Manyother countries of Latin America, suchas Bolivia and all the CARICOM na-tions have pledged their support toVenezuela. The entire Arab Leaguehas announced its support forVenezuela.

I thank the Arab world, our broth-ers of the Arab world and of theCaribbean. The African Union, nearlyall of the African Union countrieshave pledged their support forVenezuela and other countries likeRussia, China and many others acrossthe globe. I thank you all deeply inthe name of Venezuela, in the name ofour people and in the name of truth,

S P E E C H

TheREADER 57

The USgovernmenthas a doublestandard andprotectsterrorism.Thesereflectionsare todemonstratethatVenezuela is committedto the fightagainstterrorism,againstviolence and workstogether withall peoplewho strugglefor peace and for a just world

S P E E C H

because Venezuela, upon occupying aseat on the Security Council will notonly bring to it the voice of Venezuela,but also the voice of the Third World,the voice of the peoples of the planet.There we will defend dignity andtruth.

Despite all this Madame President,I think there are reasons to be opti-mistic. Hopelessly optimistic, as apoet would say, because beyond thethreats, bombs, wars, aggressions,preventative wars, and the destruc-tion of entire peoples, one can seethat a new era is dawning. Like SilvioRodríguez sings, “the era is givingbirth to a heart.” Alternative tenden-cies, alternative thoughts, and youthwith distinct ideas are emerging. Inbarely a decade it has been demon-strated that the End of History theo-ry was totally false.

The establishment of the AmericanEmpire, the American peace, the es-tablishment of the capitalist, neoliber-al model that generates misery andpoverty – all totally false. The thesisis totally false and has been dumped.Now the future of the world must bedefined. There is a new dawning onthis planet that can be seen every-where: in Latin America, Asia, Africa,Europe, Oceania. I want to highlightthat vision of optimism to fortify ourconscience and our will to fight tosave the world and construct a newworld, a better world.

Venezuela has joined this struggleand for this we are threatened. TheUS has already planned, financed andlaunched a coup in Venezuela. Andthe US continues to support coup

plotters in Venezuela. And they con-tinue supporting terrorism againstVenezuela. President Michel Bachelletrecalled a few days ago… pardon, Imean a few minutes ago… the terri-ble murder of the former Chilean For-eign Minster Orlando Letelier. I wouldonly add the following: the guilty par-ties are free. Those responsible forthat deed, in which a US citizen wasalso killed, are North Americans ofthe CIA. Terrorists of the CIA.

In addition, we here in this roommust remember that in a few days itwill be the 30th anniversary of thatmurder and of the horrible terroristattack that blew up a Cubana deAviación airplane in mid-flight killing73 innocent people. And where is theworst terrorist of this continent, whoadmitted to being the intellectual au-thor of the airplane sabotage? He wasin prison in Venezuela for some years,but he escaped with the complicity ofCIA officials and the Venezuelan gov-ernment of that time. Now he is hereliving in the US, protected by the gov-ernment even though he was convict-ed and he confessed. The US govern-ment has a double standard and pro-tects terrorism. These reflections areto demonstrate that Venezuela iscommitted to the fight against terror-ism, against violence and works to-gether with all people who strugglefor peace and for a just world.

I spoke of the Cuban airplane. LuisPosada Carriles is the name of thatterrorist. He is protected here just likethe corrupt fugitives who escapedVenezuela. A group of terrorists whoplanted bombs in embassies of vari-

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They weregoing toexecute me, but Godreached out his hand, alongwith a group of goodsoldiers, andthe people whotook to thestreets. It’s a miracle thatI’m here

S P E E C H

ous countries, murdered innocentpeople during the coup and kid-napped this humble servant. Theywere going to execute me, but Godreached out his hand, along with agroup of good soldiers, and the peoplewho took to the streets. It’s a miraclethat I’m here. The leaders of that coupand those terrorist acts are here, pro-tected by the US government. I accusethe US government of protecting ter-rorism and of giving a completely cyn-ical speech.

Speaking of Cuba, we went happi-ly to Havana. We were there severaldays. During the G-15 Summit andthe NAM Summit the dawning of anew era was evident with an historicresolution and final document. Don’tworry. I am not going to read it all.But here is a collection of resolutionsmade in open discussion with trans-parency. With more than 50 Heads ofState, Havana was the capital of theSouth for a week.

We have re-launched the Non-Aligned Movement. And if there isanything I could ask of you all, mybrothers and sisters, it is to pleaselend your support to the strengthen-ing of the NAM, which is so impor-tant to the emergence of a new era, topreventing hegemony and imperial-ism. Also, you all know that we havedesignated Fidel Castro as Presidentof the NAM for the next three yearsand we are sure that compañero Pres-ident Fidel Castro will fulfill the postwith much efficiency. Those whowanted Fidel to die, well, they remain

frustrated because Fidel is alreadyback in his olive green uniform and isnow not only the President of Cubabut also the President of NAM.

Madam President, dear colleagues,presidents, a very strong movement ofthe South emerged there in Havana.We are men and women of the South.We are bearers of these documents,these ideas, opinions, and reflections.I have already closed my folder andthe book that I brought with me.Don’t forget it. I really recommend it.With much humility we try to con-tribute ideas for the salvation of theplanet, to save it from the threat ofimperialism, and god willing soon.Early in this century, god willing, sothat we ourselves can see and experi-ence with our children and grandchil-dren a peaceful world, under the fun-damental principles of the UN, re-newed and relocated.

I believe that the UN must be lo-cated in another country, in a city ofthe South. We have proposed thisfrom Venezuela. You all know that mymedical personnel had to stay lockedup in the airplane. The Chief of my se-curity is locked on the plane. Theywould not let them come to the UN.Another abuse and outrage MadamePresident that we request to be regis-tered personally to the sulfurous Dev-il. But God is with us.

A warm embrace and may Godbless us all. Good day. CT

Hugo Chavez is the president ofVenezuela.

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THE SMILING REAPER: An activist wears a Tony Blair mask as hundreds of people take part in a die-in in sympathywith victims of the Iraq war at a demonstration in Manchester on September 23, 2006, before Blair’s final addressas Prime Minister to Britain’s Labour Party Conference. PHOTO: GAVIN SEARLE, GREATER MANCHESTER COALITION TO STOP THE WAR

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ColdType Reader 8 2006